Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Having a marketing plan is key to success with business, but how do you do it? And what you need to do is really think through it, and the way to do that is to ask these ten questions I’m about to ask you right now.
What want or need does your product or service fill?
Understanding the paying point of your customers is key when it comes to marketing, so thinking through what need or want you’re filling.
What’s your target market?
So when you’re thinking about this, think about the who, what, when, where and why of your customers (ie how to make money on Shopify?). Who are they, what state are they in, why are they in that state, right, where are they, is there a geo-location there, or where are they spending their time online? Do they spend most of their time on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram, or searching on Google? Where is that? Truly understanding the demographic of your customers, from age to gender to interest, to the colors that they like, right, the things they do, the lifestyle that they live, understanding these things is key to success.
Who are your competitors?
And if you don’t have competitors, think about others may be products or services that try to fill the void that you’re trying to fill, think about that. When you know who your competitors are, do a lot of research. Understand what they’re doing, what are they doing for marketing, what’s their presence looks like, what’s their website looks like, what are their price points? Even try calling them or buying their product and actually experiencing it, go through that. When you have all this information, the key that you’re trying to figure out here is what makes you different. You need differentiation in the marketplace, and so understanding your competitors allows you to understand what you do differently, even though you’re selling the same thing or maybe providing the same service, you probably are doing it in a different way, right? And there’s a reason you do it in a different way, it’s ‘cos you think that way is better, so understanding that allows you to articulate that in your marketing.
What are the goals of your marketing campaign?
Both short terms and long term. So really start with the long term. How many sales do you want to receive, or how many leads do you want to receive in six months or a year, or two years, what does that look like, and what’s your marketing budget to achieve that, what’s your ultimate cost-per-acquisition goal? Try to understand all these end-goal metrics so that you can reverse- engineer them back into bite-size pieces and realistic expectations so that you can ramp up (ie what’s the best method of finding best dropshipping products?). Because marketing doesn’t work overnight, so you don’t want to expect those returns initially right away, but you do want to expect them in the long-term, so how do you get there? Reverse engineering that, and building really achievable goals in the early months will give you that sense of confidence and the overall view long term that you need to drive success.
What is your strategy on search and social?
This is where people spend all their time today. They’re either on a search looking for something, or they’re on social media doing stuff, and so how are you going to be there? What type of keywords on search do you need to rank for? That’s inbound search, that’s when people are at the hottest state of wanting to take action, so how do you rank high there so that you have that visibility, and then how do you get in front of people on social media? What social channels do your customers spend their time on, what type of content excites them, right, what would catch their eye, what type of campaign do you think would be engaging at that point to help them understand who your brand is and build that awareness? Really think through that strategy because dominating search and social these days, when it comes to marketing, that’s key to success.
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