Rashida
We’re officially in Q4!
This time of year is all about holiday prep and closing out the year strong.
But it’s also time to look ahead.
While you may still have some big marketing projects left this year, it’s also a critical time to get started with your 2023 marketing plan.
Creating your marketing strategy for the next year can feel overwhelming, even if you’ve done it before.
Here are some steps for how to write a marketing plan.
The Importance of Strategic Marketing Planning
Sometimes, we’re thrown into situations where we must “fly by the seat of our pants” for marketing. It’s true, sometimes we need to pivot and experiment as we go. Undoubtedly, the world will throw curveballs that change the course of our strategies.
Even so, this is not the best approach to take all of the time. Instead, strategic marketing is the way to go. A well-outlined plan still leaves wiggle room and safety nets, but it lays out the ideal strategies based on your business, market, and goals.
Strategic planning involves looking far ahead. It’s something to do about once or twice a year. The purpose is to research, evaluate, and plan your future strategies. By creating a marketing plan for the next year, you can streamline your activities and guide stakeholders.
Review 2022
Before you should jump into your new marketing plan, it’s vital to review the one you just had! So, check in about how 2022 went for marketing campaigns.
Analyze the following:
- The success of previous goals. If you did not reach them, why not?
- Which methods and strategies did you try?
- Were you missing the resources you needed? What tools could help you improve your results?
The more detailed your reporting was the past year, the easier it will be to evaluate your KPIs and overall success. Furthermore, break down each previous quarter as well. It may provide you with helpful insight for the next year.
Audit
After evaluating your past year’s performance, it’s time to evaluate your current team and abilities. Spend time on a marketing audit, where you can determine if you need to update tools, add resources, etc.
Aspects to consider include:
- Are you missing any digital or print marketing materials, like web pages, business cards, etc?
- Do you have accounts on all relevant marketing platforms? Are there any unnecessary channels to delete? Do any accounts require updating?
- Do you have a customer data platform for collecting, storing, and analyzing customer data?
- Do you have adequate team members for addressing marketing needs?
- Are your buyer personas up to date and aligned with your goals?
- Are your business value propositions relevant and accurate?
- Which products/ services are your focus for the upcoming year? Will you be adding new ones?
- Are pricing adjustments necessary?
Assess Your Target Market and Current Audience
Evaluating your target market isn’t something you do once in a business’ history. After going through the labor of finally nailing down your target market, it may seem like a done deal, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Instead, each time you plan your new marketing plan, reassess your target market AND your current audience.
Is your target market truly still the same one you planned last year? Or is it time to expand, or pivot slightly?
Furthermore, what’s the makeup of your current audience? Does it match your current target market? Major differences between your target market and current audience suggest some adjustments are in order. Your existing audience may tell you something about what your target market should be.
Likewise, if your current audience is not a right fit for your business, then you will need to account for that when planning your target market and 2023 marketing strategies.
Set Goals
It may seem like the end goal of marketing is cut and dry. Ultimately, you want your brand to be more successful, which means you need to drive sales.
But in practice, marketing is not as simple as that. Depending on the stage and unique position of a business, the marketing goals may be different. For example, a newer brand may be looking to boost awareness and increase its reputation. Another brand may get sales, but needs to increase customer frequency.
As you know, the goals guide your marketing strategy. The type of copy and strategies you use to launch new products is different from that for generating sales.
While your goals may vary throughout the year, it’s important to generate an overall plan for your business goals. This is vital for planning your content strategy and setting your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Discuss the company’s goals with department leads and stakeholders. Determine a couple of primary goals as well as secondary goals. If possible, you can set primary goals for each quarter.
Examples of goals include:
- Launching new products or services
- Boost sales
- Increasing customer lifetime value
- Increasing brand visibility/ awareness
- Customer experience improvement
Furthermore, set detailed goals based on your previous year and needs. For example, if you’re looking to increase the customer lifetime value, determined by how much. Perhaps it’s 5% per quarter, or by $100 per year.
Determine Key Performance Indicators
After setting your goals, it’s time to set your key performance indicators (KPIs) as well. Every goal should include relevant KPIs for how you will measure your progress and determine success.
Research the Market
Not only should you worry about your business’s marketing strategies, but it’s also important to know what others in the market are doing as well. Research your competitors and evaluate their marketing efforts.
- Determine who your top competitors are currently. What is working well for them? What could they improve?
