Have you ever thought about creating a marketing plan for your company? If so, then you’ve likely already realized the importance of such a document. With a well-crafted plan in place, everything from startup costs to customer outreach becomes easier because there’s a logical sequence of events to follow. Creating an effective marketing plan is one of the most important business decisions that you can make. Many business owners feel like marketing is just too expensive or overwhelming to try. However, marketing your product or service through multiple channels will help you grow your business and increase revenue.
The 5 Steps to an Effective Marketing Plan
Here are 5 steps that will help you create an effective marketing plan for your small to medium-sized business:
1. Know Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Your unique selling proposition (USP) describes why someone should buy from you instead of another company offering a similar product or service. What makes your product stand out? Is it price, customer service, convenience? Once you know what sets you apart from other companies in your, then it’s much easier to determine marketing avenues that will reach potential customers.
2. Know Your Target Market
Many business owners think marketing starts with a product or service, but it really should start with identifying your target market. You can’t sell to everyone, so knowing who you want to buy from you is crucial to creating an effective marketing strategy. What are their demographic characteristics? Where do they live? How old are they? Use this information when choosing the right marketing channels. For example, if you know that mostly older adults use Facebook and younger generations prefer Snapchat, then focus on the latter platform for your social media presence and include targeted ads there rather than trying to maintain a full-featured Facebook account that doesn’t properly engage your audience.
3. Determine Which Marketing Channels Will Reach Your Target Market
There are many marketing channels and tactics to consider when you create your marketing plan. The first step is to narrow down which ones seem like a good fit for your business and target market. For example, if you’re selling sports equipment then it doesn’t make sense to invest in an ad campaign on a channel unrelated to sports equipment. Once you’ve identified those channels that will work best, such as social media or online advertising, be sure to set goals and create a budget so you know how much money each channel should receive.
4. Keep Track of Marketing Campaign Results
After your initial marketing push, take time to review results and track which channels performed best or which were completely ineffective (and should be cut). If you’ve created a marketing budget, review your spending in comparison to how well each marketing channel worked. If you invested $20,000 into pay-per-click advertising but only netted 100 new customers, then that channel didn’t work for your business. Review the data and determine what changes need to be made in the next round of marketing efforts.
5. Find Ways to Improve Your Strategy With Each Marketing Cycle
As with any kind of planning, when it comes time to create the next cycle you should take into account all that you learned from the previous one. What worked? What didn’t? Adjust your unique selling proposition and market as necessary, and focus on those channels that had positive results while eliminating those that produced little return on investment (ROI).
Conclusion
There are many marketing channels to consider when you create an effective marketing strategy. Utilize these 5 steps to help you choose the right ones for your business and end up with a plan that will generate positive results.