How to Update a Marketing Plan For Your Small Business (2024)

As a business owner, it's important to make sure that you periodically update your marketing plan. This will ensure that you're able to consistently improve your marketing, attract new customers/clients, and increase brand loyalty. However, effectively adapting your advertising strategies will require ongoing market research and a thorough understanding of your audience. Here's how to regularly update the marketing plan for your products and services to ensure you stay ahead of your competitors.

1. Audit Your Social Media Profiles

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It's always important to keep close tabs on your social media accounts. That's because you may need to shift your focus from platform to platform over time. Here are a few of the most important things to keep in mind when you're auditing your company's social media pages:

  1. Keep track of your user engagement statistics over time, and always focus on improving pages that have lower levels of engagement than previously.
  2. Determine which pages are performing the best, and consider focusing most strongly on other platforms like them in the future.
  3. Always ensure that the new content you post on social media is consistent with your brand's image.
  4. Make sure that you're familiar with the unique target audience on each platform. This can help you to create more effective, customer-based strategies.
  5. Consider reused content if you're promoting your brand on multiple platforms.

2. Don't Use the Same Marketing Strategies For More Than 2-3 Years

If you're wondering how to update a marketing plan, it's important to ensure that you're doing it often enough. Most experts recommend updating your digital marketing strategies every 2-3 years. That's because the internet changes fast, and it's extremely important to keep up with the times. Here are a few signs that it's time to adopt the digital marketing strategies your business uses:

  1. If you notice a decrease in the number of new clients and/or customers you're getting, it's possible that you need to make changes to your digital marketing strategy.
  2. A decline in social media engagement is often a sign that you need to adapt your digital marketing action plan to the current times.
  3. If you notice changes in your audience's demographics, it might be time to update your digital marketing strategies.

3. Keep Up With the Latest SEO Marketing Trends

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Search engines frequently change their algorithms, and you'll need to adapt your SEO strategies accordingly. Here are a few of the most important things to be aware of when you're updating content for Google's latest algorithms:

  1. Understand that the quality of content is likely to become increasingly important with future updates.
  2. If you are unsure about anything in an algorithm update, you can reach out to Google to ask questions.
  3. Always consider voice search rankings when you're adapting content to the latest search engine algorithms.

4. Utilize Word-of-Mouth Marketing

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Word-of-mouth marketing is a tried and true way to promote any small business, and it's essential to do everything that you can to fully harness its potential. Most experts recommend that small business owners make use of these simple techniques:

  1. Offer a refer-a-friend program. This program can include discounts or free merchandise in exchange for referrals.
  2. Harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing on social media by encouraging users to share content.

5. Do Research on Your Competitors

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Regularly doing research on your competitors can help you to optimize the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategies. That's because you'll be able to more effectively differentiate your brand on the web. Here are a few of the most important tips to keep in mind when you're doing this important research:

  1. If you're wondering how to update a marketing plan to keep up with the competition, one of the most important things to look at is familiarizing yourself with their latest products and services.
  2. Know the keywords that your competitors use. This will help you to pick more effective ones for your business.
  3. If you notice that some existing customers seem to have shown an interest in your competitors, try to figure out why this is the case.

E-Marketing Associates Can Help You Update Your Marketing Plan

If you need to change your marketing strategies, E-Marketing Associates is the best agency to hire. That's because we have more than 20 years of small business marketing experience and hundreds of satisfied customers. We offer a wide range of marketing products for small business to help your business grow.

How to Update a Marketing Plan For Your Small Business (2024)

FAQs

How to Update a Marketing Plan For Your Small Business? ›

Most marketing plans outline the particular activities to achieve the marketing strategy for the coming year, so marketing plans will also need to be revisited annually.

Should a marketing plan be revised? ›

Most marketing plans outline the particular activities to achieve the marketing strategy for the coming year, so marketing plans will also need to be revisited annually.

What are the 7 parts of a marketing plan? ›

The term refers to a classification that began as the 4 P's: product, price, placement, and promotion, and has been expanded to Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Packaging, and Process.

What are the 5 P's of a marketing plan? ›

The 5 P's of marketing – Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People – are a framework that helps guide marketing strategies and keep marketers focused on the right things. Let's take a deep dive into their importance for your brand. Need content for your business?

Do small businesses need a marketing plan? ›

A marketing plan is a crucial resource for any small business because it helps you identify the market needs your product or service meets, how your product is different from competitors, and who your product or service is for.

What does a marketing plan look like? ›

Every good marketing plan should include an executive summary, a mission statement, marketing objectives, a SWOT analysis, market research, a marketing strategy, and a budget. Many marketing plans include additional sections as needed, depending on an organization's goals and strategy.

Who writes a marketing plan? ›

The CMO of a business unit is likely to be responsible for the creation of its marketing plan. However, the CMO is generally assisted by marketing professionals and other staff members, who often work on marketing planning teams as needed. Marketing analysts, however, are permanent members of the CMO's staff.

How to do a marketing plan step by step? ›

There are nine major steps required to develop a well-crafted, strategic marketing plan: set your marketing goals, conduct a marketing audit, conduct market research, analyze the research, identify your target audience, determine a budget, develop specific marketing strategies, develop an implementation schedule for ...

Can a marketing plan be changed? ›

To effectively reach your target market, it is essential to keep up with their evolving needs. One way to do this is by updating your marketing plan using your marketing mix to cater to changing circ*mstances. Some brands are able to standardize their marketing efforts and don't have to adapt much.

When should you update your marketing plan? ›

2. Don't Use the Same Marketing Strategies For More Than 2-3 Years. If you're wondering how to update a marketing plan, it's important to ensure that you're doing it often enough. Most experts recommend updating your digital marketing strategies every 2-3 years.

When should a small business revisit its marketing plan? ›

Plan to review your marketing plan at least once per year to ensure all of your objectives, target demographics, market research and marketing activities still fit your company. If your business changes frequently, set more frequent review intervals, such as once a month or every quarter.

Should marketing plans be changed or modified why? ›

With time, trends and circ*mstances naturally change. Revising your marketing strategy regularly keeps you current, relevant, and adaptive to the market.

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