You can stop right there. You must do something before you start writing your marketing plan. This is crucial to the success of your business. Let’s take a look at it!
It is creating a company strategy. Your business strategy is what identifies the uniqueness of your products and services. These terms are similar to help you define your business strategy.
- Unique Selling Point (USP)
- Unique Selling Proposition
- Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
- Competitive Advantage
- Unique Offering
You can call your business strategy anything you want, but it must be effective. Your company’s business strategy is what sets you apart from your competition. Your digital marketing metrics is defined by your business strategy.
If you have a clear business strategy, here are some tips for writing a marketing plan. Here’s a breakdown of 14 key components that make a marketing plan successful.
1.Market Research
You should research the market viability of your business idea, no matter how great it is. The market will ultimately judge your product. Wouldn’t it be better to know this before you invest your entire life savings?
Market Research gives you a real-world, data-driven assessment of whether your business can succeed on the market. Market research companies offer comprehensive reports covering almost every industry. These reports include:
- Size of the market
- Rate of growth
- Consumer base
- Leaders in the industry
- Regions
- Trends of the Year
- Analyse of competitors
- Industry Risks
There are two types of market research that stand out: primary and secondary. Secondary market research is market research that has been sourced from other sources, such as: http://glowtify.com/
You or your team can conduct primary market research on their behalf. Primary market research is, in many ways, superior to secondary research when done correctly.
Market research can help you identify your target audience’s market pain. This is one of the most important lessons. Market pain refers to a problem, inefficiency, shortcoming, or challenge with a product, process, or service. Validating the market pain that your product is intended to address is what your market research efforts should be doing.
2.PEST Analysis
How do you effectively analyze your business environment? The PEST Analysis is a powerful tool to help you do this. It is a four-point framework that allows you to evaluate the market factors.
- Political
- Economic
- Socio-Cultural
- Technological
An analysis can help you understand the forces of change within your environment and guide your strategic decisions.
Political – Start by looking at the political factors that can affect your business. Consider, for example, whether there are any upcoming elections and how will they play out. What are the likely effects of any changes in legislation or taxation laws on your business?
Economic – Next, do the same with economic factors. How stable is your economy? Are you seeing an increase in the economy or a decrease? What is your unemployment rate? What is the impact of inflation on your industry? These factors are likely to change.
Sociocultural – Next consider the socio-cultural influences of your environment. This includes trends in population growth rate, age distribution and income levels. It also considers attitudes towards career, health, lifestyle, and any cultural barriers.
Technological- These factors are related to technology innovation and regulations that could affect your market’s operations. Technology incentives, technology change, technological innovation, research and development, as well as the level of automation are all factors to consider.
3.SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is useful for identifying both the internal and external aspects your company, no matter if it’s a startup or established business. Your SWOT analysis will begin with a segment that examines your company’s internal strengths and weaknesses. The second section looks at external threats and opportunities.
A four-square template is the best way to complete a SWOT analysis. This is commonly known as a SWOT matrix. Each of the four elements, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, has a specific box. These are some of the most common items:
When you create a business plan and a SWOT analysis, make sure to review it at least once a quarter. A SWOT analysis can help you to see your strengths and weaknesses, identify opportunities that you can take advantage of, and give you answers about the threats.
4.Key Competitors
Understanding your industry competitors and, more specifically, your three closest competitors will allow you to pinpoint what makes your offering unique, as well as refining your business plan.
When evaluating your key competitors, it is important to be open-minded. However, you need to first understand which market segment your company falls within.
Let’s say that “Very Vegan Pizza Ltd.” is an example. Very Vegan Pizza wants to open a few stores here in Vancouver, BC. To better understand the competition, they conduct a competitor analysis.
International Franchises
- Pizza Hut
- Dominos
- Little Caesars
- Papa Johns
- Panago Pizza
Local Pizza Restaurants
- Freshslice Pizza
- Pizza Factory
- Romano Pizza
- Lombardo’s Pizzeria
Vegan Pizza Restaurants (Key Competitors)
- Virtuous Pie
- Vegan Pizza House
- Pizza Garden
You should conduct a competitor analysis to uncover information you didn’t expect. You might find competitors in your market that are positioning themselves to draw customers from your niche.
It is vital to know your competitors. Visit their locations, test their products and services, and get to know them personally. Your business will succeed if it offers something different. Knowing what you are up against is the only way to make sure you offer something different.
