How to Write a Marketing Plan

Transcription

1 How to Write a Marketing Plan A Cowley Associates ebook

2 Marketing is like all things in life. You can just wing it and be spontaneous. Or, you can plan things out ahead of time and have control over what s happening. While being spontaneous makes for an interesting personal lifestyle, it probably won t bode well for your professional one. If your company has a marketing plan in place, then perfect! Keep reading for some tips on how you may be able to refine or improve the one you have. If you don t have a marketing plan, then this is the best place to start. A marketing plan will never be perfect, nor will it ever stay the same. You ll always be going back to tweak it and enhance what is there. The business environment is constantly changing, and with a marketing plan you ll be able to embrace that more smoothly. A great marketing plan will help you do many things, but five in particular: set goals, increase results, ensure consistency, provide stability, & measure results. Whether you re a large company, a small one, or in business just for yourself, having a solid plan is an excellent way to bolster your marketing efforts. We hope this guide will help you in your future marketing and provide you with insights on how you can do more. Thank you for downloading and enjoy!

3 There are nine (9) elements to a successful marketing plan: Situation Analysis Market Research Target Audiences Goals & Objectives Key Messaging Strategies & Tactics Measuring Results Timeline Budget In this ebook, we ll outline how to write each of these sections and what the key things are to hone in on within them.

4 Every marketing plan starts with the Situation Analysis because it answers the question: Where are you currently? Since the rest of the plan is about the future, you need to address what s happening right now. This section should be no more than a page, provide a brief overview of what the company does, its current position in the marketplace, and the time period the plan is for (ie. 3 months, 6 months, a year, 3 years, 5 years, etc.) Situation Analysis Where are you currently? The Situation Analysis is only as detailed as you want it to be. You can put who your current customers are, how much your earnings were, a synopsis of previous marketing efforts, any new services provided, the launch of a product, etc. Always remember that this section is custom to the company, but it should be written in a way so that if an outsider were to read it, they d be able to briefly know what the company does and the factors that will affect the subsequent plan. Although this portion of the plan may seem trivial, it s one of the most important. You have to know where you are before you even can think about where you re going. Having a solid understanding of who you are as a company now will allow you to make better, more educated decisions about what the future holds.

5 Market Research is the backbone behind decision-making. This section will help you discover what trends are happening in your industry, any statistics about your customer base, how many people are in your designated market areas (DMAs), and much more. Market Research What do you need to know? How long the Market Research section is up to you. You can do a full company and industry analysis including a Porter 5 Force s analysis, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, and PEST analysis. Or, you can be more general and just include the information and statistics that are relevant at this time. If you re introducing a new product, or this is your first marketing plan, you may want invest the time into doing a full analysis on your company and the environment. If you re just updating your plan, having only the newest information will certainly suffice. Take the time to be thorough in your research. Identify and note quality sources of statistics and information throughout the year so you can refer to them when it comes time to write or update your marketing plan.

6 You always have to know who you re trying to reach with your marketing. There are two Target Audiences in particular that you should pay attention to: primary and secondary. Target Audiences Who are you talking to? The primary audiences are your top priority and the people you re trying to reach first. The secondary audiences are still important, and you re trying to reach them, but they re the people that will be affected as a result of your primary marketing efforts. Be sure to segment the audiences accordingly, whether by age, location, gender, race, frequency of use, or a combination of each. This list is not inclusive of all the variables you can break your audiences up in to. You can really customize them by identifying what s important to your business and the people you re trying to reach. Take time to think about who belongs where, the primary or secondary audience. It will help you focus on proper communication to the people who are most important to your business.

