How to Write a Marketing Plan | DohertyWhite

How to Write a Marketing Plan Michael White Version 1, 2012

ContentsContents 1 What is Marketing? 2 Plan 3 Execute 4 Review 2

First – What is Marketing? Make something people want, then sell it to them • Marketing is not just advertising, or PR, or attending trade shows • First, it’s about understanding your customers and clarifying the value you can deliver to them • Second, it is about using the most effective tools to connect with your target customers and persuade them to buy your product or service ? Me “How do I deliver value to them?” “How do I reach them?” My potential customers

Include 3 Phases in your Marketing Plan 1 2 3 Planning Execution Review  Objectives  Time-boxed  Actual vs. Planned  “Who” - Target buyers  Targeted  Objectives delivered  “What” - Value  Monitoring  Input to next period Proposition  Integration  “Who else” -Competitors  Repetition  Route to market  “How” - Select activities 4

1. Planning1.1 Set Objectives and Budget • You need to be clear about what want you want to achieve and in what timeframe • First, understand your current capacity – what marketing activities (email, online ads, PR...) can you carry out today, what is your budget, what staff can work on this? What kind of results are you currently achieving? This is called baselining • Next, choose clear, unambiguous and measurable objectives • Do you want to generate sales leads? Raise awareness of your company or product within a particular market? Acquire new partners or resellers? • Specify results (outputs) rather than activities (inputs) • Make the objectives realistic and achievable – based on an understanding of your current capacity rather than wishful thinking or bravado • For example, if you want to generate 50% more sales leads from your marketing activities you need to understand what effort and cost is required to achieve that goal • If you don’t have the budget and resources to meet the objectives then you will have to (a) increase your resources or (b) adjust your objectives • Set annual and quarterly objectives • Agree what metrics you will monitor to check on your progress against each objective • Hold yourself accountable for the objectives you set • OUTPUT: A set of clearly defined, achievable objectives 5

1. Planning1.2 “Who” – who are your target buyers • You have a finite marketing budget – time and money • The farther you spread it the thinner it gets – if you don’t focus your marketing on specific targets then it will have less impact • In this step, you define who you will target with your product or service  Where are they (countries, languages)  What industry sectors?  What types of organisation? Size, location ... TIP:  Any specific target companies? Use “Buyer Personas” as a way to  What are their typical roles or titles? analyze your target buyers. These are  What are their key concerns/drivers/goals? summary descriptions of your most common target buyers based on  Where do they hang out online? interviews (phone or in-person) with a  What sources of information do they use? sample of customers and prospects.  And don’t forget to market to your existing customers • OUTPUT: A clear definition of your target market sectors and the buyers within those sectors 6

1. Planning1.3 “What” – your Value Proposition • What value does your product or service provide to customers? • You should be able to communicate this in a couple of sentences. • If you target different sectors you may need a different value proposition for each sector • You can develop the value proposition by answering these questions • What are you really good at? • Why should a customer buy from you? • What value does your product or service deliver? • How will a customer benefit? • How long does it take? • What can you do better than your competitors? • Can you quantify the benefits you deliver? • Can you provide examples e.g. previous customers • What about the obvious alternative (do nothing, manual or workaround) • Is your value proposition sustainable (will it be true next year? In 3 years?) • OUTPUT: A clear statement of the value you deliver 7

1. Planning1.4 “Who else” – your competitors • Understand your 4 or 5 top competitors • Learn from competitors’ marketing campaigns • Position yourself in the mind of prospective customers by comparing yourself to the leading competitors • Think about who to compare yourself with • Are you in a well-defined product or service category? • Who you think you compete with and who your buyers think you compete with may be different so check this out - talk to buyers to understand who they view as alternatives • Pick 4 or 5 of the competitors, get as much information as you can about them and ‘position’ yourself against them e.g. • “We’re like X except our product is easier to use and produces 20% greater cost reductions” • Don’t position yourself against competitors your target buyers won’t recognise • Don’t “rig” the competition by positioning only against obviously inferior competitors • Don’t ridicule or badmouth your competition – it looks unprofessional and doesn’t convince prospective customers • OUTPUT: Competitor positioning 8

1. Planning1.5 Route-to-market • Your route-to-market is a description of the path you choose to promote and sell your product to your end customers • You can picture your ‘route-to-market’ as a diagram with you on the left and your potential customers on the right • In this step you evaluate the most effective route for your business – this could be direct sales by a sales team, online sales, a reseller partner, a retailer or some other route • Select the best route based on effectiveness, cost and potential for growth • OUTPUT: Preferred route-to-market Reseller / partner Online sales Your Company Direct sales team Other route Target Customers 9