5.Price point
To understand your market, first determine your price point. Are you offering a unique product launch marketing plan or service that is more expensive than your competitors? Are you able to offer a product/service that is in the middle of your industry? Are you able to offer the lowest prices in your industry for a product/service?
Every price point has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Be aware of the industry’s price points. Your company’s business strategy will help you understand your offerings and how to reach them. And your marketing plan will explain who your target market are, what they want, and why. This equation is dependent on your price point.
6.Target Market
Your marketing efforts will fail if you don’t identify your target market. Your target market, or target audience, is the consumer to whom you want to sell your products and services.
This would include a company, a nonprofit organization, or government body for business-to-business (B2B), service providers.
This would be used to identify business-to-consumer companies that are B2C based using demographic, psychographic and geographic segments. These four factors are part of market segmentation. This is when a company chooses which market it wants to target. Below is how to identify each market segment.
Demographic
To fully understand your target market’s demographics, you need to know their age, education, gender and family size.
Psychographic
To build a psychographic representation for your target market, it is important to forget about demographics. You must instead understand your target audience’s personality, values, lifestyle, and attitudes.
Geographic
You can target specific people using geographic factors. This could be as broad as a country or as specific as a neighbourhood. At least one of these geographic factors is climate, continents, cities, countries, or cities/towns with a certain threshold in population.
Behavioral
Find out what your customers want from you and how they experience it. This includes things like brand loyalty, buyer readiness and expected benefits.
7. The Ideal Customer Avatar
An ideal customer avatar is a good place to start when creating your target market. When creating a target market, we typically find three target markets or target audience. Each segment should have a client or customer ideal.
Here is an example of a target market list. For most businesses, it is a good idea to have three target markets. This is the target market for a Washington, D.C. waxing shop.
Guys
- Men
- Ages 18-55
- All ethnicities
- Religion: Usually, non-religious
- Interests: Fitness and Health
- Location: Washington, D.C.
- Benefits to be expected: Thoroughness
Younger Women
- Women
- Ages 18-29
- All ethnicities
- Religion: Usually, non-religious
- Interests: Fitness and Health
- Attitude: Easy-Going
- Location: Washington, D.C.
Women of Middle Age
- Women
- Ages 30-55
- All ethnicities
- Religion: Usually, non-religious
- Interests: Self-Care
- Income: Disposable Income
- Benefits to be expected: Thoroughness
8.Sales Funnel
The sales funnel is an important concept to know when you run any type of business.
A. Awareness
While there are many styles of sales funnels, they almost all share one thing: awareness. A sales funnel is a way to find clients. Awareness is the first step. It’s amazing how you can create awareness with potential clients in so many different ways. A former client might refer your business to them (awareness), and they may also hear your advertisement on the radio, see your Facebook page, or search for your industry using your Google ad.
You must be very tactical when building awareness for an SME (small- to medium-sized business). Large corporations spend millions of dollars on marketing channels that include billboards, radio ads, Digital marketing KPIs, and print. You are likely to own an SME if you’re like most businesses. SME owners must decide how to build awareness with potential clients. Our firm, for example, doesn’t advertise anymore on Instagram. Instead, we advertise on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter because we know our target audience is active on these platforms so it’s better to build awareness on those specific platforms.
The main message? Make smart choices about where and how you build awareness. Make sure you are using the channels and platforms that your target audience is using.
B. B.
Your efforts in creating awareness for your brand have made potential customers consider your offer. Congratulations! Customers will now look at all the options and weigh the pros and cons.
This is why “leadership marketing” and “social proofing” are so important. Positive testimonials and professionally designed websites can build trust in you as a leader within your market.
Use website content to educate your target audience, not sell them. This will:
1) Help your website rank, people gravitate towards educational content
2) Show your expertise to your audience by being transparent
Your goal is to help clients make informed decisions and establish your expertise. Imagine how happy they will be to work with you if they choose your company after all the effort. A relationship is built on trust and not outdated sales practices.
C.Intent
Here you can show off your product or service. Ask yourself if you can show your product in action to a potential customer, similar to how a person drives a car.
It’s fine if you can provide a video of people using your product or service. Your potential customers are now serious about buying your product or services.
Are there any examples of your work that you could show? Show your audience what you have to offer.
D.Purchase
The all-important purchase. Do not lose your mind! This should go as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Your sales funnel must be seamless, including your purchase process.
It is important to understand why clients choose to use your product or service. It’s almost always a combination of several reasons.
