Marketing is at the heart of motivating consumers and attracting business. Each company has a different goal and target audience, which requires a unique marketing plan.
Avila University’s online Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Marketing program provides students with the fundamentals to develop and implement marketing strategies and plans in many sectors and roles.
Business professionals must understand the various elements of a marketing plan, the strategies a marketing plan may employ and how companies measure their marketing success. With this knowledge, graduates of Avila’s online B.A. in Marketing program will be equipped to pursue a number of entry-level business roles.
The Most Important Elements of a Marketing Plan
According to HubSpot, “A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. Marketing plans can include different marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, all working toward the same business goals.”
Depending on the company, marketing plans usually outline marketing activities on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Business News Daily’s six tips for creating an effective marketing plan include:
- Create an executive summary.
- Identify your target market.
- Differentiate your brand with inbound marketing.
- Identify competitors that also target your customers.
- State your brand position for your target customers.
- Budget the plan.
Once you’ve created your marketing plan, you can put it into action. This stage is where marketing plan strategies come into play.
Marketing Plan Strategies
Because each company’s marketing goals may differ, market plan strategies can vary. Your plan should outline the practices a business’ uses to reach its intended goals and how. Business News Daily outlines some of the various strategies of a marketing plan:
- Specific outreach campaigns: reaching out to potential customers, influential individuals or brands with a strong relationship with your target audience
- Outreach campaign channels: email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, online advertisement, events
- Required marketing budget: leaders need to know how much marketing will spend for each campaign to stay within the allotted budget.
- Data-driven projections of their success: stakeholders want to see projected success for a marketing campaign to avoid wasting time or money.
How Companies Measure Their Marketing Success
A lot of brainstorming, planning and effort goes into executing a successful marketing plan, but the work doesn’t stop there. Every traditional and digital marketing campaign should be properly tracked. The results of each campaign are measured to see how much business (actual sales) it accomplished, which is the return on investment (ROI).
To measure ROI, companies often ask themselves: did the business make more money than it cost to execute the marketing campaign? If not, then future marketing plans need to be adjusted. Companies can take months to confirm whether or not a marketing plan is successful. However, digital marketing is easier (and faster) to track and measure than traditional marketing because of specific software that collects and analyzes data.
For instance, digital marketers can measure the success of email marketing campaigns by tracking delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates. Additionally, digital marketers can also measure content marketing success by tracking blog page visits, average session duration and SERP rankings.
Digital marketing also allows you to assess each step of the customer journey and gain insights into the individual patterns and intent of prospects. Essentially, good digital marketing teams can begin to develop campaigns that consistently reach target audiences at the right time.
Gain a Strong Marketing Foundation at Avila University
Businesses of all sizes and industries use traditional and digital marketing methods to drive sales and success. If you’re interested in the expansive world of marketing, then the online B.A. in Marketing program from Avila University may be the right fit. You can transfer up to 90 credits from a previous school, gain foundational business knowledge and begin your professional marketing journey.
Learn more about Avila University’s online B.A. in Marketing program.
