Certain parts of marketing can seem sexy or exciting to outsiders. Look at the glitzy launch events or the Superbowl advertisement that goes viral online.
CBS sold 30-second TV commercial spots during the 2019 Superbowl for around $5 million. Those ads need to make their money back.
Other parts of marketing are far less exciting. Take marketing plans, for example.
A marketing plan is a guide created to guide the marketing efforts of a business. They work whether your business is a team of one or a huge corporation. To outsiders, marketing plans can be baffling.
Are you unsure about the purpose of a marketing plan? Read on to learn more.
Plan How to Meet Your Business Goals
As Inner Spark Creative put it, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” So the marketing plan is the way for a business to meet their goals.
For example, say you want to grow your business by growing your customer base. Your objectives will be things like:
- increasing customer awareness
- growing your email list and increasing conversions
- retaining the customers you already have
Having these goals in place gives your marketing something to do. Each of your marketing activities needs to move your business closer to meeting these goals.
If the marketing tactic won’t make a difference? Don’t spend time or money on it. That leads us nicely onto…
A Plan Can Guide Your Budget
Marketing teams have to convince their managers to part with resources. Once managers see a return on their investment, they’ll spend more on a marketing budget.
Getting that budget established in the first place can be hard. With a strong marketing plan, it’s easier to show managers how the budget will be used.
By starting with the business goals, managers can see how each marketing activity moves the financial needle.
You should also be able to predict the return each activity should make. This makes your budgeting case stronger. It also means you need to understand how marketing works in your industry to make sure you use the right tactics for the right goals.
Manage Delegation and Accountability
Another main purpose of a marketing plan is to decide who is responsible for what. Once you’ve outlined the goals and created activities to meet those goals? You need to have people to manage the activities.
Within the plan, you can delegate tasks to particular individuals based on their experience or expertise. This means they’re accountable for their work and how it performs.
It also means that if staff are sick or away, another member of staff can pick up their tasks and continue the work.
Even businesses of one can use this function. Delegate tasks to an agency or a squad of freelancers to get your marketing on track.
That’s the Purpose of a Marketing Plan
Now you know the purpose of a marketing plan to boost your business’s success. At their heart, they’re a tool to guide your marketing activities to meet (or exceed) business goals.
They help employees know what they need to work on and when. Plans also give you a series of things to measure to check your marketing is having the right impact.
The question is, do you have a marketing plan yet?
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