Why do I need a marketing plan?

A business without a marketing plan is like being stuck in the desert with a car full of petrol but no map. You have all the energy to get moving but no plan and no direction. A marketing plan is necessary for a business if you want to move your company forward. It gives you goals and a strategy to reach them.

But where do you begin?

A successful marketing plan begins with a marketing audit, which provides you with the answers to the following questions:

? Where are we now?

? How did we get here?

? Where are we heading?

In your marketing audit, you will identify your current situation (your strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats), analyse the state of the market you are operating in, look at who your competitors are and establish your ideal customers.

Once you have carried out a marketing audit, you can then move on to setting your marketing objectives that will help grow your business and achieve your overall goals.

Example objectives:

? Increase traffic to your website by 50% in a year

? Secure 15 leads each month

? Increase purchases by 10% overall for the year

But how can you achieve them?

With a marketing strategy.

Your marketing strategy is all about:

Segment

Target

Positioning

Take a look at the entirety of who you could possibly target. Write down every single segment you can think of. Then work out which of these it makes the most sense to target (easiest to reach, size, most profitable etc).

Once you have decided who to target, you then need to position yourself within this target market. How do you want these people to think and FEEL about you and your brand?

Once you have your objectives and your strategy, you can turn to your tactics. How are you going to communicate these messages to your target market?

Concrete ideas that will help you reach your ultimate objectives. If your objective is to increase traffic to your website, your strategy might be to drive a new market base to your website (based on research from your audit). You will then use tactics such as pay-per-click, social media, blogging etc. to make sure your strategy achieves your business goals.

Implement and measure…

Once you have your marketing plan in place, it needs to be implemented and constantly measured. If you are not reaching your objectives…why?

A marketing plan will help keep your business and market strategy on track and make sure you achieve a great return on your investment.

A useful, action-oriented marketing plan provides you a route map to success.

Need some help?

We have a few offers for you:

FREE:?Book a complimentary marketing consultation here.

NEED MORE HELP: Don’t know where to start? Allow us to do it for you. We can help ‘fill the gap’.

Our strategic marketing expertise combined with our professional marketing planning skills mean that we have the ideal capabilities to help you to attract more customers and grow your business.

Get in touch today. Call 01949 833593 or email [email protected]