Marketing Strategy 101: Why Your Small Business Needs a Marketing Plan

Your business needs clients to survive. A basic marketing strategy can give you a few leads, but without a comprehensive marketing plan, there are many pitfalls lying in wait for your business.

Think of a marketing plan as a guide for goal setting that works with your overall business plan. Just like goals that you might set for personal growth, the goals that you set for your business’s marketing efforts are more likely to come to fruition if you write them down. Furthermore, you can (and should) tweak these goals as you gain more information on your journey as a business owner. It might happen that your initial goals are way off the mark for what your business needs. And that’s perfectly fine—as long as you adapt your guide along the way.

Here are four more reasons that your business needs a marketing plan.

It’s a Marketing Strategy that Integrates the Whole Business

When I say that a marketing plan can act as a guide for your business, I mean for the entire business. If you have different departments working toward the goals of the business, a marketing plan can integrate each individual department’s efforts to make sure that everyone is working toward the same thing. From upper management to each individual team member, if your business is not cohesive, your message can become garbled. Potential customers that see this are not likely to turn into real customers.

It’s a Marketing Strategy that Helps with Forecasting

Your business needs forecasting to create budgets, production schedules, and employee schedules. Because a marketing plan requires you to set realistic goals based and predict sales from each marketing effort, it’s invaluable to your business forecasting.

It’s a Marketing Strategy that Makes Your Company Reflect on Products and Services

One of the largest obstacles to any business is convincing consumers to choose their products or services over their competitors. A marketing plan forces you to really reflect on how what you’re offering people sets you apart from your competition—it’s all about consumer interest and consumer response. If something isn’t working and your competition is beating you, this introspection can help you determine whether it’s time to try something new. It might even be time to pivot your business.

It’s a Marketing Strategy that Helps with Pricing

How you price your products or services shouldn’t be a shot in the dark. With a marketing plan, you have to look at what your competitors are doing, so having a plan can give you a more accurate number. You have to be able to strategically place yourself in the market. Depending on how your business compares to your competition, you’ll have to give customers a reason to buy from you instead of others in your market. That means offering quality or value and pricing accordingly. A marketing plan allows you to do that in an informed way.

Ready to discuss your business’s marketing strategy? Get in touch with us today!