You’ve put in the time to create a fantastic new product or design a new service that is going to change the industry. Now it’s time to find the right buyers—people who are specifically in need of what you’ve just created. How do you find them?
Creating a strategic marketing plan will help you get your product or service in front of the right eyes. Read on to learn how to design a marketing plan and hook customers for life.
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What is a Marketing Plan?
A marketing plan identifies the target market for your new product or service and outlines how you are going to get said product/service in front of your target audience. Creating a marketing plan includes researching strategies, setting realistic goals, and, delegating responsibilities, and nailing down exactly what you need to do to maximize sales. The right plan will help you enhance customer loyalty, find new patrons, and beat the competition.
New Marketing Plan Checklist
Ready? Let’s get started.
1. Do Some Market Research
You might want to get out your notebooks for this part.
The best marketing strategies are heavily researched. To begin, narrow down your industry and the niche your product or service falls into. Are you in retail, healthcare, automotive, or home services? Which market segment do you supply? Appliances, apparel, HVAC, dental, furniture? Within your segment, what is your specialization? For example, you might be selling a new kind of denture: your industry would be healthcare, your market segment, dental, and your niche, geriatric.
Now, research your customers, competition, target market, and product. This can be a lot, so really take the time and energy to understand:
- Your value proposition—what do you want potential customers to know about your product or service?
- Similar products or services that your competitors are offering—how is your offer different?
- Which channels companies are using to market similar products or services to similar audiences?
2. Determine Your Target Audience
Determining your target audience starts with the following questions.
- Who are you going to sell your new offering to?
- Who are you trying to sell to in the future?
- Who is currently buying your product/service?
Your marketing will only be successful when it’s specifically targeted to the people you’re trying to reach. Really understanding your ideal customer will help your marketing efforts go much further. To create an ideal customer profile, you should understand your ideal customer’s:
→ Pain points. Your customer’s pain point is the problem they’re coming to you to solve. Ask yourself why your current patrons choose to do business with you. What problem do they think you can solve in a way others can’t? Understanding why your customers need you can really help you speak directly to the right people and streamline your marketing.
→ Communication preferences. Your customers are different and prefer different communication channels. In order for your marketing to be successful, it needs to reach them where they are. Perform research to understand whether your ideal customer likes to be reached via text, email, social media, snail mail, online shopping ad, Google ad, etc.
→ Psychographics. Psychographics help you understand why your customer buys, which centers around understanding your customer’s hobbies, beliefs, lifestyle, and values and using these elements to create a narrative.
→ Demographics. With demographics, you attempt to unlock who your customer is on paper including their age, income bracket, general education level, family status, etc.
3. Define KPIs—How Will You Measure Success?
Every successful product marketing strategy has very specific goals, or key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are goals that help you to take stock of where you are in terms of achieving your most strategic objectives and are often used to determine the success of your marketing efforts. As the saying goes, every KPI should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
Examples of SMART KPIs include:
- Improve online ratings by half a star over six months
- Increase indicators such as profit margin, client retention rate, employee satisfaction, etc. by X%
- Get your product or service in front of X number of people
- Selling X number of units, sessions, etc.
You might also measure the conversion rate of your ads for specific campaigns you run to let you know which channels are working for you and which channels you should ditch.
4. Choose Your Channels
Once you have your goals and your materials, it’s time to choose your channels. Think back to when you were getting clear on your ideal customer. Where did that target audience spend most of their time? Which channels will help you reach them most effectively?
Some channels you might consider include social media, email marketing, physical mail, and more. The possibilities are virtually endless and there is no blanket solution that will work for every company.
Of course, in our digital marketing landscape, it’s impossible not to consider the growing benefits of text marketing. SMS marketing is an up-and-coming marketing channel with up to a 98% open rate. In fact, up to 95% of text messages are opened in under three minutes.
- Customers are nearly 2x as likely to prefer messaging to any other communication channel
- 3 out of 4 customers are OK with receiving text messages from brands (after opting in)
- Customers redeem text-delivered coupons 10x more than other types of coupons
SMS marketing is one of the fastest ways to reach your customer base as a whole. With the right platform, you can even send a link to your new product or service that customers can click to view and purchase, or a link to an event promoting your new offering.
Here are some examples:
Hey Makayla! This is Sai from Heroic Fitness! We wanted to let you know that we’re now offering 6-month fitness programs! Text back if you’re interested, and we’ll give you 15% off if you start this week! [LINK]
Lars, it’s Kara from Smart Auto. Great news! Our brand new 2022 models are now on the lot. Take a look or just reply if you want to take one for a drive: [LINK]
As always, when text marketing, it’s important to abide by current rules and regulations. For more information, check out our Ultimate Guide to SMS Marketing.
5. Outline and Assign Responsibilities
To make a successful marketing strategy, everyone on your team needs to be clear on who’s doing what. Take time to divvy out responsibilities, even down to the smaller tasks—if it’s not obvious who’s supposed to do them, they’re not going to get done. Common responsibilities include data tracking, consumer research, competitor research, plan management, marketing campaign design and management, content writing (for campaigns and supplemental content marketing), and general editing.
Put all of these responsibilities into a common, shared medium to increase transparency across the board. You should also be aligned on the breakdown of your marketing budget with your marketing team so you don’t get any surprises later.
A Few Extra Tips for Success
Hungry for more? Here are a few more tips to help you get started:
- Get clear on messaging. Every good marketing campaign has a story—consistent messaging on what the product is going to do for someone specifically. Consider carefully: What unique value are you offering? What is your particular angle, and why is your product better for a particular pain point than any other?
- Keep an eye on the competition. We already touched on this a little, but it bears repeating. Research your competition like no one’s business: What are they doing that is similar to what you’re trying to do? How can you do what they’re doing better? What makes your offer unique from theirs, and how can you capitalize on that difference?
- Track your progress. Setting the plan in motion is one thing, but seeing it through is another. Make sure to track your progress carefully and analyze data for future launches. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments along the way if something isn’t working or could be working better.
Podium helps local businesses market more effectively, reach modern consumers, and grow their businesses. New to the world of digital marketing and ready to learn more? Be sure to check out our Beginner’s Guide to Digital Marketing.
