How good is your marketing plan?

When I was at Action Coach HQ last November I was interviewed about the importance of a marketing plan by Brad Sugars – you can find the video here –

The Business Coach – small budget but great marketing results …

In this episode of The Business Coach, I talk with UK-based coach Roger Pemberton about the importance of a marketing plan. Lots of good bits here. Check it out!

Posted by Bradley J Sugars on Wednesday, 30 January 2019

There used to be a saying that 80% of marketing doesn’t work but no-one knows which bits do. I believe there are two key things to be in place to improve the odds and to enable you to know. These are –

  • – a marketing plan
  • – Test and measure

I will focus on the marketing plan part for this article. A marketing plan has only one function, to enable you to bridge the revenue and profit gap between where your business is heading without the plan and where you want it to be.

Consequently, the pre-cursor to a great marketing plan is a great business plan. Once you know what profit or revenue you are looking to generate then you can decide how much money you will allocate to your marketing budget.

This frames the five key questions that comprise all marketing plans –

  • Who are the target sectors I want to attract? These will often be either your existing A & B grade customers to get them to spend more with you or more customers who fit their profile. Remember, to run a manageable plan you should run a series of campaigns instead of one large marketing blast and set relevant sector parameters for each campaign. This way, you can plan over the next few months who you will be marketing to when.
  • Where will you find each target group? is the next question. This can be by running campaigns in different geographies or maybe that you look for the “pond” with the greatest concentration of the right type of target “fish” and then do your marketing there. This may be places where the target shop, relax, network etc. The WHO and the WHERE are the target parts of the marketing plan.
  • What is it you are going to sell to this group? It is important that you are clear what service or product it is that you want to talk to each target group about and it should be something that will want and need.
  • Why will they buy it is the second question you use to refine your OFFER. This is really important as it is where you differentiate yourself from your competition. Finding the gap between what your target group want and what the competition offer is the key to successful marketing. As I mention in the video this should be thought of as Unique Perceived Benefits – what are the benefits through the buyers eyes of your offer?
  • The final question to ask is How? How will you convey this message and what communication strategy will you use?

Once you have answered these questions you can set a time-line for each campaign and run them. The next key questions are- how much will each campaign cost and how many leads and customers am I seeking to create and how much will they cost, both at initial purchase and as lifetime value?

If the numbers look appropriate when compared to your business plan then you are good to go and execute the plan.

I will explain next month how to track your results through test and measure to ensure you keep refining the plan and improving your return on investment of your marketing budget.

If you would like to speak to me about your marketing plan please contact me on rogerpemberton@actioncoach.com or on 07511 969690.

Thanks for reading.