5 tips for crafting your 2014 marketing plan

If your company is like many companies, you are probably in the midst of preparing your strategic plans for 2014.

Business leaders understand that in order to anticipate a successful upcoming year, you have to plan.

Just in case you are struggling with the planning process for your marketing and social media, or need a few ideas about how to implement a plan going forward, here are a few important tips to keep in mind:

1. Figure out where you stand presently.

It really is true! In order for you to move forward, you have to figure out where you are right now. This means taking a serious look at the inner workings of your marketing and social media plan. Doing an internal and external audit of where your business really is, and not where you think it is, will give you a real picture of where you stand. This would also be a good place to examine your strengths and weaknesses. What are you doing right and what have you done that hasn’t worked?

2. What are you trying to accomplish?

Too often businesses think that if they advertise everywhere and post everything on social media, they will magically receive countless leads, more loyal customers and increase their bottom line. In order for you to craft the right messages to get concerted results, you must identify what outcome you are looking for and then proceed to target the right market with the right message through the right medium.

3. Identify your target market and plan how to reach them.

The best way to identify your target market is by investing the time to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is an example of a real person you need to influence crafted from information you retrieve from interviews you conduct with customers or potential customers, or website and social media analytics you collect from your website or social media business page. For example, you can gather the analytics from your Facebook page to find out the exact age group, demographics and gender of the persons who visit your page the most. From this information, create a persona of an individual within that median group and make a plan that targets your messages toward him/her to gain more engagement and interest in your business. Understanding who your client is will help you serve their needs and keep them coming back.