How to Create a Marketing Plan and Develop a Marketing Strategy for Your Las Vegas Business
A marketing plan is essential to the success of your business. When it is orchestrated strategically and effectively, a marketing plan will be the driving force behind a small business’s growth. Your plan should include all of your marketing research, your target demographic, the product or service that your company sells, positioning, promotions, pr, advertising and pricing.
Initially, it’s good if the plan covers one year. Markets change, especially in this economic climate. People come and go. Later on you can expand and develop long-term strategies, but when you’re just starting out putting your plan down on paper covering a year is a good place to start.
Putting all of the components of your plan in one place is useful for a variety of reasons. First off, this makes it easy for mentors, peers and employees to evaluate the plan and add input if you desire. Second, if you have a plan easily accessible you can review it often – at least quarterly – to make sure that your business is staying on track.
Writing down your plan is easier than it may seem at first. Take it step-by-step and you’ll have a smart marketing plan in no time. The Small Business Administration recommends the following steps.
Define your business.
Describe your product or service. Define your geographic marketing area, your competition, and describe how your company differs from the competition. Then elaborate on your promotion methods versus your competition’s promotion methods. Lastly, you should talk about your price and your distribution methods or business location.
Define your customers.
Research the demographics of your current customer base and find out how your customers typically learn about your product or service. Establish what qualities your customers enjoy most about your product or service – this could be convenience, availability, reliability, affordability or something else entirely. Then, it’s time look at the other side of things – what do your customer like least about your product or service? How can this be changed to increase your customers’ level of satisfaction? Finally, you should note the patterns or habits that your customers and potential customers share. You should also note how you plan on reaching out to prospective customers.
Define your overall plan and budget.
You should look at your previous marketing methods and note which ones have been most effective in reaching your customers. Consider the costs of these methods compared to sales. Also, break it down into cost per customer. You should also consider what percentage of your profits can go towards your marketing campaign. Then, take a look at what marketing tools will fit inside that budget. Marketing tools may include advertising, direct mail, social media, telemarketing or public relations activities. If you use these tools, you also need methods for measuring their overall effectiveness so you can get the most bang for your buck.
Creating a marketing plan may seem daunting at first but in most cases your common sense will guide you. Sometimes less is actually more – your marketing plan does not necessarily need to be lengthy and verbose. It simply must provide a real snapshot of your business and industry and it must have enough substance to make it useful.
