Developing a Marketing Plan
Powerful marketing requires a detailed plan that spells out your campaign's objectives, methodology and expected results. An effective marketing plan will address these important elements:
Set your objectives. The first step is to clearly state what you plan to accomplish. Are you looking to build brand awareness or name recognition? Perhaps you want to increase transactions or visits to your website - decide what you want to achieve.
Know your audience. Once your objectives are set, define the people you are trying to reach with your marketing. Are they existing customers? Competitors' customers? What are their needs and grievances?
Hone your message. After identifying your audience, create a bold, clear and extremely focused message that supports your marketing objectives.
Set your goals. Reaching your objective takes clear, specific milestones. If your objective is to increase revenue, quantify the objective with a set number or percentage. Give each goal a timeline.
Budget, track and analyze. Know the limits of your budget and back into it when choosing your tactics. Also, implement a methodology to measure results. This can include tracking a unique code on a coupon, visits to an exclusive web address or calls to a specific phone number. Track how customers heard of you and which marketing channels are performing best. Finally, analyze your data to measure success. Determine what marketing channels worked most effectively and which efforts need to change or be adjusted.
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