Did you know how Yoda got his first lead? He used the sales force. Unfortunately, people like you and me don’t have the force to do this for them. We have to generate a marketing strategy plan that is not only comprehensive but also effective.
Having a team of highly trained professionals putting their efforts into creating a detailed marketing strategy plan is necessary for your business to grow. However, it may sound like a complicated task, but there are companies like TRD Studios that can make this easier for your business.
We understand that making an excellent product or service is a hard task. But, when it comes to marketing that particular product or service, that becomes equally challenging. No matter how harsh it may sound, it is never enough to create an excellent product. You have to ensure that your audience knows about the product and what they stand to gain from it.
If you develop a comprehensive marketing strategy plan, you will be able to make sure your product or service sells more. So, in this article, we will talk about the steps to a strategic marketing plan.
- Set goals and objectives
Before you start to create your marketing plan, it is important you determine the purpose of doing so and set out some objectives that you want to achieve through it. Your marketing plan has to help you achieve all your long-term goals.
So, once you have decided what you want to achieve in the next 18 to 24 months, you should derive your marketing plan. But remember, you should also set realistic and measurable goals for your business.
- Conduct market research
Conducting market research is very important to ensure that your marketing plan succeeds. The sole purpose of doing so is to get an accurate picture of your practice, target audience, and position amongst your target audience.
By conducting this research, you can get an idea of how your plan will work and a projection of your future growth, standings amongst your competition, and even the challenges you could face.
- Define a target audience
After conducting thorough market research, you would be able to sketch a profile of your average customer in your head. You would be able to determine their needs, expectations, and even their complaints, their age, where they live, their family size, job title, economic status, and many other things. All this would enable you to cater your marketing plans according to your customers, increasing your plan’s effectiveness.
Having a set target audience is key because you would not have to spend time and effort to derive a plan for the section of the population that would not be interested in purchasing your product or service.
- Determine a budget
Before you can decide upon the specific marketing strategies that you want to implement, it is imperative that you acknowledge your financial status and set up a marketing budget. As resources are always limited, you have to ensure that you are spending the right amount of money in all the areas that could help your business grow.
So, you should come up with your marketing budget. There is no standard procedure to do so because it solely depends on how much money your business can set out for marketing and the goals you want to achieve.
- 4 Ps of marketing
Your market research will help you identify your target audience and how you should reach them. There are many strategies you can implement, and one of the most effective ways of doing so is using the 4 Ps of marketing, product, price, promotion, and place.
Product
This strategy focuses on the value you bring to your customers and how different you are from your competition. Some of the things you should consider in this include your product and how does it help? Who needs it, and how will they use it? How are you any different from your competition?
Price
You can determine your price by analyzing how much your customers are willing to pay, the current market condition, your competitors’ prices, etc.
Promotion
Promotion strategies are when you educate your customers about your product, what value it brings to them, or what problems it helps solve.
Place
Place strategies mean distributing your products to your customers according to their convenience.
- Develop a schedule
You should form a clear schedule as to what each person involved in this plan is expected to do and that every step is taking place at the right time by the right people.
- Evaluate
After the formation and implementation of your marketing plan, you must evaluate its progress and take the necessary actions if and when required to ensure that you are not wasting time and money on strategies that are not working for your business.
