How to create a Perfect Marketing Plan?
Welcome to the tenth chapter of our 11 things to consider before you start blogging series, today we are going to be looking at what a Marketing plan is and how you can create a perfect marketing plan for a new blog.
What is a Marketing Plan?
Firstly we need to establish what a marketing plan is, in Business terms a marketing plan is a written document that details all the necessary actions needed to attain your marketing goals.
What are the benefits of creating a Marketing Plan?
There are many benefits to creating a marketing plan, not just for a blog but for any business you plan to create. I am going to list some of the main benefits I have thought of when you create a marketing plan.
- A marketing plan is a blue print of the actions your blog needs to take in order to meet certain goals that are set by you. By creating a marketing plan you are able to focus on specific tasks there to accomplish these goals therefore it focuses you on the task at hand.
- A marketing plan can help motivate you when establishing a blog and attaining your goals.
- By creating a marketing plan you will have various actions that you can perform to grow your blog therefore you will be broadening your promotions and in turn you will have higher chances of success.
- A marketing plan forces you to consider your short and long term goals which helps keep your business on the right track.
There are plenty of benefits to creating a marketing plan however I believe these are some of the most important benefits.
When I first established my blog I never had a marketing plan, I don’t think I had any goals either, none that were written down anyway. Thinking back I believe if I did have a marketing plan it would of helped me to learn more about the way to market a blog and I would of been able to grow my blog quicker through the forced learning the marketing plan would of enabled me to do.
I recommend anyone who are either in the early stages of blogging development or yet to develop a blog creates a marketing plan to help them keep focused, motivated and to build goals.
How to create a Marketing Plan?
Creating a marketing plan for a blog is a little different when compared to creating a marketing plan for a normal physical business however the same theory applies.
When you create your marketing plan it is important to ensure that each of the tasks you write down all aim to achieve the same goals.
I don’t believe there is one way to create a marketing plan although many business books would probably have you believe this, when your creating the marketing plan for personal use I believe it is up to you how you format, layout and create your marketing plan. How I am going to explain to create a marketing plan may be different to how you want to create it, all that is important is that it contains the following contents.
The marketing plan should contain
- Mission statement or main goal for your blog
- Aims and objectives of your blog
- Marketing budget (if you have one)
- What is your USP (Unique Selling Point)? Answer (Put in if you want, helps to establish how to market)
- Marketing Strategies
I would say that these are the main ingredients of a blog marketing plan. The USP question is there to guide you on how to establish your marketing presence. The way you market your blog is going to have massive affects on your growth, pin pointing your USP to your audience and potential customers/readers is going to help maximise your growth.
Mission statement or main goal for your blog
This should basically be a couple of sentences long (maximum) the idea of the mission statement or main goal is to ensure you keep a focused mind at all times. Have your goal in your head at all times to ensure you do not go off track.
Aims and objectives of your blog
The aims and objectives of your blog are the short term goals that you plan to achieve in the months ahead. By pin pointing exactly what you want to achieve in 3 months time will definitely help in outlining what marketing strategies you are going to use.
Marketing budget (if you have one)
It is a good idea that you outline your marketing budget if you have one for your blog. Perhaps work out your monthly budget or split it up in to a quartely budget so you can measure its effectiveness each quarter.
What is your USP
Outline your Unique Selling Point so that you can then apply this when creating your marketing campaign.
Marketing Strategies
The most important part is to list each strategy you intend on using for your blog. If you are new to Internet Marketing it is best to do some research and uncover the best strategies for reaching the goals you have set in place.
These are some general marketing techniques
- SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) A long term technique for driving traffic, not an ideal way to generate traffic for a new blog however definitely something to put in place from the start.
- SMM (Social Media Marketing) What seems to be an essential part of many bloggers traffic is social media traffic. This is generated through social media marketing which can be done easily and can be very effective, it is definitely worth researching from the start and one to focus on from the start too. Remember social media buttons for your readers (look at the bottom of the article, for mine).
- PPC (Pay Per Click) If you have a marketing budget then it may be a good idea to use some of this marketing budget on PPC. This can generate highly targeted traffic however beware your budget can soon be eaten up through this technique. This is basically the faster way of performing SEO without the optimisation and instead with your wallet.
- Blog commenting. Commenting on other relevant blogs can help generate traffic whilst also have positive effects on your sites search engine performance.
These are just a couple of marketing techniques you can use for promoting your new blog.
In conclusion your marketing plan is there for your personal use (unless your in a joint venture or a team) therefore you should create your marketing plan how you want, these are just guidelines to help you out. Since starting my blog I have now made a marketing plan and although it is not set out professionally it doesn’t need to be, it does its job and that is to keep me motivated and focused.
I hope you enjoyed this article, it was a little different from the others in the series however still I feel it was useful. Have you created a marketing plan, or do you plan to?
Enjoyed this, why not download the 11 part series as an E Book at 73 pages long I am sure you will find it helpful. Subscribe and download right here.
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Great information. This is very interesting and helpful. This is a good eye opener for internet marketing beginners. Thanks for this info.
What about target audience considerations?