The Marketing Plan works as a guide to achieve your objectives and contribute to the growth of your company.
But it can't just be a document forgotten in a drawer - it must be put into practice in your team's day-to-day work.
That's why, in this post, we'll show you how to build an efficient plan!
Whether you have a business in its early stages and want to find out how to grow, you are a manager and don't yet know how Marketing generates results or you are part of a team and are not clear about your purpose in the organisation, the solution can be the same: create a good Marketing Plan.
This document is the guide that drives Marketing towards the results you want. Based on data and analysis, the Marketing Plan is where you document the common goals of the team and the path to achieve them.
The Marketing Plan is like a map defining the destination of the journey and the best route to get there!
However, like any plan, it only makes sense if you take the ideas off paper and execute them, i.e.
it only works if you put it into practice to attract more customers, generate more sales and grow the company.
In this article, we'll talk about how to create a Marketing Plan, from idealisation to implementation, to bring effective results to your business and not just get stuck in the world of ideas.
Today you will learn:
What is a Marketing Plan?
Why make a Marketing Plan?
How to Develop a Marketing Plan?
What type of Marketing Plan to choose?
What are the stages of a Marketing Plan?
What are the best marketing strategies for your plan?
Putting the Marketing Plan into practice.
What is a Marketing Plan?
The Marketing Plan is the document that summarises the planning of Marketing strategies for a given period, including objectives, indicators, and analysis, among other important information to guide the company.
The plan can be designed for the Marketing area as a whole, but it can also be applied to specific campaigns -Buen Fin, for example-, strategies -Content Marketing or Relationship Marketing- and products or services offered by the brand.
The plan is an important marketing management tool. This document is the one that guides the strategies and actions of the area so that it efficiently meets its objectives and contributes to the growth of the company.
As a marketing management tool, the plan is also linked to business management.
It is part of the company's tactical planning, which connects strategic planning - broader, long-term - with the operational definitions of each area - more specific, short-term.
But there are no rules about the timing, content and depth of the Marketing Plan.
The most important thing is that this document is adjusted to the reality of each company to achieve the marketing objectives and does not remain forgotten in a drawer.
Why make a Marketing Plan?
Many companies start their business without fully understanding the importance of marketing.
But as soon as they start their operations, they realise that it is necessary to promote products, attract customers and create a relationship with them.
Then, they start acting reactively:
- they create a Facebook page;
- print some brochures;
- they make business cards.
Ok, these are important steps to activate Marketing, but did you notice that there is no strategy behind these actions?
Another very common situation is when there is a Marketing Plan, but only in the head of the manager.
The rest of the team simply executes, without knowing where the company wants to go or understanding what they are doing.
In both cases, the chances of not having effective results are high.
This is where the importance of the Marketing Plan comes in, which defines a common path for Marketing to achieve relevant results in a defined period.
Instead of loose ideas, Marketing starts to provide a clear direction on the objectives to be pursued, the indicators to be monitored and the strategies to be developed.
In this way, it can collaborate with the broader objectives of the company's strategic planning.
But the Marketing Plan is not just for CEOs, marketing directors or managers.
The document should be a guide for the whole team, who will understand their responsibilities and how their work can help marketing and the company to pursue its objectives.
Based on this organisation of strategies and team alignment, the Marketing Plan also serves other functions:
- support decision making based on data, research and analysis;
- optimising marketing investments to avoid waste and maximise return;
- improving internal communication, employee motivation and team integration;
- map the landscape, identify the best opportunities and anticipate threats;
- generate short, medium and long term results that make strategies more sustainable.
Therefore, keep in mind that the Marketing Plan is much more than a document: it is a powerful tool to improve marketing management.
How to Develop a Marketing Plan?
Have you ever heard some of these phrases from a company manager?
- "I've come too far without a plan!
- "I need to survive today, I don't have time to plan".
- "I want to be open to what may come up in the future".
These are typical phrases of those who do not understand the value of planning.
And they also show why so many businesses get lost along the way.
The first step in developing a Marketing Plan is to understand its relevance to the business and to devote effort to making it happen.
In doing so, the plan is likely to face some resistance, as shown in the sentences above:
- the lack of a planning culture;
- the excuse of lack of time;
- lack of understanding of how it works.
