6.01 – Getting Started On A Launch or Growth Plan
Creating a comprehensive plan that outlines your marketing activities is essential for finding and communicating with your targeted customers, inspiring trials, driving sales, and fostering loyalty. Beyond this, you need a plan covering the fundamentals of building a successful and sustainable business. This plan should address product development, market identification and positioning, pricing, capitalization, growth initiatives, distribution, promotion, customer experience, budgets, financial projections, and more. Crafting a marketing plan is a significant project but can be one of the most fulfilling tasks in business.
Defining Your Business
Just like building a house, you need to lay a strong foundation for your business. Start with the basics: define your product, determine how it meets tangible and emotional needs, identify your target consumers, and understand how it fits into the current marketplace. Clearly articulate your business goals.
The following sections provide an actionable overview of the elements of a successful marketing plan. Although not explicitly referred to as the four Ps of marketing, the critical aspects of product, promotion, place, and price are addressed from a modern perspective.
Cornerstones for Sustainable Success
No plan is complete without clear end goals. Mapping out your long-term plan helps you be more efficient, avoid wasting resources, and focus on what truly matters. Consider the following factors:
Growth
Outline the funds, resources, and plans needed to grow your company. Define your one-, three-, and five-year goals.
Year-over-Year Objectives
Set measurable objectives, such as increasing annual customer value by 5-6%, shifting 25% of catalogue customers to website ordering, or achieving 3-4% market share in new territories.
Marketability
Establish quarterly and yearly goals for market share in your target geographies and demographics. Maintaining strong awareness and accessibility to your products is key.
Exit Strategy
Decide whether you aim to eventually sell your business to a larger company, take it public, or pass it on to family.
Starting with Product
Your marketing plan should map out how your product meets a market need, the consumers to target, how you’ll reach them, how to make them aware of your product’s value, and how to compete on value, price, and customer experience.
Consider whether your product is unique to your brand or if you offer a variety of competing products. For unique products, focus on features and customer service distinct to your business. For resellers, emphasise what makes your outlet better, such as personalised service, multiple purchasing options, better pricing, or a more convenient location.
Define the physical, emotional, and functional needs your product fulfils. Don’t rely solely on your assumptions—ask customers, employees, and prospects for feedback on your brand and product.
Defining Your Goals
Discipline is crucial in setting realistic, actionable, and measurable goals. Goals define how you allocate resources and measure success. For example, a goal like “Increasing our customer base by 50%” is actionable and measurable. The metric involves adding half as many customers to your base as you have when you start.
Set goals in terms of revenue, profit, scalability, growth, and expansion. Outline the steps needed to reach these goals and the resources required. Determine whether you can handle marketing activities yourself or need a dedicated marketing team.
Your marketing plan should include a sales plan, defining goals for your sales team over one, three, and five years. Consider how many salespeople you need to achieve your revenue goals and how to compensate them effectively.
Considering Customers
Identify your ideal customers and further segment them according to lifestyle, interests, geography, and other factors. Understand who and what influences your customers.
Your marketing plan should define all constituents, including partners, resellers, investors, employees, community leaders, and influencers. Build customer profiles based on demographics, geography, emotional triggers, attitudes, purchasing patterns, lifestyle, and transactional history.
Monitoring the Market
Understand your geographic reach and product category within that reach. Address market challenges in light of local societal and economic influences, competition, and functional alternatives.
Consider questions like:
- How saturated is your marketplace?
- What are your current challenges (e.g., economy, supply chain issues, consumer pessimism)?
- How do you compare to competitors in terms of access, price, quality, reputation, distribution, features, warranties, and other elements?
Research barriers and costs of entry in new markets and competitors’ market share. Identify markets with lower operational expenses for quicker profitability.
Configuring Channels
Plan how to get your products to market. Will you sell online directly to consumers, through retailers, or via intermediaries and distributors? Consider starting with one or two channels and expanding as you grow.
Audit how competitors distribute their products and weigh the pros and cons of different channels. Note competitors’ rankings and presence on platforms like Amazon.
Planning Your Pricing
A pricing strategy is crucial for competing, reinvesting in your company, and positioning your brand. For example, luxury carmakers price high not just for quality but also for the extraordinary experience and service they offer.
Mapping Out Your Action Plans
Your marketing plan should outline the actions needed for product development, marketing, and sales to accomplish your goals. Include investor relations activities if needed, ensuring compliance with federal law.
Going to Market
Your go-to-market (GTM) plan should identify the initial markets to enter and strategies for gaining awareness, sales, and market share. Research demographics and identify affordable advertising rates, sales channels, office space, and workforce costs to test your concept before expanding.
Finding Funding
Decide whether to grow from revenue or seek external funding. Determine profit margins, control over equity, and capitalization strategies carefully to remain attractive to investors while maintaining control.
Promoting Your Product or Business
Effective promotion is critical for success. Define the channels your target customers use, specify your budget for each channel, determine your messaging and offers, and establish metrics for success
Setting a Budget
Set a marketing budget appropriate for your resources and goals. Consider factors like cost per lead, launch versus growth budgets, and percentage of revenue.
Determining Cost per Lead
Calculate your cost per lead by adding up marketing expenses and dividing by the number of leads generated. Aim for a higher revenue-to-cost ratio for better ROI and profits.
Comparing Launch Budgets and Growth Budgets
Allocate resources wisely for launches and growth. Ensure visibility without overspending in a single period. Balance accelerated activities with steady marketing efforts.
Calculating Percentage of Revenue
Set a marketing budget as a percentage of gross revenues or sales. Determine realistic win rates and timelines for profitability, and use these metrics to guide your marketing investments and pitches to investors.
By following these guidelines, you can create a robust marketing plan that supports your business goals and drives sustainable growth.
