If you work in Marketing, implementing strategies is one of your daily responsibilities. Keeping in mind that the Marketing plan will always depend on the product you’re trying to promote, there are a few generic steps:

1. Define your key KPIs and target audience

Answering the following questions is extremely important to have an effective and successful marketing plan: are you trying the increase brand awareness, boost brand engagement, increase revenue or drive customer acquisition retention? What demographic information is important to understand about your target audience?

2. Do your research

Market research is an essential step to understand your target audience and create an effective marketing campaign. If you identify their pain points and challenges, that can range from financial concerns to convenience, then you’re able to address them beforehand. Besides target audience, you should also be researching on the market and competitive landscape.

3. Answer these two questions: what is your brand’s positioning and the differentiation element for your product?

The formula is quite simple: if you know what your competition is doing, then you know what you need to do differently. Identifying your unique selling point is crucial to have a strong strategy. Are you offering the cheaper product? Does your product have more features? Do you have higher quality? While answering these questions, you should consider how it relates to those customer pain points.

4. Develop marketing goals and strategy

To implement a cost-effective and successful campaign, you should consider SMART goals. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound and this criteria helps ensure that your objectives are well-defined and actionable. First and foremost, any marketing goal should be quantifiable and include metrics or indicators that will allow you to track progress and performance. Your goals also need to be realistic and attainable within the resources, time frame and constraints you have to avoid failure. One example of a SMART marketing goal is to increase market share by 20% within 4 months. This way, you have a clear intention, a time frame and a KPI.

5. Create the marketing plan

This step is a combination of creativity and strategy work. While you still need to define the tactics and channels you’re going to use to achieve your marketing goals and the stakeholders that will be involved, it’s also the time to get creative and to implement a cool campaign that aligns with your brand’s identity.

6. Evaluate the campaign

Once the campaign is launched, you will need to continuously evaluate and iterate. A/B test is a great way to track, optimize performance and make the necessary adjustments.