Finding and keeping customers doesn’t happen by accident; it happens with marketing. The problem is that without a marketing plan, finding customers will be unnecessarily difficult, while keeping the customers you do attract is even harder.
A survey of small business owners found that 66% struggle with finding new customers, while 40% said they had difficulty in retaining their existing customers.
Knowing what you are selling, who you are selling it to, that they want to buy it and how much they are prepared to pay for it is marketing. If we don’t know the answer to any one of those questions we are making our ability to have a profitable business an impossibility.
- Knowing what you are selling
- Who you are selling it to
- That they want to buy it
- How much they are prepared to pay for it …
… That’s marketing.
If those aren’t reason enough for you to sit down and create a marketing plan for your business, here’s nine other good reasons to convince you to do just that.
1. Unique
An essential part of creating a marketing plan is to identify and understand your competition.
Once you know who your competitors are, what they do and how they do it, it’s much easier for you to demonstrate what makes you unique.
2. Customers
Creating a marketing plan forces you to get to really ‘know’ your target customers.
It makes you design your offer to meet their specific needs as well as identifying all the unique elements that will encourage them to choose you rather than one of your competitors.
3. Time-Management
As a one-person business owner, solopreneur, freelancer or side-hustle, one thing is certain, you are time-poor.
Taking time out of your busy day or week may seem counterintuitive.
However, taking the time to create a marketing plan will actually save you time. It will enable you to break tasks down into bite-size, easy-to-accomplish, a step-by-step processes. Rather than facing the prospect of having to complete massive, overwhelming tasks.
4. Measurable
A marketing plan will have both objectives and goals.
Objectives are the overarching, large-scale business-needs that you identify, such as, more customers or increased turnover.
Goals are the measurable outcomes of your objectives, such as, 10 more customers or a 20% increase in turnover.
Without goals objectives are wishes. With goals you will be able to measure exactly what is happening so that you can do more of what works and stop doing what doesn’t.
5. Control
A marketing plan helps to remove that out-of-control feeling you sometimes get because it seems like there are more and more things to do every day.
It will help you plan your day-to-day activity, keep a close eye on your business costs and know precisely your overall business activity.
A plan also prevents decisions being made out of panic or impulse.
6. Creativity
A marketing plan formalises creative ideas and concepts.
Working on the business rather than in the business it can sometimes feel that you are unable to be as creative as you want. But the opposite is true.
Your plan will provide a template for you to formalise your ideas and concepts; turning your ideas into reality.
It is also a repository for all those other creative ideas that you have as you move forward – all you do is record them and then fit them into the plan at the optimum time for their best contribution to your business growth.
7. Decision-Making
With a marketing plan making decisions becomes really easy.
You will know:
- What your offer is
- Who your target customer is
- Where to find your customers
Therefore, deciding on which marketing channels or tactics you are going to use is simple.
And what about all those things that won’t help you achieve your marketing objectives and targets? Well, you can just say ‘no’.
8. Costs
Running a business and marketing a business cost money.
There are some great tools available that are free, and you should make as much use of these as you possibly can; but not spending on your marketing is a bad idea.
Creating a marketing plan will allow you to be very clear about how much you will need to spend and where you will need to spend it.
This will enable you to keep a tighter control on your costs and keep spending to the areas that will really make a difference.
9. Focus
With so much going on around you and so many tools and technologies available it’s easy to get side-tracked.
A marketing plan will help to avoid time-wasting.
It will allow you to focus on your business objectives and goals. It will give everything you do focus and it will eliminate distractions.
So, Why Do You Need a Marketing Plan?
Your marketing plan is one of the key building block that underpins your business. It gives you the tools to measure your marketing results, make corrections and get it better next time.
Oh – and the biggie – it helps you to sell more!
Next Steps?
Book a CLARITY CALL with me and we will work together to create the marketing plan for your business.