Spending time on the Marketing Plan can give the feeling that time is being wasted and 'more important things are being left undone.
But it is precisely the creation of the plan that will improve management, ensure that all activities are aligned and bring more results to Marketing.
Therefore, it is not a waste of time, it is an optimisation that will have a big impact in the future.
If managers and staff understand the importance of the Marketing Plan and are determined to implement it, they must also understand that the plan is not just a document.
It is the result of a planning process, which involves research, analysis, reflections and definitions.
Therefore, there is no Marketing Plan without market research.
It is the analysis of the company itself and its environmental scenario that supports the decisions to be more precise. Otherwise, strategies may fail when they reach the market.
Knowing the business reality is also important to align the Marketing Plan with the company's strategic planning, especially the mission, vision, values and long-term objectives.
This is essential to develop an effective plan that really serves the business.
In this planning process, it is also important to involve employees.
They are the ones who live day-to-day and know the reality of their roles.
But their importance is not only in the information they provide but also in the motivation they get from participating in this construction.
In addition to involving the marketing team, it is also necessary to integrate other areas.
Integration with the sales team, for example, is essential to create strategies that result in sales and revenue.
The finance and purchasing teams also help with resource and budget decisions and the HR sector in delegating tasks.
However, keep in mind that Marketing is not an island, and the Marketing Plan becomes more complete and efficient when everyone involved participates.
What kind of Marketing Plan to choose?
Now, let's start detailing how to build your company's Marketing Plan.
First, let's look at what types of plans you can develop:
Tiered Marketing Plan
Marketing planning can be divided into different levels of management to be more efficient, as is the case with general company planning.
They can be divided into strategic, tactical and operational planning, which are documented, respectively, as follows:
- Strategic Marketing Plan.
- Tactical Marketing Plan.
- Operational Marketing Plan.
The Tactical Marketing Plan then details the actions defined in the strategic planning.
If Content Marketing was defined as one of the strategic pillars, for example, the tactical plan will detail this strategy, with medium-term objectives, channels, and budgets, among other definitions.
Finally, the Operational Marketing Plan contains the day-to-day definitions of each strategy and details the short-term objectives, tasks, responsible persons, timelines and other more specific definitions of the action plans.
Therefore, keep in mind that the plans at the different levels are linked together so that the broader objectives of the strategic marketing planning are achieved.
Otherwise, the plan becomes tactically and operationally diluted and ineffective.
Marketing plan by strategy
Marketing plans detailing strategies are at the tactical level.
They are more objective, as they focus on a set of specific actions, but they cannot be separated from the strategic plan, which should guide your decisions.
Here are some examples:
- Digital Marketing Plan.
- Content Marketing Plan.
- Social Media Marketing Plan.
- Relationship Marketing Plan.
- Product Marketing Plan.
- Social Marketing Plan.
- Internal Marketing Plan (end marketing).
This type of plan can be used in larger companies, which have dedicated sub-areas and teams in the Marketing sector for each strategy.
But it is also adopted when a certain strategy is fundamental to the marketing and growth of the company at that time.
If the Strategic Marketing Plan defined, for example, that the company needs a loyalty strategy to improve its performance, it may be necessary to develop a tactical plan specifically for it.
Campaign Marketing Plan
Marketing plans that focus on specific campaigns are usually at an operational level.
They work in the short term and must be very objective in their actions.
Look at some examples:
- Mother's Day Marketing Plan.
- Buen Fin Marketing Plan.
- Product Launch Marketing Plan.
- Event Marketing Plan.
Once again, the definitions provided by these plans should not be disconnected from the strategic and tactical plans.
If the company's main objective is to increase sales by 30% that year, the Buen Fin campaign should contribute to that objective.
What are the stages of the Marketing Plan?
Now, let's unravel the structure and steps to create a more comprehensive and complete Strategic Marketing Plan that can be adapted to other types of plans.
So, let's see what are the steps to prepare the Marketing Plan!
1. Diagnosis of the company
The construction of the plan starts by looking inwards. It attempts to summarise the current situation of the company, looking at the business structure, the number of employees, turnover, turnover history, resources, current positioning and management objectives.
In addition to describing the business, it is also important to do a more in-depth analysis of the company's strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats in the environment that may influence its performance.
The SWOT analysis framework is the most appropriate tool for this step.
