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A marketing plan outlines all the important pieces needed to successfully and consistently market your business. A marketing plan does not have to be lengthy or complicated. Creating a simple marketing plan is something every small business should have to guide your efforts and keep you focused on your goals. Whether you want to focus solely on inbound marketing or you want to integrate online with off-line marketing activities, there are 10 important reasons why your small business needs a realistic but simple marketing plan.

A simple marketing plan allows you to:

1. Specify a vision for your business

2. Define and communicate your mission

3. Outline what you want to accomplish
4. Describe your ideal client
5. Identify what makes you different
6. Create a road map for achieving your goals
7. Focus on what is important
8. Create an action plan for what you need to do and when
9. Track your progress
10. Remind you that this is your business and not a hobby

Let’s take a look at the key parts of your marketing plan that needs your attention:

Vision for your business

Your vision statement is a vivid description about what you want your business to be so that it inspires and motivates you. A well-defined vision creates a mental picture of the business that you are striving to build.

A clear vision statement benefits your business by:

• Serving as a compass to keep you heading in the right direction.
• Enabling you to assess the many opportunities that are presented to you and make decisions based on whether the opportunity helps you get closer to your vision.
• Helping you measure your progress, set goals, establish priorities, and know when to say no.
• Enabling you to focus on what needs to be done to get there and eliminate anything that wastes time and takes energy away from what is valuable to achieving your dream.

Your mission statement

Your mission is a concise statement of what your business does, developed from the customer’s perspective, and aligned with the vision for the business. It should answer these three questions:

• What do we do? Specifies what you deliver to your customers, not in terms of process, but by the real needs that are fulfilled for your customers when they do business with you.
• How do we do it? Defines the type of products and services you sell and deliver to your customers.
• For whom? Identifies the target market that is most likely to buy your products and services.

Knowing the answers to these questions provides focus for your business and helps you move from the present into the future.

What you want to accomplish

Research has shown a direct link between setting goals and the probability of success. By setting goals and writing them down you are forced to be specific about what you want to achieve, how you will get there and by when. Your marketing goals should be:

• Focused on achieving your vision.
• Prioritized and tackled 1 or 2 at a time.
• Monitored and measured.

It’s common to reassess goals quarterly and adjust the time frames and priorities based on what is happening around you. Life happens and you need to give yourself room to change.

Your ideal target client

Never underestimate the importance of defining your ideal target audience. Understanding the needs of the unique group of people or businesses that you want to work with, who want or need what you have to offer and are willing to spend money to satisfy that need allows your business to provide tremendous value to those who need it the most.

Intimately understanding your ideal client means you know with certainty what problem they are trying to solve or what need they wish to satisfy. With this information, you can then:

• Clearly communicate the value you offer and why they should work with you.
• Discover opportunities to provide additional services that have been overlooked by others.
• Establish yourself as an expert in serving that market.

Being focused on one particular market enables you to make better choices for all of your marketing efforts, saving you time and money on activities that don’t make sense for your business and the clients you serve.

What makes you different

The Internet levels the playing field for small businesses, but in turn, it creates a very crowded market place. Those who can describe how they are different have a competitive advantage over those who cannot.

So how do you make your business stand out from the rest?

The secret to defining what makes your business different is to understand what your ideal client really wants and make sure you deliver it better than anyone else. What do you uniquely offer that your clients find amazing? Do you:

•    Find simpler ways of doing things?
•    Serve a niche market better than anyone else?
•    Bring a new perspective to challenges that offer unique solutions?
•    Package your services in a way that appeals to your ideal client?
•    Create systems that help clients learn how to do things more effectively?

Usually what makes us different need not be a complicated process or service. In many cases, you may offer something that is simple but has extreme value to your clients. We are taught to believe that things of value have to be hard or complex. Just because these things we do are easy for us does not mean they are easy for others. You need to become consciously aware of this value you provide and use it to your benefit.

Your marketing road map for achieving your goals

You wouldn’t take a trip without planning your route. Marketing your business is no different – you need a plan to guide you towards your destination. This plan defines the marketing strategies and the tactics within each strategy that you will use to achieve a particular goal. Marketing strategies and their associated tactics to consider are:

• Social media marketing – Determine which social networks are relevant to your business then develop a plan to build your visibility and expert reputation
• Content Marketing – Define your content marketing plan for topics then use email marketing or blogging to communicate your expertise and message to your target audience. Re-purpose your content using different media – eBook, podcast, video, presentation, infographics
• Search engine marketing – Define your top 10 keywords and optimize your website, directory listings, and social media profiles to increase visibility in the search engines.
• Event marketing – Host webinars or virtual conferences. Publicize the event through your blog and social media outposts. Consider advertising these events on Facebook, Twitter
• News / media /public relations – Become an expert resource for the media, gain visibility through newsworthy activities. Send out press releases, write bylined articles, write and publicize a book
• Advertising – Create and manage pay-per-click advertising on Google, Bing, or on social media as appropriate.

For example if your goal is to grow your email list, then you need a lead generation campaign that would include search, social and content marketing strategies to attract inbound leads.

An action plan to ensure successful execution

Your marketing action plan eliminates random activities that create haphazard results. It defines each marketing campaign project in detail and assigns resources, dates and topics to each activity so that it eliminates the guess work.

You would need to create a lead magnet, a landing page and possibly use Facebook advertising to promote your lead magnet to the right audience. Once you get people to sign up for your email list, you then want a series of emails that can nurture each lead with valuable information.

With a detailed marketing action plan, you always know what you’re doing and when you’re doing it.

To remind you that this is your business and not a hobby

Most of us built our businesses around our passion and in doing so enjoy our work every day. However, if you are in business to be successful, then you need to view marketing as an investment and take the proper steps to ensure you are maximizing your resources. A simple marketing plan with an action plan to help you be consistent ensures you are focusing on the success of your business.

Have you created your simple marketing plan?