Client Z, for example, purchased our services to write a business plan because: they were impressed with samples of our work; we have many five-star Google reviews; and our prices fit their budget.
E.Loyalty
Too many sales funnels end at the purchase. Why wouldn’t you choose recurring clients rather than new ones? This is also more economical from a financial perspective.
Once your client has bought your product or service, they are now your client. It’s about making them happy, listening to their opinions, and identifying areas where you can improve. It’s not about making them your client. You want to keep them happy and add value to their lives and businesses.
Client loyalty is earned by keeping your clients satisfied month after month. This is recurring income. Do not take your clients for granted. This is the worst business sin, other than the obvious.
F.Advocacy
Your client will be loyal to your company and you. Amazing! What’s next? Your client is an advocate for you business.
You can’t force this or suggest it. Once they have had the opportunity to experience your product or service and gained some trust, it will naturally happen.
“People talk”. They can talk to their friends on social media or refer your company to coworkers at work. This is the final stage in the sales funnel. You can only reach this point if you provide something valuable, memorable, trustworthy, and reliable.
9.Call To Action
A call to action (CTA), which is a winning call, should be short and sweet. It will encourage your audience to take immediate action. Call to action can help convert potential clients. Remember to give your audience reasons to take desired actions. This should be reflected in your value proposition, or unique Selling Point (USP). The USP is undoubtedly the most important piece of acquiring leads. Therefore, creating a USP/CTA mix-up is vital to increasing conversions.
These are some examples of calls to action:
BSBCON “Get Funded with a Customized Business Plan”
BSBCON “Mitigate Climate Change with a Sustainable Business Strategy”
General CTA: “Buy now!”
My Perfect Resume: “Create your resume”
1-2-3 Shrink Diet – “Get The Secret Now!”
Here are some tips to help you make your call to actions:
- Credibility is key to building trust with your audience.
“Get funded by Canada’s top business plan authors.”
- Explain immediate benefits.
Get your credit score up today!
- Low risk
“Join Now, Cancel Anytime”
10.Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is the position a company holds in the client’s mind and how it differs from other companies. This is a strategy used to market businesses and help them stand out.
Clients should instantly connect with companies through brand positioning. How well your brand is known by others is one of the key factors to success. It is not enough to have a website that people love and then hope they come back for more. It is not enough to have a generic website. A company cannot thrive on the market without a strong brand.
A statement is the first step in establishing a brand positioning for your business. A brand positioning statement describes your target market and includes a picture of how your brand will be perceived by customers. This is based on data and research. Your brand positioning statement describes the identity of your brand. It includes a description of your target market and a holistic picture of how you want customers to perceive your brand.
These are the four key ways that brand positioning can help your business:
- Market differentiation Showing the uniqueness and value of your product within any industry is a huge advantage. Customers will notice when your brand positioning highlights how your product solves a specific problem or meets a different need than others.
- Make easy purchase decisions: Clearly defining your product, and how it will benefit your customer, takes the guesswork out the purchasing process.
- Value confirmation Strong brands don’t need to depend on price wars with their competitors. Great brand positioning establishes the product’s high value and makes customers want it regardless of price.
- Magnified messaging A strong brand positioning statement can give you the foundation for creative storytelling. A clear vision will allow you to elevate every piece of marketing and further cement your position amongst the rest.
A brand positioning strategy can be developed by any marketer who is skilled. What is the real challenge? It is crucial to make it work for your business and connect with your target audience. Brand positioning can be beneficial for any business, regardless of its size or industry.
Verizon Wireless got their brand positioning right and won the trust of millions of Americans.
America’s Largest and Most Reliable 4G LTE Network.
Your brand positioning can make the difference between being a household or a small business trying to survive in crowded markets. To ensure that your brand positioning is consistent and recognizable, you should be open to changing your statements as needed.
11.Key Channels
You should identify the following things in your marketing plan: who are you, what you offer, your price point, business environment and key competitors. What channels can you use to reach your target audience? Here is a list that covers nearly every marketing channel:
- Google search, search engine optimization (website),
- Pay per click advertising (PPC) – Google Ads, Facebook Ads
- Social Media: Linkedin. Facebook. Instagram. Youtube. Tik Tok.
- Radio advertising
- Billboards
- Lead generation for outbound
- Print: newspapers, magazines
- Events for the community
- Events and trade shows
- Email marketing
- Referral programs
- Webinars
- Video content
- Chatbots for conversational marketing
- Marketing to Influencers
- Whatsapp, Telegram and WeChat are social messaging apps
- Visual search: Google Lens, Pinterest Lens
- Smart speakers and voice search
- Virtual reality
- User-generated content (UGC).
