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We are in week 2 of our Facebook Live series – Marketing Planning 2018. This week we are discussing the external factors that affect your marketing. As usual, we want to make it actionable and doable for you to actually have a marketing plan that will guide you during the year, not sidetrack you.
Here’s how:
- Ensure your marketing plan is just a guide, not a set of rigid rules and tactics to follow
- Make it top level, so you know your vision, as you execute your campaigns during the year
- Make it detailed enough to have a clear direction, so you and your team know exactly where your marketing decisions are coming from
When we talk about the external factors (after we’ve already identified the internal marketing factors), we want to focus on the main factors you can somewhat control. That’s why we are focusing on gaining the knowledge about the platforms your customers find you on and the companies you compete with, within THOSE SPECIFIC platforms.
1: Know where your customers come from
Do you have a good idea of how your customers currently find you? Do you track your calls, do you ask them or do you have specific goals set up in Google Analytics? Start your external marketing section of the marketing plan with this question, to guide you further which platforms you should focus on in 2018.
This sounds obvious until you ask yourself the next question, that is…
2: Define 2 buckets of competition
Do you know who you are competing with? It’s crazy how often I hear from our potential clients that they either “don’t have competition” or “don’t know their competition”. Knowing your competition will help you to understand your customers better. And knowing your customers better is, literally, everything in marketing!
Knowing your competition will help you to understand your customers better. #marketing #yvr Share on XSo, if you already know who you are competing with (great!), make sure you go further and identify 2 buckets – one for your offline (known) competition, and the other one for your online competition (for those companies that rank for similar keywords as your website). Use SEMrush tool to find that out.
3: Stay in the know
From 1 to 10, how well do you know what’s happening in your market/industry? Do you follow the trends closely or do you just go by what you already know and see around you. Remember, it’s important to stay on top of TRENDS because you don’t want to feel the consequences of trends.
Stay on top of TRENDS because you don't want to FEEL the consequences of trends... #marketing #yvr Share on XBe prepared, so you can tweak your offerings, pricing or services, based on what’s happening in the industry BEFORE the trends affect you.
Having a marketing plan that allows you to stay flexible is KEY these days!
Want more?
Check out our video recording from this week’s Facebook Live here:
Remember, we have 2 more Facebook Live events planned in November, and you definitely don’t want to miss the next one, where we will be talking about marketing TRENDS! 🙂 And not just marketing trends of 2018, BUT the consequences that we see from all those trends from the past!
That is how SEO has changed in the last year (we can FINALLY see the changes… hint: you don’t want to miss this … it’s not all good news, but you definitely want to be in the know on this one). Other things – content marketing, social media in general and social influencers, paid ads, and much more!
Download the Marketing Plan template by filling out the form below:
Got questions? It’s a great time to ask! Comment on our Facebook Page in the events calendar and we will be happy to address them on our next Facebook Live.
Are you at a marketing crossroad of your own? Give us a shout or stop by our marketing company in Vancouver, we always have chocolate. 🙂