A marketing plan forms a crucial part of business strategy. Without a proper marketing plan, your product or services would struggle to meet its buyers. It is basically a roadmap that helps you achieve your goals while preparing backup plans in advance. Hence, you need to create a realistic marketing strategy. However, it is easier said than done.
Preparing a marketing plan needs hours of research about the target audience and competitors in the field to find out the best marketing channels. Big businesses can take the help of marketing agencies and experts, but a bootstrapped small-scale business would face difficulties in reaching out to marketing experts due to budget constraints.
We stuck to one course of action that was where our customers were, and ready to buy, and easiest for us to see a good ROI. What really worked for us was focusing on a handful of channels that we knew we could do well.
Jameela Ghann, Owner, Alora Boutique
For such businesses, a marketing template is a savior. Merchants will not only save effort but also time with these templates. Create a marketing plan inside a free marketing plan template suggested below by Shopify:
- Marketing plan template by G2
- Marketing plan template by Monday.com
- Marketing plan template by the US Small Business Administration (SBA)
Customize Marketing Plan
Irrespective of which template you opt for, you have to tweak the marketing plan template. There might be certain sections that your business might not require, hence omit them. All e-commerce businesses don’t need a complex marketing strategy. For example- an e-commerce business on lifestyle won’t require an executive summary on the marketing team. Similarly, a publicly traded company should elaborate goals and measurements with detailed information in order to get buy-in from stakeholders.
Below we have listed some useful tips and practices that will help you while you draft a marketing plan for your Shopify store:
1. Set Realistic Expectations
It is important to set practical business goals. Unrealistic expectations might hamper confidence if one fails to meet the marketing goals. Unrealistic business objectives and predictions deceive stakeholders and can adversely impact your brand image. Practical marketing goals encourage you to work accordingly to accomplish your mission without any distractions.
2. Refer To Past Data
Use previous data to tweak your marketing strategy. Past performance can help you set realistic expectations. If your company’s click-through rate (CTR) for Facebook advertisement is 0.5%, it won’t be wise to go far away from that mark with your social media campaigns. The same is applicable to website content. If your website is currently receiving 10,000 visitors each month from Google, setting your target up to a million would be an uphill battle. Instead, the target of 50,000 visitors sounds saner.
If you rely on SEO, then any algorithm updates could potentially cut your revenue for months before you recover. If you rely on paid ads, then any changes to privacy policies can cut your revenue. If you rely on email marketing, then any ESP policy changes can cut your revenue. Diversifying your acquisition is crucial in a fast-paced digital marketing world.
Marquis Matson, VP of Growth, Sozy
3. Take Small Steps
Many e-commerce marketers find themselves trapped in tactical marketing hell. What is it? Well, it is a real situation which occurs when one is trying to get results from all the marketing strategies at once. From tweeting frantically, publishing daily blog posts for SEO, and running ads on Facebook to regularly making changes to the website and content. An e-commerce marketer is doing everything it takes to boost the conversion rate.
If you happen to be lucky, you will get regular sales and traffic from one of these strategies. More often than not, attempting everything at one go will only end up bringing more hassle without any concrete result.
Alora Boutique – Success Story
Jameela Ghann, owner of Alora Boutique says, “When we first started Alora, 10 years ago, our marketing plan was unrealistic. We were just a couple of people making plans that were good on paper but almost impossible to execute with a small team.”
Initially, Jameela’s team aimed to make use of multiple marketing channels— including both offline and online platforms like public relations and advertising, trade shows, blogging and collaborating with influencers among others. However, later the marketing team altered its plan and decided to dive deep into one channel instead of trying to establish its thin presence everywhere at once.
“We stuck to one course of action that was where our customers were, and ready to buy, and easiest for us to see a good ROI. What really worked for us was focusing on a handful of channels that we knew we could do well,” she told Shopify.
Hence, refer to your research on the target audience and note down three marketing channels used by them. All you need to do is to invest energy and time into popularising your brand on those mediums. It is better to avoid a comprehensive marketing strategy in the initial phase.
4. Open To Flexibility
Do not act rigid when it comes to your original marketing plan. Remember, it is not a never-fail manual. You have to modify the plan as and when needed. As quoted by Shopify, Imine Martinez, assistant manager at Rainbowly said, “Our regular campaigns targeting mainly birthday celebrations and anniversaries offered a poor return on ad spend and inconsistent results over the months. That said, during festive seasons, such as Christmas or New Year’s, our targeted campaigns were particularly profitable, achieving five times return on ad spend with much cheaper cost per click and impression.”
If Rainbowly would have stuck to the same marketing plan despite this data, it would have most probably resulted in failure. Just because the marketing plan wrote so, the company would have been spending money on advertising that won’t give the desired result.
Imine said the brand “paused all our campaigns and are making plans only to launch ads during the festive season, advertising on our special time-limited products release. We have also started looking at editorial features and various sales distribution channels as affiliate partners to bring in more reliable traction.”
Unpredictable Market
The market is unpredictable. During the implementation of your marketing strategies, you might encounter unexpected scenarios that can topple your plan. For example- new social media platforms, the PR crisis, changes in algorithms, and global pandemics can compel you to change your marketing plan. Hence, don’t expect to follow your plan to a tee.
Marquis Matson, VP of Growth at Sozy told Shopify, “If you rely on SEO, then any algorithm updates could potentially cut your revenue for months before you recover. If you rely on paid ads, then any changes to privacy policies can cut your revenue. If you rely on email marketing, then any ESP policy changes can cut your revenue. Diversifying your acquisition is crucial in a fast-paced digital marketing world”.
