Creating a Marketing Action Plan

If your frustration is wanting more new customers, or increasing sales, or taking home more money, the key to achieving those goals lies in your ability to market your business. And you probably think it isn’t your area of expertise, or it frustrates you, so you put it off. The solution is easier than you think. It’s spending the time now, at the beginning of the year, to come up with a plan and to take action on it. Last week we shared a downloadable marketing plan for you to use – this week we’re taking action on it.

Last week, we offered a downloadable Marketing plan to get you started on the right foot in 2024.  Nothing will bring you more success than taking the time to create a plan. It puts you in the right frame of mind, focuses your time and energy, and creates better outcomes.

Now it’s time to build your action plan (Step 5 on the plan). How are all your ideas and plans for making more money in your business going to get done?  How are you meant to run a business AND market it, especially when marketing is not your expertise?

Let’s break it down into a simple process. 

From your plan, you know what monthly events you want to tie your marketing into. Now you need to decide the details of each event or campaign.

Your goal. What are you trying to achieve?

This will be specific and different for each marketing promotion you plan. 

An example might be to get all the people visiting in the month to return again before the end of the month. Or it might be to book a specific number of appointments in the month. Or you want to host a special event and have 100 people attend. Determine how the goal will be measured – will it be based on sales, campaign redemptions, new additions to your customer list? How will you measure success?

Determine your target audience. Who are you trying to reach?

Your customers can be segmented into various categories and each segment will respond differently and need bigger or smaller offers to influence them, based on how much they currently do business with you. They all need to be treated differently.
 
  • Biggest spenders?
  • Customers who haven’t visited you in a long time?  
  • Most frequent customers? Least Frequent?
  • New Customers?
  • Geographic region?
  • Social Media followers?
  • A specific demographic of people?

Choose your media. Which channels will you use to reach your audience?

We are proponents of using every media available to you – printed material, emails, texts, posters or table tents, washroom signage, digital channels and social media posts. Not everyone will react to each media – the more platforms you use, the higher your results will be because more people will see your message.

Who will do what and by when?

Who will inform your staff about what’s happening and how they need to handle redemptions or procedures? Who will write the emails? Who will create social media content? Who will purchase the extra product needed? Who will capture testimonials? Who will create the materials needed? Who will be responsible for replying to online reviews?

You DO NOT need to be the one who does everything!

Delegate tasks to specific capable people and give them a deadline. Then make sure it is written on the calendar so everyone can be accountable, and you can know what is happening when. You must follow up, and remind of deadlines and when people need your approval. Make it a priority to provide feedback quickly so they can finish their tasks.

Execute and Measure.

As the campaign unfolds you will need to make sure you are monitoring its execution. The biggest problem we see is that staff aren’t clear on how to handle a new process or offer. Which will lead to inaccurate results. Measuring marketing is the only way to know what works and what doesn’t, so that your marketing dollars aren’t wasted.

Review what worked, what didn’t, and make notes for the next time. If it was a winner this year, it will work next year, or can you tweak it for a different month to repeat the success.

Don’t be daunted by this!

Planning ahead will make your marketing run smoothly and reduce the stress of wondering where sales are going to come from each month. With an effective marketing action plan in place, you’ll be able to execute your marketing tasks with ease. Keep it simple so that it doesn’t lead to frustration. The secret is to plan ahead, set goals, and stay focused on your objectives. Don’t wait until the last minute – start planning today!

One of the perks of joining Royalty Rewards® is that you are assigned a personal Coach, who’s always a phone call away.  Right now, they are all working with their clients to help them build out this plan, fill in the blanks and schedule marketing campaigns that support their goals. We are experts when if comes to managing a loyalty and marketing program for Independent Local Businesses.  If you want to outsource your marketing to us, book a call by clicking the button below and see how we can help you meet and exceed your sales goals.

Engaging with your Community

You and your team live and work in your community, you can form deep relationships with local customers, charities, schools, community events, sports teams and other businesses, leading to strong word-of-mouth marketing and local support. This idea is very strategic because in addition to benefiting the community – it gives you a reason to create a lot of effective marketing and encourage new and repeat business.

Read More »

Using Google To Your Advantage

Using Google to your advantage means keeping your Google business listing up to date. And it is one of the easiest and FREE ways to attract more customers. It’s like putting up a big sign that says, “We’re open for business and you’ll love us!”

Read More »

Easy Email Marketing Tips to Keep Your Customers Coming Back

Email is cheap, fast and a great way to engage with your customers. The more you send, the more you engage, and the better your open rates will get. We put together a bunch of easy email marketing tips to help you communicate and build a relationship with them, as well as influence them to return to your business.

Read More »