Magnified illustration with the words Marketing Plan on white background.
Many business owners and authors are under the impression that if they are not a Fortune 500 company they do not need a marketing plan. This is not the case, and even if you are a small business owner without an in-house marketing team, you can hire a professional to create one for you – so you do not spend hours on an unnecessary task. A marketing plan is key to identifying your market, your competitors and will help you make sound business marketing decisions.
1. A marketing plan defines your business environment. A marketing plan will define your vision, identify your customers, target market, competition and any factors that will prohibit your business from operating efficiently, while identifying strategies to succeed. A marketing plan, while looking into the future, will identify what goals you should prioritize for the biggest ROI. For example, a goal may be to attend more trade shows, but if you factor in the book sales in comparison to a price for a trade show booth, this may not be the best marketing venue for you unless you have another product/service you could offer.
2. A marketing plan will lead to smart decision-making. When you determine factors that will affect your business and audit what resources you currently have, you will have the tools you need to respond to any marketing challenges. Also, a marketing plan will help you determine what product is an ideal fit for your consumers, whether your product is a fit for your current consumers and if you should be focusing on creating a new product for your target market. Other questions your plan will help you with would be determining price point, if you need to outsource certain activities that you do not have the bandwidth for, whether you should invest in an advertising campaign or a public relations campaign, and much more.
3. A marketing plan will integrate both short-term, and long-term planning. One of the greatest features of a marketing plan is that they are not only fluid, but will share both long-term and short-term planning. The strategic plan usually reaches 3-5 years ahead, however a yearly calendar within the plan keeps you on track with your short-term goals. The beauty of this document is that it is fluid, so you can check back often and make changes when necessary. Always review this document when you notice a shift in the market where a decision needs to be made.
There are countless other reasons why a marketing plan is key for success in the upcoming year – please feel free to reach out and ask us other reasons why.