The company's own analyses ensure that the plan is appropriate to the business reality and fits its budget, and aligns it with strategic planning decisions so that it meets business management objectives.
2. Business environment analysis
In the second step, it is time to look outward. The business environment analysis should collect data from the macro and microenvironment to investigate factors that may affect the performance of the company during the period of the Marketing Plan implementation.
In the macro-environment, the analysis should look at the main changes and trends - in the region, the country and the world - that have a bearing on the business in the following environments:
- demographic;
- economic;
- environmental;
- technological;
- political-legal;
- socio-cultural.
In the micro-environment, the analysis focuses on the company's operating sector and the main actors involved.
In this case, Porter's 5 Forces framework helps to think about the main factors driving the micro-environment:
- the rivalry between competitors;
- the bargaining power of suppliers;
- bargaining power of customers;
- the threat of new competitors;
- the threat of new products or services.
All these factors can be combined to build scenarios (optimistic, neutral or pessimistic) for the future and design strategies that strengthen the company in each one.
Thus, the Marketing Plan is designed to anticipate these factors in the business environment, whether they are positive or negative for the company.
3. Competitive analysis
Among the actors in the micro-environment, one of them deserves to be highlighted: the competition.
It seeks information about how competitors perform, the audiences they serve, how they communicate with people, how they advertise products and their performance.
As a competitive intelligence tool, competitor analysis in the Marketing Plan allows you to:
- seek information for your strategies;
- anticipate market trends and competitor movements;
- identify your market position and market share;
- identify positioning opportunities and competitive advantages.
You may think that you can't get data from your competitors because it's confidential.
But some tools allow you to spy on your competitors, monitor their movements and know what they are doing (all in an ethical way, ok?).
Google Alerts, SEMrush and SimilarWeb are some examples.
4. Audience and buyer persona definition
After analysing the market and competitors, you have a better basis for defining the target audience for your strategies.
The target audience is a group of consumers with similar demographic, psychographic and behavioural characteristics, to whom you will address the strategies of the Marketing Plan.
To define it, you must divide the market into segments with common characteristics and identify the groups of consumers whose needs your business satisfies.
Then, the brand's value proposition, which is present in the Marketing Plan strategies, must be directed to this target segment.
From the description of the target audience, you can also create the Buyer Persona that, unlike the target audience, deepens the behaviours, values, expectations and pains of the audience, synthesised in the construction of a character that represents the ideal customer of the company.
At this point, you can also track the buyer persona's buying journey.
Think about your customer's journey from consideration to purchase and the main behaviours, questions and pains at each stage.
In this way, you can map the ideal content, channels and approaches for each stage of the journey.
To understand conceptually: strategies address the target audience, but they speak to the person.
Do you understand the difference?
While the target audience brings a generic description for segmentation and positioning purposes, the persona has a more complex and deeper human profile, which is used to outline content and relationship strategies.
5. Definition of positioning
From the definition of the target audience, the Marketing Plan enters into the strategic definitions.
We start from the positioning, which must be defined for each target audience.
Defining a market position means thinking about how the company wants to be perceived by consumers.
Positioning builds a unique, differentiated and relevant image in the public mind.
Of course, you must study your competitors to differentiate yourself from them in this position.
Positioning refers to attributes of the company or product, such as price, size or design, but is mainly found in subjective factors, such as the values and meanings attributed to the brand.
These are the ones that awaken the public's identification, conquer space in the minds of consumers and influence their consumption decisions.
Therefore, when creating marketing strategies, positioning must be reflected in content, advertising, visual identity and all points of contact with consumers, so that they absorb the image you want to convey.
6. Set goals
Goal setting is at the heart of the Marketing Plan.
But it is important to follow all the steps we have already mentioned because they provide the basis for the goals to be aligned with the reality of the business and the market and to target the right audience.
For the definition of objectives, the SMART methodology framework is an excellent ally.
SMART stands for the following characteristics that objectives should have:
- Specific.
- Measurable.
- Attainable.
- Relevant or Realistic.
- Time-Based.
When the Marketing Plan follows these guidelines, objectives are more likely to be achieved.
They become clearer and more motivating for the team, as well as define a common horizon to which everyone should aspire.
Therefore, keep in mind that it does not make sense to define broad objectives, such as "sell more", "have more engagement on social media" or "increase website visits".
