How to make your 2021 marketing plan

Follow more than 10 steps to create a solid marketing plan for your business.

Step # 1: Define Your Marketing Objectives

Before you point a finger at a marketing campaign, you first need to set your marketing objectives.

Specifically, where does one want to require this thing? Where does one see your business within the future?

Use the SMART criteria to assist you define your marketing objectives.

Smart is an acquaintance that is smart, measurable, achievable, realistic, and stands for time.

Your marketing objectives should be all of these things.

For example, suppose you have an eCommerce store that supplies pets. And tell us that last year, you made about $ 200,000 in revenue.

Your marketing objectives for the coming year could be:

Increase your business revenue by 50%… To do this, you have to increase your email list by 75%, and to increase your email list, you have to increase your traffic by 200%.

And to increase your traffic, you need to increase your online engagement by 500% on other channels and increase your overall awareness and impressions by 1000%.

Let us go to the next step.

Step # 2: Analyze Your Current Marketing Efforts

Once you recognize what your business objectives are, you would like to assess your current marketing efforts.

Specifically, you need to find out what is working and what is not working?

The best way to determine this is by looking at data specific to your business.

If we look at the example of that eCommerce store again, we look to Google Analytics to see which marketing campaigns and channels are driving the most revenue and traffic.

Then, we can choose to include high-performance pre-marketing campaigns in our new marketing plan to get more results.

Step # 3: Analyze Your Competitor's Marketing Efforts

The next thing you would like to try to to is analyze your competitor's marketing efforts.

This is important because if your biggest contestants have been doing something for a long time, chances are, it is working for them.

For example, suppose you are a pet accessory store as an example. If you search "Dog accessories" on Google, you will see many ads around that topic.

Once you click an ad, you can have a look at your competitor's landing page. And even better, you can throw your website inside tools like SEMRush or similar tools, which will show you everything they are doing to get their business online on search engines.

You can also use Facebook's ad library to view all social media ads running on Facebook and Instagram.

Bottom-line, you need to research all your top competitors and document your findings. Document their pricing strategies, promotional channels, messages, media and more.

You don't have to "copy" what they are doing per-se, but knowing this information can inspire you and show you what you need to do to beat them.

Step # 4 Define Your Market

Okay, now it's time to roll up your sleeves and do the real work. The time has come to define your market.

You can't do marketing without actually knowing your market.

Because marketing is about communicating your VALUE to your target market, if you communicate it to the wrong group of people, you will fail.

It is trying to sell dog food to people who own cats.

You may have the best dog food in the world, but if you are marketing to people who have cats, you will not succeed.

Also, you wouldn't want to say "I want to market to people who have dogs." No, you need to be more specific than this.

Your dog's food may be for a specific type of dog, at a specific age, it may be best for a specific health type, and so on.

In addition, your dog's food can be high-quality and high-priced, which may mean you need to target a more affluent audience.

Either way, you would like a crystal-clear picture of your market.

So here's how to create a customer avatar.

Your customer avatar outlines the demographics, goals, values and challenges of your target audience.

You should map for your business to ensure that you have a clear understanding of your market. In this way, you can work out your strategy to talk to them directly.

Step # 5 Define Your Marketing Strategy

Once you understand your MARKET, you'll start building your MARKETING strategy.

The 4Ps of marketing are the fundamental building blocks of any marketing strategy. All 4P must be aligned to meet your marketing objectives.

They are 4P products, pricing, promotions and placements.

Now, we have another blog that goes into detail on 4 PS if you want to check that check.

But, in short, this is what you would like to understand for your marketing plan.

The most important element, starting with your product - you need to clearly define the value you get from your product, your product design, your product packaging and your branding.

Ultimately, you need to make sure that you are building something that people really want to buy. And not only that, but you have to express it in such a way that people want to buy it.

Because remember, this is not the best business that wins. It is not the best product that wins. This is the best marketing that wins.

And to do this, remember, your value proposition must be very specific to your market.

Then, you need to think about pricing - which refers to the retail value of your product or service. You need to make sure that your price is not ready to pay for the same or alternative products that may allow them to extract the same price.

