business & marketing plans
Business plans & marketing plans epitomize your success. While both outline your success path and portray your vision, they have two completely different purposes. A business plan outlines your financial and operational structure to accomplish your goals. On the other hand, a marketing plan outlines your company's vision and defines a marketing path to meet that goal.
One of the main parts of the business plan is a section that describes the marketing policy that is supposed to be carried out to implement the project.
The marketing plan includes a set of measures to promote and sell goods on the market. In a broader sense, marketing also includes developing and creating products. Having the right business plans & marketing plans is essential for a flourishing business.
Creating a Marketing Plan
Learning how to write a marketing plan forces you to think through the important steps that lead to an effective marketing strategy. And a well-defined plan will help you focus on your overall marketing goals.
Here are detailed steps to help you create a marketing plan:
Perform an internal and external analysis of the company
The first part of the definition of a marketing plan is the audit of your company's situation and that of your environment. Take the time to get to know yourself better and know your main competitors and the environment around you.
To carry out this first step, you must arm yourself with several methods, such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, and competitive analysis.
SWOT ANALYSIS
A SWOT analysis is to get more clarity about your situation. This analysis allows you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business while also knowing the opportunities and threats of the market.
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Strengths: these are the strong points of the company, such as expertise, aptitudes, and skills, allowing your company to be better positioned in the market.
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Weaknesses: these relate to factors that reduce the company's ability to effectively achieve objectives, such as lack of competence, the unreliability of delivery, etc.
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Opportunities: these are external elements that can contribute to the development of your business.
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Threats: These relate to the obstacles preventing the company from reaching its full potential.
PESTEL ANALYSIS
While the mission of the SWOT analysis is to study your business, the purpose of the PESTEL analysis is to understand your environment. This methodology focuses on 6 levers: Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Ecological, and Legal.
This analysis provides a comprehensive and organized view of the environment, allowing you to make informed decisions.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
The PESTEL and SWOT matrices are essential, but your diagnosis would not be effective without a competitive analysis. A competitive analysis is essential for:
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Learn more about your competitors
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Know the critical success factors (FCS) of your field
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Determine a competitive advantage to assist in your development
Describe the Target Market
Without a target audience, marketing actions will not be practical. A failure will strain your arms by aiming too high or missing your target! This is why it is essential to take the time to define your target market and your buyer persona.
During this step, several pieces of information must be collected; the most important concerns the portrait of your buyer persona and his buying motivations.
PORTRAIT OF THE BUYER PERSONA
It is essential to properly describe your client's expectations, needs, and whims. Your profile should, of course, include basic demographic information. To this end, take the time to examine the characteristics, such as age, profession, gender, income level, geographical location, etc. In addition, to define your digital marketing plan, do not forget to identify the platforms most used by your buyer persona.
REASONS FOR CONSUMPTION
It is essential to understand the motivations of purchases of the customers.
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Are your customers looking for a bargain or product to simplify their lives?
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Do they shop for fun or to meet a particular need?
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Why should they buy your product instead of another?
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Why are customers pegged to your competitor?
Define aims
The third step in this adventure consists of setting objectives in line with your company's audit results. Nothing beats the SMART methodology to carry out this mission: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Temporal.
When setting your goals, these should be:
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Clear and precise
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Quantifiable and quantifiable
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At your fingertips
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In line with your resources
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Defined over time
Therefore, a SMART objective should be measured easily via a KPI to gauge the performance of your marketing plan over time.
Define your marketing strategy
In this part, it is essential to choose your marketing channels. Depending on your objectives, your target, and the results of the analyses, it is now time to choose the appropriate tools. Many choices are available to you, such as social networks, emailing, display advertising, etc.
After defining the channels, it's time to define the technical tactics precisely:
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Where would you like to advertise?
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Are you going to leverage digital marketing?
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Do you want to put an influencer strategy into action?
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Are you going to give priority to organic or earned visability over paid?
After making your decisions, don't forget to use an editorial calendar to set up your marketing tactics and actions.
Determine the marketing budget
The last step in creating a marketing plan concerns the financial aspect: what budget would be allocated to your marketing strategy? Yes, this action requires a financial investment to realize your marketing plan. Therefore, it is essential to take the time to set a budget during the creation of the marketing plan.
Many ideas may arise from your creativity, but if your financial resources are insufficient, you will be faced with a drastic choice! For this reason, the budget in question must be realistic while reflecting the current state and the future growth of the company.
The marketing plan is much more than a simple document. It is your roadmap to ensure the increase in your turnover and the achievement of your marketing objectives. By respecting these guidelines, you will be able to refine your marketing projects to maximize ROI. But, if time is short, an agency is at your disposal to concoct a marketing plan for your business.