You might think it’s one of those things that’s too fluffy for business, but behind every successful business owner, there’s a concrete marketing plan. Essentially, your marketing plan articulates your target market, plans your proposition to that audience and outlines how you’ll communicate to them – in order to grow your practice. At JBS we formalise our marketing plan to set out our direction and track our progress, which we regularly review every quarter as well.
But a great marketing plan isn’t just about sales. There are a number of other aspects it should cover off, including:
• Your brand identity
• Your objectives
• Your budget
• Specific initiatives intended for the year; and
• What communication activities you’re planning, for example, your website, blog, advertising, social media and video, PR/media, sponsorship, events, networking, email marketing and newsletters, collateral (brochures) and lead sources.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the elements of the JBS marketing plan. We start off by looking at our objectives – both internal and external – and provide a summary of the industry. We then look at who our competitors are, along with industry research.
Next, we look at the demographics and psychographics of our target markets, which is fundamental in establishing how to direct our marketing. We do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), and have a look at factors that influence the business – both internal and external.
We then create our strategic response, by covering off the areas of marketing – including retention, acquisition, client experience events, activities, objectives, audience, scope stakeholders and timing. We include all of our upcoming activities here, which will cover off online marketing activities, involvement with the community and industry events we have the opportunity to speak at. All of these are entered into a timetable.
At the end of the day, spend the time to create a strong plan. It means more time you’ll have to dedicate to your business, instead of simply tackling it with an ad hoc approach when you have half a minute. To sum up, here are some tips we find work really well for us:
• Ensure you have a clear vision of your target market
• Have key measurables so you know where you are and where you need to be by specific dates
• Map out your next 12 months and decide when you are going to implement each activity. For example, when you want to run seminars, invest in social media or create new videos etc; and of course
• Test and measure, test and measure, test and measure along the way!
