How to Create Marketing Plan for Your Business

This post outlines the essential steps you need on how to create marketing plan for your business. Due to the current sales declines, slow growths and increasing competitions in today economy, a company must continue to maintain good image relationship with the public and increase its profits through improved sales functions.

To achieve this, business has to identify the marketing needs and opportunities in its market segment, keep abreast with relevant information and technologies, develop quality products to satisfy those needs, choose the right channels of distribution, set reasonable prices, and promote their products.

This business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers is known as marketing management; and the process of planning these activities can produce a policy document that is termed a marketing plan.

So;

What is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan can be defined as a systematic decision and action document that gives the marketing manager the ability to determine the target market for his/her products and its needs. It gives you the opportunity to design how to fulfill those needs better that the competitors.

If you have a business, then you need a strategic marketing plan that is designed specifically to suit your retail business, production industry or niche appropriately. This is because no one can start or remain in business unless he/she is able to secure the attention, as well as the patronage of the ready to buy customers.

Marketing is a “do or die affair” for every business and you need to take this stage in your business growth very seriously. The days of “build it and they will buy” has just be gone, and you need to find out the right place where your customers can be found and adopt the best lead generation and customer service strategies to keep your sales growing up.

At the beginning of every year or during special seasons of the year, a company needs to set out a marketing objective for the year; which is usually expressed in terms of expected returns or profit targets for the year. This marketing objective is a synonymous part of the overall corporate goals.

Thus, a marketing plan is therefore an awakening document that can be used to achieve your organizational set objectives for the given period of time under review. So, here are some important tips on how to create marketing plan for your business and be successful doing that.

6 Steps on How to Create Marketing Plan for Your Business

#1. Conduct a Situational Analysis

As a captain of industry, a manger, or entrepreneur; you need to carry out a business review of the current and exact state of your company.

This will include the management, production and distribution analysis; sales and market share analysis, pricing strategies, etc.; that is to ascertain the reality or scope of the marketing plan.

You need to answer the following questions: What are the problems, and opportunities probably due to the leadership style itself? Or looking at the negative growth direction of the economy or policy thrusts of the government?

#2. Choose Your Target Market

In the world of marketing, you can’t be everything for everybody!

Better put: it is not all the vehicles that are coming your way that are meant to go your destination. If you are out to develop an effective marketing plan for your business, then you need to determine who your real customers are.

Market segmentation helps you select the best target market and identify potential customers; understand their purchasing profiles as they move on their buyers’ decision marketing processes.

This will also enable you tweak your product lines or services; and make the pricing strategy even more affordable for them.

Your target market and industry will also influence your channels of distribution, products branding and packaging schemes, your marketing campaigns and advertising strategies in use.

#3. Set Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives are goals set by a business when promoting its products or services to potential consumers and this should be achieved within a given time frame.

Your marketing objective statements should always reflect the positioning of your corporate goals and should have a product value element attached to it. They must be measurable, specific, within a timeline, and must address a target marketing behaviour.

For examples, your marketing objectives may include:

• To increase sales to 10% by driving more website traffic using online advertising.
• To increase brand awareness to both new and existing customers using social media promotions.
• To ensure 20% of new members book training session or attend next events within the first 3 months of joining your lead funnel via phone calls and email follow-ups.

You can always develop your marketing objectives to suit your business purposes.

#4. Create your Marketing Strategy and Calendar

A solid offline and online marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan.

And your marketing calendar is one of those important stacks of the marketing plan that contains the marketing strategy statements; detailing activities or tactics on how your marketing objectives are going to be achieved.  

These activities tend to be quite wide and leading to daily, weekly or monthly marketing and sales tasks; and the list of available marketing tools and content distribution channels under use.

While a marketing plan contains a list of actions to be taken, it is of little use to a business without a sound innovative strategic foundation.

If you don’t know how best to develop a good marketing calendar or a long-term, forward-looking  marketing strategies that involves demographic mapping  or products matching with the customer buying journeys, then you need the help of experience team of digital marketers and sales professionals.

#5. Set a Marketing Budget

Most well meaning and active companies of the world usually set out huge capital for brand communication, sales promotion, direct publicity and products advertisements each year.

If you are planning to market or advertise your business, products or professional services in any chosen market, location or advertising media (be it digital, print or mass media); you need a budget to run this part of your business planning process.

Moreso, startup businesses and emerging enterprises should avoid the fatal consequences of bad debts – by making budgets within the limits of their incomes and refusing to sell products on credits.

Your marketing budget is the amount you set aside for the successful execution of your well developed marketing plan; and this should be a reasonable sum too. According to experts, marketing and advertising shouldn’t take less in your business growth strategy.

#6. Execute Your Marketing Plan

Marketing can be a bit expensive to small businesses, however this will be a win win if your campaigns are managed by marketing experts with the knowledge on how, what, where and when to engage your targeted audience.

Your business marketing plan has to be put in place for execution by leveraging the efforts of a well trained sales team who understands your company’s marketing objectives and markets, territory, products and customers very well.

During this implementation stage also, there is the need to evaluate your marketing operations and review feedback from the field; including a periodic performance analysis. This may come in the form of a review of your sales/marketing techniques and activities via weekly/monthly meetings or conferences for group contributions.

Wrapping up: How to Create Marketing Plan for Your Business

We hope our tips on how to create marketing plan for your business would help you put together all the essential elements you need to grow your small business or established firm.

Developing a useful marketing plan for a new enterprise is one critical aspect that will be based on your marketing research, product development, branding and good implementations strategies.

This should also include describing your target audience, your marketing objectives; and developing the marketing execution strategies and measurement tactics that work.

You can use the above 6 steps to create and implement an effective marketing plan; starting with your company’s current situation analysis or business reviews.

As an outdoor media and online advertising company in Nigeria, you can take advantage of our qualified team of marketers and creative designers to communicate your brand messages to the right prospects, convert leads to customers and make more sales.

Contact us now if you want to promote your business online or offline.

Related: How to Advertise your Business in Nigeria