Let's be honest - running a business is not easy and is not something anyone can do. There's always so much to think about - developing your products or services, managing operations, dealing with finances and so on. With all this going on marketing often gets put on the back seat and gets completely overlooked.
But here's the hard truth: without a solid marketing plan, your brilliant business automation idea may never reach its full potential.
A marketing plan is essentially a roadmap that guides all your efforts to attract customers and grow your brand. It outlines your strategies for things like promoting your offerings, communicating your value, and ensuring your target audience actually hears about you. With a well-thought-out plan, your marketing feels focused and intentional rather than random acts of posting on social media.
I know what you're thinking - one more thing to add to your already overwhelming list of responsibilities. But hear me out - creating a marketing plan is way easier than it sounds, especially if you break it down into simple, manageable steps.
Amidst the chaos of managing marketing, a schedule planner app acts as your trusted companion, streamlining tasks, organizing priorities, and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Let's walk through how to craft one in just 7 easy steps:
Before you can market your business effectively, you need to fully understand what you're working with. Get crystal clear on the fundamentals like:
Having these basics down will ensure your marketing efforts resonate with the right people for maximum impact.
This step is often skipped by even the most experienced businessmen who have been running businesses for years. But the truth is, sooner or later, as they keep growing they will face problems and have no idea how to solve them just because they haven't got these basics down once and for all.
Of course, the answers to these questions might change over time so it’s important to regularly review them, but don’t start a business, let alone a marketing plan, unless you know your mission, vision, goals, your USP and your target market like the back of your hand. They don’t teach this in every marketing course for nothing.
Next, you need to take an honest look at where your business stands right now in the broader market context. This means doing some research into areas like:
Don't skip this step either! Getting clear on the reality of your situation allows you to identify gaps to fill and advantages to double down on.
Don’t be too confident and simply assume that there is no product like yours and once you launch it customers will come flowing in. But don’t assume the opposite either. Just be extremely realistic and if you don’t have a team yet maybe ask someone unbiased for their opinion on this matter.
With that foundational knowledge already locked in, you can now establish your specific marketing goals and objectives. These will steer your entire plan, so make them SMART:
SMART is the most popular way to set goals. This method basically tells you to set goals that are:
"Increase website traffic" is vague, but "Increase website traffic by 25%" is clear.
Quantify your goals so you can track progress.
Don't aim so high that your goals become impossible.
Make sure your goals actually support your larger business objectives.
Give yourself a realistic timeframe to accomplish each goal.
Examples could be things like "Generate 500 email newsletter subscribers in 6 months" or "Increase social media following by 40% by the end of the year."
What I suggest you do is write down just one sentence that includes all of the points of SMART. This will help you stay focused on one goal that matters most and keep your focus on it. However, you can always write more than one sentence for different types of goals - financial, marketing, etc.
Now for the fun part - deciding HOW you'll actually work towards those goals!
This is the step where you have to explore potential marketing tactics and strategies and select the ones that best suit your needs (although in an ideal world, you might just use all of them):
The options are endless, so make sure you do your research on what resonates best with your audience. Be thoughtful about which ones you pursue based on your goals, budget and your team capabilities.
At first, you might think you need them all to not be left behind, but believe me when I say that is completely not true. Every business has its own needs, and you don’t need to invest in every strategy that your competitors are investing in, especially if you’re new to the market. Take your time and start by using a couple of marketing channels and only if it goes successfully, start building up and including more of them.
Your business likely isn't the only game in town, so you need a way to differentiate and creatively convey your unique value. That means nailing:
Your value proposition - A clear statement of how you solve your customers' core problems better than anyone else.
Your brand identity - The visuals and personality traits that personify your brand. Think name, logo, color palette, writing tone.
Key messages - The main talking points that communicate your value proposition and brand identity.
Create a timeline to organize your marketing activities and deadlines effectively. Using a timeline template can streamline the process and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Consistent brand messaging across all your marketing is crucial for building that all-important brand recognition and resonance.
Keep in mind that the most important thing here is to speak the language of your target audience and be as authentic as possible, as that is what gets appreciation in today’s world. You can use AI to help you generate these messages, just ask it to generate human-like text and there you have it.
You have to give people a reason why they should buy your products and not your competitors and often your product might not be what gives them the final push, but rather your stand and messaging as a brand.
Once you know your goals, strategies, and brand identity, you need to figure out the execution, AKA how to get this all done.
At this point, you should have a clear picture in your head or on a piece of paper of where you want to get to but how to get there is probably still a dark alley. No worries, let’s break it all down together.
The first thing you want to do is set a marketing budget.
Whether it's $500 or $50,000, get clear on what you can realistically invest in marketing for maximum ROI. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and think that you need everything from influencer partnerships to PPC, but don’t rush and do what you can within your budget. There is absolutely no need to do it all at once, so take your time in learning what works for you and what doesn’t.
Next, create a content calendar.
Sketch out an organized schedule of what marketing activities/content you'll do and when. This could be by month, quarter, etc. Include important days like public holidays and festivities in your industry to be able to prepare for them beforehand.
Having a mapped plan with schedules and budget allocated keeps your marketing efforts structured and consistent instead of frantic overnight campaigns that will probably give no results whatsoever.
Lastly, you need a way to evaluate whether all your marketing efforts are actually effective or just busywork. That's where identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) comes in. Some typical examples:
The metrics you track should directly connect to the goals you set in Step 3.
This can include website traffic, social media engagement, and engagement on your event's Instagram wall. Explore the internet to discover affordable and reliable tools to help easily monitor and analyze this data on a recurring schedule
This one will most likely be impossible to do manually so explore the internet to discover affordable and reliable tools to help easily monitor and analyze this data on a recurring schedule.
Consistently reviewing your performance indicators allows you to see what's working, what's not, and redirect your time/money accordingly. By constantly getting such updates you can change your marketing campaigns and get more and more direct insights into your target audience’s preferences.
There you have it! While creating a marketing plan takes some thought and resources, it's absolutely doable when you break it down step-by-step. The payoff of having that comprehensive roadmap for attracting customers and growing your brand makes it SO worth the effort.
Will your first marketing plan be perfect? Probably not - very few business things are. But having that initial plan puts you miles ahead in steering your marketing in a cohesive, intentional direction. You can always make adjustments as you learn more about what resonates with your audience.
At the end of the day, a thoughtful marketing plan sets the foundation for success. So take some time and start drafting and mapping to set your business up for success!