7 Your marketing plan should clearly identify 3-5 (or more if necessary) Goals and Objectives. These will be specific milestones that you would like to achieve because of your marketing efforts. You can aim for things like sales/revenue goals, brand awareness, web traffic, lead generation, market penetration, etc. Goals & Objectives What do you want to achieve? The possibilities are endless as to the things you can set as goals, and having them clearly defined will help you focus on them over the course of the next year (or time frame you set). When you can, quantify your goals to make them easier to track and measure. Like every section, it s important to take the time to really think about what you d like to achieve. Choose your goals effectively and utilize the SMART method when you can. (SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)

8 Key Messaging is what you re saying to your audiences. It s what you want them to know about your company, your services, or your products. Since you can t tell them everything, you need to focus on 3-5 things that are the most important. Key Messaging What are you saying? Honing in on what your Key Messaging will be greatly enhances any marketing you do. It keeps all of your efforts consistent and on focus with what you re trying to achieve with your goals. Be sure to keep your messages short, but specific at the same time. Create a matrix to clearly identify which audience should hear which messages and what you d like them to do because of it (the call to action). The Key Messaging will drive everything that is seen by your consumer base. Everything from the pictures to copy on ads or promotions will all derive from the messages you re trying to send. Make sure the messages are on focus and coincide with what your goals are.

9 This section is the culmination of everything you ve just been identifying. Strategies & Tactics are the methods in which you ll be doing your marketing. This will have everything: digital, print, video, etc. in an itemized list of specifics vehicles of communication (ie. billboard, radio, TV, website, SEO, PPC, etc.). List out every single thing you want to do with your marketing. Strategies & Tactics How will you get there? Then, write up an explanation of why you re doing each of them, how each will be used/distributed, and what messaging each should contain. In a general marketing plan you make at the beginning of the year, these explanations can be brief and only a couple of paragraphs. But, if you re running a specific campaign, these should be detailed so that anyone reading them will understand what you re trying to accomplish and how you re going to do it. Always write down what you would do in a perfect world and then adjust. List out all of the tactics you d like to do first and then cut down that list based off of need, ability, and potential budget issues.

10 The Measuring Results section will explain how you plan to determine if your marketing was successful or not. There are several ways to do this, but it s dependent on the elements you used in your Strategies & Tactics. Measuring Results How did you do? Outline the strategy you will use to measure the effectiveness of each element listed, whether through a consumer survey or with web analytics. Some things you won t be able to measure, but you should have some idea of how it will effect your company s operations (ie. more phone calls, more direct web traffic, more customers, more revenues, etc.). Be sure take a baseline of any statistics you might take over the course of the marketing plan. This will help you measure any increases or decreases that happen along the way.

11 A Timeline is critical to effectively implementing the elements you just identified in your Strategies & Tactics. It will help you stay organized and focused on when to do things. Some elements may be year-round, but others you may want to utilize only for a certain month or quarter of the year. Timeline When will you do it? It can be helpful if you used a chart, such as a GANTT, to develop and keep your Timeline. A GANTT chart will be extremely useful for identifying which elements need to happen when, and what things overlap with others. With a chart, you ll easily be able to see where you are with your marketing, what elements you currently have in place, and what you need to prepare for. Develop your Timeline with a purpose. Don t just do something one month just to do it in that month. Utilize your Market Research to see trends that would best suit when certain elements should be used.

12 The Budget is the last section of your marketing plan. Take your list of Strategies & Tactics and itemize it out. Then, decide how much you will be spending on developing those resources. Factors that go into your Budget include media costs and the creative with it. Whether you re working up to a budget number, or developing one, research industry averages on how much things cost in your market. You can do that with an internet search or a call to a local marketing agency who could help you out. Budget How much will you spend? If you re doing all of your marketing creative in-house, then you won t have to budget for how much it would cost to hire someone. But, you may have to take into account your own time and effort, or other company resources. Always have a Budget in mind when creating your marketing plan. It will help you focus on what is most important and give you more control on what you spend. A budget is also great for identifying exactly how much you have to spend on creating your marketing and then distributing it (ie. media costs). Typically, a business will spend 7-8% of its overall budget on marketing.

13 A marketing plan is an invaluable resource to all companies, regardless of shape and size. It will help you identify goals, increase your results, ensure consistency, provide stability, & measure results. Planning is so important today, especially in a business environment that is constantly changing around us. With an effective marketing plan you ll have a clear outlook on where you want to be and how you ll get there. Thank you for downloading our ebook! We hope you enjoyed and were able to learn just what it takes to write an effective marketing plan.

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