Why it?s important to have an Integrated Marketing Plan for your business.
Why do companies struggle month by month trying to boost sales? Why is it so difficult to generate leads nowadays?
Many entrepreneurs start their business with great ideas, but once the business is set up, one essential element they’re missing is the question of how? How to market in this economy , how to generate leads, how to communicate value of their services/products to customers?
Businesses owners are often oblivious to the importance of an integrated marketing plan , or either lack the skills and tools to strategically lay out a well constructed marketing plan for the coming year themselves.
3 reasons why you must have an integrated marketing plan:
1. Understanding your customers.
A business’s success ultimately lies in the satisfaction of your customers. In order to serve your customers to their best liking, it’s essential to obtain detailed consumer insights to develop strategies that can adjust your services/products in a way most suitable to your customers.
2. Precise data analysis.
Before making major decisions, possessing detailed and accurate data about your industry, competitors and consumers for a thorough analysis will diminishes the risk of acting upon a decision that may result in negatively impacting the business.
3. Developing an effective communication strategy.
After gathering all pertinent data regarding your target audience, you can now use this information to accurately generate a communication strategy that will effectively deliver your communication objective to the targeted audience.
An integrated marketing plan is not something you can come up with overnight. It’s a long process that requires a lot of brainstorming, market research and analysis, a strong understanding of your company in which you can build a brand from, and the use of marketing tools and processes to effectively implement your plan into the market.
As it may be easy for larger companies to hire a marketing team, the costs of hiring and training the staff may already be too expensive for a smaller business to afford. An excellent solution would be to hire an outsourced marketing firm that has the vital skills and tools required to manage marketing for your business.
All in all, no matter how big or small your business may be, an essential element to a business’s success is to create a marketing plan; to gain a strong understanding of the market and your target audience, creating a communication strategy that will make your business stand out from the crowd.
Jollia Fung
BBA Student, Marketing Specialist