Marketing Plan Explained – What It Is & How To Create One

if you want to get to a specific place
you will need a map and for the business
world that map is the marketing plan
having a well-developed marketing plan
as part of your advertising strategy is
imperative for every business regardless
of sector or size however there are
still many companies that start
advertising without having a clear
marketing strategy or a concrete plan in
this video we will go through everything
you need to know in order to create an
effective digital marketing plan for
your business let's get started
[Music]
what is a digital marketing plan
a digital marketing plan is a document
that includes the following the current
environment of the brand which refers to
the current market situation including
consumer and competitor analysis the
marketing objectives you want to achieve
which always have to be aligned with the
business goals of the company although
it's common to hear these two words used
interchangeably marketing goals and
marketing objectives are actually two
separate things marketing goals are long
term expansive and often inspired by the
mission and purpose of a company whereas
marketing objectives are more specific
in scope and should be measurable either
using statistics time frames or both the
plan also includes your strategies and
actions you need to know how you're
going to reach your objectives what
channels and campaigns you're going to
use and so on and lastly how you will
measure the result of your actions with
a well-developed digital marketing plan
you and your company will be able to do
the following gain in-depth knowledge of
the market and your target audience
align digital marketing actions with the
overall brand objective use the
resources that are available in an
effective and organized manner and
improve internal communication and
communication with clients
how to create the best marketing plan
for your business
when creating your marketing plan
organization is key there are a series
of steps that every plan should include
and a logical order in which they should
be carried out in in order for the final
result to be coherent and successful
let's go over these steps step number
one analysis and starting point the
first step to creating your plan is to
analyze the current situation your
company is in an effective marketing
plan always starts with research
during this phase you should aim to
answer the following questions what are
the products and services you offer and
what is the unique selling proposition
of the company what have you done so far
in your online marketing and what
results have you obtained
what are people saying about your brand
online how is the website are there
aspects that need to be improved what is
the competition doing how does your
brand compare and what can be learned
from them
to guarantee that you aren't missing
anything you can always use the classic
swot analysis
which includes strengths weaknesses
opportunities and threats besides swot
you can do a deep bio persona analysis
your buyer persona represents your ideal
customer it gives a name and face to
your target market by creating a
semi-fictional representation of it at
minimum it should include age location
education level profession hobbies or
interests goals or objectives all of
these will help you discover who your
buyer is and also find out the most
common challenges they have their needs
and complaints and the marketing and
sales messages that will be used to
reach his buyer step number two
analysis of the competition
the second step is another aspect in the
overall analysis of external factors but
it deserves its own section within the
marketing plan due to the important role
it plays in the future of your business
a competitor analysis consists of
evaluating all aspects of your
competitors marketing strategy how they
promote their products and services the
functionalities of their website their
social media presence search engine
positioning etc by identifying their
strengths and weaknesses you can detect
opportunities and threats to your own
brand to do this there are many
different tools that can help you with
the analysis in the description we will
leave a link to a post on our blog where
we give you 25 examples of competitive
analysis tools so after making the
analysis and assessing who your main
competitors are you'll need to answer
the following questions what is their
budget and their business volume what
are the prices of their products or
services what is their sales process and
how do they get their clients
step number three objectives
the objectives are what you will use to
measure the success of the digital
marketing strategy and is one of the
most important steps within a marketing
plan when setting your objectives use a
smart acronym this stands for specific
measurable achievable realistic and
timely
let's see what each one means exactly
specific your objectives must be
detailed concrete and answer the basic
questions of what who where when how and
why measurable if you cannot
definitively measure an objective it
will be impossible to know if you have
reached it therefore you should think
about what kpis you will use and how you
will define success achievable
goals that are too easy or too ambitious
don't help you move forward so try to
set some ambitious but achievable goals
to your strategy realistic
take into account your previous
resources and achievements and check if
they are feasible timely
every objective needs a time frame to
make sense so don't forget to define
your deadlines step number four
action plan and marketing strategies
with all this work done you have arrived
at the heart of the marketing plan what
are the actions that will lead you to
achieve your goals let's define some
marketing strategies which should always
go from broad to specific
in the end the steps to follow and the
order in which they will be carried out
need to be extremely clear to organize
and classify these strategies it's very
common to use the famous four piece of
marketing which are products whether
it's a product or service this is the
first point that must be addressed and
drilled down
what problems does your product solve
how does your services make their lives
easier better it's all about the
benefits you can provide it's also
important to create a point of
differentiation that sets you apart from
your competitors
this could be packaging branding or
creating a sense of perceived value
price
finding your ideal price point is a
challenge on itself you should try to
maximize the final selling price while
still balancing your customers
willingness to pay to find this it's
very useful to analyze the information
that you have about the competition you
need to define the launch prices of new
products consider whether you should
make changes to those already on the
market and perhaps most importantly
decide the strategy around discounts
promotions and offers place this step is
about defining your sales and
distribution strategy how you get your
product or service in front of your
potential customers
making it as easy as possible for your
potential customers to access your
product is essential so if you have
detected any weaknesses in the customer
experience or simply want to optimize it
you can make changes in this area and
finally we have promotion and
communication
here all the actions that come into play
to make your brand known through both
online and offline media which includes
all interactions between consumers and
your brand this also includes creating
activities and strategies aimed at
placing your product in the right place
at the right time and in front of the
right audience
you should also focus on building a
relationship with them by keeping a
bi-directional communication through the
favorite channels of your audience step
number five
real-time review of the plan
last but not least you have to keep in
mind that your marketing plan is not a
one-time thing
you must constantly modify it so that it
always responds to the changing needs of
your company when you have your
objectives and strategies turn them into
key metrics or kpis
for each key metric set a monthly weekly
or even daily goal and establish what
controls you will use to make sure you
are on the right track once you have
considered and analyzed all these steps
you are ready to begin creating your own
marketing plan click on the video in the
screen right now if you want to see 10
examples of marketing objectives to use
in your strategy or click on the other
one if you want to learn what is the
marketing mix and the four ps of
marketing we hope this video helped if
it did give us a like or leave a comment
and you can subscribe to our channel to
learn more marketing strategies see you
next time