What are the best practices and tips for creating a marketing plan presentation and pitch?

Here are some reasons why understanding your target audience is important in marketing: Better targeting: When you understand your audience, you can create targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to reach and engage with them. Improved messaging: By understanding your target audience, you can craft messaging that speaks directly to their needs and concerns. Increased conversion rates: By tailoring your marketing materials to your audience, you can increase the chances of them taking action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. Better product development: Understanding your target audience can also help you develop products and services that meet their specific needs and preferences.

This is where LinkedIn is SO helpful. Do your best to get a list of who is going to be in the room or call and connect with them BEFORE you show up. Read their profiles, see what they've engaged with recently, who they're connected to, where they've worked and more. This will not only help you prepare for your tone and presentation but also get you visible with them BEFORE being on the spot.

One of the crucial elements of a marketing plan proposal is the identification of your target audience. Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can tailor your marketing message to resonate with them. This means creating content that addresses their pain points, and solves their problems. The more relevant your message is to your target audience, the higher the chances of converting them into customers. Focusing on your target audience helps you save time and money. If you oncentrate your efforts on the people who are most likely to become your customers. You can use various marketing strategies, such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, or email marketing, to reach your target audience.

I have created a LinkedIn Business Questionnaire that all my B2B clients complete before creating their Marketing Sales Strategy. The Questionnaire asks 40 questions to help both myself and clients to better understand their audience. It is an extremely important exercise to assist clients in knowing their audience since many have not formally gone through this process. Coaching and teaching clients your above audience points is KEY critical for them to better understand the marketing and sales process and how to more effectively reach their potential customers. I recommend that all Marketing Strategist create their own unique Questionnaire to assist their clients in the "Know your audience" process.

Adopt the PDCA Cycle. It involves a continuous loop or cycle of Planning, Doing, Checking (studying or evaluating), and Acting (I say, implementing). It is a useful tool which provides a simple, yet an effective approach for solving problems and managing change (In our example, we want to conduct a marketing campaign for a product). Additionally, this tool is useful for testing improvement measures on a small scale before one engages in updating or revising procedures, policies, and practices before launching a full-blown marketing campaign.

Ensure SMART goals and KPIs are being implemented! Goals need to be measurable and include specific key performance indicators to track progress. This not only adds enhanced strategic planning to your current plan, but is also beneficial for planning in the next year.

Be sure that your marketing and sales goals are in alignment. Your campaigns will ultimately be more successful for your organization if you can drive revenue effectively throughout your pipeline.

There is so much involved in a marketing plan and so many people have their view on this - for us, the marketing plan is the very start of it all - it needs to include who you are, what you stand for, your values, your offering and what challenges you solve for others, it needs to capture the experience you want to create for your community and it needs to be shared across your team - the next stage is creating it with outcomes that can be delivered on - equally goals are important and having those outlined is essential - however, there is a stage in between and that involves all the elements of marketing connecting so that goals stand a chance of being achieved!

Example using the SMART framework with a goal to increase sales for your ecom store: Specific: Instead of saying "increase sales", make it specific. Measurable: Set a measurable target, such as "increase sales of our top-selling product line by 15% in the next quarter". Achievable: If you don't have the budget for a major advertising campaign, don't set a goal that requires one. Relevant: If your business objective is to expand your product line, then increasing sales of your current top-selling product line might not be relevant. Time-bound: Set a specific timeline for achieving your goal. In this case, it's "increase sales of our top-selling product line by 15% in the next quarter".

It is critical that your marketing objectives or SMART goals align with the overarching business goals, then work your way from top down. Almost always your company will be focused on generating new revenue so you’re highest level metrics should be: - marketing generated revenue - marketing influenced revenue What metrics matter next? Well that all depends. If you’re a small team with limited bandwidth and you can’t do it all, you’ll need to put your focus on what works. You’ve never got business from social media? Followers likely isn’t a primary objective for your team. You’ve converted 15% of webinar attendees in the past? Attendees and show rate are a much more logical objectives to focus on.

In today's world it is so vital to have a marketing presence and use omni channel marketing. Omni channel marketing aims to provide a seamless and integrated customer experience across all channels and touchpoints. It involves using multiple channels, such as social media, email, mobile, and in-store, to reach customers and provide them with a consistent and personalized experience. People are consuming so much content that it is extremely important to target them in various ways.

