Often we heard that business is becoming tough and complex day by day and owners are frustrated. Why? Answer is simple- they don’t have any plan.
Most of our businesses are incurring loss due to their lacking having a proper marketing plan.
Marketing is a pivotal component of business success. Most of the business owners don’t have any idea on this very important aspect of business and they hardly realize what marketing plan can help them doing business. Yes, they are experts in their business knowledge-But does it give them 100 % guarantee of success. Challenge is- so many business owners hardly think they need a strategic marketing plan. Rather they suddenly choose a way how they can sale more of their products. And they seek temporary solutions (marketing mix) and outsource something which ultimately lead them incurring huge loss and obviously they cut cost of marketing. And what will be the next action? Due to incurring huge loss-one fine morning they may decide to quit the business, or may declare them bankrupt. THIS IS THE PRACTICAL PICTURE OF OUR BUSINESS. So, Strategic Marketing plan is the solution beforehand to save the business.
What is marketing plan?
Marketing plan is a complete set of documents which provide specific guidelines of a particular business of their advertisement and marketing efforts and activities for a particular time period. It describes business activities associated to accomplish marketing objectives within a set time period.
CHALLESNGES ARE DIFFERENT: Business nature are changing day by day due to the changes of technology. Now digital marketing drives the creation of demand using internet. Internet and social media are becoming popular due to direct interaction with the customers. So, traditional marketing approach will not help business to tackle the market competition. Digital disruption changes the way of doing business. Smart digital marketing strategy is the solutions. Moreover digital marketing approach can significantly reduce the overall marketing costs. So, entrepreneurs and business owners must acclimatize a digital marketing strategy to be successful in business. Digital marketing strategy must be incorporated and a skilled team will be required to keep in pace in the industry.
Developing A Marketing Plan:
Developing a marketing plan requires some core steps which will help and guide the business. These are:
Executive Summary, Objectives, Situational Analysis, Five P’s, Setting Goals and target, Devising go to Market strategy and Measuring the Marketing KPI.
Executive Summary:
Executive summary is the overview of your marketing plan. It helps you and other related stakeholders to give a short overview of your detailed plan.
Setting the objective:
In order to develop a marketing plan –you must know the objectives of your plan. Objectives are essential to any marketing plan. Without it you will have no clue where you have to go, what you have to achieve ? So, you must know the clear goals, purpose and outcome of your plan.
Situational Analysis: Some factors are important to know more details in order to analyze the situation. These are: Environment, Business, Customers and Competitors.
Environment: Environment is the functional areas where your business will run. It can be anywhere local or global. Say for example-overall currency market can affect your business. So, environmental analysis is crucial before devising the marketing strategy. For any business or for any brand, there is a specific environment that needs to consider based on the product or service it offers.
Business: Type and nature asme of the trade/business. Does it create any value for the people? Does it satisfy customers or can it solve the pain of the customers ? What is the unique selling points (USP’S) of the products that make it better in the market. You have to get all the answers and create a brand which is unique that can clearly make better position than your competitors.
Customers: Who are your target customers? You have to identify who are your best customers. Don’t spend your money every where. Identify the right segment where you can get maximum business. And concentrate on this segment to capitalize profit. You can breakdown it according to age, sex, geographic location etc. If you fail to identify the right segment of your business in your marketing plan- business will not survive. So, identifying right customers is very crucial to become successful in your business.
Competitors: It is very important to know who are marketing to your potential customers. You must learn what your competitors are doing? What they offer and how they operate in the market. In the digital age it is also very important to monitor the social media how your competition is moving with their product and services. Considering the digital disruption- you have to chalk out your marketing plan to challenge and beat the competition.
THE 5(FIVE) P’S: The 5 P’s(marketing mix) of marketing will assist you structuring the business.
PRODUCTS/SERVICES: What you sale or offer is called product or service. Internet help business in such a way that a single company offers variety of products ranging from consumer goods to software. Internet is a great business enabler. So, entrepreneur must select the product and services according to his overall capacity and experience to handle the products and services smoothly. Business continuity and success largely depends on choosing the right kind of products and service.
PRICE: Price is the exchangeable value that you are getting from the product. It is the deciding factor to establish your brand/product in the market. Price depends on the uniqueness of your product and services. How much you will get from a particular product depends on many factors like quality, benefits, ease of operations, trend, after sales-service and many more. As a business owner you have to ensure that your product is the best one and you have to earn solid customer trust and confidence towards your products and services. You have to device details action plans how you will earn that customer confidence in your marketing plan.
PLACE(DISTRIBUTION): Due to the presence of internet(online) the product distribution and market is no more dictated by location or place. The business dynamics have changed due the digital innovation. So, you have to ensure that your products and service are available and reachable to the customers. You must clearly mention the activities you will follow to ensure your products to be available to your customers easily in your marketing plan
PROMOTION: How you will attract and retain customers depends on your promotion strategy. You have to be very careful and selective about your promotion strategy to make your product live and vibrant in the market. Now it is very simple to go global with your product through your website and other social media page. But it doesn’t give you guarantee that you can get enough customers. It depends on the product promotion strategy through online. To some extent you have to also choose other local media in order to penetrate the local market. A clear promotional guidelines and buying technique will help you doing good business. And it is part of your marketing plan. You have to set customer retention strategy in this section. Identify some core strategy by which your customers will be with your company for long time and give you continuous flow of revenue generation.
There are some key components or strategy you have to chalk out in your promotion section. These are:
Marketing and promotional materials: You have to select your marketing and promotional materials which will create brand image as well as attract new customers.
Online marketing strategy : This era is called the Digital era and your business success largely depends on your online and social media strategy. You have to cover up some key components to finalize your online strategy. These are:
Social media strategy: How you will reach your target customers by using social media? You have to set detailed strategy on it.
Paid advertisement strategy: Online advertisement programs you want to utilize in order to reach your customers.
Key word Strategy: What type of key words you want to use to promote your website.
Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Regular documents updates in order to get top rank of your website in search result.
PEOPLE: Ultimately it is the people who decides to buy your products and services. So, considering people itself you have to chalk out your marketing plan. People are now connected with each other globally. So, regular interaction through social media, product review by the user and online poll can give a product a winning position in the market. So, your business success depends on how you manage and convince people through your actions both online and offline.
Financial Projection:
The final part of your marketing plan is financial projection/Budget.
You must finalize your budget for each marketing and promotion activities and mention the expected result you want to achieve through your marketing event/promotion or activity. You must also mention that what and how much you want to achieve in terms of new customers acquisition, sales and profit.
Financial projection may not be accurate 100 % . But you have to get a clear picture which marketing promotion or activity is giving you the best ROI.
If you can prepare your marketing plan as per the set guidelines mentioned above, it will be a great milestone to achieve business success .
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