How to Make a Marketing Plan in a Hurry

With the end of the year approaching fast, it’s past time when businesses should have a marketing plan for 2022. In a perfect world, marketing plans involve multiple layers of lead magnets like whitepapers, content such as blogs or case studies, and more. But if you’ve been putting off making a plan for next year, use the tips below to jumpstart your marketing for 2022 in a hurry.

1)???Start with a Marketing Strategy

A marketing strategy differs from a marketing plan and needs to come first. A strategy outlines your overall goals, while the plan tells you how to achieve them. Start by listing what you want to happen in your business in the next year. Do you need to grow social followers, rank for specific keywords, or connect with other companies? Each of your goals will need its own place in your plan to be successful.

2)???Plan the First Quarter Only

While some businesses plan the overall arc of their marketing strategy for a whole year, having a quarterly plan is not uncommon. In fact, evaluating key performance indicators more regularly can help you identify when and where to pivot or if you need to change where you’re putting your marketing efforts and budget. Don’t overwhelm yourself unnecessarily by thinking you have to plan it all at once. Start with a Q1 plan and go from there. As a caveat: marketing strategies such as building content marketing through a blog or building up social media followers take time. Don’t abandon everything in Q2 just because you haven’t seen the needle move drastically just yet.

3)???List your Activities

Start with a 3-column table. In the left column, fill in each row with one of your goals from your strategy. Now, use the middle column to brainstorm the best activity that will take you toward that goal. Are you collecting emails? You’ll need a lead magnet (such as a whitepaper) and email marketing to keep up with customers after they’ve subscribed. Are you looking to grow a social following? You’ll need post content and graphics as well as a plan for boosting posts or paying for ads. Don’t worry if it looks like a lot; it’s likely you won’t pursue every plan at once or at least not on your own.

4)???Specify Key Performance Indicators

A plan is no good if you don’t have a way to measure its success. For each activity you listed in the last step, add a note in the third column about how you’ll measure your progress toward your goal. It can be as simple as counting the number of followers you gained or monitoring the number of clicks in your marketing emails. Don’t skip this step! If you can’t find a KPI for a particular activity, it may indicate that it shouldn’t be part of your plan.

5)???Think Reasonably

By now, you should have a solid list of marketing activities you can pursue. But it’s essential at this stage to be reasonable and honest with yourself about what you can manage or afford for your marketing plan. Having a clear budget in mind helps a lot when hiring freelancers or spending on ads. It’s also critical to decide what you can do yourself or with your marketing team and what you might need to outsource to a freelancer. Hiring a full-time marketing specialist isn’t always an option, but that doesn’t mean you have to execute your entire plan yourself.

As the end of the year creeps closer, now is the time to make your marketing plan. I hope these tips help, and happy holidays to all!