You’ve no doubt, heard the phrase, “A dream without a plan is just a dream.” To a business or organization, engaging with audiences and achieving goals without a healthy marketing plan is simply that, a dream. Let’s take a look at the steps you can take right now to develop a successful marketing plan to grow your business:
Step 1: Perform a situation analysis
Before you know where you need to go, you’ll first need to understand where you already are. Developing a strong marketing plan means analyzing your business’s current state and setting attainable goals that maximize ROI.
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- Perform a SWOT Analysis: Create a specific breakdown of your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Conduct a Competitor Analysis: What sets you apart from the competition? Compare yourself with your competitors and see where there is room for improvement and where you already excel.
Be prepared to answer the question, ‘Why should someone do business with you over anyone else, including doing it themselves?’
Step 2: Define Your Target Audience
Who do you really want to attract as a new client?
To engage with your audiences, you’ll need to better understand them and their needs in the marketplace.
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- Create buyer personas that detail the demographic you are trying to reach. Get as specific as possible!
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- What’s the age, gender, and financial background of your audience?
- What are their hobbies?
- Combined household income?
- Married? With kids?
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- How does your product/service fulfill the needs of your demographic?
- Create buyer personas that detail the demographic you are trying to reach. Get as specific as possible!
Step 3: Make A List of Your Marketing Goals
What do you want to achieve?
Where can you realistically take your organization with the current set of assets and opportunities at your disposal? Do you need additional resources?
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- Get Specific: Outline your goals in great detail. Be specific about how much you think you can accomplish, and when it can be done.
- Create a Mindset for Success: Optimism goes a long way when it goes to growing your business. Get motivated with a disciplined mindset, celebrates success, and let go of perfectionism.
- Realism: Be realistic with your goals. Start with achievable increments of improvement and build your way toward your goals step by step.
Step 4: Research Marketing Tactics
How are you going to attract new clients? This step can be tricky. It might make sense to spend 30 minutes with a marketing professional to discuss!
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- Paid digital marketing
- Social media marketing
- Public relations
- Webinars
- Speaking engagements
- Email marketing
Step 5: Set Your Marketing Budget
An organized budget is a must for any successful business and is a direct reflection of the resources you will allocate to reach your outlined goals. A successful company doesn’t necessarily have the most money but has efficiently spent the funds at its disposal.
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- Closely monitor your advertising results and tailor your budget accordingly.
- Is there a ‘season’ to your business in which you should consider spending more during specific months?
- Be specific about the channels that you want to use. Where are you most likely to engage with your target audience?
Whether you’re a business owner or financial professional, the tools you need to get started are within reach. Contact me, or schedule a call, and I’ll be happy to discuss your marketing needs with you.
Good luck!
