Developing your 2021 Marketing Plan

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say, once COVID-19 entered the picture, all marketing plans became obsolete. The rules changed; the rug was pulled out from all of us; and every day, thousands of businesses close their doors because they did not know what to do to survive. Panic-driven and knee-jerk reactions are the norm.

If you haven’t done it already, right not it is time to settle down and get your act back together. The place to start is with your Marketing Plan.

When first developing any marketing plan, ask yourself these questions. However, we can all agree 2020 was not a “normal” year and results in additional planning for 2021. Consider these four things when creating your 2021 marketing plan.

What are your Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?

A good way to start to develop a marketing plan is with a SWOT analysis. It is important to analyze your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Determine the strengths and weaknesses of your business as well as the opportunities and threats from external factors.

How has your target customer been impacted or changed?

The Environment

What is the level of demand today? How has COVID reduced the demand, or affected the ability of buyers to purchase from you? Are there other economic or new social issues that need to be considered? How do you know this?

Your Buyers

What steps do your buyers take in the COVID world to purchase your type of offerings? What marketing channels do you need to prioritize to intercept them?

Awareness, Attitude, and Utilization (AAU)

Where are you currently in popularity? How many buyers in your market are Aware of you or your products? What is their current Attitude toward you (or your product)? What is their Attitude regarding your competitors? What is the perception of their value or quality compared to yours? How many actually Utilize you vs. your competitors? How can you learn this?

Is your budget being impacted?

Start by evaluating what you absolutely must do with marketing to stay in business! As you develop your marketing plan strategies and initiatives, you will address project cost to achieve (your budget). You’ll probably have to adjust to meet priorities, but make sure you have what you elect to do properly funded.

How will you measure the effectiveness/ROI?

Today you cannot afford to ignore marketing results. The old habit of lumping marketing expenses under “Brand Development” with no tangible measurement or acceptable return is a sure way to go out of business. Fortunately, with new digital tools, this is now easier to measure than ever before. Unfortunately, there is so much of it, it’s easy to not interpret what data matters, and which you can and should try to improve. You can easily fall into analysis-paralysis.

Marketing Agency in Springfield, MO

Whether you need help developing your 2021 marketing plan or are looking for specific local SEO, media buying, or other marketing services, Red Crow Marketing in Springfield, Missouri can help! Contact us today to start 2021 off with a plan.