The value of having an established marketing plan.

A marketing plan exists to set goals for content and awareness, along with establishing a path to reach them. If you do not have a marketing plan developed SPECIFICALLY for your business or brand you are most likely creating content that will not impact your desired audience. Your marketing plan will help you to determine what content and language to use on your social platforms. In this blog post, we write about what your marketing plan should include and how to align your content to your goals.

Your executive summary.

Your executive summary should include important details from every section in the marketing plan. Writing the executive summary last is going to benefit you by having a comprehensive understanding of what is important to this business. This summary will briefly show your business the driving factors behind decisions.

Your target audience.

Your marketing plan should include who you are trying to reach. This section allows you to get very specific with details about your target, for example maybe you sell a product that makes dorm life more comfortable. You can have a target audience of, “college students ages 18-24, living in dorm settings.” You don’t have to stop there. Get specific. Your marketing plan should help you pinpoint exactly who you are trying to reach and sell your product or service to.

Your pricing and positioning strategy.

In the section, define how you will price your products or services. You will also determine how you will position yourself. Are you trying position your product on price? Quality? Product? Competition? Etc. Understand how you will influence a consumer’s perception of your product and the competitive advantage you bring to the industry.

Your distribution plan.

Here, you will outline how a product or service will be distributed to a consumer. Are they ordering directly from a website, virtually, visiting a brick-and-mortar location, or are your products sold wholesale to other distributors? Determine what you are doing to ensure clients receive your product and the process from start to finish.

Your selling points.

What makes you different? Why should a potential client be working with you and not a competitor? Maybe you have competitive pricing, or a unique way of doing things that has never been seen before. Whatever it is, find the reason a client should choose you over anyone else. Being able to sell yourself is a big part of marketing, knowing how to capitalize on both your strengths and weaknesses will put you in a position to influence your audience.

Your financial analysis.

In this section, you share your financial goals and projections, alongside existing financial data. If you ever pitch your brand or business to a potential investor, they will want to know how/if their investment will pay off. Having this section included in your marketing plan will provide financial transparency and build trust.

Your promotional strategy.

My favorite part! What avenues of marketing and promotion are you using to reach your audience and increase brand awareness? You have many opportunities to connect with your audience and organically grow your platforms. Ad campaigns, social media marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, the list goes on and on… Establish the way your business will communicate with your audience and community. Write out a consistency plan as well to ensure that you are gaining momentum from previous content.

Let’s take a deeper dive into social media marketing.

Today, this is one of the biggest routes brands take in creating effective marketing campaigns. Brands that have a great understanding of their social voice benefit from this type of marketing. That means that they are using a certain language to communicate who they are as a brand, and you should be doing it also!

Understanding your voice.

When you think of social media marketing, it is likely a few platforms come to mind instantly. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more. It is important to note that not every platform will use the same language or produce content the same. TikTok and Instagram are platforms that generally carry a “playful” tone of communication. While on the other hand, Facebook and LinkedIn, are typically used by a different demographic and convey a more professional and to the point message. A detailed marketing plan should include how you will use these platforms to speak to your audience. Evaluate the tones of voice will be most effective for each platform and the demographic that consumes your content. Additionally, short-form video content is becoming more critical to brand success and awareness.

Creating a formal marketing plan does not have to be hard.

Sailboat Marketing offers marketing consultation services and provide you everything you need to establish a marketing plan that is specifically designed for you and your business. You can learn more about our services by visiting www.sailboatmktg.com/services