Digital Marketing Plan; Creation and Implementation
Hello there!
Today you will learn about what is a marketing plan and the importance of it. Additionally, you will learn the main parts of a marketing plan and how to make your own digital marketing plan. I will wrap up talking about the pros and cons of a marketing plan, and how to make a digital marketing plan that is useful, effective, and practical so your project or company continues to grow.
What is a Marketing Plan?
A marketing plan is a document to clarify who your potential customers are, how your products satisfy their needs or solve their problems, and the strategies and tactics to reach out and connect with them while building trust and delivering value.
Sam Bromley (2019), in his Simply Business article, defines a marketing plan this way; “a document that lets you establish and track your marketing strategy (or strategies) over a period of time.
Why is it important to have a Marketing Plan?
In my opinion, a marketing plan is not just important but essential for every organization. There are several benefits of having a practical marketing plan, including:
It helps you gain clarity. The marketing plan will help you to better understand your customers, and how your products help them. With a marketing plan, It will be easier for you to find the appropriate channels in order to reach out to your customers and connect with them in such a way that they will trust you and buy your products.
It keeps you focused on what’s important. With dozens of things to think of on a normal day, having a plan constantly reminds you of what you already established as important, and therefore keeps you away from distractions.
It encourages you to stay organized. As the marketing plan contains the strategies to achieve your marketing goals, it’s easy to know what to work on, and how to do it. The content plan and schedule will be the best tools to stay organized.
It assists you in meeting deadlines. A marketing plan is made for a specific period of time, typically one semester or one year. Within the marketing plan, you will find dates in which the tactics/actions must be deployed, and for how long and how often they will be available. Oftentimes, calendars are created to easily illustrate deadlines and periods, pushing you to stay up to date with deadlines.
It provides you with strategies to achieve your goals. As mentioned above, the marketing plan contains strategies and tactics that will help you achieve every important goal of your marketing team.
What are the main parts of a concise and effective marketing plan?
A marketing plan can have many sections. Some marketing plans have 7 sections, some have 14 sections, and some marketing plans can have more than 17 sections In reality, a marketing plan can have as many sections as you want.
I believe that the right amount of sections for your digital marketing plan should be the least amount possible; preferably down to only the essentials. This is because operational documents, if meant to be used, should be not only effective, but also useful, handy, and concise.
A marketing plan is created to be read by all members of the marketing team, management team, and all other areas involved with marketing, including sales and other functional areas. Understanding the reach of a marketing plan helps you see why a marketing plan has to be concise and compelling.
In this article, I am going to mention the parts of a Digital Marketing Plan (not a general marketing plan). Although they can be quite similar, digital marketing plans focus on digital channels and strategies to achieve marketing goals.
See, marketing, as previously defined in the article “Sales and Marketing: What is the difference?”, is a general term that encompasses all marketing efforts in the company, including traditional methods such as radio, billboards, newspaper, etc and modern alternatives such as Digital Marketing (internet, SMS, etc).
This blog and article are focused on Digital Marketing, therefore the following sections are those of a concise and effective digital marketing plan.
Main parts of a Digital Marketing Plan
Following are the 8 essentials sections of a digital marketing plan:
1-Table of contents.
The table of contents provides a quick overview of the sections in the marketing plan. The table of contents defines the organization of the document and it allows readers to go straight to the topics they are more interested in, for example; tactics, objectives, and others.
The table of content is one of the tools that make the marketing plan practical and compelling.
2-Marketing Mission
It is crucial that the marketing plan is aligned with the business plan, and the business plan with the organization’s mission. By doing this, we are guaranteeing that all marketing efforts are moving forwards in the direction needed by the company or project.
Writing the marketing mission brings focus and clarity to the team. Once you have written the marketing mission, writing the goals and objectives becomes easier.
I suggest keeping the mission statement concise. Make sure it is designed for the long-term. Don’t make the mission statement limiting; a good marketing mission is clear but broad enough. More details can be added to the goals and objectives if necessary, but keep the mission succinct.
In the article “ Value addition in Marketing Plan through Mission Statement”, Nishant Sinha (2018) writes, “the mission statement guides the marketing planning by stating the purpose of planning, reviewing the business goals and objectives. It also provides a framework of how the marketing plan should be to achieve the objectives of the organization”.
This definition highlights the importance of the mission statement in the marketing plan.
3-Goals, objectives & KPI'S
The next step after defining the marketing plan mission is establishing the goals. If you were to accomplish all the goals, you will be fulfilling the marketing mission. Notice the alignment and link between the mission and the goals.
Once you have determined the goals of the marketing plan, the next step is to become more specific (more tangible) by defining the objectives.
