NO MARKETING PLAN IS A PLAN TO FAIL

"We're going to get ranked high on the search engines!" he said, gesticulating wild growth emphatically with his hands. "And we're going to do pay-per-click marketing too...did you know there are thousands of people per day searching for solar panels on the web? The streets are paved with gold out there!"

That was two years ago, when he insisted he didn't need to spend time on "formalities" like a marketing plan.

A few weeks ago, I ran into him during the course of business and I asked him how things went. He made a funny face and cleared his throat, and I knew where it was headed. Indeed the streets were paved with gold - for his competitors. It seems they had marketing plans.

As it turned out, there are thousands of retailers spending oodles of money to be ranked number one for "solar panels", and the pay-per-click bid rates for the same phrases were insane. If he'd researched a real marketing plan, he would have known that going in.

Marketing plans aren't for presentations - they're for YOU

Whenever I talk to small retailers that see marketing plans as a formality, a waste of precious time and resources, it always seems they've misconstrued the point of a marketing plan. A good marketing plan isn't about fancy Powerpoint slide shows to wow execs in a boardroom, or lure investors.

A good marketing plan is a no-B.S., well researched plan of attack, and the process of creating it forces the entrepreneur to perform the due diligence to truly understand his market dynamics, and figure out how to reach his target audiences in a cost effective way.

A good marketing plan is for the entrepreneur - it's your road map. Without it, you're shooting in the dark, and your marketing dollars are always spent with the stress of "what if this doesn't pay off".

What's included (minimum) in a good online retail marketing plan

• Market Dynamics Analysis - how much money are consumers in the U.S. (or wherever you're marketing) spending on the type of goods you sell? Are average price points going up, or down? What trends in the marketplace support or jeopardize your position?
  

• Competitive Analysis - Who are the competitors in the market? What advantages and disadvantages does each have? Who are the leaders, and why?
  

• Unique Selling Position Refinement - how and why will you be able to compete with the leaders in the market? What customer needs are going unfulfilled by the existing competition? Why will shoppers come buy from you online instead of purchasing in a local brick-and-mortar store? Why will they buy from you instead of your competitors online?
  

• Risks & Advantages - What changes in the marketplace could challenge your unique selling position, or viability? What advantages do you have over your competition?
  

• Ideal Target Customer Profiles - Who specifically would be the easiest customer to sell your product to? If you think "everyone" is an ideal customer for your product, you're probably doomed if you don't narrow down your profile. Even if "everyone" could use your product - trust me, you haven't got the money to market to everyone. Who should you be targeting first? What publications do they read? What websites do they frequent? What other products do they buy? What services to they purchase? How much money do they make?
  

• Potential Marketing Venues - Using your ideal target audiences (previous step), you can now use their lists of interests and other buying relationships they have to figure out how to reach them. Often potential marketing venues will include:
  • The obvious - search engines (including Pay-Per-Click)
  • Comparison Shopping Sites (like Yahoo! Shopping)
  • 3rd Party Affiliate Networks (like Commission Junction)
  • Niche Blogs
  • Online publications
  • Print magazines
  • Social Shopping sites
    

• The Role of PR/Press - if you have a creative concept, and a real value add in your unique selling position, you may be able to leverage the press into highly valuable advertising that would otherwise be impossible to afford. What publications would be likely to write about you? How will you get their attention? How big will the role of the press be in your sales?
  

• Possible Strategic Partnerships - what companies might you partner with, that reach the same target customer audiences you do? What types of cross-promotion deals might be viable for them? How will you reach them? What will your elevator pitch be?
  

• Cross-channel Opportunities - if you have a brick-and-mortar retail store, or mail-order catalog distribution, what cross-promotion can you do with your website that will help increase sales for all channels?
  

• Customer Re-Monetization Strategy - new customers are expensive to get. What role will customer loyalty play in your revenue projections? What loyalty strategies will you implement to effectively re-monetize your customer base? What percentage do you expect will place multiple orders? How many orders per year can you expect from your average customer?
  

• Cost and ROI Projections - chart it out! How much money will you be budgeting for each marketing campaign, over the course of the first year? What returns do you expect on each, over the course of the year.

Using your marketing plan effectively

There's no value in your plan if you don't use it, and chart the results. Start by defining a list of deliverables for the first quarter, with specific deadlines on each. Then start work.

You should be careful to track the results of each marketing campaign independently so that you can easily see which ones are working, and which are not.

Pay careful attention to results, and optimize/change campaigns accordingly.

Update your marketing plan quarterly, based on what you've learned that quarter.

Need help?

Suite Spot Commerce researches & authors marketing plans for our clients, as well as implements their marketing with guaranteed ROI results. You can contact us to get a quote and discuss in detail.