The new year is in full swing. Have you taken time to prepare your business for revenue grow? A crucial step is defining your goals and objectives for the year so you know what you want to achieve—then comes your marketing strategy.
This post will walk you through the steps needed to create an effective marketing plan for 2019. First, define how much you want to grow. Second, decide what tactics work best. Execute your plan and track your results so that you can make changes along the way.
Establish Your Goals
The first step in defining your objects and goals for the year. Write down the answers to these critical questions:
Do you want to grow or maintain income? Early growth is crucial for start-up companies; however, established businesses might be looking to continue current revenue growth.
If you want to grow, by how much? Set a measurable objective growth target. With a 10 percent growth goal, you will see a slower rate of growth. On the other hand, 25 percent means rapid growth. Faster growth means more funds toward marketing, infrastructure, people, and equipment.
Base your budget on revenue from the previous year. A marketing budget of 10 percent leads to staying steady or growing slowly. For rapid growth, increase the budget to 20 or 25 percent.
Define Your Audience
Your target audience is the people you are willing to spend money to reach. Start by writing down the demographics of your target audience: age, gender, job, education level, marital status, number of kids, etc. Then think more broadly about what type of people they are. Where do they shop? What magazines do they buy? What activities to they or their children enjoy? All of this information informs where and how you target your audience.
Choose Your Tactics
Your tactics will depend on your goals and target audience. Think about the medium and cost of your advertisement. You can print flyers, place ads in newspapers and magazines, or create a social media presence. On social media, consider if you can you reach your audience via organic posts or paid advertisements.
Consider what platforms your target audience uses. Go where they are! For example, millennials get most of their information on social media or other places on the internet. They mainly access the internet through mobile devices. So, place newspaper ads to reach people between the ages of 22 and 37 would be rather ineffective.
Craft Your Message
Messaging supports your goals. Decide on your marketing message and call to action. Be clear and consistent throughout all content—print, website, social media, etc. Inconsistency will confuse your audience. Confused people don’t spend money—they walk away.
Implement Your Strategy
Once you have defined your marketing strategy, it’s time to deploy your strategy!
- Create content and ads based on consistent messaging.
- Distribute content via your chosen platforms.
- Review and improve your tactics.
This last step often gets overlooked. Social media has tools you can use to track the reach of post and ads. Review your marking on a monthly basis to make sure it is beneficial to your business.
We can help plan and execute a custom marketing strategy based on your company’s goals. Schedule a time to talk.
