Marketing can sometimes feel like an unending tunnel. Given the wide range of marketing channels and types of marketing campaigns at your disposal, it’s easy to feel clueless as to where to begin.
That’s where a marketing plan can come really handy. When you have a plan in place, your marketing activity becomes a breeze. Here are five reasons that justify investing your time and efforts in creating a marketing plan.
1. A MARKETING STRATEGY IS KEY FOR BUSINESS GROWTH
A marketing plan is all about strategising. It forces you to look forward to where you want to be and the types of clients you want to target.
Even the biggest of ideas fail in the absence of a plan. Your marketing plan will help you to drive innovation, meet your targets, improve profitability and more.
The process of planning will help you to consider the variety of aspects that can affect your business success. A plan helps you to consider the effects of your marketing efforts on the sales as well as your brand.
You will be able to identify your competition and what your audience thinks about them. With a solid plan in place, you can position your products/services as unique/better than the competition.
A plan helps you to set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, highly relevant and time-bound.
2. CONSISTENCY IN MESSAGING
Consistency is critical when it comes to your messaging and branding. This is only possible with proper planning.
The process of creating a marketing plan will help you to unearth your priorities pretty quickly. You can build marketing campaigns that help you focus on these priorities.
When your brand messaging and marketing material are consistent, your audience will be able to relate with them much more easily. A good marketing plan will feature a consistent message that aligns with your branding, is highly focused and would connect better with your audience.
3. COST EFFECTIVENESS
With a marketing strategy in place, you can get the most out of every penny.
With a marketing plan, you can track the allocation of your funds. When you don’t have a plan, you can’t really have a budget to start with. And you can’t measure what you are not tracking. When you can’t measure, you won’t know its effectiveness and efficiency.
Budgeting plays a crucial role in every aspect of your budget. You don’t want to end up with a surprise bill you didn’t expect or realising that you have exceeded your marketing budget.
When your budget is influenced by your marketing strategy, you will be able to maximise your budget and maximise your ROI.
4. STRENGTHENED MESSAGING
Brand building is an important part of growing a business. A marketing plan helps you to create a strong brand messaging that conveys to your target customers why they should choose to buy your products/services rather than the competition.
You could start by asking questions like:
- What do your prospective customers need?
- What are your competitors doing to meet the needs of your prospective customers?
- What can you do to ensure your target audience understands why your products/services are unique from /better than your competitors?
- What channels could I use to reach out to my target customers?
By answering these questions as part of your marketing plan, you will be able to create a strong message that reaches out to your customers clearly and makes the right impact.
5. DRIP, DRIP, DRIP
Drip marketing is all about scheduling your marketing message via different marketing channels such as email, blogging and PPC. You don’t have to cram it all in. Rather, you can schedule your marketing message when you can find the time. The most important aspect is to be consistent and professional.
A marketing plan helps you to schedule a drip marketing campaign per your convenience. When you know what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve, all that’s left is taking action. There again, your marketing plan gives you the luxury to put out your marketing campaigns per your choice.
IN CONCLUSION
With a marketing strategy in place, you can achieve a lot more without spending too much of your time. A marketing plan can help take your business where you want to take it. Need help coming up with a solid marketing strategy for your business? Our marketing specialists will work with you to build a plan that will steer you towards your goal. Learn more about us here.