You can write several goals in order to make sure that by achieving these goals you are accomplishing the mission. The same applies to objectives; write as many as necessary to guarantee the accomplishment of the goals. Normally, there are between 2 and 5 objectives per goal.
What is the difference between goals and objectives?
The difference between these two concepts is best defined in this article by Indeed (2019), “Goals are the outcome you intend to achieve, whereas objectives are the actions that help you achieve a goal”. If you want to know more about goals and objectives, I strongly recommend reading their article.
When writing objectives, a piece of great advice is using the SMART criteria.
SMART stands for S: Specific. M: Measurable. A: Achievable & Ambitious. R: Relevant & resourced. T: Time-bound & Trackable.
Key Performance Indicators.
KPI’s or key performance indicators are metrics that will help you measure the progress you make when trying to achieve your objectives and goals.
KPIs can be reviewed as frequently as necessary, depending on the situation and urgency required by the leader managers.
In the article, How Often Should You Measure Your Organization's KPIs?, Nancy Bach (2018) writes:
“The balanced scorecard assigns a green, yellow, or red assessment to each KPI based on whether that item is okay, borderline, or in trouble. The timing for measuring KPIs varies depending on how the organization will use the data, which parameters they monitor, as well as how easily and cost-effectively the data can be gathered”.
Then she continues to say;
“Logically, KPI measurements must be available for the leadership balanced scorecard review. Typically, this happens at least quarterly — or, more commonly, monthly”.
“...Metrics may need to be gathered more frequently if the organization is trying to closely monitor the effects of a change or in other situations where rapid feedback is needed”. Nancy Bach (2018)
Typically, you pick anywhere from 10 to 20 KPI’s. Too many and will be hard to review and understand. More than 20 metrics can’t be called “Key” performance indicators; they would be just metrics. Use metrics to evaluate progress in tactics.
If you want to learn more about The Balanced Scorecard and KPIs, please read the article, What are Metrics, KPI, and ROI in Digital Marketing?
4- Target Persona
Another cornerstone section of the marketing plan is the target persona. The target persona is also known as the buyer persona or customer persona. It is a detailed description of your ideal customer, the one that would benefit the most from your goods and services.
Typically, the target persona includes a generic name, and information like demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic profiles or segmentation. It also includes their goals, values, challenges and pain points, and more.
The more detailed and illustrative you describe your buyer persona, the better. This is why it is also known as the avatar persona. The target persona must be an accurate description of the ideal customer since this will greatly impact the strategies and tactics to be utilized.
Defining your target persona is paramount. It will provide you with a clear image of who your customer is, and will help you to answer other questions like:
What are the real problems of my customers?
What emotions are attached when they buy from us?
Where are they now?
How can I reach out to my prospective customers?
How can I connect with my prospective customers?
Why would they choose me over the competition?
These and many more questions will be easily answered when you define your customer persona.
Keep in mind that you can create as many customer personas as needed. This will allow you to increase the degree of personalization and the problem-solving impact of your products.
You could have one of the best products or services out there, but if you drop your money into reaching the wrong audience (prospective customer), you will be wasting your time and money.
In summary, defining your target persona will provide you with clarity, focus, and direction.
5-Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
At this point, you know the marketing mission, goals, and objectives. It is time to write your USP or unique selling proposition.
When defining your USP, keep your customer personas in mind. The USP is the benefit or value that your customer will get from you and no one else; it’s unique.
In the article, Unique Selling Proposition (USP), Entrepreneur.com defines USP as “The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition”.
Ana Gotter (2019), in the article What a Unique Selling Proposition Is (And Isn't), defines USP as “...a statement you choose to embody that differentiates your products and your brand from your competitors”.
As you can deduct from the above definitions, It is really important that you think about your USP and the value you are defining as unique. You must be able to back it up, and of course, it has to add value to your customer persona.
6-Marketing Situation Analysis.
The situation analysis helps us understand what is happening in our organization and in its marketplace. There are different frameworks to develop your marketing plan’s situation analysis. I focus on two frameworks; SWOT analysis and PEST analysis. These two tools will provide you with a wider perspective and better insights to define the strategies and tactics.
According to Sprint Marketing, “the benefits of performing a situation analysis and looking at a digital marketing sample or a digital marketing strategy example are numerous”.
They continue to say: Not only do they help you develop a strong digital marketing plan, but they also do the following:
Help you understand your base of operations a little better (where you’re coming from).
Help you understand the cause and effect of relationships between strategy and results.
Increase your ability to find solutions for problems.
Open up opportunities for improving your marketing strategy.
