Create a Game Changing Marketing Action Plan in Just 9 Steps

The Game Changing Marketing Action Plan in Just 9 Steps by Kendall Ramirez Read more at Duct Tape Marketing

To do anything worthwhile, you have to know where you’re going And How are you going there? The saying “planning to fail is planning to fail” couldn’t be more true. If you want your business to be successful, you need to have a game plan.

But where do you start? And how do you create an action plan that sets you up for success? We’ve outlined the steps for you. Follow these 9 easy steps to create your own winning marketing plan.

1. Build a strategy before strategy

Start with strategy.

Don’t fall for the hot, new marketing tactic of the week. The key element in making your marketing effective? A strategy-first approach.

You need to plan your strategy even before you Thinking about strategy. Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you trying to sell to anyone and everyone?
• Are you struggling to stand out from your competition?
• Not sure which device makes sense for you at the moment?

These are strategy problems and can only be addressed with strategy solutions.

You need to know your big picture business goals. Once you’ve defined them, you’ll put together the strategy you’ll follow to bring that strategy to life. use this ultimate marketing strategy plan Small businesses to get you started.

2. Research Your Current Customers

Talk to your people. You can learn a lot from your customers. They shape your business, your core messages, your products or services, the list goes on.

Knowing your customers can uncover the best ways to attract, reach, and serve the right people. Starting from Asking Your Customers These 5 Questions,

3. Research Your Entire Digital Competition

Research is a common theme here.

events competitive research There is a way to grow and develop your business. But it’s not just about researching the companies you consider your direct competitors—you need to take a look at your entire digital competition.

Ask yourself these questions:

• By what criteria should my competitors be ranked?
• What content are they putting on their blog?
• What kind of ads are they making?
• Where is my competition showing up that I am not?

This type of research lets you know about:

• New ways to serve your customers
• Why other sites are ranking higher than yours
• the type of content you need to create
• Data you can use to explore new opportunities
• new opportunities to acquire customers

4. Promise to solve a problem

Nobody wants what you sell. People want their problems solved. solving people’s problems The Golden Ticket to Your Marketing Efforts,

People buy better versions of themselves, not things. They want what they believe will help them feel good about themselves, achieve something high, relieve some level of pain or discomfort, escape a difficult situation, or prepare themselves for the future. Will happen.

It’s your job as a business owner to understand the problems people are trying to solve and match your offering to those specific problems. Very few people in the world want to sell things, services and solutions businesses.

You must have an approach that focuses on a very specific type of customer, with a very specific need or problem, and a promise to solve that problem in a very specific way.

5. Map the Customer Journey with Marketing Hourglass

Customer journey is not linear. It is our job to guide the buyers as they often take a winding path. The way people shop today has changed so dramatically that instead of creating demand, we need to organize behavior.

A traditional marketing funnel might consist of stages such as awareness, consideration, and purchase. But what the traditional marketing funnel neglects to address is that when it comes to lead and referral generation, a happy customer is your most powerful asset.

This is why duct tape marketing follows the following Marketing Hourglass Approach, It consists of seven linked steps:

• know—One of the best ways to find out is through an organic search. Start using content to spark interest.
• likeOnce someone gets to know your business, you need to develop your lead during this stage by demonstrating your expertise, sharing knowledge, and giving them useful resources.
• faith—People buy from organizations they trust. Involve your customers in content creation. This is where customer generated videos, case studies, stories and social media come into play.
• try—This stage is where the auditions take place. This is where you really need to give more than anyone. Consider doing a free or low-cost version of what you sell.
• PurchaseTime to show real results and keep the experience high in this phase. Think about how you on-board new customers, exceed their expectations, and surprise them. The overall customer experience is measured by the end result, not what you did to get the sale.
• Repeat—The best way to get repeat business is to make sure your customers receive and understand the value of doing business with you.
• refer—Turn happy customers into referral customers. Create a remarkable experience with your customers that exceeds their expectations so that they are compelled to share your business with others.

Every business has these stages, but many are not addressing them all. You need to figure out what the journey is like for your ideal customer or the people looking for the solutions you provide.

Use Marketing Hourglass Framework To map your customer journey. Then, the next step in the marketing action plan is to strategically use different types of content at different stages of the hourglass.

6. Use content as the voice of strategy

Content creation is one of the hardest jobs a marketer has to do, but when you plan your content keeping your hourglass in mind, it is the highest paying job you can do.

Content has moved beyond just one strategy—it touches all aspects of your marketing And Your Business. It powers the entire customer journey.

Your audience expects to be able to find information about any product, service or challenge they may be facing simply by doing a Google search. And if you are not looking, you will not be found. There is a very good chance that they will not move forward with you because you lack credibility in their eyes. People go with solutions they feel they can trust.

You must use content as the voice of your strategy, and the best way to do this is by producing content that focuses on education and trust building at every stage of the customer journey.

7. Develop a list of quarterly priorities and live by the calendar

As a small business owner, you know that there is always too much to do and never enough time in the day. But marketing should be seen as a habit that is included in your daily routine.

Planning what needs to be done and when—how you can stay focused on the activities that will give you the highest ROI. Start by making a list of the highest impact items you need to fix or implement for each quarter.

Then, live by the calendar. If you don’t schedule it, chances are it won’t happen.

Something that has worked very well for many business owners – those trained by the duct tape marketing system – is adding monthly themes around your core marketing projects, breaking them down, and spreading them out over the course of the year. Used to be. If you commit to an annual calendar, you’re more likely to follow it on a consistent basis.

8. Measure what matters

There are so many things you can measure: sales metrics, social metrics, content metrics, conversion metrics, growth metrics, the list goes on. and one of the most difficult things is to determine What? You should measure

But you can’t measure what’s easy – you have to measure what matters. You can start by doing these 4 things:

1. Create metrics that meet your primary objectives—Whether your goal is to increase customers by X or to grow your audience by X, you need to define what metrics matter to the goals you set.
2. Establish target goals for each objective—figure out how you’re going to collect the data you need to find out if you’re on the right track.
3. Select the tools you want to use to track your progress—Dashboards are an everyday reality for marketers. As a business owner, you need to be able to see what’s happening on a day-to-day basis.
4. Use your results to improve—When you’re measuring the right things, you’ll start to see trends, why something happened, and what you can do to improve.

9. Instead of systematically building a marketing action plan for you

Creating a plan and controlling your marketing can be difficult. But it’s not hard with the right system. Especially when you use a proven approach.

with duct tape marketing Certified Marketing Manager Program, we take that burden right off your hands. We’ve taken the very same marketing system now installed in thousands of small businesses and turned it into a hybrid coaching and training program designed to help you accomplish two important things: Create a Marketing Action Plan And Learn to apply it. you can Schedule a free one-on-one coaching session here,

Running your business without a well-developed marketing plan is like driving without a map. maybe… just maybe You make it to your destination, but you might find yourself taking a few detours along the way.

Save yourself a lot of trial and error by following these 9 steps.