And there is 3P - promotion.

Promotion refers to your advertising and sales strategy. It should detail the specific methods you use to reach your target market.

And finally, the last P - placement.

Placement refers to where your products or services are being sold. Whether it is sold online, or in a brick-and-mortar store, your customers will be able to find it. And more importantly, they should provide a pleasant experience to make you feel comfortable shopping from your business.

So in your marketing plan, be sure to write down the specifics of each component of your marketing mix, including products, pricing, promotions, and placements.

This is ultimately how you set your marketing strategy to a higher level.

Step # 6: Define Your Marketing Funnel

Once your strategy is determined, you need to define your marketing funnel to outline the steps someone should take to become a customer of your business.

A marketing funnel is simply a journey a customer takes to purchase your products or services.

The typical marketing funnel consists of 4 main stages - awareness, engagement, conversion and advocacy.

Now, the biggest thing you need to know is that you cannot expect to close the sale on the first date with your market.

You first need to familiarize yourself with them, make them aware of your business, flatter them and engage them, and if they "like" you, they are more willing to listen to your sales pitch Will be

Now, you can get a wider start with your marketing funnel and then create a more specialized sales funnel to complete it directly.

The more you'll design your marketing campaigns round the marketing funnel step-by-step, the more successful you'll be in creating a system that cranks up more traffic, leads and sales for your business.

Step # 7 Define Your Marketing Channels

This step is closely related to the "promotion" aspect of your marketing mix, which we discussed earlier. This is especially related to how you will promote your business in your market. And by promotion we mean offer value.

Now, the key to defining your marketing channels is to choose the specific marketing channel that your market uses.

So to do this, I recommend studying the demographics of various marketing channels.

You can easily do this using a website like Statista. You can find out the age, ethnicity, and more of each specific marketing channel you plan to use.

Here are some quick tips that we will give you in this regard

There are some marketing channels that we can guarantee that your audience uses

And those channels are Google and Facebook

Both channels have billions of users so we don't see how your business will survive without a sound channel

Then you can start analyzing very specific channels

For example LinkedIn is ideal for professionals and B2B audiences

Pinterest is ideal for ecommerce businesses and for fashion and home decor businesses

Instagram features a diverse audience and is great for displaying visual content

The list goes on and on

But here is a great tip

When it comes to the number of marketing channels it is better to start by dominating a few channels than to spread yourself so widely that you do no good

So start choosing the channels that can give you the most opportunities and get good results on those channels that can reach your market

Step 8 Define Your Marketing Message Once you decide on your marketing channels it is time to figure on your message

If your message is really bad you will not say or do anything

And unfortunately in today's noisy environment people are bombarded with so many advertisements on a daily basis that many people go completely unresponsive

And that's why defining your message here is so important

When it comes to messaging we would like to recommend a selected messaging framework that changed marketing for us

AIDA

AIDA stands for Attention Interest Desire and Action

Any marketing message from your company must first attract the attention of your audience generate interest desire and provoke action

For example if we wanted to sell you a dog leash we wouldn't say buy 1 get 1 free here's the best dog leash in the world

First of all who cares

Instead we'll start by saying Are you walking your dog or is your dog being led

This is an attention grabber hook

Then we'll say What if we told you that there is a way to handle your dog's experience of walking on a sturdy leash

A leash that empowers you as the leader of your doghouse

Such a statement may constitute interest

Then to make the will we will say determine why this leash was featured in Dog Magazine together of the simplest leashes on the market today

And then the most important thing is that you would like people to require action

So I can end by saying Click this link for more information or Buy 1 today get 1 free

You should use effecActive messaging to attract your audience to your marketing funnel

If you can't do this effectively nothing will work

However since you already know your product's unique value proposition and your customer's avatar it should be easy for you to develop it

Step 9 Define your marketing budget Okay now your marketing plan is almost finished

But now you must determine one very important thing your marketing budget

How much will you spend to be successful in your marketing goals

And that's not what you want to spend

This is really irrelevant

The question is how much do you really want to spend to reach your income goals

How much do you spend to generate enough awareness and commitment to knock down your funnel

