How to Write a Marketing Plan for Your Business

Marketing is the most essential part of running a business. It is the art and science of building a brand, popularising its products and increasing sales. Marketing is an umbrella term that includes brand promotions, traditional advertising, digital marketing, and much more. It involves understanding the marketplace in Perth and choosing the right channels to reach the target audience. The targeted customers must view the messages and advertisements to evoke the desired response.

Marketers can choose from a wide range of tactics and efforts, such as TV and Radio advertising, public relations, below-the-line marketing, outdoor advertising, content marketing, and PPC ads. They must create a plan to ensure they are sending the right messages at the right time through all the touchpoints to create brand awareness and generate sales. Here is how they can create a marketing plan for the business. It helps to meet the goals and get the results.

1 .   Set the Marketing Goals

The first step of creating a marketing plan is to set the goals for the endeavour. Every business will have different goals based on their needs, which will keep changing as they progress. For example, the objectives of a start-up are to create brand awareness and position the business in the marketplace. Similarly, a business in the growth stage will set goals for increasing sales and attracting new customers. These goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound) to remove ambiguity and increase focus. Vague and unrealistic goals create confusion and inefficiency. A SMART goal will clearly define the outcome desired in a given period, such as increasing customer acquisition by 15% in one year or generating 20% more website traffic in a year.   

2 . Conduct Competitor Analysis

Determining competition and their marketing strategies is vital to building a comprehensive marketing plan. It helps identify the trending marketing techniques similar businesses use to attract customers. It is also beneficial in finding the best media and digital channels used by competitors to drive sales, website traffic and conversions. Analysing the competitor’s strategy allows the entrepreneur to identify gaps in their marketing, which can be leveraged to grab the target audience’s attention. It can help them save money by preventing investment in wasteful marketing initiatives. Entrepreneurs can even use this analysis when they put up their business for sale in Perth to market the entity effectively.

3   . Understand the Target Audience

The marketer must understand the customers because they can serve them effectively when they know who they are targeting. It involves identifying the psychographic and demographic profiles of the target audience and creating segments to send marketing messages accordingly. The marketer must know where the customer is positioned in the sales funnel to create customised messages. For example, existing buyers do not need awareness-based ads or emails. They must be made to view rewards-based ads that create the desire to purchase again. Understanding the media consumption habits of the buyers is also necessary to create schedules for advertising and social media posts. Marketers must know their preferences and desires to create the best marketing material.  

4   . Build Your Marketing Mix

Marketers must pay attention to the marketing mix to build a unique value proposition that can set the business apart from competitors. The differentiation can be used in the marketing materials to position the brand and create its unique identity. The marketing mix includes 4Ps – product, price, placement and promotion. The product must meet the needs of the customers, and its price should offer value for money without creating a deficit for the seller. The products must be easily accessible through physical and virtual stores by creating a strong supply chain. Finally, the marketers must decide the brand guidelines and techniques to be used to reach the audience.   

5   . Create the Marketing Budget

Budgeting is integral to the marketing plan because it helps understand the amount of capital available for the task. Marketers then decide how to divide the amount among different marketing initiatives, such as traditional advertising, digital marketing, online advertising, and public relations. The costs have to be spread across all needed resources, such as content creators, graphic designers, editors, videographers, etc. Most aspiring entrepreneurs looking for businesses for sale in Perth check the marketing and operational budget to understand significant overheads and expenses.   

6  . Develop Marketing Strategies

Developing marketing strategies involves choosing the target segment and preparing a marketing message for a particular channel. For example, sending product recommendation emails to customers who showed an interest in the products. The strategies must include details like the cost associated with the activity and the timeline for completion. Since personalised marketing has become highly popular, social and search engine ads can help get the desired results. Marketers must measure the results to evaluate the performance of the campaigns and make improvements to do better.     

Wrapping Up

A marketing plan acts as a roadmap and steers the promotional activity in the right direction. It ensures the target audience receives the messages and stays informed about the latest offers and company news. It is also helpful in evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing strategies and adjusting them to improve.