How to write a marketing plan
A marketing plan is like a map allowing you to organise and execute various strategies to achieve your business goals. It also acts as a guide for everyone in your company, ensuring your employees are all on the same page.
However, a marketing plan isn’t identical to a marketing strategy (which is narrower in its focus) or a business plan (which covers all aspects of a business). Instead, your marketing plan will concentrate on your company’s wider objectives and how you’ll achieve them.
So, how do you go about crafting the perfect marketing plan? Let’s take a look.
- Write a mission statement – define your goal in a single sentence or a short paragraph. For example, ‘build an audience that regularly turns to our content to learn about our industry so they trust us enough to invest in products designed to meet their needs’.
- Decide on measurables – how will you know your strategies are working? Think about key metrics and performance indicators such as page views, mailing list sign-ups/click-through rates, product sales etc.
- Clarify your target audience. Your plan should define who your marketing is designed to attract. Creating ‘buyer personas’ that visualise the gender, age, socio-economic status, interests, and location of your niche will help bring your buyers into sharp focus so you can appeal directly to them.
- Develop a content strategy – i.e. how are you planning to get your audience’s attention? What type of content will you create, and which platforms will you establish yourself on to distribute it? Also, consider the volume and frequency of content and whether you’ll include paid advertising.
- Set a budget. You may already know how much you’re willing to spend on ads, but what about other costs, such as hiring new staff, paying freelancers, buying materials and shipping products? Factor in all these expenses to decide how much revenue you’ll need to make a healthy profit.
- Analyse your competition. It’s likely there are similar businesses already thriving in your niche, so how will yours gain ground? What’s your USP? Decide on your strengths and how you’ll play to them.
- Clarify responsibilities. Which team members are responsible for each aspect of the marketing plan? Do you need specific teams, such as a social media lead or designated content creators? Who will track the results?
While the steps above aren’t an exhaustive list, you can use them to create a basic marketing plan that can evolve over time.
If you need help getting started, the team at nurtur.tech can help with marketing plans whether it's social media or email marketing, just contact your Customer Success Manager today.
Good luck!
