It’s a new financial year, which means you should have a new marketing plan all ready to create a lead generation machine. No? Don’t worry; you’re not alone. The number one reason that business owners don’t write a marketing plan is…. lack of time. Did you nod? If you are busy now, that is wonderful but writing an effective marketing plan will help you stay busy and it’s worth taking time for.
If you’ve never written a marketing plan or you aren’t sure if your marketing plan is up to scratch, here are some tips on what you should include and the keys to success.
Start With Where You Are
The first part of an effective marketing plan should lay out your current position.
What are the trends happening in your market and industry?
How are you unique are you in your industry?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
The key to success is: to remember that this is an internal document and you won’t get anywhere if you start fibbing to yourself.
Define Your Target Market
Whether your business is starting up or it’s well established, it is worth analysing your target market/s regularly. There could be new opportunities that you don’t want to miss.
Who is your ideal customer? The ones that will be the most profitable for you.
What problems do they have? So you can solve them
Where do they hang out? So you can be there too
What media do they watch/read/use? So you can use it to talk to them
The key to success is: to work out how you offer value to this group/these groups and the best way to communicate that value.
Work Out What You Are Trying To Achieve
Your marketing objectives answer the question “what are we trying to do?” and they should be SMART. I don’t mean they should be clever. I mean they should be Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.
Some good examples include:
To achieve a 20% increase in website enquiries by December 2011
To increase Facebook traffic by 35% by June 2012
To improve SEO ranking for keyword “nnnnnn” from page 2 to page 1 by June 2012
Now these are just some ideas but can you see how they match the SMART criteria? Each marketing objective is specific, it can be measured, it has a time frame. It’s also achievable and realistic.
Once you’ve worked out what you want to achieve only then do you start thinking about how you will achieve each marketing objective.
This is where it gets interesting and you’ll have to tune into next week’s blog post to hear some great ideas on effective tactics for your marketing plan.
But until then I’d love to know:
Do you create a new marketing plan each year?
What are the topic issues you face when you go to create a strategy?
Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help!
The Copy Detective
5 Responses
I too love a marketing plan. Once the strategic thinking is done I tend to just create an action list in Excel with task, date and status so that I can keep track of what needs to be done and when. Making the plan simple and fast to update makes it easier for me to make sure I do it!
I finish my marketing with exactly the same level of detail Melinda. I can add or remove tasks to respond to events but I can start each quarter with a task list to guide my actions.
Thanks for leaving your thoughts 🙂
Hi Belinda,
Agree with you about the importance of a marketing plan. I would add that it is important to review your financial, sales and marketing performance as well as competitors and the performance of the market if you can etc before you set your objectives. As well it is a rule of thumb to make sure your marketing objectives are set to achieve the sales and financial objectives otherwise it is difficult to see the impact.
That’s an excellent addition to the level of detail Susan, to make sure you’re making decisions from the most informed position. And as you rightly point out, it’s really important to align your marketing objectives with the broader business strategy!
Thanks for your comments!