I have blogged about the potential for a recession, diversifying during the off-season and persevering. A marketing plan is one key component in these areas. Every business should have a well-thought-out business plan; a key part of that plan should be a comprehensive marketing objective.

The Roadmap

A good marketing plan is crucial for any business, regardless of size. It is essentially a roadmap for communicating with your target audience and successfully marketing your products or services. It should also be measurable and contextual. For instance, if you aim to generate more leads, you should have detailed agendas on how many, how long and where to find them. Once you have a detailed strategy established, you will be able to see whether individual opportunities will help you meet your outlined objectives.

Although your marketing plan should be completely customized to fit your business, typical plans contain five key components:

1. Your Business Goals – What are your objectives and targets?

2. Key Metrics – How you quantify and measure success.

3. Strategies – How will you achieve your goals?

4. A Plan – Detailing how you’ll execute the strategies to achieve your goals.

5. Reporting – What progress will look like in terms of reporting.

To take it a step further, we can break down these five components into actionable categories to help you create an effective marketing plan unique to your business.

1. Writing an executive summary of your marketing plan gives a brief description of how you intend to reach your target audience and drive conversions.

2. Detailing your business’s purpose, values and objectives in the form of a mission statement can serve as your guiding principle to ensure your workforce is aligned and to differentiate your company from competitors.

3. Develop a profile of your ideal customer through a research-based representation that typically involves the following information:

a. Demographics

b. Behaviors and preferences

c. Beliefs, attitudes and values

d. Pain points or challenges

e. Unmet needs and how it relates to your product or service

f. Channels they use for information or entertainment

4. Think critically about your products and services and what that value proposition means to your ideal client.

5. Once you have identified your target audience, you must then understand how to connect and engage with them. You will likely need a combination of the below list to have a comprehensive strategy.

a. Advertising

b. Branding

c. Content marketing

d. Customer acquisition

e. Direct marketing

f. Email marketing

g. Influencing

h. Public relations

i. Print

j. Reputation

k. Retention

l. Search engine optimization

m. Social media

n. Television

o. Video

6. Develop your unique selling proposition by conducting a competitive analysis to see how you stack up against your competitors.

7. To better market your products or services, you should consider your pricing strategy.

8. Ensure your marketing objectives stay on-brand with your business by involving specific goals related to market penetration and revenue targets.

9. Follow all of the items outlined above and determine the actual steps that need to be taken to achieve the projected plan.

10. Set a realistic budget that will allow you to monitor expenses and return on investment. This will also allow you to evaluate whether or not potential opportunities are in line with your plan and within budget.

Once you have outlined this plan, you must relay it to others on your team. You must also set timelines, hold weekly check-ins and share weekly reports. This will keep everyone on track and allow you to track effectiveness.