Your marketing strategy outlines what you want to do, while your marketing plan provides details on how to do it.

A marketing plan is an essential tool to a business. Without a well-thought plan, no amount of money and creative ideas can get you the audience you deserve! Visit our last blog here and download our free marketing plan template. But before you do, you’ll have to first answer these questions to develop an effective plan:

1. How will your marketing plan support your business goals?

Before developing any plan, you should have a clear idea of what you wish to accomplish. This is your marketing strategy. It outlines what you want to do, while your marketing plan provides details on how to do it.

2. What do you want to accomplish and why?

This will be the foundation in your marketing plan. Although it may not play a direct role, it helps you ensure your marketing activities align with the business overall mission and objectives.

3. Who do you want to reach out to?

Your target audience is a specific persona you want to reach out to with your product/service – an ideal customer. The more details you input in forming a persona, the more targeted your marketing plan will be. This eventually leads topersonalised marketing messages and a higher conversion rate.

4. Who are you up against and how do you measure up?

Look at your top competition. Identify what they are doing right (and wrong) in their marketing activities with the SWOT analysis as compared to you. How do you measure up? By conducting a thorough analysis, you will be able to determine areas of weaknesses in your competitor, fine-tune your niche market, and address challenges.

5. What makes you special and why should your customers care?

What sets you apart and how do you differentiate? Your USP outlines how your products are different from your competition, and what makes it a better choice.

6. Which strategy is right for you?

It is crucial to spend time researching the best price point for your products and services, and evaluate how to work your pricing strategy into your marketing messages. The idea is to justify the price points, by providing your customers with a set of values and benefits they get in return.

7. How will you reach your target audience?

Your promotional plan should cover all communication taking place with the consumer. Here are some examples: traditional media (TV ads, newspaper, magazines), digital media (blogs, websites, emails, Google ads), social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), etc.

8. How much are you willing to invest per month?

As you develop your marketing plan, be sure to include a budget to ensure that you have enough funds to support your activities while staying within budget.

9. What tasks need to be completed to reach your marketing goals?

This is where you list down what to do and when to do it. This is an important part of your marketing plan as it guides you through every activity and help you keep track of your progress.

10. What have you achieved and how to improve?

Tracking your results is important to make sure all the effort put into structuring a good marketing plan isn’t futile. The way you track and analyse will depend on the type of marketing tactics you engage in. For instance, online marketing can be tracked using analytics and other online tools; while offline marketing requires a more manual approach.

Sounds like a lot of work? Don’t worry, our free templates are here to help you with the tedious planning. Visit our last blog to download them all. Alternatively, we are also happy to help you review your plan for this year. Just get in touch with us!