5 Must Haves for your 2018 Marketing Plan
Writing out a marketing plan for the whole year is important, and necessary. For many small businesses, marketing is something that frequently gets placed on the back burner and forgotten or neglected. Writing the right marketing plan at the beginning of the year helps to make sure that your marketing plan stays right where it needs to be to grow your business even more for 2018.
1. Several Unique Target Audiences
Making sure that you have not just one, but multiple unique target audiences for your marketing plan is important. Each target audience should have a unique message that highlights your business. Creating each of these messages should take several things into consideration, including how familiar they are with your brand, if at all, if they are a customer or prospect, and other key differentiators that will dictate how you craft your messaging.
2. Your Unique Selling Proposition
Most of your marketing should revolve around your unique selling proposition. This is why you are different than the competition. But I have a brand new product! I don’t have any competition! This isn’t entirely true because you are fighting against all of the new products consumers have bought that have failed, or the other products vying for that consumer’s hard earned dollars. Your unique selling proposition should be more specific than location or great customer service. Dig down and think about what really makes you different and why that is important to your customers.
3. What pain point do you solve?
Your product should solve some kind of pain point for your customers. People are lazy and likely aren’t going to buy something unless they have to or its makes their lives easier. Identifying your pain point correctly will also help to identify ways that you can increase your profit for your customers. Think about all of the pre-packaged meals at the super market that cost 3-5x what the ingredients 3 feet away cost. How can you do that for your customers and your business to increase margins and boost sales?
4. What is my ROI?
A return on investment is one of the most important metrics in marketing, but what you are measuring can vary for each company. Some companies may be investing more of their time, while others may have very limited funds to use for their marketing and so money is going to be a higher investment. The bigger return for one company may just be brand awareness, while the return for another might be
up-selling products to their existing customers. Each has their own set of issues that must be overcome, but by identifying this ahead of time, you can make sure that you increase your ROI over the year on the things that are most important to you.
5. Channels and schedules for implementation
Picking the channels for implementation ahead of time not just allows you to focus on your strengths, but also allows you to set up a calendar and timeline of actionable events to execute your marketing plan. Your marketing plan is important, and you spend a lot of time getting it together. By adding in the action steps and places for where you are going to implement this marketing, you make sure that you stay on top of your marketing. Everyone has busy seasons, and frequently these times are when we need the most marketing but have zero time to do it. Looking ahead to schedule out the marketing where possible allows marketing efforts to be automated while you focus on your business.
Make sure that you get a killer marketing plan for 2018 put together by attending MB Marketing’s 2018 workshop. We will cover all of the important steps ahead, plus more. You will be able to bounce ideas off of your peers, build a more successful marketing plan than you had last year, and have the tools you need to grow your business even more in 2018.
