Goals are an important part of any online marketing plan, both long-term and short-term. It is recommended that they be SMART objectives : specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and defined over time. This will help you better organize yourself so they are easy to reach.
Take a look at some of them, these are the 5 most common , although there are many more:
- Launch a new product . This objective is very common to prepare the launch of a new product or service, at a key moment for any company and you need a good marketing plan to succeed in the market.
- Improve return on investment . Return on investment, also known as ROI, is an essential metric in marketing since it is in charge of measuring whether the investment in advertising is paying off.
- Increase the income of the company . When the company aims to increase economic benefits, designing a marketing plan is essential. Actions can be targeted to reduce costs, increase revenue, or achieve both.
- Introduce the business in new markets . This is an objective similar to the launch of a new product, but it is necessary to take into account the consumption or cultural differences in the markets, local or international, to which you want to access.
- Capture new customers or retain current ones . These are two of the most common goals. To achieve them, it is necessary to determine well the actions and steps to be carried out, as well as the tools and methods. For example, make a social media plan to attract new customers.
How to create a marketing plan step by step
Carrying out a marketing plan is easy if you know what actions you must do to design it. These are the steps to follow to build it.
Know your ideal clients
To design a good digital marketing plan it is essential to know your target audience, this will help you to be clear and well defined who you are addressing. In addition, it will allow you to establish the appropriate actions to connect with them and be able to achieve your goals.
The best tool to know your ideal client is to create a buyer persona for your product or service . This is an ideal client archetype, it is a semi fictitious representation that includes demographic data, their motivations, needs or pain points.
Carry out an analysis of your situation
Many companies start with a SWOT analysis , analyzing weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities.
- Weaknesses . Know the internal aspects of the company that can be a disadvantage against the competition, even those that you want to improve.
- Threats . This part consists of analyzing the external factors that endanger the company in order to identify them and be able to get the plan to take them into account to design actions that can minimize them.
- Strengths . Define those internal aspects that stand out from the competition as a competitive advantage. Analyze your strengths.
- Opportunities . Investigate external factors that can be beneficial to your company.
Competitor analysis
Identify your competitors, understand exactly how they operate and their performance in the SERP or social networks. Spying on the competition is not bad, on the contrary, it brings out your inner detective because he can provide you with information of great value for your online marketing plan.
For example, you can analyze their social media strategy, how they communicate with the target audience, the advertising actions they carry out, the price of their services or even the sales process they carry out.
Plan of action
You know your ideal clients, the internal situation of your company, you have an analysis of your competition and set clear objectives, but what now? It is time to establish the actions that you are going to take to achieve your goals.
To do this, it is advisable to resort to the “4 Ps of marketing” to be able to clearly organize and classify your actions.
- Product strategy . Analyze the product or service of the company at a generic level to know all the changes that occur over time in the product life cycle.
- Price strategy . Here the information obtained from the competition is very useful. It consists of defining the prices of a launch, considering if it is necessary to make changes in the current price, deciding the strategy of promotions and offers. In addition, it is important to take into account campaigns such as Christmas or summer, for example.
- Sales and distribution strategy . Useful to make a change in the customer experience or to improve any weakness detected in the investigation. In addition, it is important to evaluate the state of distribution channels to include new ones, find other suppliers, improve delivery times or even reduce shipping costs.
- Promotion and communication strategy . The actions necessary to publicize your company’s brand, both online and offline, including analyzing the consumption habits of the target audience.
Measure your results
The last but not least step is to measure the results of your marketing plan in real time. On many occasions, this is a step that most companies do not take, however, it is a big mistake since it is essential to know the evolution of the strategy.