If you’re new to marketing, or running your own business that you are now trying to learn *how* to market, one thing is for sure–you have to learn how to create a marketing plan.
For small to medium sized churches, solopreneurs, and those that are new to marketing, that can be a huge task.
Here are 4 things that you need to make sure you’re doing to create a marketing plan that works for you, and your business.
1) You have to do some research!
Whether you are paying someone else to take a look at what others like you are doing that you think is good (or bad), what is proven to work, and figure out what the landscape around you looks like.
For example–let’s say you’re a church with 500 people in attendance with a goal of increasing your membership by 10 percent in 2023.
What things are other churches in your area doing that seem to be bringing people to them? Sometimes this is a matter of messaging (what you believe in, and how folks hear it), and sometimes this is a matter of distribution (how you’re getting that message to your audience).
If you don’t know who you are, or why you do what you do, that’s a great place to start!
2) You have to create some actionable steps
Once you know who you are, who your audience is, and what you want to communicate, you’ve got to figure out the best way to get that information to the right people.
This has to be concrete. Complete with dates for actions. And dates to do step 4 of this plan.
This has to be something you can evaluate (please don’t say…”we want to make 10,000 impressions,” either…we’ll get to why that is bad in a minute).
This has to be something that is a regular part of your workflow.
So an example of this. Let’s take that same church we referenced earlier. They want 50 more members.
How do you get members? You have to demonstrate value and demonstrate acceptance to folks. Community outreach could be a great way to do that. You might plan an event in a particular neighborhood that is only a value-adding opportunity (not asking folks for anything).
For those that are here because you’re marketers and not church-folks…that’s okay. What you need is a tool to reach people and help them become familiar with your brand.
You might measure the number of attendees that come to that event.
You might follow up with attendees later (around a holiday) to invite them to the church.
You have to demonstrate value and provide a non-threatening opportunity for your prospective members (or clients, or customers, or patients) to see what you have to offer.
What we’re really talking about in this step is that you have to create messaging and opportunities for your target audience to be exposed to your brand in a way that is: nonthreatening, low cost and/or low risk, and you need to figure out the best communication tool for reaching your target audience.
As a digital marketing agency — we prefer tools like video, podcasts, blogging, and social media posts. But those aren’t the only (and aren’t always the best way) to reach your target audience. It just depends on your goals!
3) You’ve got to communicate.
No matter what tactic you choose (or method for communicating) you’ve got to actually do it! So if you choose to use video for social–great. Do it. If you choose direct mail–do it.
But make sure that you create messages that give you an opportunity to do the last step…
4) Evaluate. That. Ish!
No matter the plan, no matter the tool, you have to have a way to measure the effectiveness.
We hear this all the time.
“How do you know that ‘x’ was effective? There’s no way to measure that!”
Of course there isn’t…if you create the message poorly. This is where getting assistance from Observant Media can be really helpful to clients. Whether you’re a church, a small or large business, or a nonprofit, we all have the same goal in mind: we want to help you save money by creating strong messaging attached to actual, measurable goals.
And we can help you do each part of these marketing plans.
If you’d like more information about planning with Observant, schedule a 1-on-1 marketing consultation with us today, or fill out the form below.
Evaluating is a huge part of this piece because it can help you figure out if you need to beef up your efforts in part 1, 2, or 3…if things are going well, why? etc.
Simply put — to be effective at messaging it cannot be an accident.
You have to be intentional to Show Your Story.
Start today!