- What are relevant trends in your industry?
- For local businesses, what local trends could impact you?
- Across your industry, what are the average costs and results for marketing? What’s the average cost-per-click? The average email open rate? Etc.
Set Your Marketing Budget
After you’ve outlined your goals, you’ll have a better idea of what it takes to reach them. This, along with your market research, will give you a good idea of reasonable spending.
Lay out a clear budget for the various categories of marketing, and predict the ROI of each. When it comes to getting the budgeting you need, explaining where the money will go and how it will work is vital.
Common aspects of marketing budgets are:
- Fees for freelancers
- Influencer/ sponsorship costs
- New marketing hires
- Collaboration costs
- Cost of tools/ software
- Paid ads
From there, you can generate an overall budget for marketing spending.
Outline Your Content Strategy
Determine how you will use your content and which channels you will leverage.
A solid content strategy outlines:
- The content types you’ll leverage. For example, blog posts, social media in-feed posts, social media “story” posts, infographics, eBooks, videos, etc.
- How much content do you plan to publish each day/week/month? This depends on your goals.
- Which distribution channels you’ll leverage for content? Common examples include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok. Not every channel is relevant for every company, and some brands focus more heavily on different channels.
- Paid ad strategy and for which channels?
- The KPIs you’ll use to determine success. Examples include:
- Organic traffic
- Email traffic
- Click-through rates
- Referral traffic
Create an Executive Summary
A summary of your company is also called an executive summary. Creating one is important for several reasons, and it can serve as a beneficial resource for your future marketing efforts.
In essence, the executive summary will help introduce people to your objectives, marketing wins, and plans.
This introduces your marketing plan, and it is a good way to ensure the necessary stakeholders/ decision-makers pay attention.
An overview of the summary includes:
- Company mission statement
- Overall marketing goals
- Major company milestones
- Outline of future plans
- Relevant brand facts
The point is to drive interest, so you don’t need to be too specific. It’s all about setting the tone for your marketing plan.
Define Responsibilities
There are a lot of moving parts in marketing, and it’s very important to lay out who is responsible for what.
While you won’t need daily project details, you should be able to explain which teams focus on which general tasks, KPIs, channels, etc. For example, outline the main responsibilities of your social media manager vs marketing director, etc.
Review
Creating a marketing plan for the entire year certainly takes a lot of time. By the time you’re done, you may not even feel like looking at it until the next year.
Avoid the urge to hurl it across the room or into the recycling bin. instead, (after you’ve taken a little break from it) go back and review it. Make sure that the plan addresses your needs and creates a clear outline to follow.
Based on feedback from other departments and your own department, update the plan as needed.
It may not seem like an important step, but take it from a team of writers, revisions are vital!
Leave Room for Adjustments
As detailed and specific as your marketing plan should be, it should also be flexible. We can’t foresee all possible events for the next year. Your plan should also leave some room for adjustments.
2020 and the COVID pandemic was a shining example of just how extreme these unplanned events can be. If you were in marketing at that time, then you certainly remember how many marketing campaigns you had to scrap and scramble for relevant content. It wasn’t just about getting more sales, it was about saving your business and staying connected with struggling customers.
Aside from that extreme example, there are many others. Who knew exactly when TikTok would consume the mainstream? Even as it grew in popularity, many businesses thought it wasn’t for them, but a lot have changed their tune. Do you think they waited until Q1 to jump on the opportunities?
The bottom line is that you need to leave a little wiggle room in your marketing plan and budget. Anticipate the unexpected and be prepared to adjust to incoming trends, market changes, and external events as needed.
Get an Experienced Writer On Your Side
As you’re laying out your marketing plan and assessing your needs, you may find that one area needs some assistance: writing.
Let’s face it, a LOT of marketing content incorporates written copy. For it to be effective, it needs to be well-written. But the cost of an in-house, dedicated writer is not one most marketing teams can swing. At the same time, dealing with all of that content writing internally can take a huge toll, drawing you away from strategy and your expertise.
That’s where we come in.
Content Cucumber will help you meet all of your content needs. From blog posts to email copy and beyond, you can count on our experienced writers. We pair you with one of our dedicated writers for your content needs. For a fraction of the cost of an in-house writer, you get access to a team of reliable writers.
How can Content Cucumber writers streamline your 2023 marketing strategy? Find out during your demo.
