ExecutiveChronicles | 7 Components of an Effective Small Business Marketing Plan | Business marketing is vital for the success of any small business. However, studies show that 50% of small businesses do not have a marketing plan. Often, this is because business owners are overwhelmed and have limited budgets, so marketing gets moved to the backburner.
Do you want to learn more about how you can create an effective small business marketing plan to grow your company? Keep reading these seven marketing tips for small businesses to get started!
- Do Your Research
One of the most important marketing materials for small businesses is research. This is the backbone of your marketing plan, as it can help you decide whether your business would be successful or not.
When you are conducting your research, you need to learn more about the current market, consumer buying habits, and other current trends. The research will also provide more structure to your plan and will make your goals more attainable.
- Set Business Goals
Next, you need to set business goals and objectives. Once you have your research and you know how you want to proceed, setting goals will guide the rest of your marketing plan.
Your business goals are the reasons why you are creating your marketing plan in the first place. What will it help your business accomplish? What direction do you want to take your business?
While some of your objectives may change over time, your business goals are a solid foundation of your marketing. You may also want to think about how your marketing plan will help you achieve these business goals.
- Identify a Target Market
Another vital component of your marketing plan is your target market. Your target market is what identifies the people who will be interested in your product or service.
Your target audience also needs to be very detailed and descriptive. For example, you want to know more about the demographics and psychographic of your potential market. Who are they? What are their interests?
Often, your target market can be broken into a few categories or segments. To identify each of your audiences, you should make a list of the ages, genders, and locations of your target market.
Knowing the location of your target market is especially important if you are doing location based marketing.
- Complete a Competitive Analysis
Next, you need to complete a competitive analysis. This is an important part of your marketing strategy, as it helps you learn more about your company’s competitors and what makes you stand out.
For example, learning more about the exact features and price points of a similar product can help you determine the price of your product.
You can also get help identifying your target market by learning more about your competitors. This will help you create a unique business position and stand out from the competition.
- Set a Budget
A vital part of any marketing strategy is the overall budget. As a small business owner, it can be difficult to allocate funds to new projects. However, marketing is a vital part of business growth, so you need to find space in the budget for this plan.
To set a budget for your marketing objectives, you should create a monthly schedule of what you want to spend on marketing.
Your competitive analysis can also give you an idea of what you will spend on your marketing plan. According to the annual Gartner CMO Spend Survey, it shows that the average business spent about 8.3% of their annual budget on their marketing.
- Create a Timeline
While creating objectives and setting a budget are important parts of your marketing plan, it is even more important that you put them on a timeline. You need to decide what steps you want to take each day, week, or even month.
As you are starting, it may be best to create a marketing plan that spans only a few months.
It is also important to consider what goals and objectives are realistically attainable during your timeline. If you have a short time, you should have goals and objectives that can be met during this time.
- Track Your Progress
Finally, you need to track the progress of your marketing campaign. There are several marketing tools that you can utilize to determine whether or not your plan is helping you achieve your goals.
For example, you need to keep accurate metrics of your website to see if you have had more conversions, more traffic to your site, and more. This can be done with Google Analytics.
Using these metrics is also helpful when you are running A/B testing. If you have noticed that a specific project or objective has an increased your sales or conversions, you may want to repeat this program.
An important part of tracking your progress is starting at a baseline. Make sure you keep track of all of your metrics from the beginning of your marketing plan to see how much you have improved.
Get Help With Your Small Business Marketing Plan
Creating a small business marketing plan may seem like an overwhelming task, especially if you don’t have any marketing tools or experience. However, by learning more about the types of marketing and by following each of these tips, you can grow your business and improve your marketing.
If you need help with your marketing plan, a location-based marketing agency can also help.
Do you want to learn more about marketing your small business? We can help! Check out the other articles on our website for more business advice, marketing best practices, and more.
