Creating and implementing a solid marketing plan will keep your marketing efforts focused, prevent you wasting precious resources, and increase your sales. You have identified your target customers, analysed your competition, and refined your product/service. Now it’s time to bring all of this together into a marketing plan.

There are a number of elements you can – and should – include in your marketing strategy. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be complicated in order to work. The next items will help you create an effective marketing plan.

Any business needs a website to drive sales in today’s digital world. A website is one of the best branding and marketing tools you can offer your business. Without a website, you lose a lot of your potential business because consumers will not be able to learn anything about you and your business’s offerings. 

Here are 7 of the biggest benefits your new business can receive from a simple website:

• It will attract customers to your business and help make you more money
• It makes you look professional and trustworthy
• You can clearly showcase your product/service
• You can display reviews and testimonials prominently 
• You can integrate your website with Google Maps so people can find your business easily
• A website works for you 24/7 without any tea breaks
• It is simple and inexpensive to set up a website. Find a reliable, professional website designer that create an affordable website for you and help you manage the hosting fee and regular updates

With all the competition online, it is not sufficient to just have a website. Whether your website is two pages or twenty or a multi-functional online experience, you have to have a GREAT website. This checklist can help you make sure your website is great:

• It must work well on both mobile and desktop devices 
• It must support and enhance your brand and your homepage must clearly showcase your product/service
• The pages need to be clean and have a good balance of text and graphics that create an easy, simple page
• Use short paragraphs and bullet points to make information more scannable and easy to read and ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors
• Your photos that showcase your product/service must look professional and must not be too small or pixelated
• It must be easy to navigate and your pages must load quickly
• Your contact information must be clearly visible so that visitors don't have to search for a phone number or address 
• Include a call to action on each page of your website that entices customers to do something, eg. Contact Us, Sign Up, Buy Now, or anything else that benefits both the customer and your business
• The website needs to incorporate SEO best practices so that customers can find your website on Google (Ask your website developer)
• Ensure that your website is updated regularly and that someone responds immediately to email inquiries

Note: Most of this work comes when you actually sit down with a website developer and work on your website. Right now, you simply need to consider your website and how it will work.

Social media marketing is a powerful way for businesses of all sizes to reach customers. Your customers are already interacting with brands through social media, and if you're not speaking directly to your audience through social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, you're missing out!

Great marketing on social media can bring remarkable success to your business, creating loyal brand advocates and driving sales. Starting a social media marketing campaign without a strategy is like wandering around a forest without a map – you might have fun, but you'll probably get lost, so you need to think it through carefully and formulate an effective social media marketing plan.

Marketing your business and product/service doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. You just need to apply creativity and initiative. Along with your website and social media, here are some ideas to get you started.

Network, network, network
Network at every opportunity with customers, potential customers, and other business owners. Make connections and keep a record on each person you meet. Quality relationships are the keys to success. Build rapport and follow up.

Create an “elevator pitch”
This is very important for networking. You need to be able to sell people on your product/service in a little over a minute.

Form industry partnerships
Reach out to other business owners whose products and services complement yours and see if they’re open to creating a cross-promotional deal with you. This can be a great way for you both to tap into each other’s client bases and advertise your business for free.

Brochures or flyers
Make sure they are eye-catching so people stop and take an interest in reading them. They must be informative so people know what is being advertised and where to find out more. Lastly they must be convincing so that people get excited about your product/service.

Create eye-catching business cards
Your business card is important for marketing because it helps people you meet remember you, your business, and the product/service you offer.

Signage
Place signage over your place of business and inside. Add branding on your vehicle. Use signs to announce what’s on sale or explain what you do.

Run a competition
You can run Facebook competitions or something in-person. It’s a great way to create buzz and get your business out there. The prize doesn’t have to be big.

Email signatures
Put your business’s contact information in your email signature. It helps people connect your name and face with your business.

Design a T-shirt with your name and logo on it
Wear it everywhere and get your family and friends to wear them too. 

Ask for reviews
Online reviews make it easy for people to rate their experiences with your business. Asking valued customers to leave feedback can help promote your business.

Assist your community
Think about your community’s needs. Could you help get your name known by organising a food or clothing drive or a clean-up effort?

Ask for referrals
A satisfied customer is often glad to refer you to their friends. Help them remember to do so by leaving them extra business cards or fliers that they can give to their friends and family.

Give back and be socially responsible
Altruism pays – and even if it doesn’t, it’s the right attitude to have. Consumers respect a brand that supports a charitable cause or sponsors initiatives that improve lives or help those less fortunate.

Get in touch with your local newspaper
Contact your local newspaper if you organise a drive in your community. See if they want to do a feature on it. The smaller the paper, the more likely.

Offer deals or giveaways
Offering a good deal or a giveaway is a great way to get more interest and business. A small item will do the trick. The business this generates can be great and people often share the good news with their friends.

Power up word-of-mouth advertising
Have a business culture that is so friendly, helpful, efficient and supportive that customers are so delighted that they rave about your business to all their friends, family members and neighbours.

Have a great launch
You can quietly open your doors for business one day, or you can have a great launch. A launch is a great way introduce your new business to the world and interest customers.

• It doesn’t need to be expensive. It simply has to be a bright, colourful, fun event everyone remembers
• Invite people who can make a positive impact on your business
• Invite your local newspaper so you can get some free press coverage
• Post photos of the event on your social media

Knowing how much you have to spend on marketing and how to spend it is critical to the success of your business. A marketing budget will ensure you accurately calculate your marketing plan. When developing your marketing plan and budget, make sure you're only spending money on the activities that contribute to your current marketing goals. Make sure to pick options that will give you the best value while still reaching your target customers.

You can track your sales by product or service. This tells you exactly what's selling and what's not. Armed with this information, the most effective and simplest thing to do is to spend more time promoting what's already selling and less time on what isn't selling.

If sales have fallen, something is wrong and you need to fix it:

• Is it your competition? Has something changed? Has a new competitor entered the market?
• Have the needs, wants or expectations of your target customers changed?
• Is it in the customer experience you are offering?
• Is your marketing strategy not working?
• Is it a staffing problem?
• Is it something you are doing? Or not doing? Or should be doing?