Marketing planning steps are very simple and quick
You won’t have a headache thinking about how to write an effective marketing plan. Creating a successful plan for a small company only takes a day. But first, don’t worry too much about the style and how to write a great plan. Just a pencil and a piece of paper, and we can start.
Step 1: Understand your market and competitors
A critical mistake many small businesses make is pursuing a new product or service without considering the market and its desires (wants, not needs). Simply put, if you try to sell something customers don’t want, they won’t buy.
A potential market is when customers desire something not yet fulfilled, and the higher the demand, the greater your opportunity. The market is like a pond with thousands of hungry fish. All you need to do is bring a fishing rod and bait.
To understand the market, answer these questions:
- What market segment is underserved?
- What market segment is large enough for profitability?
- How much market share is needed for profit?
- Does the market have many competitive rivals?
- What are the weaknesses of competitive rivals?
- Does this market help leverage my competitive advantage?
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Step 2: Understand your customers
Gathering information about customers is the first step in selling. You need to know (1) who your customers are, (2) what they want, and (3) what motivates them to buy – essential factors for an effective marketing plan.
Don’t confuse “wants” with “needs.” Customers don’t necessarily buy what they need; they buy what they want. To truly understand customers, answer these questions:
- How have potential customers bought similar things before? (in-store, online, or home delivery?)
- Who decides to make the purchase, and who has the most influence on the decision?
- What are consumer habits? For example, where do they get product information? (TV, newspapers, magazines)
- What motivates their buying? (appearance, warranty, popularity, health factors, luxury)
Step 3: Choose a suitable segment
If you say your target customers are “everyone,” then no one is your customer. The market is full of direct and indirect competitors, posing a threat to your business. You are more likely to survive and grow successfully in a small bay than in a vast sea. Divide the market into smaller segments, dominate one segment entirely, and then start entering new segments (only after mastering the first one!).
You need to have a clear picture of what you want to become. Ensure that choosing that segment is appealing to you, and interacting with it is not too challenging. It’s worse to choose a market segment you can’t communicate with or requires a large investment to reach.
Step 4: Build your marketing message
Your marketing message not only helps customers see your prospects but also convinces them to become your customers. A marketing message needs to be based on two factors. First, it must be concise and highlight the main points. You can call it the “sound icon” of your business. It answers what you are doing.
Second, the marketing message must be supported by all your resources and promoted through advertising. To make the message attractive and persuasive, it needs to follow these factors:
- Express your prospects for a particular problem
- Indicate that the problem is crucial, needs solving, and cannot be postponed
- Emphasize why you are the only one who can solve the problem
- Highlight the benefits customers will receive from your solution
Step 5: Decide on your marketing channels
In the above section, you were reminded to choose a market segment where you can easily reach customers. When deciding on marketing channels, you will understand why.
Your marketing channels are communication tools that help you convey your marketing message to customers. Choosing is crucial because it helps you achieve the highest efficiency for your investment. This means choosing channels to communicate your marketing message to your target segment with the lowest cost.
- Digital Marketing Strategy
Develop a specific Digital Marketing and promotion strategy that you want to use or refer to. Reviewed online marketing strategies include:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This is a campaign where you optimize your website with search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo… so that your website ranks first on Google for keywords related to your content, products, or services. This method will bring you a steady and free daily flow of customers. To do this, you can hire an SEO company or do it yourself if you have a strong understanding of SEO. Pay Per Click – Search Engine Marketing (SEM): This is a service where you bid and pay for clicks that lead to your website through ads. Affiliate Marketing: Use other websites to advertise your product and give them a percentage of the profit. Link exchange: This is a very good option as it can increase the popularity of your website, attract more customers, and also help with SEO if the websites you exchange with are reputable. Write and share articles: If you have good articles that many people share, your information will quickly go viral, and this also helps your website get high rankings on search engines.
- Traditional advertising campaigns
Successful Digital Marketing combines well with traditional marketing
Use direct mail, flyers, postcards…
Use directories, billboards, pages, radio, and television.
Organize events, seminars Write articles for local magazines, newspapers, and other publications in your field.
This will help you be known as an expert. Direct sales Use press releases, exhibitions Organize introduction programs Co-market with businesses that share the target market with you Exchange goods
Step 6: Set sales and marketing targets
Goals are essential for your success. “Desire” is a goal not written on paper. If you don’t write down what you want, your goal is still just a desire. When setting goals, remember the SMART factor. Ensure your goal is: (1) Sensible: recognizable, (2) Measurable: measurable, (3) Achievable: achievable, (4) Realistic: realistic, (5) Time Specific: specified time.
Your goal must also be based on financial resources to ensure achieving revenue, profit, and profit ratios. Moreover, your goal should also include non-financial factors such as the number of items sold, the number of contracts, the number of customers, community relationships, etc. When you set goals, make sure to implement enough processes to make your goal accepted by all members of the company, mentioned in sales conferences, posted on bulletin boards, and especially encouraging awards to achieve that goal.
Step 7: Establish a marketing budget
The marketing budget depends on how accurately you want to set it. Detailed calculations are not necessary if you don’t have enough data.
Firstly, if your company has been operating for many years, you can easily establish a marketing budget based on the sales and marketing costs of previous years, to calculate the “cost per customer” and the cost per product.
The next step is to determine the necessary marketing costs for 1 product, from which you can determine the marketing budget based on sales targets or customer demand. This result is not really accurate, but it will help you measure a necessary budget to achieve the set goal.
Conclusion of marketing planning
Now you have a marketing plan with 7 fairly complete steps. It’s really simple and only takes a day. Of course, you need to prepare carefully before starting, especially researching and choosing media, understanding consumer psychology to build the right message, and your financial data. But don’t try too hard to build a perfect plan. Remember the 80-20 rule, 80% of the results will come with only 20% of your effort.
My final advice is to make sure you are not disturbed and interrupted while writing the plan. The plan will be the most important foundation for you and the entire company in planning the future. Wish you success!
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