1. Planning1.6 “How” – Select promotional activities • At this stage you know what you are selling, who you are selling to and who you are competing against. • Now select the promotional tools for your marketing campaigns • These can include but are not limited to: 1. Your website 2. Online pay-per-click (PPC) advertising 3. PR 4. Email marketing 5. Social media marketing 6. Seminars 7. Online display and banner advertising 8. Search engine optimization 9. Direct mail 10. Press advertising 11. Tradeshows • We recommend focusing on digital marketing (your website, PPC, email, social media etc.) because people now start most purchase processes with an online search 10

1. Planning1.6 “How” – Select promotional activities Website • Revise your website to ensure it appeals to the customers you are trying to target (“Who”) and clearly articulates your value proposition (“What”) • Have prominent “calls to action” to encourage visitor registrations or sales Online Pay-per-click ads • Pay-per-click (PPC) ads can drive traffic and online awareness in a short timeframe • Test some PPC ads and bring any traffic to specifically designed ‘landing pages’ on your site PR • Keep up a regular stream of news releases – new contracts, new customers, new products • Target the media your customers read – “fish where the fish are” Email marketing • Use email to interact with visitors who register on your site, establishing a regular rhythm of communication • Deliver value and useful information with every email – special offers, downloads, white papers, industry analysis • Stay in touch with your existing customers with an email newsletter 11

1. Planning1.6 “How” – Select promotional activities Social Media Marketing • Use a blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube to promote your business • Generate content that is valuable and interesting to your target buyers • Use social networks to share the content and bring people back to your website to learn more Seminars • Invite-only business breakfasts and lunchtime seminars are really effective • Success depends on topic, speaker and venue, a good invite list and good organisation Online display advertising • Test display ads on websites and properties where your target audiences visit • Have a compelling offer and clear call to action • Bring any resulting traffic to specific areas on your site Search Engine Optimization (SEO) • SEO helps ensure you come top of the search results for your chosen terms and phrases • SEO should be a key element of your marketing plan • Decide if you can DIY or if you need professional help then allocate resources to SEO 12

1. Planning1.6 “How” – Select promotional activities Direct mail • Experiment with Direct Mail in combination with online marketing • E.g. a hardcopy invite sent out in parallel to an email invite for a seminar or event Press advertising • In our opinion it is less targeted, less measurable and less effective than online promotion • However, it can be worth testing for particular businesses and products • Consider testing ads in very focused press e.g. an industry trade magazine • Include a clear call to action in all your press ads e.g. “Contact us now for X% discount” Tradeshows • Tradeshow effectiveness varies a lot depending on the industry, product category and particular tradeshow • Can also be expensive – before committing try to compare cost/benefit with your other marketing activities • Choose your shows carefully then work hard to produce results, using your website and email to promote your presence and following up with leads within 24 hours of the show 13

1 2 3 Planning Execution Review 14

2. Execution • Time-boxed – break your overall annual plan into quarters; execute quarter by quarter and adjust your plan as required • Integration – don’t execute an activity in isolation – integrate your promotional actions to create ‘multi-touch’ campaigns so your target audiences are more likely to become aware of you from multiple sources; for example coordinate email campaigns in parallel with social media, pay-per-click ads and PR • Consistency and repetition – it’s a marathon not a sprint, so ensure you have regular waves of promotional actitivities targeting your audiences • Targeting – keep your marketing activities focused on your target customers; reduce/avoid generalised “brand building” if you can’t accurately measure the results 15

2. Execution • Schedule – plot out your activities each quarter on a timeline or Gantt chart so you can easily track progress and upcoming deadlines Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk 9 Wk10 Wk11 Wk 12 1 Activity 1 2 Activity 2 3 Activity 3 4 Activity 4 5 Activity 5 6 Activity 6 7 Activity 7 8 Activity 8 9 Activity 9 10 Activity 10 16

1 2 3 Planning Execution Review 17

3. Review Monitoring and reporting • Hold yourself accountable for your objectives – track your progress • Have weekly, monthly and quarterly checkpoints where you assess progress against your objectives – what is working, what isn’t working; what you should do more of, what you should reduce Measuring • Pick your key objectives and identify some simple measurements to track your progress • Examples include web traffic, number of leads generated, lead sources, click-through- rates, email response rates, ranking for selected keywords • Automate the tracking of metrics • Use tools like Google analytics to graphically monitor progress Input into next planning period • What conclusions can you draw from the period just completed? • How does this affect the objectives you pick for the new period? 18

Email michael.white@dohertywhite.com DohertyWhite helps business-to-businessMobile +353 86 383 8981 (B2B) technology companies generate leadsPhone +353 1 969 5029 online and convert those leads to sales. We +353 7493 81986 provide marketing automation, websiteTwitter @michaelgwhite design, digital marketing and PR services.www.dohertywhite.comwww.dohertywhite.com/blogs

How to Write a Marketing Plan | DohertyWhite

by DohertyWhite on Jan 31, 2012

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How to Write a Marketing Plan | DohertyWhite — Presentation Transcript