What do i hope to accomplish?
How can i make it happen?
The best place to start is at the end, that is where you hope to end up. It is important to start with your marketing goals when coming up with a marketing plan. Think, how i want this to turn up. Then figure up the steps or actions you need to achieve those goals and set a marketing budget that helps achieve them.
What are marketing goals?
A marketing goal for your business can be anything for making a sales, spreading the news about your company, promoting a discount, to having more people find your website. Whatever your goal, it should be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-bound. In other words you must create SMART goals.
The following are a few concrete examples of SMART marketing goals.
- Sign up 200 new customers for a free consultation by August.
- Sell 500 units of a particular model by September.
- Collect 100 qualified sales leads from 400 existing customers by April.
- Drive 1,000 unique visitors to the site by the end of the month.
Your goals should be whatever your business needs to grow. But be careful not to add too many.
Once you have gotten your goals done, think about how you can accomplish those goals and the steps you will need to get there.
Step 1
One of your first step should be determining the kind of online presence you will need to achieve your goals. You may be able to do everything right from your website or you may feel the need to branch out beyond your website and add a blog or social networking site.
For example, if your goal is to increase sales, you may just want to drive more people to your website. If your goal is to build a stronger relationship with existing customers, a networking page may be right for you. And if you want to make sure that potential customers in your local area can find you easily, you should consider local offering such as local online listings.
Whatever route you choose, make sure that the people who you are trying to reach i.e. your potential or existing customers can find you. Ask yourself, where are my customers most likely to look for me?
Step 2
Once you know what you want to achieve and where your customers are, the next step is point customers into the right direction. And there are different ways you can promote your online presence to potential customers.
For example, you can give your website a content face-lift so that it appeals better to potential customers. Create ads that link to your website and promote your offerings and special. Include your business on local listing directories like google local listings to drive local sales. Create a social networking site for your business and share updates, coupons and more with followers. List your deals or discounts on coupons sites like dealfish.
Setting your marketing budget
In other to determine how much you want to spend, you have to ask yourself how much your new sales, referrals, inquiries or other is worth to you. This can be difficult question to answer but it is very important. Also factor in any cost associated with your actions steps such as the cost of hosting your website, listing your deals, running ads online and more.
Remember, first set your goals, then come up with steps to achieve those goals and setup a budget that works for you.
