5 Simple Steps to Create Your Marketing Plan

Business planning is vital if you what your business to be a success. But these plans don’t have to be 40 pages long. Short and sweet is the best way to go. You will have seen my 3 Pieces of Paper™ approach to business planning which means you can have a very workable business plan on 3 pages. It consists of a one page business plan supported by a one page cashflow forecast and a one page action plan / calendar.

Read more about 3 Pieces of Paper here.

Your marketing plan is no different. It will drop out of the business plan and follow a similar format. But what do you need to consider when putting you plan in place. This is a dynamic plan and will need regular reviews to make sure that you are focusing on the tactics that work and dropping those that don’t. The following will help you construct your one page marketing plan.

Step 1: Know Your Audience

First things first, you need to know who you're trying to reach. Who are your ideal customers? What are their needs, interests, and preferences? Take the time to understand your target audience so you can tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with them.

Step 2: Set Clear Goals

Once you know who you're targeting, it's time to set some goals for your marketing plan. This is where you nee to be following the corporate goals set out in the business plan. For example, how are you going to help achieve a 20% uplift in sales on a particular product line. What do you want to achieve? Whether it's increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or driving sales, be specific about what you want to accomplish so you can measure your progress along the way.

Step 3: Choose Your Channels

Now that you know who you're targeting and what you want to achieve, it's time to choose the right marketing channels to reach your audience. This will be influenced by where your target market hangs out. Will you focus on social media, email marketing, content marketing, or a combination of channels? Consider where your target audience spends their time and which channels will be most effective for reaching them.

Step 4: Create Compelling Content

Once you've chosen your channels, it's time to create content that will grab your audience's attention and keep them engaged. Whether it's blog posts, videos, social media posts, or email newsletters, make sure your content is informative, entertaining, and valuable to your audience. You will have different considerations for bricks and mortar businesses.

Step 5: Measure and Adjust

Finally, no marketing plan is complete without measuring your results and adjusting your tactics as needed. Keep track of key metrics like website traffic, footfall, social media engagement, and conversion rates to see how your marketing efforts are performing. If something isn't working, don't be afraid to tweak your strategy until you find what works best for your business.

It is important that you measure leading indicators so you can get an early warning that something might be wrong. Measuring closed sales is useful but that is the last step in the sales process. Everything flows from lead generation so make sur eyou are checking number right at the beginning of the sales funnel.

Now you have a marketing plan one pager, you can prepare a budget that is matched to your marketing calendar and action plan.  As with all plans they need regular reviews; for marketing I prefer a 30 day review but at the very least a 90 day review and re-plan.

Happy marketing!