Here at JCW, we believe that a good marketing plan is essential for any business to thrive. A marketing plan is a roadmap for introducing and delivering your product or service to potential customers. While a Marketing Plan doesn’t have to be long or complicated, it does take time and effort to lay a sound foundation for business success.
What is a Marketing Plan?
Entrepreneur.com provides this definition for Marketing Plan: The written document that describes your advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year; it includes a statement of the marketing situation, a discussion of target markets and company positioning and a description of the marketing mix you intend to use to reach your marketing goals
SMART Goals for Business Success
Your marketing goals should support your overall business objectives and drive your company forward. The marketing strategy you design will build a brand and message that aims to increase sales.
To simplify the process of building a marketing plan for our Michigan-based clients, we have broken it up into nine steps that have withstood the test of time. In this blog, we cover step one: Goals and Measurements.
It is essential to define goals that can be measured. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing whether or not your marketing efforts are effective.
You should have plans and procedures for tracking each type of marketing activity you are using. Tracking helps monitor the effectiveness of each marketing activity and is especially helpful with your overall program evaluation.
Step 1: Goals and Measurements
To do this step effectively, you need to identify the specific goals of your company or organization. This means going farther than creating arbitrary goals that are broad and lofty.
This is where the S.M.A.R.T. acronym comes in. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Combining all of these elements will make for goals that set a clear and precise direction for your company. They will also help to ensure that you will reach them.
Need help creating the rest of your marketing plan? No worries. We can help. Click the button below to learn more and reach out.
