In this article we show you how to make a marketing plan in a clear and precise way. Actually, a marketing plan is a valuable management tool that can be useful to develop any business strategy (digital or physical) or simply to find the best strategic objectives.
With this method that we are going to expose, you will be able to develop your own marketing plan in just7 easy steps.
How to make a marketing plan in 7 steps
Step 1. Inner analysis
The first step to make your marketing plan is not the simplest, but it is the most accessible. This is because the data and variables you must analyze are under your control.
Specifically, we refer to the internal elements: what is the product or service that you want to market (you can even be the product yourself as a professional), what are the characteristics that makes it different and what weaknesses are susceptible to improvement.
Determining strengths and weaknesses is only half of the analysis of the initial situation. To have a complete vision of the objectives and actions you should take you need to go to the second step.
Step 2. External analysis
It is time to look outside, that is, towards the data and variables that are outside your control.
It is necessary that you study your potential clients or target audience that you want to target, the market situation, the trends and, of course, you should not forget your competitors.
Make another list like the previous one, only, in this case, the strengths are called “opportunities” (because they do not depend on you). In the same way, the weak points can be considered as “threats”.
You can put the four variables on the same sheet of paper, in the form of a matrix, and you will obtain the popular SWOT analysis (Weaknesses, Threats, Strengths and Opportunities).
Following the SWOT analysis, you can begin to study how to overcome threats, what you will do to take advantage of strengths and opportunities. Is there a weakness you can cover with an opportunity? Are there any threats you can counter with a strength?
Step 3. Define your goals
In this third step, once you know the starting point (the initial situation), you will begin with one of the most delicate and important actions: defining the goals that you want to achieve and the strategic lines that you are going to carry out to achieve them.
But remember, for a goal to be well established, it must meet the following requirements (called SMART goals):
- Specific: It must be concrete, without abstraction. Define the goal simply and plainly. In a clear and concise way.
- Mesurable: You have to be able to quantify the goals in figures.
- Achievable : Take a good look at the SWOT matrix to establish realistic goals. That is, attainable.
- Relevant: If a goal is feasible but does not provide anything useful, it cannot be an objective. What’s more, the only thing you will achieve is divert your efforts towards results that will not bring you the benefit you expect in the long term. Therefore, the goal must be relevant to your final purpose.
- Time Based: it means limited in time. It’s good that you have set a measurable goal. But, how long do you expect to reach the figure you have determined? To be feasible, they must have an associated period of time in which (more or less) they will be fulfilled. It can be a year, a quarter, a month, etc.
Step 4. Create your value proposition
Once you have defined the goals and have an idea of the guidelines to achieve them, you are in a position to define how you can position yourself in the market. In other words,define the unique value proposition.
Assuming that the product you want to market is yourself as a professional, you can define yourself in a way that differentiates you from the rest of the candidates. At the end of the day, there is no one like you: your experiences, your training, your talent, your ability to make decisions under pressure, etc..
In short, try to establish a brief message by which you will be defined (you or any product you intend to launch on the market).
Positioning a product in the market is nothing more than communicating the right message to the right audience. Thanks to the SWOT analysis, you will know what makes you different and where you can “attack”.
Step 5. Establish your tactical actions schedule
At this point is when you take action. The general lines that will mark your way of achieving your goals are called strategy, while the specific actions you must take are tactics.
However, The tactic must be coherent with the strategy and well programmed. So that the actions do not overlap with each other and, what is worse, cancel each other. All tasks or tactical actions have to be aligned with the objectives and defined in a calendar to meet the established times, maintain order and good rhythm.
Step 6. Create the budget
To achieve the proposed goals, it is natural to have to use resources: time, effort and, possibly, invest some money.
But it is also necessary that you can manage resources. Otherwise, in the first action you take you will run out of “gunpowder” and you will not be able to comply with your marketing plan.
Budget each of the tactical actions and determine their scope to establish how much it costs you in time, money, effort and any other resources. Make sure you can accomplish them all without any impediments that hinder the plan once initiated.
Step 7. Create a control system
Once you have begun to execute your marketing plan, you need a system to measure if you are on the right track, if the actions contribute to meeting the goals and how you can correct possible deviations.
To do this, you need to create a series of indicators that will help you in this work. Putting all the indicators together, you will get a dashboard that will tell you which key or button you should press to advance as quickly and efficiently as possible.
With Good analysis well-defined goals y and a series of meticulously calculated tactical actions you can achieve results. But without a control system, you won’t be able to detect them and you may make unnecessary changes (the kind that consume more time and resources) just to disrupt what already works..
With these simple steps you will be able to decide when and how to carry out a marketing plan that helps you manage any project.
AtUIE , we encourage the development of our students’ marketing skills and tools. We do it in our Degree in digital business administration where we combine Management Business, Digital Marketing, Electronic Commerce and Information Technologies (ICTs). If you are interested and want to be an expert in digital business, contact us.
