The Marketing Plan: What’s The Point?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, May 24, 2011
Marketing: defined as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large”. There’s a mouthful! Most of us have some vague idea of what marketing is, but don’t really understand all that it entails. Even then, most of us haven’t even considered the online element to modern marketing. Like all good business practices, it starts with a plan.
The Importance Of Your Marketing Plan
As a business owner,
the marketing plan should be integral to your overall business plan. Without is, your organisation will be going nowhere, fast. Most important in your plan is the strategy: a solid
marketing strategy will be the foundation of your marketing plan- while your plan will contain a list of actions, a marketing plan without the sound strategic foundation will be of little use to you.
Online Marketing Enters The Fold
When we think of marketing, most of us might think of branding and physical campaigns in the world around us, but let’s not forget the now essential form of marketing every business needs to catch on to: marketing in the online world. Online marketing really is the cool younger brother of the physical marketing world: while online marketing hasn’t been around as long, it has proved itself to be effective, cost reducing, productive and ever-evolving. Most experts will tell you that if you aren’t carrying out online marketing in the 21st Century, then you’re not even competing in the game. Online marketing is now standard practice with most organisations, and if you haven’t been in the game, you are losing out.
Plan Marketing Strategically
In most cases,
strategic planning should be an annual process, covering the year just ahead. Larger organsations may even look at a practical plan that could stretch for three or more years longer. A plan should be formalized, generally in written form, as a formal marketing plan. The idea behind this is that it moves from being a bunch of ideas to being a mission- as you have nailed down your goals and what you need to do to achieve them. The strategy will be the framework you will run your marketing campaigns from. It is vital to include online marketing in your planning process.
Marketing is about the science of making an emotional connection with your customer. One that is strong enough to compel them to take action to purchase your product or service and to develop an ongoing relationship with them so they continue to come back again and again. It is a complex process that once mastered, yields significant results.
A marketing plan is the tool to those results. It helps the marketing team build the roadmap to success and with the right approach, winning attitude, and download these tips, you will have a winning formula to a successful marketing plan.
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