Building your marketing plan
This week I’m talking about building your marketing plan.
This is the step you take after you’ve worked out your marketing budget and have a marketing wish list.
Chances are your marketing wish list will end up as a pretty scary investment required to do everything on your list.
That's okay.
Building your marketing plan is about prioritising your marketing wish list.
Here's how to do it:
- look at your marketing goals
- work out the ROI for each of your marketing activities on your wish list that align with your goals
- identify which activities are going to give you the best ROI
- prioritise the marketing activities that give the best ROI for your total marketing budget (this may end up being one thing only – if it is, that’s okay)
- park the rest of your marketing activities on your marketing wish list
- if your marketing is successful in increasing your revenue/profit, then you can add another marketing activity from your wish list to your marketing plan when that happens
Turning your wish list into a marketing plan
A marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as a spread sheet that summarises:
- what you are going to do and when
- who is responsible for each activity
- how each activity aligns to your marketing goals
- which ideal client (your target market) the activity is for*
- your marketing budget
Add a list of your prioritised marketing activities to your spread sheet. Highlight what months you're going to action those activities. Colour code the Activity to the appropriate marketing goal. Include a target market column and align each activity to the appropriate target market. Add your monthly budget as a row.
So your simple marketing plan might look something like this.
* if you have niched down to one ideal client then this isn’t necessary. Let’s not make things more complicated than they need to be. If you think your ideal client is everyone, then you need to read this.
Lights, camera, action
Once you have developed your marketing plan, allocate time each month (or delegate it) to action each marketing activity when it’s due.
Here’s the process I follow to make sure my marketing get’s done.
- Start with a plan
Review your marketing plan to identify what needs to be done and understand how long it will take - Time block
Block out your calendar. Book a recurring meeting with yourself at least an hour once a week to work on your marketing. And make it the same time on the same day. - Have a to do list
Create a to do list for each marketing activity. Use checklists, sticky notes, or project management platforms for your to do list, whatever works for you. Often your marketing activities are recurring. If that’s the case I find using an online platform that has auto-regeneration of the task works really well as a to do list. - Batch
This is important. Batch your work and work on on one thing at a time. Don’t try and multi-task. Batching means working on similar marketing activities. For example, I have one day a week to work purely on social media. Another day to do newsletters. Another day to work on websites. - Review
Conduct a monthly review of your marketing activities to report on what’s working and what might need tweaking. The important thing to remember when checking your progress is that there is no magic silver bullet.
Marketing takes time
There is no magic marketing silver bullet – no matter what you see on social media.
Marketing takes time.
You need a strategy, with a marketing budget and plan.
And you need to make sure you implement your marketing.
There’s no point having a plan that doesn’t get actioned.
Remember, when you document your marketing strategy and plan you are 313% more likely to report success (Coschedule).
Now go forth and create your marketing plan.
Of course, if you need assistance then get in touch – I'd love to help you.
