Small Business 101: How to Create and Implement a Marketing Plan on a Budget

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When it comes to getting more customers to your small business, you need to seriously consider a marketing plan. Just as a business plan is something that was probably created before the conception of the business but leads the business toward its goals, a marketing plan does the same, only it focuses on creating increased brand awareness.

Many businesses, especially small businesses with limited budgets, overlook the importance of a marketing plan as they’re afraid of the costs incurred. However, there are a few simple ways that you can both create and implement a marketing plan without breaking your small business’s bank.

Identify Your Lead Marketing Strategy with Your Marketing Plan

If you are on a tight budget, you may not have the means to create an entire marketing plan from A to Z, however, this does not mean that you cannot create a smaller one that includes a few clever marketing strategies. The first thing you are going to want to do here is identify where you think you are acquiring the most customers. If you know that this is where your target audience is, then you need to work overtime to try to get more customers out of that pool. It makes a lot more sense to work within a field and audience base that you already know supports to, than trying to come up with a new support group from nothing. This company actually has a great section on their site that delves deeper into this.

There are many different sections within a marketing plan that you can further outline to ensure that your plan is as solid as possible. Seeing as you have already thought about your key audience, you can move on to what you believe your market position is i.e., identifying what makes you different from other companies that sell something similar and outlining your strengths and weaknesses. Knowing your strengths for example will give you all the ideas you need regarding which points to emphasize to potential clients. Furthermore, you should consider your marketing objectives, which is another way of saying that you should always consider where it is you want to be going and in which direction you want to be moving regarding the marketing of your business. You need then to think about the tactics that you wish to implement to make this plan a reality, which is also known as how you plan on implementing your steps, which will be outlined below.

The Implementation Process

This is where you get more hands-on about the whole process. You’ve taken a deep dive into your marketing plan, you know the ins and outs of how you want to create brand awareness and you have even identified where your main source of customers comes from – now you need to spring into account.

Should your business gain a lot of foot traffic then you might want to consider making the look of your store more appealing, to attract even more passersby. If you are selling items online, such as with Facebook Marketplace, then you could consider investing some of your marketing budget into some Facebook Ads, so that you increase your visibility on that specific platform. There are many ways to go about creating a marketing strategy but the most important thing is to work with what you already know works, rather than trying to create the wheel out of thin air.

The process can often feel the most daunting because you are putting a lot of effort and investment in in the beginning and it can be hard to see whether or not you’re reaping the benefits. Therefore, it is always a great idea to consider some marketing analysis tools. This will help create an understanding of which marketing tactics are working, which ones are not working, provide insight into new avenues that could perhaps be thought about and ultimately create a system in which a clear and comprehensive overview regarding the success of the marketing plan is done.

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