A marketing plan is a document in which you strategically map out your objectives and actions you will take to achieve those objectives. It can be considered as a roadmap for your digital marketing journey. Your plan should be a written document that you follow and not just a vague idea in your mind. Without a well-defined plan you will probably end up wasting a lot of time, or money, or both.
Every digital marketing plan is different based on the niche of the business. But some of the basics are the same or very similar for almost all businesses. In this article, I will expand on few such concepts so that you have the foundation to make a plan for your own business and then implement it.
Target Audience
Every digital marketing plan starts with the target audience. Having a well-defined customer profile is important for a successful marketing campaign. Everything in your plan is to get this segment of the market excited about your product. To learn more about how to make a good customer persona, read my blog on demographics.
Competition analysis
For you to succeed in your marketing efforts, you need to know what are you up against. Extensive competition analysis will allow you to determine the best marketing strategies, and calculate your market share.
When you are analyzing your competition you need to focus on a few key points.
- Where is your competition promoting their products or services?
- What is their differentiating factor?
- Are they getting traffic thru paid ads or is it organic?
- What demographic are they targeting?
Having answers to these questions you will be able to compare yourself with your competition and succeed with your marketing.
Goals and Milestones
All digital marketers want to get more clients for a business. It is the “goal” of every digital marketer. But, in your marketing plan, you will have specific goals that will be on a weekly or a monthly basis. One instance of a goal could be to get at least 50 contact form submissions in the next month.
If you are just starting, setting up goals like these could be hard and overwhelming at times. You might overachieve or underachieve compared to your original goal but when that happens, you need to analyze the data and update your plan accordingly.
Flexibility is an important part of a marketing plan.
Callander
Schedules will keep you on track and help you to get over the procrastination. Scheduling is an important habit-building tool that will help your business to grow. I would encourage you to have multiple calendars, one for social media, one for on-page SEO and content writing, one for email marketing, and another one for paid advertising.
Budget
The next step in making an amazing marketing plan is to make a budget. I understand that it is not something everyone likes, but if you do not have a budget (that includes time and money) you will be wasting your resources without getting a great return on investment.
The budget should not only be defined as a whole for digital marketing but also be defined for each channel. The budget will act as a guide towards specific strategies and tactics. When it comes to budget, it is not a one-size-fits-all type of scenario. Your budget will depend on a multitude of things, some of them are;
- Monthly revenue
- Previous results
- Location of your business
- Profitability
- Future scalability
- And more….
As with everything though, you need to make your budget flexible enough so that it could be updated with the changing markets. The goal of setting a budget is to get the best ROI (Return on investment) possible.
Conclusion
Making a digital marketing plan is a time-consuming and tedious process but it is really important for a successful marketing campaign. Three things that every marketing plan is based on are; Setup, Analyze, Update.
A digital marketing plan is like a blueprint for your digital marketing strategy. It should cover the steps and tactics to achieve the broader outcomes defined by your strategy. Your plan should cover all of the digital channels you use, including social media, email, advertising, public relations, and your website.
How do you create a marketing plan?
Mission statements, identify targets, establish goals, and monitor results. These are some of the basic elements that you want to have in a marketing plan.
What is a basic marketing plan?
Mission statements, identify targets, establish goals, and monitor results. These are some of the basic elements that you want to have in a basic marketing plan.
What is a good marketing plan?
Mission statements, identify targets, establish goals, and monitor results. These are some of the basic elements that you want to have in a good marketing plan.
Very Informative information. There is such depth into your writing. Thank you, for making it clear how important marketing plan is, for any business owners. How often is it necessary to update, the marketing plan?