Making a Marketing Plan That Works

Every business needs a marketing plan. This is a plan on how you will find customers and convince them to buy or use your products or services. By having a plan, you can keep your goals and business marketing on track.

Develop an Actionable Plan

Whether you plan to use postcards for real estate marketing, flyers for restaurant marketing or a website for gift shop marketing, you need to write down an actionable plan. You need to detail how you will meet or get customers. Each part of the plan needs to be actionable.

For this, you can use I statements such as I will use flyers and post them at key locations such as hotels. By using actionable statements, you are more likely to stick to your plan.

Find Your Target Market

Finding your target market is an extremely important part of a marketing plan. Your target market is who you plan on selling your goods or services. Who will be interested? How old are they? Where are they likely to be? By writing a detailed demographic, you will know exactly where to focus your marketing materials.

If your target market is 18 to 25, you will most likely be marketing on mobile phones and social media. If your target market is 70 and older, you might want to focus on print rather than computers or mobile phones.

Be Sure to Budget

Part of being a business owner is knowing what you are going to spend where. Make sure you budget money for marketing materials and other advertising needs.

Competitive Advantages

Decide your competitive advantages. These are the things that you do better, different or at a lower price than your competition. You should get to know your competition and find ways that you are better than them. This can help you with both your sales pitch and your marketing materials.

Marketing is not that difficult once you have a plan. A good marketing plan will keep you on track with your sales goals and customers.