Planning your marketing and writing a marketing plan
Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Write an effective plan that will underpin and drive your business growth!
Wow, that’s quite a thing!
However, what is it about this particular “thing” that makes many SMEs just think, no, I will leave that and get on with the day job?
This article is all about dispelling some myths and actually showing you that creating a plan that will deliver the goods, doesn’t need to be stressful, time-consuming, a headache or something you put off for years!
An effective marketing plan is not about fancy graphics and clever tag lines – it’s about activity aligned to the commercial purpose that will support you, your team and your business vision.
Having clear thinking about your community, what you offer and how you communicate forms the basis of a plan. You then dive deeper into those areas and it’s essential to understand how, who, why and when in terms of the activity needed
Marketing is the glue that brings the business together and attracts opportunities – from making those decisions on what to promote, the pricing, the tone and right through to delivery and customer service, it’s all marketing!
The most important starting point for any marketing plan is ensuring that, within your business, all those involved actually have the same definition of what marketing really is. If each team member has a different thought, expectation or vision of what marketing is, by default, any next steps will not be as effective. A successful plan has to have buy-in from those involved in any part of its delivery.
Within this section of Yorkshire Powerhouse, we are addressing the issue of writing a marketing plan as part of your ‘whole business plan’ … we will talk about strategic marketing, profiling your customer, defining your message, communicating your message and making your first sale.
However … within the wider Yorkshire Powerhouse website, we also have a much larger advice section dedicated to marketing which will provide more detail on a whole range of marketing-related topics. Within this larger section, we will provide thoughts on traditional marketing techniques vs digital marketing, website strategies, branding and much more.
When writing a marketing plan, share it with every employee, investor and stakeholder – success happens when there is internal engagement, motivation, clarity and a focus.
Yorkshire Powerhouse thoughts on writing a marketing plan
Have you any questions?
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