If you are setting up your marketing plan, you will most definitely want to take these things into consideration. Planning can be painstaking and difficult at times, but essential if you want to make an impact.
The most important thing about planning, is that you do it. Often enough it is quicker and easier to simply do what others have come up with, or what agencies propose. Yet you should definitely know your customer base better than that. You know what works and what does not. And if you don’t (just yet), plan it into your budget to find out what will work and what doesn’t.
These things will help you put together a solid marketing and budget plan:
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1. Your affordables need to be at the heart of your marketing plan if you want your business to be successful in the long run and of course it all comes down to your business model
- Subscription-based models should try to break-even on the first sale, that way the renewals can pay the bill and you can scale your business directly from the positive cashflow that you have made on the first purchase.
- Customer Lifetime Values can be tricky to calculate, but it is worth investing the time and effort into understanding your customer loyalty. If you only look at your business model on a “single transaction-basis”, you might be overseen your most loyal customers.
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2. Use your conversion rates whenever you can to validate your assumptions
- Here we do not only refer to sales conversion rates, you can start a few steps further back in your sales funnel: When was your first point of contact? At which stages in your sales-pitch do you lose the most customers? Try to quantify your sales-funnel as much as you can.
- What can help as well is knowing exactly which parts of your business and sales funnel you can influence yourself directly without needing assistance from someone else. What part of your daily work can be measured in conversion rates? (for example: the number of people you have managed to reach, the discount percentages you managed to get from your agencies, and much more).
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3. Make your marketing plan as customer centric as possible
- Which media does your potential customer use in his daily (and personal) life?
- Which media does he use at work? Be sure to trigger your potential customer at the time where he needs your good or service most. If you manage to solve his issue instantly, you are in for an “easy” win.
- Which channels help build up the trust you need with your potential client? Can you position yourself as an authority in your field of business by being there at the right place and right time?
Leave room for mistakes
When you are planning your channels and activities, make sure to leave to room for mistakes. Not all of your assumptions will hold true and although you might have tons of data – each and every customer is an individual – and customersegments (and their behaviour) can change. You need to give yourself some room to make these mistakes and read the signs.
If there is one thing that you should take into consideration: Think potential customer over channel. The channels are merely the tools that you are given to reach your customer.
You need to find out how you can use them best, but we would advice you to plan your lines of communication first before looking at the budgets per channel that you will need to reach your goals.
Data mining is a marketeers best friend. The better you plan though, the easier it will be for you to find the insights that you need, because you will know what you would like to look for.
If you have a business intelligence department, sit down with them as soon as you have your first draft. A business intelligence engineer can give you some great insights into your customers and guide you to make the right budgetary decisions.
Get advice from industry experts and your colleagues
Last and foremost, share your plans and ideas with industry experts and the teammembers around you. Get their input and get everyone on board on your plans. You will get a lot of valuable input you would not like to miss. There is not one wrong or right when you are setting up your plan. But you will surely need the support of the people around you to make the plan work. So get them on board as soon as you have formed your own “first” opinion.
If you would like us to challenge your marketing plan(s) and share our insights, please do reach out to us. We would be glad to help and share our digital multi-channel industry insights.