Here are some examples of the most effective goals to guide your strategy:
- generate 1000 ecommerce orders in 1 year;
- increase participation rate to 10% by July 2022;
- reach 10,000 website visitors in 2 years.
They are much more specific, measurable and have a deadline.
To know if they are realistic and achievable, it is necessary to go back to the diagnosis of the company and the market to know if the values and deadlines make sense.
It is worth remembering that here we are defining objectives at the strategic level.
So, ideally, they define what Marketing as a whole wants to achieve and work within a longer timeframe.
But if you are creating a plan for a specific strategy, you can set more specific goals.
7. Defining KPIs
If you set measurable objectives in the previous step, this step is much easier.
After all, being measurable means that you can use metrics to track the performance of strategies and see if they achieved the expected results.
But we're not talking about metrics here, we're talking about KPIs.
Okay, so what's the difference?
Metrics are any measure to evaluate the performance of some action, such as the number of website visitors or social media interactions.
KPIs are also metrics, but they are directly related to objectives. In other words, KPIs tell you if you are on track and if you achieved the objectives described in the plan.
Of course, you can also monitor other metrics, but it is the KPIs that indicate the successful execution of the Marketing Plan.
Therefore, they should be monitored closely.
For that, it is important to establish an evaluation and control routine that monitors the KPIs and indicates possible adjustments to improve the results, if they are deviating from the set objectives.
8. Defining strategies
Here we start to get into the tactics of the Marketing Plan, i.e. how to implement the definitions into specific strategies, which then need to be broken down into the operational definitions.
In this step, you must define which marketing strategies will contribute to achieving the objectives of the Marketing Plan.
If your goal is to generate 2,000 leads next year, you will probably need Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing and SEO strategies, for example.
Therefore, you need to think about them at this point.
In addition, it is also important to define the strategies of the Marketing Mix or 4 Ps of Marketing:
- price
- product;
- place;
- promotion.
These strategies are in charge of positioning your brand in the market and must be aligned with the positioning of each target audience.
As we are in a strategic level plan, you can only outline the main strategies and detail them in a specific, tactical level plan - an Inbound Marketing Plan, for example.
If you prefer to concentrate everything in a single plan, you can detail the strategies and actions, as well as their objectives and specific indicators.
9. Resources and budget
What equipment and tools will you need to execute your plan? How much will you need to invest in each strategy? Now it's time to look at your pocket!
Among the marketing costs you should consider are:
- purchasing tools;
- the hiring of employees;
- employee training;
- Ads campaigns;
- hiring of services;
- internet, telephone, energy costs, etc.
Marketing is one of the most expensive areas for companies, so investments must be well thought out and planned. And that is why they should also be part of the Marketing Plan.
10. Timetable and responsible persons
In this step, you define a timetable to enable the execution of the plan, as well as those responsible for the strategies.
This is important to verify that the timelines for achieving the objectives are plausible and to show those involved what their responsibilities are so that they commit to the Marketing Plan.
Since we are creating a strategic plan, you can set long-term timelines and overall responsibilities.
Then, in the tactical and operational plans of each strategy, it is possible to detail the medium and short-term tasks and responsibilities.
11. Plan elaboration
Anyway, you already have all the information about the Marketing Plan! Now it is time to synthesise everything and prepare the final document that will serve as a guide for Marketing.
Generally speaking, the topics of the document can follow the steps we have shown so far, but you can adapt them according to the needs of your company.
The marketing plan can be structured as follows:
- executive summary;
- diagnosis;
- environmental analysis;
- competitors;
- target audience and buyer persona;
- positioning;
- goals;
- goals and indicators;
- marketing strategies;
- resources and budget;
- timetable and responsible.
Start with an executive summary, which introduces the marketing plan, the company and why this document was created.
Take the opportunity to create a compelling text that encourages employee engagement.
Then, detail each point you thought of in the planning steps.
You may have already written down several insights and have a preview, but now it is important to work on the texts so that they are clear and objective, as well as prioritising the main information.
The Marketing Plan should not be short, because it needs depth, but it should not tire the reader either.
Also, be careful with the design.
As the plan should be a living document in the company, always present daily, it should be attractive and pleasant.
To create a good experience.
What are the best marketing strategies for your plan?
