Marketing Plans for SMEs – How To Get Started

Marketing plans are essential tools that every business needs to succeed. They provide a road map for how to reach your target audience, and how to measure your success along the way.

This article will show you how to get started with marketing plans for small businesses.

A good marketing plan should cover three main areas:

1) Who you are targeting

2) What you are offering

3) Where you are going.

Define Your Goals.

Once you’ve defined who you’re trying to reach and what you’re offering, you’ll need to decide where you’re going with your business. This will involve deciding how much money you want to spend on advertising and promotion. You might choose to focus on one area of your business at first, such as social media, before expanding into other areas.

Set Up A Budget

If you’re starting out small, you might only have enough money to invest in one aspect of your business. That means you’ll need to make some tough decisions about what you’re willing to do and what you won’t. It’s important to set up a budget so you can see exactly how much you’re spending each month.

Create An Action Plan

Once you’ve decided what you’re going to spend your money on, you should start creating an action plan. This will give you a clear idea of when you’ll achieve your goals and what you’ll need to do to get there. You’ll also be able to measure whether you’re making progress towards your goal.

Start Tracking Results

If you’re looking to improve your business, then you need to track your results. It’s easy to lose sight of your goals when you’re busy running your business, so make sure you set aside some time each week to review how things are going.

At its most simple level this is what you’re doing when you create a marketing plan for your small business. There are various levels of detail that you will go into depending on your specific business and if you’re not sure how to do this, that’s where even a once-off consultation with a business like The Marketing Shop can help you. Pop us an email debbie@themarketingshop.ie if you’d like to avail of a complimentary consultation on how to get a plan in place for your marketing.