- Neuromarketing
Each business is unique, so we choose different channels to reach our target market. We are a business-2-business consultancy firm, so we rely almost exclusively on LinkedIn for social media. However, a company that targets Gen Z or millennials might use Instagram or Tik Tok in order to reach their target audience.
It is crucial that small business owners get their key channels in order. You have limited resources, so every dollar counts.
It should be enjoyable to choose your key channels. We found so many channels that are sure to gain popularity while compiling this list. This list got us thinking: we need a chatbox!
12.SMART Goals
It’s done! You have a marketing plan that is nearly complete. But how do you manage it to ensure you reach your goals?
This step will show you how to create SMART marketing goals. An acronym for “SMART Goal” is:
Specific Goal
It is important to be able clearly define your goals. This is not rocket science. It’s important to understand your industry and what you are trying to achieve.
Measurable Goal
It is essential to be able to track your progress towards your goal, and whether or not you have exceeded it. This is crucial because you don’t know how your progress was. With it, you can see what’s working for you and what’s not.
Attainable Goal
It’s a great way to boost your morale. Your goals should be challenging but achievable.
Relevant Goal
Relevance depends on your strategy. We may be focusing on increasing our market share for business plan writing in 2021 but we might shift our focus to sustainability consulting in 2022. Your business strategy and marketing plan should be relevant to your goal.
Time-Specific Goal
By setting an end date for your SMART goals, you create urgency in your organization. You must give your team enough time to build momentum and hopefully surpass your SMART goals.
13.Key Performance Indiators
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are indicators that measure success in achieving predetermined goals.
One goal might be to provide the best quality products or services in a particular industry while still maintaining a profit for the company. Key performance indicators might include sales, customer satisfaction, and percentage of defective goods produced. Stock prices, which are publicly traded company KPIs, can be used to gauge how well management maximizes shareholder values.
It is important to remember that key performance indicators must be used in all departments of a company. Marketing plans should address the marketing department, so you should only create relevant KPIs.
These are some key performance indicators that can be used to aid you in developing your marketing plan. These KPIs can be used, but they must not override your marketing plan.
- Website traffic to website lead ratio
- Changes in website traffic
- Changes in the Social Media Reach
- Blog Post Visits
- Changes in Social Media Engagement
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Changes in Inbound Link Building
- Conversions of Landing Pages
- Contact us by phone or online
- Cost Per Lead
- Changes in sales revenue
- Return on Ad Spend
- Event Attendance
- Follower Growth
- Customer retention
- Unique Web Visitors
It is better to have fewer key performance indicators than to keep track of them. Consider which three KPIs you are most important, and then add to them if needed.
14.Marketing Plan Checklist
How will you assign who what to in your marketing plan without a checklist or software?
This can be done in many different ways. As part of a business planning, we often assist with the development of marketing plans. It can be great to organize your marketing plan in a well-branded, organized pdf. You can then update it weekly, quarterly or annually. This helps to explain each member’s responsibilities.
Your business is unique and your marketing plan should reflect that. Therefore, create a custom-tailored marketing plan checklist.
15.Marketing budget
A marketing plan is just as important as the business itself. While marketing is crucial and can increase sales, there are other aspects to running a company.
You can’t simply add up everything and call it a day when you are creating a marketing budget. This information must be passed to management or to yourself in order to determine if there are enough funds to cover the costs of your marketing plan. Sometimes, additional resources may be available to your marketing department.
What length should a marketing strategy be? How does it affect your marketing budget?
Your marketing plan should last 12 months and be broken down into quarterly and monthly statistics. Your marketing budget should be the same length. Your financial team will appreciate it. Describe how much you will need for each month, quarter and year. Also, explain what it will be used for.
How to Create a Marketing Plan
A well-executed marketing strategy involves so many things. Do you know what the most important thing is?
A clearly defined strategy for your business!
This is what makes your company unique. This is what makes your business unique. Without it, you should not even begin a marketing plan. But with it, you can answer every question.
Let’s end with these words: Have fun and be creative. No matter if you are targeting a particular demographic or a business, your audience is human. People are drawn to personalization and kindness. Don’t be ashamed of your work and hire experts to help you. If you have further questions about writing a business plan or marketing plan, we are here to help.
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