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The New Year is a great time to reevaluate and rejuvenate your daily life, but it’s also a great time to reevaluate and rejuvenate your digital marketing plan!
Many of us will be taking the first few weeks of 2021 to take stock of our exercise, eating, and other health habits in order to find places that could use a little improvement. However, it’s also the perfect time to analyze your digital marketing efforts and to create a new digital marketing plan for 2021!
With 2020 in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to go over your business strategy, your ideal customer, your past performance, and your 2021 marketing goals!
It can certainly be a daunting task. Creating a 2021 business marketing plan is part art, part science, and the line between them is not always clearly demarcated.
Luckily, JSL Marketing & Web Design is here to offer some guidance. Read on to learn more about the definition of a marketing plan, the best ways of creating a marketing plan, and some solid templates!
What is a Digital Marketing Plan?
A digital marketing plan is, first and foremost, a plan of attack. It’s a way of analyzing your business situation, defining your perfect client, and then creating a game plan to reach those clients!
While we’re at it, though, it’s important to reiterate what a digital marketing plan is NOT. It’s not merely a content calendar for blog titles or social media posts. This is an important part, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that making a few blog titles is the end-all of digital marketing.
It’s also not merely a list of goals or a simple timeline. This is a great element to include as well, but goal setting in and of itself is not a digital marketing plan.
A true digital marketing plan will begin at the 10,000-foot view. Here, you’ll think through overarching business goals. At this point in planning, it’s important to think high-level and take a “bird’s eye view.” However, eventually, your digital marketing plan should translate into specific and actionable steps (and SMART goals).
This is the midrange of your digital marketing plan. Once you’ve thought through overarching goals, you’ll work on thinking about your business’s strengths and weaknesses through a competitive analysis.
Once you have done this, you’ll define your ideal clients and think about how you will reach these clients.
It’s also important to include some way of measurement as well to determine if the actions you have taken are helping move the needle! After all, the point isn’t just to get your message out in front of as many people as possible. It’s to convince users to take action!
Take a little bit of time to flush out your business goals. Once you have a few goals in mind, and we’ve defined what a digital marketing plan is, let’s think through HOW to develop this plan.
How to Develop a Marketing Plan
As you’re beginning to develop your digital marketing plan, ask yourself the following questions:
What is Your Value Proposition?
What makes your business unique? What do you want your customers to know about your brand? What messages resonate with your audience? What makes you the better choice? You need to be showcasing this throughout your marketing, online voice, content, and more.
What Are Your Most Profitable Products & Services?
Is there a product that drives 50% of your revenue? Do you have a new line of products that customers are not yet aware of? Did you start a new special that needs promoting? This kind of internal look can greatly help you ensure you are putting your efforts toward the highest ROI or return on investment.
What Trends Are Shaping Your Industry?
What are customers expecting from businesses like yours? Think of the last year and what that may mean for continued expectations from clients, customers, employees, even society as a whole! Remember, you are the expert on your ideal customers (or you should be).
Who Are Your Top Competitors?
What are their value propositions? What separates you from these competitors, and where are they beating you, or you them.
What Opportunities Can (Could, Should) Your Business Capitalize On?
What products and services could you add? Is there a gap in the market, industry, or offerings? Do you have a Refer-a-Friend or a Customer Loyalty program? This is a great time to get creative with your digital marketing plan.
What Are Your Business’s Weaknesses?
We all have them, so what are yours? What could your brand do better? Is your product or service the best it possibly can be? What are complaints or poor reviews often revolving around?
These are not the only questions to ask yourself when working on a comprehensive digital marketing plan, but they’re a great start!
Marketing Plan Templates from JSL Marketing & Web Design
The best marketing plan template we can think of begins by taking the questions asked above and translating them into a simple “SWOT” analysis.
A SWOT Analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats – and we could all benefit from using these more often!
The first two (Strengths and Weaknesses) assess your business’s internal situation, like customer service, superior products, etc. The last two (Opportunities and Threats) assess externalities, like your competition, your industry, your particular market, etc. Here’s an example of what a SWOT could look like for a local sandwich shop.
| Strengths: Prime location downtown, best quality sandwich in the area.
Weaknesses: higher-priced food, low Google reviews, despite food critic acclaim. Opportunities: Nearby college market has not been tapped for lunch specials. Threats: Three other sandwich shops with stronger customer bases and reputations are in the area. |
Now, once this is complete, pair your SWOT analysis with your business goals. Let’s assume our sandwich shop wants to grow its monthly revenue by 5% in Q1. From the initial work they’ve already done, the team might lay out the following plan.
| Goals:
Grow Monthly Revenue 5%, YoY in Q1 Add two new positive Google reviews per month, six total in Q1. Receive ten contact form submissions from the new landing page per month, 30 total in Q1. |
| Step 1: Create a College Lunch special.
Step 2: Invest in Google Ad campaigns around lunch special search terms to promote lunch special. Step 3: Begin a Repeat Customer Email campaign (offer coupon for email submission). Step 4: Train staff on how to take new email addresses from first-time customers and add them to an automated campaign. Step 5: Write the following blog titles and post them to the website. Blogs will also be promoted via social media and email campaigns. Best Sandwich Shops in the Area Best Lunch and Beer Pairings How to Choose your Order. Etc… |
| Timeline:
Evaluate Reviews, Website Traffic, Email Open Rates, and Click-Through-Rates Jan 15th Evaluate Reviews, Website Traffic, Email Open Rates, and Click-Through-Rates February 15th Evaluate Reviews, Website Traffic, Email Open Rates, and Click-Through-Rates March 15th |
| Source of Truth:
Google Analytics Contact form submissions Google reviews |
Now that you’ve got these goals defined and perfectly laid out, you’re ready to put rubber to the road and start executing this plan!
But how do you do so? You have the steps, but what’s the best way of making those steps a reality?
If you need marketing expertise to help define and execute your marketing plans and strategies, call JSL Marketing & Web Design! We’re an award-winning and highly reviewed digital marketing agency specializing in digital marketing strategies, SEO, web design, PPC, and more!
Our team has helped many clients reach new heights with our custom-made digital marketing plans and strategies, and we’re ready to discuss what our experts can do for you!