What is a marketing project plan?
A marketing project plan is a report or presentation in which you outline your marketing strategy. It covers your marketing goals and the steps you will take to achieve those goals and how you will measure them. The plan can be either for a specific period (for example, the next quarter or year) or for a specific event (for example, a product launch).
So let's take a look at what is included in a marketing plan and what its main purpose is.
6 elements of a marketing plan
No two marketing projects are the same, so no two marketing plans will be the same. However, most successful marketing plans usually have these nine elements in common.
- Market and target audience analysis
Before you start any marketing project, you need to find out who your target audience is and research the market, which will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, identify opportunities for development, and identify potential threats.
- Project goals
A clear statement of the goals of a marketing project helps you determine what result you want to achieve. It is important to set “reasonable” goals – that is, specific, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
- Strategy
Another key element of a marketing project is developing a product or service strategy. This includes identifying the unique characteristics, benefits, and value of your offer to the target audience. It is necessary to develop a bright brand that will attract the attention of consumers and set you apart from competitors.
- Promotion and advertising
An effective promotion and advertising strategy will help draw attention to your product or service. This may include the use of various media channels, social media, content marketing, and other tools to create a positive image and increase sales.
- Resources and budget
To successfully implement a marketing project, it is important to have enough resources and the necessary budget. Therefore, you need to determine how much it will cost to implement the strategy, as well as provide the necessary human, financial, and technical resources.
- Metrics and measurement
Setting up metrics at the beginning of the project will give you the ability to monitor the success of the project in real time and help everyone involved understand what success looks like.
The best metrics will depend on your overall goals.
How to create a marketing plan?
Identify your stakeholders
Stakeholders can be both internal (e.g., CEO or employees) and external (e.g., suppliers or customers).
Assemble the team
Most project teams consist of 6-10 people, but it's better to focus on getting a small group of people who have the necessary knowledge, experience, and authority to get the job done. For example, if your project is about content marketing, a manager, SEO, content writer, and SMM will be enough.
Organize communication
A fairly large percentage of project failures are due to poorly organized communication. So, first, decide where and how your team will communicate (email, messenger, Slack, etc.).
Another good way to increase transparency and improve communication is to implement a time tracking system – Yaware.TimeTracker.
With Yaware.TimeTracker, you can see how long your colleagues are working on a particular task, when difficulties arise, and, accordingly, when to respond by allocating more resources or inviting another team member to help. Implementing the Yaware tool will help reduce stress during your company's ambitious projects.
Create a list of tasks
Remember that your project activities should be conducted in accordance with stakeholder priorities. To do this, prioritize each task and make a list.
Anticipate risks
One way to anticipate risk is to conduct a SWOT analysis. This is an overview of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Keep monitoring
We've already talked about the importance of time management, that monitoring and regular reporting are key to the timely and successful completion of a project. And one of the ways to do this is to use a special tool that we mentioned earlier.
Yaware offers to use the program for 14 days for free so that you can experience its functionality to the fullest!
Want to start using Yaware.TimeTracker? Sign up for an account right now.