Both the SWOT analysis and the PEST analysis will help you gather the information that then, you will use to draw more informed conclusions.
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The SWOT analysis allows you to evaluate your company or project for which you are creating the marketing plan.
PEST stands for political, economic, social, and technological. Whereas SWOT focuses more on the company (inwards), PEST assesses major external factors (outwards/surroundings).
7-Strategies, tactics, and Metrics.
This section of the marketing plan is all about describing the way we are going to achieve the objectives, and therefore the goals and the mission. All this is achieved through strategy and its tactics.
Strategies provide us with direction; a route to achieving the objectives, while the tactics are the specific tangible actions or maneuvers that we think are best, in order to stay on route.
Strategies and tactics are essential in a marketing plan. Without a strategy, we will be in constant trial and error and therefore wasting resources. Without tactics, we would always be reacting to whatever we encounter along the route hoping that they work.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu (ca. 500 BC)”
Next, I am going to define the concepts of strategy and tactics, and the difference between these concepts. Then, I will talk about what are metrics, its importance, and how to choose them.
What is strategy?
According to Oxford languages, a strategy is “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim”.
To formulate your marketing strategy, you must ask; what is the approach I should take to achieve my objective XYZ?
In their article, Strategic Thinking Institute says, “Strategy is our path or bridge for going from where we are today to our goal. It’s our general resource allocation plan”.
The purpose of the strategy is to establish the course of action to be taken. In other words, strategies determine the directions in which all actions must point to.
What is a tactic?
According to Oxford languages, a tactic is “an action . . . carefully planned to achieve a specific end”.
To formulate your marketing tactic, you must ask; how exactly do we execute strategy X (one or several specific actions)?
The purpose of tactics is to determine the specific actions that must be taken in order to accomplish the associated strategy. Tactics are clear, strategy-oriented, specific, and tend to be short-term. Using the SMART criteria will help you establish optimized tactics.
What is the difference between tactics and strategies?
In their article, The Difference Between Strategy & Tactics, Strategic Thinking Institute says, “the complementary nature of strategy and tactics has defined their intertwined existence. In the military realm, tactics teach the use of armed forces in engagements, while strategy teaches the use of engagements to achieve the goals of the war”.
Here is a table with some of the differences between strategy and tactic:
Strategy and Tactics for a Digital Marketing Plan.
When specifically referring to a Digital Marketing Plan, strategies usually revolve around positioning organic and/or paid content throughout the customer’s journeys and at every stage of the sales funnel. Digital marketing strategies usually specify the most important channels for achieving marketing goals.
The strategies and tactics section usually includes keyword research. The search terms selected during the keyword research are classified into groups, and these groups of keywords are next categorized in the Customer Journey by moments of truth (Zero-moment, first moment, second moment, and the ultimate moment of truth).
The keyword research, categorized in the Customer Journey by moments of truth, enables you to get into the customer’s mind, and understand where they are in their journey, what they need and how to create the strategies and tactics to connect with them. Will allow us to precisely create content for every stage of the customer journey at the right times.
The strategies concord with specific stages of the customer journey and the tactics involve the creation of intent content to anticipate, answer and act on the different customer’s micro-moments (I want to go, I want to know, I want to do, I want to buy).
The tactics are frequently linked to a schedule or calendar for better understanding. These tactics consider information such as the rising and peak of keywords, calendar events (always green topics), the company’s expertise, and the micro-moment content.
You can create these calendars or schedules for the year, month, and even daily, depending on the level of control you want to manage. I have found that monthly plans with weekly overviews are a good balance between precision and time-invested into organizing.
Metrics.
Earlier, I mentioned that KPIs should be used to measure the progress of achieving the objectives. Additionally, In a previous post, What are Metrics, KPIs, and ROI in Digital Marketing?, I talked about metrics, examples of metrics, and why metrics are important in Marketing, feel free to review it.
It’s important to emphasize that metrics are a key component in the digital marketing plan since they allow us to measure the results of our marketing efforts and evaluate the progress we are achieving towards your marketing objectives. In the same article, I talked about the difference between metrics and KPI’s.
There are many metrics you can choose from when trying to measure the progress for the different tactics; choose wisely.
8-Contributors.
This section contains a chart with the people or positions involved in the marketing plan and their roles.
In order for the marketing plan to work, there must be people performing the tactics and creating the content necessary for those tactics to work.
The purpose of the “Contributors” section is to clarify who is doing what. This allows the contributors to focus on their task since day one.
When designating people to different tactics, be as specific as possible. Make sure to appoint the name, the tactics, deadlines, as well as the quality and timing expected.
9-Plan's omissions.
