It’s OK if you said no. By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be raring to make one.
Really.
If your response was more along the lines of, “Yeah…I think?” or “We’ve got one around here somewhere…” or “We used to have one but I didn’t really see the point…” then you should keep reading too. We’re going to show you how to make a marketing plan you’ll (gasp!) actually use. We’ll even give you a template.
But do I really need a marketing plan?
Yep, you do.
Marketing without a plan is like running on a hamster wheel - no matter how hard you push and how fast you run, at the end of the day you haven’t gotten anywhere
You only have so much time, so much energy, and so much money to spend on marketing. A marketing plan helps you direct those precious resources to the places where they’ll make the biggest impact.
As a bonus, the clarity it brings can ripple throughout your organization. It’s a roadmap that keeps you moving in the right direction and helps you get back on course if you get side tracked by something shiny.
The reason so many marketing plans get tossed in a drawer and forgotten is because they’re difficult to apply in the real world. (The same thing happens to business plans, BTW.)
We’re going to leave out the vague lingo and wishful thinking and drill down on the things that will really make a difference to your business today. Download your marketing plan worksheet here to follow along as you read, and by the time you reach the bottom, you’ll be off to a fantastic start.
The 9 Sections of a Practical Marketing Plan
1. Company Vision and Mission
We know we promised you no vague business-speak, but stick with us. This is actually important.
The most successful companies exist for a reason (besides making a profit). They’re seeking to make some kind of impact in the world – or at least in the world of their customer.
Your vision is what the world looks like if you succeed. For example, in its early days, Microsoft stated its vision as “a computer on every desk and in every home.”
Your mission is how you will bring that vision to life. In Microsoft’s case, it was to make computers smaller and more affordable.
Why is this important? Because everything your company does ties back to it. If your company claims to be “people first,” your customer service, HR, and sales teams have to live that. Your marketing has to communicate it. Any activity or message that contradicts it should be chucked in the bin.
2. Target Customers
Who are the people that will resonate with your vision? Despite what you may have read, you don’t need to draw up elaborate characters with names like Executive Eric and Frugal Fran. All you really need to know is who has the problem you want to solve, and can they afford your solution?
You don’t need to dig into “women 25-40 years old with two kids and a college degree” when “working moms” will do.
Once you figure out, broadly, who needs your help, you can build messages around what they struggle with, what they want, and what’s important to them.
3. Competition
Don’t get too hung up here, but it is good to know what you’re up against. Who are your top 3 to 5 competitors? What do they do better than you – and what do you do better than them?
Analyse their messaging and how they are positioning themselves in the marketplace. Look for gaps where you can position yourself without going head-to-head. If they tout their low prices, trumpet your durability. If their selling point is fast turnaround, make yours outstanding service. You get the idea.
4. Business Goals
What are you trying to accomplish? You can be ambitious as long as you stay realistic. If you want to be the leader in your niche in 10 years, what milestones can you set for 5 years and 1 year that will move you toward that goal? The closer the goal, the more specific it needs to be.
5. Strategies and Tactics
There’s a lot of vocabulary confusion around the terms marketing plan, marketing strategy, and marketing tactics. Let’s break it down.
Your plan contains your goal and all the things that will get you there. “I’m going to Paris next year” is a plan.
To accomplish your Paris plan, you need to secure transportation, book a hotel, and arrange for someone to take care of your dog while you’re away. Each of those is a strategy.
Tactics are the concrete actions you take to execute your strategy. Searching for affordable flights, evaluating hotel reviews, and deciding between a pet sitter and a boarding kennel are all tactics.
Paris sounds lovely, but back to your marketing plan.
Look at the goals you set in the previous section and think of ways to accomplish them. Maybe you want to double your clients by next year. One strategy to achieve that might be to build brand awareness. One tactic that builds brand awareness is publishing guest posts in blogs and magazines your ideal customer reads.
6. Budget
There’s no point in writing a fantastic marketing plan you can’t afford to implement.
Even if you are relying upon organic channels, you will still encounter hidden costs like staff time, content creation, or software.
Be realistic about trade-offs. Remember what the DIY approach saves in dollars it costs in time and energy.
7. Priorities
Writing down your big goals and the strategies to accomplish them might have gotten you all excited. This is the step where you rein it in a little.
Unless you are rolling in resources, you’re probably not equipped to launch all your strategies at once. This is where a lot of marketing plans fail. If your team doesn’t know where to focus first, they’ll either burn themselves out or they’ll dilute their efforts over so many projects they won’t make real progress anywhere.
That’s the hamster wheel.
Focus on your most pressing goals first. Within those goals, focus on the strategies with the biggest impacts. Mix in quick wins with long-term projects to keep your team motivated as you progress toward the goal.
8. Timeline
A timeline keeps you realistic about how much can be accomplished in the time available.
Timelines can be quarterly or monthly. You can pencil in tactics on specific dates in a calendar or create a list of what you intend to do in that time frame, like this:
January
Publish 2 blog posts
Create email newsletter signup page
Develop ideas for guest posts
Develop list of guest posting channels
The more people there are on your team, the more specific you should get with the items on your timeline so everyone knows what to focus on and when.
9. Evaluation
How will you measure success? In this section, list your KPIs and any other metrics you will use to track your marketing efforts.
It’s easy to say “double down on what’s working and abandon what’s not,” but don’t forget to analyse why specific things are or aren’t working. Knowing why something works or doesn’t work helps you see opportunities in new channels as they arise.
So there you have it. Your plan to end random acts of marketing and start marketing with focus and intention. Are you excited? Yay! Are you overwhelmed? Take it one section at a time. Are you realizing there’s no way you can accomplish all of this by your lonesome? Our team of savvy marketers is all lined up and ready to lend a helping hand.
