4 Steps to Building a DIY Marketing Plan

Many entrepreneurs waste time and money on marketing without realizing it.

This is because marketing is much bigger than creating social media posts, intense advertising campaigns, and smart websites. Ultimately it’s those expensive entertainment expenses that may get a lot of attention but may not sell as much.

We need to think about marketing as a holistic strategy to engage the target audience, improve their decision-to-trial journey, and deliver a personalized experience and ongoing value to secure loyalty. Marketing is about building a brand in all these aspects – not just creating lots of content and campaigns.

Success starts with using market and consumer data to ensure your messages and content capture attention and trigger engagement. A well-thought-out program not only captures the first users – it also lays the foundation for maintaining a strong competitive market position.

These are the pillars of a marketing plan that delivers sustainable success, which I explore in my new book, Market Your Business – Your DIY guide to marketingavailable now.

1. Know Your Markets and Customers: Monitor market and consumer data to identify opportunities and risks within your market. Analyzing consumer purchasing and attitude trends and economic indicators can help entrepreneurs make smart decisions about resources, budgets, and product launches, and creative winning plans. Staying on top of market research by reviewing data presented by global data companies and making your own is essential to stay relevant to all target customer groups regardless of market and competitive influences.
2. Build a Value Driven Brand: Because products and services are easy for large companies to replicate, entrepreneurs need to create a brand that appeals to the values, people and goals that are most important to target consumers. To do this, research what personal and social values ​​and processes influence consumers’ product choices. Define your business values ​​beyond the product. Use this to guide marketing, customer experience, and service. Most customers want to spend their money on products that align with their values ​​and beliefs.
3. Organize and Use in Parallel: Research shows that 90 percent of what we do and think is controlled by our unconscious mind but many marketing campaigns and experiences cater to the rational mind with talk about value and luxury. Marketing and customer experiences that appeal to unconscious factors such as authority, social proof, FOMO (fear of missing out), and personal desire are the most effective in generating leads, loyalty and ROI. Emotional messages need to be integrated throughout the system.
4. Master of the Right Channels – To ensure that marketing plans pay off, make sure you use the right channels to reach your goals. Marketing plans need to identify the best channels for each audience group, the best way to use each channel in paid and organic ways, and specific messaging and formats. Channels need to include social, digital, print, events, search, and various formats like videos, memes, reels, blogs/reports, user-generated content, and more to maintain relevance and appeal. Programs need to address content relevance, frequency, promotions, calls to action, and metrics to help determine which channels are and are not paying.

Market Your Business is available now at Amazon and Entrepreneur Bookstore.

Find many useful tips Market Your Business – Your DIY guide to marketingJeanette McMurtry’s new book for Entrepreneur Press. The four-time author of the world’s best business books shares insights and strategies to help entrepreneurs:

• Learn how to use market and consumer data.
• Define your brand values ​​beyond the goods and services sold.
• Appeal to the psychological risks that influence purchasing.
• Engage and nurture target customers on the touchpoint journey to lifetime value.

Each chapter leaves readers with clear steps they can take on any budget. Get clear guidance on setting up metrics and learning plans, and implementing SEO, social, email, CRM, advertising, Google Ads, website, and thought leadership campaigns. Students will learn to find and use resources including contractors and AI tools to improve productivity and access.

Market Your Business provides an important background to McMurtry’s other articles published by Wiley and McGraw-Hill, providing additional tactical guidance. Find out more about this book and others dedicated to starting and growing a business at the Entrepreneur Bookstore.

Related: How to Build a Tech Brand That Stands Out in a Competitive Market