Getting started with marketing can be a scary prospect for small businesses. This slideshow goes through the basics of setting up a marketing plan that will help to grow your business. Whatever your marketing needs, John Rowbottom Design and Marketing can help. To find out more, visit us at jrdm.com.au today.

1. marketing basics
John Rowbottom

2. why create a marketing plan?
A marketing plan helps you to
understand:
 Your goals
 Your customers
 How to reach them
 How to improve over time
You don’t need a plan to start marketing your
business.
You needa plan
to do it well.

3. setting goals
Having clear goals will let you track
whether or not your campaign is
succeeding.
The goals for your marketing should
match the goals you have for your
business.
Before you can make a plan, you need to know your goals
Goals should be SMART:
 Specific
 Measurable
 Achievable
 Relevant
 Timed

4. specific
‘Attract more customers’ is a general
goal. Planned goals need to be more
focused.
When planning your goals for a
campaign, think about exactly what
you want to achieve.
A planned goal should bespecific, not general
Examples
 Increasesales ofaspecific productorservice
 Increasenumberofleads
 Get customeremail addresses
 Reducenumberof‘lostsales’

5. measurable
If you can measure your results, you
can tell if your campaign is working
or not.
Make sure that each goal you have
set has an outcome that can be
measured.
You need to beable to measureyour results
Examples
 Increasesales ofaspecific productorservice by125
 Get 500new leads
 Get 1000customeremail addresses
 Reducelost salesby20%

6. achievable
Everyone would like to grow their
business by 300% in a week – but
that’s a tough target to reach.
Set goals that are realistic; you’ll be
using them to see if your campaign
is working or not.
You need to beable to reachthe goals you set

7. achievable
Be careful to avoid the trap of ‘vanity
metrics’.
Set goals that specifically affect your
business, such as sales, leads and
income, rather than clicks and likes.
Make sure your goals matter to your business

8. timed
You need to plan when you will
measure the results of your
campaign to see if it was successful
or not.
For each goal you have, set the
deadline for that goal, or the time
span you’ll track it over.
Set a timewhen you will measureyour results
Examples
 Increase sales ofa specific product orservice by 125 every quarter
 Get 500 new leads a month
 Get 1000 customer email addresses bythe endof June
 Reduce monthly lostsales by 20%

9. Understanding who you sell to is important
when putting together a successful marketing
plan.
Customer profiles separate your customers into
groups by things like:
 Age
 Gender
 Occupation
customer profiles
You need to plan when you will
measure the results of your
campaign to see if it was successful
or not.
For each goal you have, set the
deadline for that goal, or the time
span you’ll track it over.
Most businesses sell to a few types ofcustomer

10. What they do – how do they travel to work?
What do they do for fun? How do they spend
their time?
How you help – what need do you meet?
What problem do you help them to solve?
This will help to make sure what you say
matters to your customers, and that your ads
are where your customers will see them.
customer profiles
Foreach group of customers, think about:

11. knowwhat makes you different
Your USP is what sets you apart from the
competition – it’s the reason that your customers
choose you.
Research your closest competitors. Look at what
they sell, their prices, and what they do well, or
do badly.
Think about your competitors from the point of
view of a customer and think about what would
make you want to choose them – or not choose
them!
Everybusiness has a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
When putting your USPtogether, think about things like:
 The things that you dobetter than your competitors
 The benefits yourcustomers can get fromyour products andservices
 Your terms ofservice
 The convenience ofyourservice
 The expertise ofyourstaff

12. putting it together
Think about your customer profiles, and what will
appeal to your customers. What matters to them?
How do you talk to them? What offers would
appeal to them?
You should include your USP, so your customers
know why they should choose you instead of
your competitors.
Nowyou have enough information to start a campaign
Knowing youraudience means you’ll knowwhereto advertise:
Businesses > Linkedin
Business to Customer > Facebook
YoungerAudience >Instagram
Older Audience > Traditional media

13. measure and improve
Look back at the goals you set at the start of the
planning process. Has your campaign helped you
to reach those goals?
Check your results, think about your goals, and
think of ways that you can improve.
This will help you to make changes to your
campaigns and improve your results over time.
After your campaign runs, makesurethat it’s working
Always try to confirm the source of new customers or income.
Online >Analytics
Offline > Customer Surveys, Talkingwith Customers

14. thankyou!