Developing a Marketing Plan to Achieve Business Goals

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Developing a Marketing Plan to Achieve Business Goals

Marketing plans help to keep perspective on budgets and also on price, promotion, place, and product. Today, marketers need to plan not only offline marketing initiatives to build customer relationships but also online. Online strategies can be just as complicated when integrating multiple channels in effort to achieve business goals while building brand recognition. Creating a synergistic effect that integrates Internet and traditional channels to increase customer acquisitions, conversions, retention and value growth is a complicated agenda. To best determine an online strategy, it is important to first identify the target market and to understand their behaviors when using online channels.

Advertising is most effective during the initial consideration stage, whereas past experience has the most impact during the evaluation stage. Yet, in store interaction and word of mouth are the most effective during the closure stage. With varying needs of customers and the different marketing options, marketers require a focused and disciplined process to build and develop brands on the Internet. Most importantly, having a strong and trusted brand is essential to success on the web (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

The marketing plan needs to build brand awareness therefore I will utilize traditional and online marketing tactics. The traditional marketing efforts include display ads in industry specific magazines that include contact and website information. Additional offline will include participating in targeted trade shows, where key businesses will be invited to join us at the event and for special gatherings. The online focus includes website, video, and social media development.

Each reach is linked to other pertinent information. For example, an online invitation will be sent to key prospects using emails blasts for special events. The website will include a calendar of events that my company will be attending. Links on the website will connect to social media networks in effort to attract more potential customers, retain existing customers, and increase conversion rates. Each channel builds trust using compelling content that other key individuals respond to. Blogs are also key in providing trust and building relationships. Blogs are also an optimal media source for video. Video helps to engage customers helping to build brand awareness. Below are explanations of these various tools.

Brand awareness and brand image must be obtained to gain customer acquisitions. For obvious reasons, if someone is unaware of a brand, they can hardly make a decision about it. Recognition is most achieved through repeated exposure to brand related messages and images. This builds strong brand, which is essential for consumers to build comfort in an unfamiliar purchasing situation such as the Internet. Regardless of the marketing tools or channels used, it’s critical to support brands with appropriate Internet brand development techniques. Brands that strong and trusted both on and offline have an important asset in all stages of the customer cycle; acquisition conversion, and retention (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Videos influence purchasing behaviors as consumers spend a great deal of time watching them. Therefore, it is up to the marketers to create video with compelling dialog. This does not necessarily mean costly high-end production services, as often consumers are attracted to an authentic voice with compelling content. However, there are times when high-level production deems consideration for branded content to be engaging. Video is a marketing strategy that can build brand recognition through consistent messages and imagery during the acquisition stage of the customer cycle. Video can also provide information to guide customers during the decision making cycle, while also retaining customers with new and creative video.

Key tools to assist in acquiring, converting, and retaining customers include online advertising, email promotions, social media channels, events and public relations, and offline advertising and promotion. Keeping in mind that any and all of these techniques can and should be used along with traditional tools of offline advertising and promotion (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Marketers have various choices when using online advertising. Display advertising includes copy, graphics and corporate branding. Search advertising includes various paid formats like pay-per-click and search engine optimization. Social media advertising typically is a standard display format. Email marketing offers marketers a fast, flexible, format that is easily controlled (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Email promotions include gathering customer data, derive customer insight, suggest proactive action, and evaluate response. Gather customer data includes contact information, physical address, and email. Derive customer insight includes information that has been captured about the customer. Suggest proactive action is moving from the analysis to taking action, while evaluating response includes collecting metrics to determine performance and any necessary improvements (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Important considerations of email promotions are to obtain permission from receivers and to establish a mailing schedule and then sticking it. A good email plan includes taking advantage of word-of-mouth marketing and social media; this can be as simple as including a “forward to friend” link in the email (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Social media has grown, offering marketers another channel to reach customers. Blogs and specific platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn are of key importance. Although it is relatively simple to create an ad on Facebook but developing compelling content to attract notice can be challenging. All Facebook ads include a “Like” icon, if viewers respond to the “Like” icon word-of-mouth will travel more quickly. LinkedIn is targeted more towards a professional audience (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Event marketing is used to acquire new customers and to solidify existing customer relationships. An example of events include, trade shows, exhibits conferences, and seminars. Events are taking on more importance as marketers are developing marketing programs to deepen brand experiences (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

Offline advertising and promotion is still important as marketers acquire, convert, and retain customers. Using offline to leverage online marketing is a successful strategy used by many marketers. Using promotions thank reference websites and social media networks are key in building brands.

Connecting offline and online marketing strategies helps to build brand awareness. However, without understanding the wants and needs of the target market, no offline or online strategy will be successful. Using metrics and data about the target audience allows marketers to determine the right message, channel and timing. As various channels incorporate compelling content, acquisitions, conversion, and retention rates will increase through brand awareness and trust building efforts.

Reference

Roberts, M. & Zahay, D.  (2013). Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, Ohio: South-Western, Cengage Learning.