How To Create A Godlike Marketing Plan
The days of aimless marketing have long been over. Do you really think that successful organizations really just “wing it”, No! Marketing is a game of strategic planning and experimentation. Without a marketing plan, it is easy to get sidetracked, and even easier to fail.
Creating a marketing plan isn’t about developing a single clear-cut plan but rather developing a system that guides your marketing toward successful optimizations.
To begin, let’s dive into how to create a marketing plan.
- January 3, 2023
What's In A Solid marketing Plan?
Marketing plans differ between industries. Today we will be laying out a general guide but suggest you pick up a personalized Free Marketing Plan from our agency at Path-Media. With that in mind, let’s jump straight into how to create a marketing plan.
1. Marketing Goals
Determining you’re marketing goals is an essential process of laying out the groundwork before developing the rest of your marketing plan. When determining your marketing goals ask yourself the following:
- Is This Goal Measurable?
- What Is The Timeline Of This Goal?
- Does this Goal Clearly Align With My Businesses Objective?
- Is This Goal Specific And Well Thought Out?
A good marketing goal doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be specific and necessary. If your business is in desperate need of some clients make sure your goals align with that objective. By making the goal specific it becomes easier to track. We suggest not setting too many goals unless you have the necessary manpower to do so. 3-5 goals per department for a three month period should be sufficient.
2. Customer Analysis
In order to succeed with your marketing, you must understand who you are marketing to. If you’re company hasn’t already done a considerable amount of in-depth customer research we suggest you go back and do so as this will help with this step.
In short, this element revolves around the buyer persona. A buyer persona is a made-up version of your ideal customer and includes the following:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Job Title
- Interests
- Pain Points
- Goals
- Other Relevant Information
3. Competitor Analysis
Understanding your customers is only half the battle. You have competitors to worry about as well. When analyzing your competitors you are going to want to find a weak point, or a chink in the armor if you will. Ask yourself, what are they missing that customers want or need? What could you or your business do better? This can include:
- Pricing
- Offerings
- Branding
- Visibility
3. SWOT Analysis
Every godlike marketing plan needs a SWOT analysis.
Strengths:
- What is working?
- What Are Customers Liking About Us?
- What Are Our Marketing Strengths?
Weaknesses:
- Where Can We Improve?
- What Are We Lacking, & Do We Really Need It?
- What Could We Fix/Improve, What Would It Mean For Completing Our Goals?
Opportunities:
- What Might The Industry Soon Want?
- What Can Set Us Apart?
- What Are We Good At That We Can Capitalize On?
Threats:
- What Could Prevent Us From Our Desired Results?
- What Competitors Do We Need To Keep A Close Eye On?
- Are We Doing Anything That Could Not Be Directly Helping Us Achieve Our Goals?
Developing a quality SWOT analysis should take some time, and should come directly after the previous steps are completed. Don’t overcomplicate things, keep it simple and understandable.
3. Marketing Strategy
Now that the groundwork has been set, it’s time to start strategizing. Based on all the information you gathered, ask yourself the following:
- How Should We Approach the Market?
- What Marketing Channels Will Help Us Reach Our Goals?
- How Should We Combat Our Threats & Competition?
- Who Are We Targeting?
- How Are We Tracking Results?
- How Are We Pricing Our Product/Services?
There will be a more thorough and personalized marketing strategy set in your Free Marketing Plan.
3. Marketing Budget
Developing a marketing budget is important to stay organized and not over or underspend. Once you have established a strategy you will know what you need to make your marketing goals a reality. Marketing spend is usually dedicated to the following expenses:
- Marketing Tools and Software
- Outsourced Agencies Or Contractors
- Relevant Events
3. Marketing Channels
Having a good understanding of your marketing channels is something you don’t want to miss. Having set channels to get the word out keeps you and your team accountable, focused, and organized.
Marketing channels can include any social or content marketing that helps to spread awareness and drive more revenue. More isn’t always better and we suggest focusing only on what you can handle when it comes to social media.
As far as content marketing goes make sure to not only blog on-page but off-page too. There will be plenty of niche relative guest posting opportunities out there, you just need to search.
If you plan on developing extensive social and content authority, creating a more elaborate strategy for these channels is encouraged.
Marketing Timeline & Schedule
Simply putting together all this information and research doesn’t cut it if you want to see big results.
For best results, you are going to want to set a layout for each and every project. Make the timeline reasonable yet ambitious, assign tasks to members, and make it visible to everyone. We suggest using software like Notion to help create and monitor projects on a day-to-day basis.
Free Marketing Plan
Creating a marketing plan requires a deep level of personalization, research, and time. At Path-Media we have taken it upon ourselves to provide you with a Free Marketing Plan.
We will conduct all the research and analysis, all you need to do is fill out this short form and we will be get back to you shortly.
