A well-crafted marketing plan is crucial for the success of any business. Marketing plans are not business plans. Business plans are a waste of time. Marketing plans, however, provide a clear roadmap to MAKING MONEY.
You didn’t start your business ‘cause you were bored. You started it to make money.
Let’s create a money making plan!
Here are the five essential elements that must be included in your marketing plan. They will help you establish a strong foundation for your business, increase profits, and minimize mistakes.
Here we go!
1. Insanely Clear Goals
The very first thing you need when creating a marketing plan is insanely clear goals.
I ask my clients to use a revenue goal tracker to map monthly revenue targets. They write out how much money they will make each month for the entire year. The tracker helps them stay on track to making money and identify any pitfalls along the way.
Here are a few examples of goals you could set:
- Double your sales
- Publish a book by the end of the year
- Achieve a specific revenue target
- Add a sales manager to your team
You have to know where you are going.
Or you don’t know what you are creating at all.
2. Reverse Engineer Your Year
Now that you have established your goals, let’s break them down into actionable monthly tasks. We are going to reverse engineer your goals.
Let’s say you plan to sell 300 handmade nativities throughout the year. You will need to start producing them well in advance. You’ll also need to create a timeline of due dates so you know when to have tasks completed to achieve your goal.
There are a few things to consider when creating monthly action steps:
- When do people typically order nativities? Do they need to be completed by November 1st or closer to December?
- What products or materials need to be ordered and shipped? What is the shipping time?
- How long does it take you to create each nativity?
- What is the upfront cost of the nativities? Are you prepared to not see any revenue on the nativities for several months?
When you know the answers to these questions you can then say things like, “If everything needs to be shipped by Nov. 31st, that means that all nativities need to be made by Nov 15th.” Perhaps that also means you need all the orders by Nov. 1st.
You already have three deadlines in your calendar. This is your plan taking shape.
And if you need all orders by Nov 1st, when do you need to start marketing?
Backtrack each goal this way. You can stay on track by outlining your monthly to-do list and STICKING TO IT! Consider having a monthly meeting with yourself to check in and celebrate your progress.
3. Accountability
Let’s talk accountability. Accountability plays a critical role in the success of your marketing plan. This step gets skipped over all the time – even by me.
Who are you accountable to? Your coach, a community, your friend?
And what does that look like for you?
If you struggle holding yourself accountable, consider partnering with a friend. You could also use an accountability tracker to record weekly achievements, identify areas for improvement, and celebrate your successes.
Do you give yourself presents if you do a good job??
If you are part of the Launched Academy, we have built in accountability throughout the program. This includes a weekly check-in, accountability rooms, and monthly group calls.
Community makes business fun. It can keep you going when things get hard or when you feel like you aren’t measuring up. You need a good community to keep you moving when things get hard and keep you focused when you want to take a side-quest.
4. Prepare for Life Problems
Whether you want to admit it or not, you will have unforeseen challenges that hinder your money making efforts. You gotta prepare for those road bumps because there isn’t anything you can do to stop them.
Life happens. And that is okay.
Kids get sick, basements flood, family passes away, COVID happens, cars break. Life happens, your marketing plan needs ALLOW for life. This means that you are going to over-shoot your plans.
If your marketing plan is set up to only work with life is bree-eezy, it isn’t going to work, because life is not breezy. It is okay, it’s okay. I am not mad at life, but we all need to prepare for the road bumps.
How do you do this?
Plan up.
Do you if your revenue goal is $50k, nope, now you want $75K. If you have a plan to hit $75k and something goes wrong (because it will) you still have a cushion to that $50k. Plan up.
Goals are fluid. You can change your goals. Not hitting $75k doesn’t mean that you failed, it means that you planned to absolutely blow yourself out of the water. And if you miss that number, IT IS FINE.
Allow yourself room to have mistakes. Allow yourself room to have life problems.
5. Clearly Outlined Next Steps
Last but not least, you need to clearly understand and outline your next steps, otherwise you may lose momentum during the process. We already talked about reverse engineering the big dates and revenue goals, now what?
What tasks and action items need to be completed so you reach your revenue goals each month?
Saying, “I am going to hit $6,000 in Feb.” is not a next step. Saying, “I need all my orders by Nov 1st” is not a next step. You need to figure out all of the next steps to make those things happen.
So if you need $6,000 in Feb what are you going to do to make that happen? What do you need to do each day to move closer and closer to that goal?
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Define specific actions and strategies for each stage of your marketing plan. This gives you a roadmap to follow so you can focus your efforts.
- Measure your progress so you can make informed decisions along the way. Then adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Celebrate your wins. This is often overlooked, but such an important part of the process. Consider taking time each week to focus on something good that happened. It will keep you going in the good and bad times – and a great thing to share with your accountability partner.
If you don’t know what to write down, that is exactly why you need a marketing plan. If you don’t know what your next steps are, you need a marketing plan. That is the point, it is to help you go from point A to point Z without getting murdered along the way.
If you had a marketing plan in your head, you wouldn’t be winging it every year. If you already knew every step you wouldn’t be trying to sell nativities Dec 1st when you should have been pushing them in Oct.
Having a robust marketing plan will propel your business forward and help you achieve success in this competitive market. It will empower you to make informed decisions, adapt to challenges, and maximize your chances of reaching your goals.
You got this!
If you are ready for the tools, resources, and COMMUNITY you need to grow a thriving business, join a FREE workshop. Let’s get you what you need to make your business a raging success.
