How to create a marketing plan
Marketing your products and services is all about getting your message across to your potential customers as effectively and persuasively as possible.
That may sound simple – but the best way to make the maximum impact and deliver the results you want is to draw up a detailed marketing plan that works for you and your business.
At Vinegar Creative, we use our experience to help business clients in Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton to create marketing plans that achieve the desired effect.
Follow these steps and you will be able to devise a strategy that puts you on track to marketing your business efficiently and powerfully.
1/ Identify what you want to achieve
The first step is, ironically, to start at the finish. Work out precisely what you want your marketing plan to deliver. Is it simply more customers? Or a particular type of customer that will be more lucrative for your business?
Maybe you want your business simply to have a higher profile in the local business community, or you want to be widely known for the particular skills you can bring to your clients. This is an excellent first step to take because you can then fill in the gaps between where you are and where you want to be with a clear set of guidelines, actions and targets.
2/ Write a clear summary of your plan
Now that you know where you want to go, work out the moves that will take you there. Make your plan as clear as possible so that it can be understood by you, your leadership team and everybody else involved in your business.
It is essential that all your colleagues know they are on the same page at every point in the process.
3/ Research your competitors
Take a good, in-depth look at the way your rivals in the market place deliver their message. Are there things that they do well – and others where you can see they are lacking?
As well as giving you ideas for the steps you should be taking, the channels you should be using and the way in which you should shape your message, you may get some inspiration for techniques that will allow you to differentiate clearly in the way you market your business.
4/ Focus on the benefits you deliver
However you decide to plan your marketing campaigns, always bear in mind that the most important people are your potential customers.
Your messaging should focus on the difference you can make to their lives and businesses, rather than on what it is that you do. This will enable you to make an emotional connection that means your message will resonate far more clearly with your audience.
5/ Measure your results
Having composed a marketing plan, it is not enough to pop it in a drawer and forget about it. Make sure you consult your plan on a regular basis, at least once a month, to check that you are sticking to the course you charted and undertaking your agreed activities.
At the same time, take a detailed look at what is working and – maybe more pertinently – what is not. Identify the methods that are bringing you the results you want, and keep using them. When you know what is not working, you can quickly alter your course to make those techniques more effective for you.
Vinegar Creative is here to help your marketing planning to become as effective as it needs to be. When you want our expert assistance with your Twickenham, Hampton or Teddington business, please get in touch.