by Kingsley Emezie | Copywriter | Lead Generation Expert | Facebook Growth Expert (2022)

How do you define a Marketing plan?

A marketing plan is an outline a business uses to determine how to reach its goal. 

It is like a map you need to drive your advertisement, campaign, through the right channels. A marketing plan takes the guesswork away and helps you track your progress by using data and insights.

In this post, you will understand the importance of creating a marketing plan. If you already have a marketing plan, you will learn some new tips on how to enhance it.

Here’s an overview of what is covered in this article:

• Why a marketing plan is important
• What a marketing plan should include
• When to create a marketing plan
• How to create a marketing plan
• Marketing plan to attract more customers

Let’s jump right into it……..

Why a marketing plan is important

The importance of a marketing plan is to have a road map that governs the entire marketing process. 

An effective marketing plan gives direction. It helps to track the progress of the overall marketing strategy. 

A marketing plan could be the determinant of a company’s success or failure. It shows the steps to take to achieve the big goal.

For example, if you identify a particular target audience or demography as your ideal customer, without an effective marketing plan, you will almost certainly not achieve that goal. 

You need a marketing plan to outline where, how, and when, to reach your ideal customers. It is like a map to give you directions.

What a marketing plan should include

Today more than ever, most business owners struggle to distinguish between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy. 

Being able to determine what goes into your marketing plan is largely based on the research you have done.

In order to have a good marketing plan, you must have a good understanding of your target market and the goal you are trying to achieve.

Here are some examples of what to include in your plan:

• Your budget
• Content marketing plan
• Social media engagement (social interactions)
• Distribution channels (how you intend to reach people)
• A well-defined audience (target determines direction)

A marketing plan helps with the daily planning and organisation of your marketing strategy. 

Creating the right plan requires a lot of research. For example, if you are able to determine your target audience, you will need to uncover the best ways to reach them. 

A marketing plan will help you map out how best to reach your target customers.

When to create a marketing plan

There is really no fixed time to create a marketing plan. In most cases, marketing plans are created at the early stages of a business (startups). 

The way I look at it, a marketing plan should constantly evolve as the business continues to grow. It is all about testing new things and making adjustments suitable to the demands of the business.

Whilst it is advised to always have a clear marketing plan before starting your business, you can still develop an effective marketing plan along the way. 

• You will need to create a marketing plan if you are not reaching your goals as a business.

• You will need to create a marketing plan to manage resources in your business.

• If your marketing team are not hitting their targets, you will need to review your marketing plan or rather create one. 

How to create a marketing plan

So, how do you go about creating an effective marketing plan? 

The first step to creating a marketing plan is to define your goal as a business and analyse where you want your business to be. 

You need to ask yourself questions like: 

• Where are you right now?
• What do you want to achieve? 
• Who are your target audience? 
• How do you intend to help solve their problems? 
• Why should they choose you?
• How do you intend to reach them?

The next step will be to collect as much data as you can. Data and insights will help you understand what you need to be focusing on. 

Data and insights will help you understand what your customers want, and how you can provide it to them. Remember the old saying, (numbers don’t lie) I’d say data don’t lie.

Another aspect to consider when creating an effective marketing plan is your budget. You need to know your marketing budget because it gives you an idea of resources available to you.

In short, creating a marketing plan is about finding the best, possible ways to reach your business goals by meeting the needs of your consumers. 

Marketing plan to attract more customers

Today, more than ever, customer acquisition seems to be getting increasingly expensive that is why every business interested in customer acquisition needs to have a marketing plan.

A marketing plan will help give your brand an identity. Your brand identity is how your customers perceive your brand. How they feel about your brand.

By developing an effective marketing plan, you can shape the customer perception of your brand. 

You can attract a flow of new customers to your business at a relatively low cost by enhacing your brand image through effective planning.

For example, if content marketing is part of your plan to reach new audiences, you can attract new customers by simply posting informative content that is beneficial to them.

An effective marketing plan will help you segment your audience, which enhances the customer acquisition process. 

It is easier to attract new customers when you know who you are looking for, where to look for them, and what they want. 

Above all, an effective marketing plan helps you focus. You are able to cut out the things that are not helpful to your longterm goals and focus on what is required to achieve your goals. 

Conclusion

An outstanding marketing plan is a lifestyle and not just a quick fix. It has to be embedded into the core principles of the business to be effective. 

As you can see, a marketing plan is vital to the growth of any business if done correctly, so I encourage you to start creating a marketing plan today if you haven’t already.

A marketing plan makes things less chaotic in your business. It is like a roadmap to guide you through your entire journey. The good thing is, you can always revisit your plan to track and make adjustment where necessary to suit your overall goal.

Finally, its always important to ask the vital questions when setting out to craft your marketing plan. Questions like, where you want to go as a business? who you want to serve? Are a good place to start.

Please let me know what stood out to you. 

What will you be applying to your business today? 
Follow me on social