Now obviously sometimes you feel like you don't have enough money to meet your marketing goals

Therefore your only option will be to set your most realistic ambitious marketing goals in your budget

But how do you know where to start your marketing budget

Well according to the SBA most businesses will spend 7 8 of their revenue on marketing

However today we have seen that most companies spend around 10 of their income on marketing and if they are aggressive I have seen budgets of up to 20 30 of their income

Ultimately you must decide what percentage of the revenue you can allocate to meet your marketing goals

And it should be based on your marketing goals and what you can do right now

Step 10 Define your implementation plan A plan without work does not make sense

Therefore the fundamental and most vital component of your marketing plan is determining how you will implement everything

Will you try to do it all yourself

Will you hire employees

Will you hire an agency

Regardless of what you opt for you would like to be sure that you are simply getting the action items in your marketing plan

Here are each of your options

Option # 1: Doing everything yourself

When you're just getting started, sometimes your only option is to do everything yourself - especially if you're limited on money.

If this is often you, don't be concerned - you'll implement your marketing plan on your own. Our cofounders here at LYFE Marketing did it.

We literally threw $ 100 each into a business checking account , rolled up our sleeves, and did dirty work.

Because we had no money, we called cold. We knocked on the doors. We were rejected. We were very unsuccessful. We win a little bit. And finally, after about 4-5 years of wiping out our small earnings, we finally started to really pay for marketing.

Now, you can do that, but we have to be honest with you - it's going to be tough. By taking this route, you will waste more time and money because you do not have someone who is experienced to guide you.

You can be successful, but you must be prepared to invest in the necessary education, knowledge and guidance to make the necessary decisions, so that you can make decisions wisely. Otherwise, you can waste a lot of time wasting wheels in the wrong direction.

Now let's mention option # 2: hiring employees

In an ideal world, you hire a full-time employee, an expert in marketing who knows what to do for your business.

But how much does this employee cost you? And more importantly, you, someone who is relatively inexperienced in marketing, know if this employee is really good or not?

As an agency provider, we can tell you - we have done a lot of work with the marketing managers of our small business client. And many times, we have found that they know very little about what they are actually doing or talking about.

We are not saying that all are bad, but we have seen that our customers hire bad people and they never realized it because they were not marketing experts either.

So if you hire a full-time marketing manager to implement your marketing plan, make sure that you hire a qualified candidate with a proven track record.

And the unfortunate part for most small businesses is that these qualified candidates will need higher salaries, benefit packages, and other incentives to motivate you to work.

And as alittle business owner, this is often the hard part. But still, this is an option for you.

And finally, the third option is: to hire an agency

Call us biased, but for many businesses the best option is to hire an agency.

Because agencies treat many customers, they must already have a proven track record indicating that they are qualified to implement your business marketing plan.

And the best part is, you can keep them at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time employee.

Not only that, but you may have access to more experience than an agency provided by a person.

For example, LYFE marketing is stacked by advertising specialists, graphic designers, copywriters, and so on.

And if you fall out of love with the person you're working with, you can simply work with a different account manager at the agency.

This is much better than relying on one person and then when you have to fire that person, your marketing plans go haywire. Or worse, they quit.

So of course, we would recommend an agency for most small businesses if they can buy it.

As the owner of a small business, this is how we will look at:

1. If I can't do anything else then do it myself.

2. Once I am earning enough money, hire an agency.

3. Once I am earning enough money, hire a full-time marketing team, which can happen when your business is more than $ 5-10M / year in revenue.

Ok, so that's your marketing plan from A-Z! Now you can start planning and growing your business.

Today, we defined a marketing plan. A marketing plan outlines your marketing strategy and the specific actions required to reach your marketing objectives.

And then we gave you steps to create a solid marketing plan. Those steps were the following:

1. Define Your Marketing Objectives

2. Analyze your current and past marketing efforts

3. Analyze your competitor's marketing efforts

4. Define Your Market

5. Define Your Marketing Strategy

6. Define Your Marketing Funnel

7. Define your marketing channels

8. Define Your Marketing Message

9. Define Your Marketing Budget

10. Define your implementation plan