How to Develop a Digital Marketing Business Plan
A business plan is an essential document for a new digital marketing agency. This is because it will help outline the company’s goals and provide transparent financial forecasts.
The plan will also document the products and services the agency will offer along with their prices. This will set the company apart from its competition and give potential clients a clear idea of what to expect.
Defining Your Business’s Brand
Defining your business’s brand is a crucial step in creating a digital marketing plan. This includes understanding what makes your agency unique, so you can highlight these characteristics in your marketing efforts. It also helps you set clear goals for your marketing efforts, so you can measure your success.
Your brand’s unique selling proposition (USP) is what makes your business stand out from the competition. It’s what motivates potential clients to choose your agency over others. For example, the shoe company Tom’s has a strong USP of donating a pair of shoes to someone in need with every purchase.
There are a variety of formats to document a digital marketing agency business plan. Some agency founders prefer the traditional approach of writing a long strategic document across multiple pages. Others opt for a short slide deck, 1-page lean canvas version or wiki format. In recent years, tools like Trello and Notion have become popular for documenting agency processes and strategies in a collaborative way with team members.
Defining Your Audience
Defining your target audience is an important step in digital marketing. It helps you develop campaigns that are more likely to connect with customers and drive sales. To define your audience, you must first understand your customer base.
Depending on your business, your customers may be broad or niche groups. For example, if you sell running shoes, your overall target market could be runners of any age or gender. However, if you are having a sale on Boston Marathon-inspired running shoes, your target audience would be a much more specific subset of that market – elite runners who will be participating in the marathon.
Once you have defined your audience, you must identify the problems they are trying to solve and their pressing desires. This will help you develop marketing messaging that highlights how your products or services are the best solutions to those issues. For example, Tom’s shoes focuses on their charity program, where they donate shoes to people in Africa with each purchase. This is a strong unique selling proposition that drives brand loyalty among their audience.
Defining Your Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition (USP) is a concise statement that describes what sets your product or service apart from the competition. It’s an essential element of your business plan, as it shapes your marketing messages and techniques and influences how you interact with customers.
To develop your USP, start by understanding your target audience and what their needs and desires are. You can do this by conducting research and surveys or analyzing competitors’ offerings.
Defining your USP will help you focus on what you can do differently or better than others in the market, which will help you stand out and attract customers. Unlike a mission statement, a USP is targeted directly to your ideal customer, and it should highlight how you’ll meet their needs in a specific way that no one else can or doesn’t choose to. Be sure to test and refine your USP with a focus group or sample audience, and be prepared to adjust it based on customer feedback.
Defining Your Financials
As you develop your digital marketing business plan, it’s important to look at the financials of your company. This can include your startup costs, your projected revenue and your overhead expenses. It’s also a good idea to conduct competitor analysis and assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in comparison to the competition.
Depending on the type of business plan you’re creating, there are many different formats that you can use to create your document. Some are more comprehensive and have room for longer reasoning, explanations and research and are a good choice if you’re working with external investors or business partners who will review the plan closely.
A PowerPoint presentation is the most commonly used format for a business plan and is an excellent tool for communicating your agency’s vision to staff, clients and stakeholders. The business plans created in this manner are easily editable and can be quickly shared and updated. This makes them a great option for digital marketing agencies.