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Before you begin any marketing efforts, developing a strategic marketing plan is the first step. There isn’t a magic formula that works for every product or service within every industry but there are steps you can take that will help you develop an effective marketing message.
The entire scope of your business should be taken into consideration when developing a marketing plan. Are you a single entrepreneur that is creating an empire and have 60 hours a week to devote to your business? Or are you a mom that is trying to make a good living so you can spend as much time as possible with your family? Both are worthy visions, but both will require different marketing strategies.
Without customers, you do not have a business. Taking the time to identify your ideal client and what makes them purchase is going to increase the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.
Sounds simple, and it is if you follow the SMART model.
Get detailed. “Running an ad campaign” is not specific. “Running 4 ads with A/B headline testing for women ages 35-45 in Los Angeles” is specific.
How will you know if you achieve the objective?
Is there an action? If not, it’s a goal or a dream.
Is this objective aligned with the bigger company vision?
Can this objective be completed in a timely manner? TIP: Setting quarterly goals is usually easier to manage.
Feeling connected is a basic human need. Once you have detailed your ideal client profile, it will be easier for you to create content that speaks specifically to the clients that you want to attract to your business.
Do you have a niche? Even better! The more specific you can get to how your product or service solves a problem for someone, the more they will want to purchase.
Biggest tip when creating content: don’t sell!
It’s easy for us to want to talk about how amazing are offers are, or what exactly are offers include (you’ve probably spent countless hours creating an amazing offer). But customers really only care about how your offer will help them.
You probably don’t purchase cat food unless you have a cat, right? And if you have a cat, you probably care more about how it will affect your cat and you, rather than the process used to make the food, create the labels, and package it up.
So focus on the problems your offer solves, the transformations that will happen, and the emotions your customers will feel.
If 2020 taught us anything, we learned that the world can change in a moment. What worked in the past may not continue to work for you in the future. Markets change, and when they do, your company needs to change with them.
With a detailed marketing plan, the systems that are needed to help you reach your goals should become clear. For example, if your business goal is to have an online course, some of your marketing goals might be to bring awareness to your online program by running ads and enrolling 20 new people a month.
Knowing how you will convert your leads is as important as getting the leads themselves. You can do it all manually, but ideally everything would be automated so you can focus on creating content, bringing awareness and closing sales.
Having simple, automated systems that can accommodate your upcoming growth are essential for you to maintain a good relationship and reputation. If you spend all the time necessary to create a clear brand and content that connects, the last thing you want is to not be able to keep up.
From this simple example, the systems you would need include:
Of course, there’s more than that but hopefully you can see how having a detailed marketing plan that is aligned with your business’ vision, is designed for your ideal clients, and having the systems in place will help you grow your business.
