Many small business owners set out with the intention of “if you build it, they will come.”
But what happens if the people don’t come right away? Or they came, but now you need to draw in more customers?
This is where marketing comes into play for businesses. While many start-up businesses will do the typical tasks, such as starting social media pages, creating a logo and branding guide, and printing business cards and/or flyers, there may be a point in time when you need to focus on your goals and marketing strategies.
That’s when you should consider drawing up a marketing plan. Like a business plan, a marketing plan will provide direction for your marketing efforts and aid in making critical decisions. And like a business plan, it should change as your marketing needs change and your company grows.
What’s in a marketing plan? Let’s look at the components:
1. Business Mission, Values, and Purpose: Many businesses will incorporate these themes into their marketing to connect with certain audiences. These will also help to drive your messaging. Ensure they are clear and concise.
2. Goals and Objectives: Setting goals and clear objectives will help steer you in the right direction. Make sure they are attainable, too. While all businesses would love to double (or triple) their growth within a year, ask yourself if you’re willing to invest the time and money to do that.
Ensure your objectives are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
For Example, let’s say your goal is to increase your email contact list.
- Specific objectives: You plan to actively ask people to sign up for the list during in-person interactions, add a sign-up form to your website, and have people opt in when they check out.
- Measure: You will keep track of new sign-ups month over month and how they came in.
- Achievable/Realistic: If your list is at 250 contacts, a 10 percent growth would add another 25 contacts. Is that possible for you? Does your email list grow consistently throughout the year or are there times where it increases at a faster rate?
- Time-Bound: You’ll set a time limit of six months and check your progress. At that time, you’ll learn from your tracking what method was the most successful. Hopefully, you will have reached your goal, and you have a much better understanding of what method worked for you.
3. Competition Research/Company Analysis: This process identifies your main competitors, understands their strategies, and evaluates your business and your specific strengths and weaknesses.
Everyone has a competitor, whether it’s bigger companies that do similar work to you or another Italian restaurant across town. But critically looking at what these businesses are doing will help you understand how your business could be affected positively and negatively.
Maybe that restaurant across town isn’t on Instagram and you have an Instagram-savvy staff person. Can you use your staff member to help you create an Instagram account to post your daily specials?
Conduct a SWOT analysis of your business and marketing, too. This evaluates your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This is a time to be honest about your business, what sets you apart, what opportunities you have, and what could realistically threaten your business and marketing. If you have a team, this would be a great time to get their input, too.
4. Action Plan: Break down your goals and objectives into the steps you plan to take to actually do the work. It’s great to have a plan, but you also have to do the work to achieve the outcomes you want to see. Write out which channels you’re planning to use (social media, email newsletter, direct mail, SWAG, etc.), how much it’ll cost, and how you’ll track and measure your goals. Decide what you have time for and when you plan to execute the plan.
5. Budget: Create a budget for how you’re going to achieve your goals. This can include paying for the email newsletter platform, printing costs, giveaway costs, etc. Remember to factor in your time as well. While you may see it as “free,” your time still holds value.
6. Tracking and Evaluating: Track everything you do, how you do it, the costs, and the outcomes. You’ll be better able to see your return on investment this way and you’ll be able to decide if you want to continue certain tasks in the future or not.
Writing and sticking to your marketing plan will help you keep track of your goals, and you’ll see growth within your business.
If you need help starting or writing a marketing plan, reach out to Rising Tide’s marketing coordinator at RTCLF-Marketing@caclv.org.
