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October 3, 2023
Marketing plans are essentially a roadmap, which for those of us who use a navigation system to get everywhere appreciate. Your business uses this plan to organize, execute, and track your marketing strategy over a specific period of time you’ve set. Marketing plans include different marketing strategies that all teams within the business are working towards, so let's dive into the elements of creating a marketing plan.
First things first, you need to know your business really well and what the current situation is, it’s time to dig deep. This can be done by performing a SWOT analysis, where you will define the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Figure out what is working well and where improvement is needed. This will give you more insight into how to achieve the goals you will set later on.
The next step as you create your business summary is to conduct a competitor analysis. Research and consider what performs well for them and what does not. Knowing where your competitors are, will help your business keep up with them. Understand where your organization stands in the current market and how it compares to competitors.
Now that you understand your company’s situation and the market better, it’s time to define and find your target audience.
If your company already has a target audience set, then this step may be an opportunity to review your current buyer personas.
If you don’t have a target audience defined, you will need to conduct some market research. A buyer persona should include demographic information that your target audience falls within such as age range, gender, and income. Psychographic information will also be needed. What are your customers' habits, interests, thoughts, values, and other aspects that make up their psychographic.
Once you have this information written and in one spot, it will help your marketing team define your marketing goals and general business goals.
If you’re like us, you’ll agree that this is the fun part because in this step we get to dream a little and set some goals; now that your company’s situation and buyer personas are laid out you can define SMART goals.
SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Meaning, as we’re sure you can guess, that all the goals you set should be specific and include a time frame in which you want to achieve them.
For example, if your company is present on social media you may make it a goal to increase your Instagram followers by 15-20% in three months. Your goals should be relevant and attainable, especially within your marketing goals overall.
Once your specific, measurable, and time-bound goals are written down you can begin to analyze the tactics that will help achieve your set goals. This brings us to the next step in creating an effective marketing plan for your business.
You’ve written down your company’s current situation, target audience, and SMART goals, now there are only two more steps left!
Now, you need to figure out the tactics you will use to help achieve your goals. For example, if your goal is to increase your Instagram followers by 15-20% in three months, your tactics may include posting three to five times per week, responding to comments, interacting with others’ posts, and setting a strategy for reels.
Since you know your goals, brainstorming tactics to achieve those goals should be simple. However, you will want to keep your time, resources, and budget in mind.
Before you get caught up in implementing the ideas you’ve set above, you need to know your budget.
For example, if one of your tactics was to include social media advertising. You’ll need to be sure you have the budget for that, and if not you will have to pivot and figure out an alternative.
Wow! We made it, and now that you have the steps and tools to create an effective marketing plan, you can start setting those goals, defining your target audience, current situation, and the tactics to help achieve those amazing goals.
You don’t have to do it alone because our team at Fierce Creative Solutions is here to help you create an effective marketing plan that is specific to your businesses marketing needs, products, and services. Check out the rest of our website and learn more about the services we offer. We can’t wait for the opportunity to work together and help make your business stand out.
Wow! We made it, and now that you have the steps and tools to create an effective marketing plan, you can start setting those goals, defining your target audience, current situation, and the tactics to help achieve those amazing goals.
You don’t have to do it alone because our team at Fierce Creative Solutions is here to help you create an effective marketing plan that is specific to your businesses marketing needs, products, and services. Check out the rest of our website and learn more about the services we offer. We can’t wait for the opportunity to work together and help make your business stand out.