The strategies serve as the guiding principles for your marketing plan. Create synergy between your strategies and tactics. That's how you create a focused and coherent plan.

I created a marketing strategy questionnaire for my clients that has 40 of the most important questions needed for the information gathering phase. Once the client gives this information back along with marketing research, then strategies and tactics can be formed. Most businesses don't understand what a Marketing Strategy is and confuse it with posting a blog, Facebook, emails, etc. which may be 101 tactics. Corporations need to take an integrated approach and realize the business, marketing and technology strategies MUST all fit together or sales goals will not be met.

When I've pitched ideas, the best way to make it interesting and to get buy in is by SHOWING what you've done with this strategy in the past and the key results. Use case studies and relevant examples to give your plan more credibility. If it's brand new, then mock up what it will look like and a consumer journey.

When outlining your strategies and tactics, it's important to ensure that they align with your objectives and that they're realistic and achievable given your budget and resources. Additionally, you should consider any potential obstacles or challenges that may arise and develop contingency plans to address them.

𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 While it's important to allocate budget and time to various marketing strategies and tactics, some professionals might not emphasize the need for prioritization. It's crucial to identify the most impactful activities and allocate a larger portion of the budget and timeline to those efforts, ensuring the highest return on investment.

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 Some experts might not stress the need for ongoing monitoring and measuring of the marketing plan's performance. Regularly tracking the progress of marketing activities and adjusting the budget and timeline accordingly helps identify areas of improvement and ensures that resources are allocated effectively.

Some tools to help you create a budget: Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets: Spreadsheets are a common and straightforward way to create a budget. You can create different tabs for different expenses, and use formulas to automatically calculate totals and track spending. Accounting software: Many accounting software programs, such as QuickBooks and Xero, offer budgeting features. These tools allow you to create budgets and track your actual spending against your budget in real-time.

Divide resources based on priority. Place an emphasis on the most impactful strategies. Track and measure performance to adapt and optimise the plan. This dynamic approach ensures efficient resource allocation. That's how you achieve sustainable success.

They're not going to bet on you. A compelling presentation starts with a problem. A successful presentation starts with their specific problem. There's always a little bit of teaching, and it is difficult to walk the line between the novelty of "Ah-ha" moments and the meat of how you will solve their problem. Get very specific and direct about the problem, and then back up your solution with data. You're an ally and a growth partner, and so you should convey that you aren't "betting" on your strategy, and neither should they. So they aren't betting on you, they're trusting you. There's a big difference.

Having numbers and analytics to back up your point is always helpful. When something is quantified then it becomes more concrete.

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 While it's important to provide a comprehensive overview of the marketing plan, some professionals might focus too much on including every detail, resulting in cluttered and overwhelming slides. Instead, the presentation should focus on the key points and use concise, clear language to ensure the audience can easily follow and retain the information.

Your presentation should standout, be well organized, and well designed. Is your presentation in line with your branding? Does it capture attention within the first slide? Keep in mind that everyone has different attention spans. In many cases, less is more in a presentation, and a good presentation should outline or recap the messaging you are providing.

𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 Some experts might underestimate the value of practicing the presentation before delivering it. Rehearsing helps the presenter fine-tune their delivery, identify areas for improvement, and build confidence. This preparation is crucial for ensuring a smooth and engaging presentation that connects with the audience.

It goes without saying, but whether you're presenting to everyone on the executive team as the marketing leader or you're presenting to the marketing leader as an individual contributor—make sure your plan speaks to at least one, if not two, of the goals below: 1. Increasing revenue 2. Increasing the business's sales pipeline Anyone can increase website traffic from any given channel given enough labor, time, and budget. It's harder to show how that plan (and the work done after the plan is approved) is helping the business make top-line revenue or at the very least, helping the sales time out with more qualifying opportunities.

A digital marketing plan helps you organize your initiatives so that you’re continually connecting with your audience, engaging them, and driving them to action. With a digital marketing business plan, you think ahead, coordinate among departments, and integrate your digital marketing for greater impact. Best practices include business goals, digital strategies, and competitive landscape analysis as well as timelines, budgets, digital channels, and more. Without a well-defined plan in place, your digital marketing efforts will be inefficient and ineffective. You’ll likely waste money and see diminished returns.