eBusiness
Marketing plans provide an outline for what your company will do to reach specific goals, guided by its marketing strategy and budget.
Without a marketing plan, it can be hard to know which campaigns are successful and which need improvement, leading to wasted advertising dollars.
Target Market
Target markets are defined as groups of potential customers to whom businesses intend to sell their products or services, typically defined by customer attributes that the business believes its offerings will appeal to as well as demographic or psychographic categories.
Marketing plans provide businesses with a detailed description of their target market and strategies to reach them, the value proposition of their product/service, how it compares against competition, as well as providing timelines of planned advertising campaigns with metrics to evaluate their effectiveness. Businesses should continuously assess and adjust their marketing plan based on these results.
Companies hoping to successfully market a new product should first establish the individual needs of their target audience and use that understanding to identify appropriate channels and messages that are effective in promotion and sales efforts. It will also guide product development decisions including pricing and distribution issues.
Identification of target markets can be achieved through research conducted via surveys, marketing analytics, spying on competitors and hosting focus groups. Companies may discover that their target market expands as they gain ground in the marketplace.
Target market definition involves identifying which characteristics are most pertinent to a brand’s value proposition, which can be accomplished via geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentation. For example, a retail company might identify their target market as parents with young children before segmenting this market further by gender, age and income level.
Message
A marketing plan’s message communicates the intended impact on its target market as determined by business goals and objectives, along with any strategies or tactics necessary to realize this impact. An effective message ensures it fits in with how customers naturally discuss problems they encounter and how they expect a product or brand to help resolve them.
Aiming for maximum impact with marketing plans requires taking an introspective approach and considering a company’s mission, vision and values. Doing this helps place all other information within it into perspective while simultaneously assuring all parts of it come together and meet this objective.
As a general guideline, it is crucial that marketing plans and goals be clear, concise and specific. In order to measure progress towards their intended targets more accurately, using SMART goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time-Bound) is an ideal way to do this.
Depending on the nature of the business, plans may also contain information regarding target markets for specific products or services. Market research provides this data which may help define marketing channels to use to reach these targets as well as pricing and promotion strategies.
An effective marketing budget will outline how much the business plans to spend on various tactics, as well as any barriers that might prevent success. A realistic estimate should be used when setting this figure.
Tactics
A marketing plan provides companies with the strategies and tactics they will employ in order to execute their strategy and meet their goals. A good plan will take into account a business’s strengths, weaknesses and target market as well as including metrics to evaluate its performance during a campaign.
A marketing plan is an indispensable document that helps businesses understand their growth potential. However, not all marketing plans are equal: some may be more comprehensive than others and include various elements, including an executive summary, timeline and budget breakdowns as well as marketing tactics by channel. Visit Oxnard Convention & Visitors Bureau has produced an excellent template of a comprehensive marketing plan featuring details about their value proposition, competitor analysis as well as an outline of marketing tactics by channel.
Step one of any marketing strategy should involve conducting thorough market research. Knowing who are competing and their market shares is crucial in developing an effective marketing campaign that positions your product or brand among competitors and makes an impressionful statement about it.
Encourage customers and fans to spread positive sentiment about your products or brands through advocacy marketing tactics such as Stitch Fix’s Facebook advocacy program or AeroPress customer reviews on product pages. Step two of any successful marketing strategy should involve setting short- or long-term measurable goals; sales are an obvious example, but don’t overlook shorter term goals such as increasing authority or traffic as potential goals for this strategy.
Budget
Budgeting is a crucial element of any marketing plan, providing guidelines for what can and cannot be spent and helping companies control costs without overspending. An accurate budget should include anticipated expenses for each initiative and should be revised regularly as results come in; this enables a business to adjust plans and goals based on actual performance (i.e. if digital advertising performs better than expected, more of their budget may be allocated towards it and less to other channels).
Marketing budgets exist to maximize return on investment (ROI), providing sufficient resources for all marketing initiatives to thrive. Unfortunately, many marketers struggle with how best to allocate their budgets and optimize their investments; in this blog post we highlight some essential components of a marketing budget as well as best practices to help ensure they see an exceptional return.
One of the key considerations when creating a marketing budget is that marketing expenses can fluctuate over time. New tools and technologies become available that could alter how a campaign will play out; for example, using data-driven targeting can allow marketers to target audiences that may be most interested in what they are promoting.
Timing of marketing campaigns is an essential component. Knowing when your audience is most active on social media or other platforms allows you to time campaigns more effectively and maximize their reach. Utilizing analytics tools to track customer engagement can also assist with making educated decisions on where you should allocate budget resources.
Timeline
Marketing plans need a timeline that details all the daily, weekly and monthly activities needed to reach business marketing goals. It should include specific tactics as well as measures of success for each activity undertaken by your business.
Marketing strategy development should begin by determining the needs and channels to reach a business’s target market, as well as any resources necessary to implement and measure its success. Furthermore, key metrics should also be identified to accurately gauge campaign effectiveness.
Step two is to convert overall marketing strategies into specific plans and programs, taking care to cover all marketing components: product, price, place and promotion. Businesses may also choose to tailor their plans toward particular products or markets or geographical regions.
An effective marketing plan includes an actionable list of tasks, with clear details regarding who will manage each one and the time and cost associated with its completion. Furthermore, this document should include budget and timeline information to facilitate its implementation – this allows managers to measure campaign results accurately and make adjustments as needed.
Wright County Economic Development’s marketing plan serves as an excellent example of an effective presentation, with its use of SMART goals, deadlines and action steps for internal stakeholders as well as external audiences alike. Furthermore, its depth on digital and content marketing makes for a great template to follow when discussing marketing plans with non-industry audiences.
