CREATING YOUR MARKETING PLAN

 

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is your guide to exactly how you are going to action your

business marketing. It is the ultimate outcome of your thinking and decision

making. It is your commitment on paper, your route to success.

Why is it important?

It is common practice among many small business owners to spend a lot of time

doing as opposed to planning. You may have a plan in your head that you have not

yet committed to paper. Getting out there and making things happen is vital to the

success of any small business marketing; it is important, however, that they are the

right things. You can spend a lot of time and waste a lot of energy doing things the

wrong way or simply just doing the wrong things. A simple marketing plan that

you can create yourself using the ideas in this article will keep your business

marketing on the right track.

Your challenge

Your challenge is to take the following nine step plan with their accompanying

think marketing questions and create the notes for your plan as you go through the

relevant chapters of this book. When you have finished the book you should be in a

position to devise a complete marketing strategy that is right for your business.

HERE ARE YOUR NINE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL PLAN

Each step contains a set of questions that you will need to be able to answer to

complete your plan. Reading this article will help you ¢nd the answers.

Creating your marketing plan

Step 1 ^ Setting your direction

From where you are to where you want to be

" De¢ne what you are selling.

" Where do your revenue streams come from?

" What is most pro¢table?

" What isyourcapacity?

" What is working well and what isn’t?

Your existing customer base

" Who and how many?

" Who are your best customers?

" How long do customers stayand what istheir value?

Where do you want to be?

" What isyour longer-term vision for your business?

" What isthe purpose of your business?

" Which revenue streams would you like to grow?

" What are your speci¢c business goals?

Step 2 ^ Understanding your market and your competition

Your market

" What is happening within the market place in which you operate?

" What isthe size of the market you are in or entering?

" What isthe potential demand for what you are o¡ering?

" What are the trends, hot issues and gapsthat need ¢lling?

Your competition

" Who isyourcompetition?

" What are their strengths and weaknesses?

" What isyourcompetition not o¡ering that the market needs?

" What bene¢ts do you o¡er that yourcompetition doesn’t?

" What can you learn from yourcompetition?

Step 3 ^ Understanding your customer

Your target customers and strongest niche

" Who are the‘right potential customers’for you to focus on?

" What are your ideal client criteria?

" Who are the best, most enjoyable and pro¢table clientstowork with?

" What are the main problems and needsyour target client has?

" What do your target customers most want?

" Isthere a good strong niche group of people with problemsyou could focus on?

" Where can you ¢nd these customers?

" How do your potential customers buy what you are selling?

Step 4 ^ Creating your solution

Creating your value proposition

" What isthe solution you are proposing?

" What are the key elements of your service?

" How doesthis solution solve yourclients’problems?

" What are the biggest bene¢tsyou o¡er yourcustomers?

" What is unique about it?

INTRODUCTION

" How are you going to package and price it?

" What can you guarantee?

Step 5 ^ Creating a path to your business

Attracting hand raisers and building a list

" How could you ¢nd and attract those with an interest and need for your services?

" What would attract your potential customersto take the ¢rst step with you and

register their interest?

" What could be the steps up your salesladder from initialinterest to long-term

customer?

" What could be the path of o¡ering step by step to your business?

" How can you build your list of potential customers with an interest?

Getting your sales systems in place

" What systems do you need to have in place to list-build?

" How can you capture and record potential customers’details?

" What do you need to set up to communicate with those on your list?

Step 6 ^ Creating your marketing message and materials

" What isthe brandimage you want to create?

" What isthe right brand for your target market?

" How does your name and strap-line communicate what you are o¡ering?

" What are your key messages?

" What marketing materials do you need?

Step 7 ^ Choosing and planning your marketing methods

" What marketing methods do you know that your successful competitors use?

" What has worked for you in the past? What has been your return on investment?

" What has not worked?

" What can you do to raise your pro¢le in the marketplace?

" Which methods can you use to attract new customers?

" What potential value do the following marketing methods have for your business?

PR, radio,TV, vehicle, bus, posters, billboards, newspapers and magazines

advertising, internet, direct mail, salesletters, direct sales, telephone marketing,

window displays, personal contact, referrals, host relationships and joint ventures.

" What is most likely towork best for you?

Step 8 ^ Developing your budget and return on investment

" Which marketing methods have you chosen to implement?

" What isit going to cost to utilise yourchosen marketing methods?

" What resources are going to be required to implement these methods?

" What will you need to invest in each segment to achieve your goals?

7" What return would you expect?

" How will you measure the return on your investment?

Step 9 ^ Planning your strategy and actions

" How are you going to progress each element of your plan?

" What needs setting up?

" What are the priorities?

" What speci¢c practical actions need to be taken to make it happen? By whom and

by when?

" What are the steps?

" What are the milestones and deadlines?

" How will you monitor, evaluate and review your strategy?

Create your marketing plan

Here are the headings for the important sections of your marketing plan: You can

use this template as a framework for your own plan, which can be completed as

you work through the sections in this book.*

Business description ^ who are you and what you do

Business direction ^ your ambitions for your business

Sales targets ^ the numbers you want to reach

The market place ^ research needs, trends, gaps and market growth

The competition ^ who they are, o¡erings, strengths and weaknesses

Target customer group(s) ^ who you are aiming at

Target area(s) ^ where you want your business to come from

Niche ^ your target specialist areas and business positioning

Key marketing messages, positioning and di¡erentiation ^ your brand image and

strap-line and key marketing messages

Marketing goals and objectives ^ what you want to achieve

Marketing methods ^ the methodsthat you have chosen to utilise

The budget ^ the amount you commit to spending and what you plan to spend it on

The strategy ^ how you are going to do it and your calendar of actions

Fail to plan – plan to fail