Strategies represent the pathways in the plan to achieve the marketing objectives.
But what can you include in this topic after all? What are the best strategies?
Well, there is a multitude of marketing strategies that can serve different purposes.
But let's point out here some of the main ones related to Digital Marketing.
You can map these strategies in the strategic plan or create specific plans for each one, according to your overall marketing objectives.
Note that we are not talking specifically about channels. These are marketing strategies, which can span different channels (such as social media, email marketing, website, blog, etc.).
Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing focuses on attracting leads and nurturing relationships with potential customers along a sales funnel until they are ready to buy.
Not coincidentally, it is also called Attraction Marketing.
An Inbound Marketing strategy should anticipate the steps in the sales funnel and how to move the lead towards a purchase.
To do so, it involves landing page creation strategies, Content Marketing, SEO, Relationship Marketing and, at the bottom of the funnel, closing sales.
Outbound Marketing
Outbound Marketing, unlike Inbound Marketing, consists of customer prospecting strategies.
In other words, instead of attracting interested parties, Outbound Marketing actively pursues them.
In Digital Marketing, Outbound Marketing generally relates to paid campaign strategies, such as sponsored links, social media ads and website banners, which have greater targeting and measurement power than organic strategies.
Outbound is often seen as the opposite of inbound as if marketing only has to choose one strategy or the other.
However, it is possible to reconcile Inbound and Outbound strategies throughout the customer journey, depending on the stage at which they are most relevant.
In this way, approaches become more efficient.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing is based on the production of relevant content for consumers, which solves their doubts and attracts their interest in approaching the brand.
This strategy helps to create authority on the web, improve brand recognition and generate leads for marketing.
Content Marketing uses SEO strategies to increase searchability on search engines and channels such as blogs, social media and email marketing.
It is often one of the pillars of an Inbound Marketing strategy.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship or Relationship Marketing are strategies that accompany the consumer throughout his or her shopping journey.
To stay close, the brand offers relevant content, exclusive offers and personalised approaches.
It usually involves social media channels, email marketing and exclusive groups (Facebook, WhatsApp), as well as a CRM tool, which concentrates the data and history of lead interactions.
It also often appears in Inbound Marketing strategies, in the lead nurturing stage, which aims to strengthen the relationship with them and make them mature in their purchase decision.
Retention Marketing
Retention Marketing is strategies aimed at those who are already customers of the company.
It is based on Relationship Marketing since its objective is to retain customers so that they stay longer with the brand and do not leave with the competition.
It can be adopted when the company perceives a high attrition rate or when it has a high cost of customer acquisition; in this case, it is better to focus on loyalty, which tends to be cheaper.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is the partnership strategy between brands and influencers.
It is one of the ways to approach consumers through a person they admire, trust, and identify with and who can therefore influence their consumption decisions.
Consider not only the big influencers on the web, who in practice have become accessible only to big brands but mainly micro-influencers and even nano-influencers, who have a smaller but often more engaged audience.
Interactive Marketing
Interactive Marketing is the creation of interaction opportunities between brands and consumers.
It is part of Content Marketing, as it involves the creation of materials such as questionnaires, surveys, calculators, and infographics, among others.
Interactive Marketing provides a valuable experience for consumers, while collecting valuable data for Marketing and Sales teams, not only contact data but also profiles and interests, informed by interactions with the content.
Putting the Marketing Plan into practice
Plan your work, work your plan.
This means that there is no point in going through the whole planning process, creating the Marketing Plan, if you don't put it into practice and adjust it as you go along.
First, remember what we said about strategic, tactical and operational plans.
To implement the strategies, the idea is to break the plan down to the operational level so that execution is feasible. In this way, strategic definitions are also installed in the routine of staff members.
The operational plan should include Action Plans to implement the strategies, which should contain:
- the activities to be carried out
- the period of execution of each activity;
- how they are to be carried out;
- who is responsible;
- what is the budget for the implementation of each activity?
To involve the team in the implementation, the Marketing Plan document and Action Plans must be clear and available to all involved.
When you know what to do, with a deadline and purpose, motivation is higher.
In addition, Marketing should ideally define a management methodology to implement plans and guide actions.
Today, many teams work with Agile Marketing, which adopts agile methodologies in project management, with short work cycles and flexible plans that adapt quickly to market responses.
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