This section is all about mentioning the topics and sections that are being omitted in the marketing plan and providing a justification for it. Additionally, the plan’s omissions include a brief mention of the topics the marketing plan does include and reasons why are included.
This is important so everyone becomes clear regarding why certain topics (that may seem not so important) are included, and why some others are not considered, based on the organization and its circumstances (situation analysis).
For example, I will mention next some sections that are often included in marketing plans but are not necessarily relevant for many companies.
I want to emphasize that every organization is unique, and the situation analysis will provide us with clues to what additional sections to include in the marketing plan.
As I previously mentioned, in this article, I am referring to a Digital Marketing Plan instead of the traditional (old fashion) marketing plan, and therefore, some differences must be expected.
The Digital Marketing Plan doesn’t include:
A useful, effective, and practical digital marketing plan doesn’t need:
An “Executive Summary”
The executive summary is a synopsis of the document, which I consider unnecessary since all it does is making the document larger. If you are aiming for a practical marketing plan, it must be handy, precise, and useful. Remember we are including a “Table of Contents” which allows us to navigate the document easier without having to repeat information.
The Marketing Budget.
Defining the budget is really important. Knowing how much money, and even time and additional resources, are available to invest in marketing, is key to understanding the marketing mix and strategies that can be implemented. Even if we don’t have to pay for publishing organic content, we still need resource allocation to produce it.
Having said that, when my clients (individuals and organizations) know their marketing budget, I am happy to incorporate the marketing budget section into the marketing plan document. Otherwise, I deliver the marketing plan without this section, so you (as my client), have an important document in your hands that allows you to think about the budget size.
In other words, when the budget is known, I include the marketing budget section, otherwise, I let the marketing plan be a document that, besides all the benefits it already has, helps individuals and organizations decide how much money and other resources should be assigned to marketing.
Description of products and services.
The information about the products and services is usually available in other documents like the business plan, website, etc. Adding a full description of the products and services is not necessary, nor improves the effectiveness of the marketing plan. If required, you can mention the goods or services for clarification, and provide links to descriptions and details for those goods or services.
Pricing and Positioning Strategy.
You can add this section when including new products into the marketing plan that haven’t yet been manufactured, or when you consider that the existing products should change price or positioning strategies (based on the situation analysis).
In other words, If we are creating a marketing plan for a company that already has all the pricing and positioning in place, and if while doing the situation analysis, we find out that changes in those products aren’t necessary, then the “Pricing and Positioning Strategy” section is not necessary.
Content Plan & Schedule.
As mentioned above, “the tactics are frequently linked to a schedule or calendar for better understanding”. You should include the Content Plan section (which comes with the schedule) when the plan is extensive. Put another way, make the content plan a separate section when the marketing plan contains many tactics and products for many customer personas. The content plan section keeps a good organization of the marketing plan.
Competition Analysis.
Notice that I didn’t include the competition in the situation analysis. This is because for many small businesses, focusing on the competition is only a big distraction. Your focus should be on the customers.
I believe it is crucial to understand the role that competition plays in your organization. For example, for some companies, the physical location is really important, and your competition may have a more convenient location. In this case, understanding this will help you come up with better questions; How can I compensate for this? What else is important for my customer so I can compete? etc.
If the market is big and competition is low, you must focus first on your customer, your products, your brand, and the value you offer. Once this is optimized, you can now invest resources understanding the competition looking for ideas to obtain a bigger market portion.
If you decide that the competition analysis should be included, then it’s important to identify what companies compete with what goals/products.
For example, if the company that I am making the marketing plan for, has two products, it is important to understand what companies are competing with which products (it can be different companies or sometimes the same).
Wrapping Up
Having a marketing plan is the key to marketing success. The marketing plan will provide you with an action plan to achieve your mission and goals.
Some additional benefits of a marketing plan are:
SEO optimized content
Control knowing who performs what.
The purpose of each marketing effort.
A better understanding of your customer.
The reason behind the marketing decisions.
Focus on what matters the most (priorities).
A content plan with clear instructions and deadlines.
The clarity for what’s going on with marketing, and why.
A better understanding of your company and marketplace.
Tools to evaluate progress in achieving the tactics and objectives.
Keep in mind that the marketing plan must be concise, well structured, practical, useful, and handy.
Aiming for a large, formal document with an excess of details can result in an overwhelming, boring, and impractical paper that nobody will feel compelled to read. Keep it essential, keep it compelling.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, please, let me know down below. Every opinion on how to improve the content of this blog will allow me to make adjustments on the go, with the objective of providing quality information for you, my dear readers.
If you would like to read my previous post about “Landing Page Essentials”, click here.
Sincerely,
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