It’s time to launch your new product.
You’ve done the research, gotten feedback from potential customers, and now you’re ready to take off.
But…
There’s one thing you need before you set out: a marketing plan.
A marketing plan is a blueprint for how your business will be marketed and sold to customers. It should outline exactly:
- How to get in touch with your audience,
- What message to send,
- How to communicate that message,
- And what channels to use.
Without a marketing plan for your new product, you’ll face an uphill battle trying to sell it. But with one in hand, you can make sure everyone knows about the exciting launch of something brand new!
Before I start talking about how actually to create a marketing plan, let’s first see why it’s so important:
Why is the planning of your new product marketing crucial?
Marketing is one of the most critical aspects of product success. The right marketing plan can make your new product a big hit, but without it… not so much!
A good marketing plan ensures you use time and resources wisely by focusing on what works best to get the results at a fraction of the cost.
It makes sure that you’re reaching the right people and getting your message across in a way that makes sense to them.
Having a marketing plan means you control your brand and the message it sends out, so if something goes wrong with your product-market fit or any other aspect of business, you can quickly course correct to prevent damage.
Without a good marketing plan for your new product, you’re basically flying blind into the unknown.
In other words, a good marketing plan helps you to get your new product off the ground.
Another important thing is to have plans B, C, D, etc. Regardless of what your strategic plan is, you need to have some backup in mind.
Leaving nothing to chance, you need to have everything planned out.
If plan A fails, then what?
You should always have a backup or two ready to go!
Now that I’ve explained why a good marketing plan is crucial for your new product’s success and why you need it … how do you actually create one?
How To Create A Marketing Plan For A New Product To Guarantee Success
Many newbies just leap into the deep end of marketing without any planning, thinking: “I will figure it out as I go along.”
However, it doesn’t work like that. You need to put some thought and care into your plan if you want actual results!
Here are the 8 steps you need to take to create an effective marketing plan for your new product:
Step 1: Understand Your Target Audience
The first thing your marketing plan should involve is determining who you want to sell to.
Who is most likely to buy your product?
What are they like?
Where can you find them?
What makes them tick?
You need a customer profile so that every aspect of how you market and sell to them is tailored specifically for that audience.
If you don’t know your target audience, how do you think they’ll respond to what you’re selling?
Do some research and find out!
You can get help from some tools like Google Trends or Ahrefs.
With these platforms, you type in a keyword related to the kind of product or service your company offers. Then, you’ll be provided with some data about who’s using those keywords online and how they’re using them.
That will help you get a better idea of who your target audience is and how they consume content in the digital space.
What are their interests? What language do they use on social media or in marketing emails that you receive?
The more information you have, the easier it will be to target your marketing efforts towards that specific audience.
Step 2: Define Your Brand’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
This may not be as easy as it sounds; in fact, it’s pretty difficult to define your USP.
Why?
Because so many brands and companies spend a lot of time figuring out what their USP is, they fail to take the time necessary to make it work.
Your USP is what makes your brand memorable and recognizable in your industry. It’s that unique feature or aspect of your business that will make you stand out and entice your target audience to buy from you.
Don’t rush this step!
Make sure you give yourself enough time and space to think about what your USP is going to be like so you can really dive in deep and figure it out.
Don’t just rely on a generic “We’re the best” kind of USP. This isn’t going to work!
Step 3: Define Your Marketing Goals
Now we’re getting into the good stuff:
It’s time to set some goals and figure out what you want to accomplish with your marketing.
There are a few factors that will influence the goals you set for yourself, including:
- Your target audience
- The product you’re selling, and its price point
- The amount of time you have for your marketing plan (if it’s a short or long-term thing)
Once you have all this information, it’s time to set the goals.
You need to think about what kind of results you want from your marketing efforts.
Is your goal to sell more of the products you’re selling?
Do you want people to recognize and remember your brand?
Do you want to get more people talking about your brand online?
Your goals will influence everything else in your marketing plan, so make sure you set the goals you can actually accomplish.
In this step, you should also set Benchmarks.
Benchmarks are the way to measure whether or not your goals have been achieved.
For example, you might have a goal to increase your email list by 50 subscribers in a month. That’s great!
But, how do you measure whether or not that you’ve reached that goal?
Let’s take the goal of increasing email subscribers, for example.
You can set a benchmark at 20 new subscribers in one week, and then check on your list after a week to see if you’ve attained your goal.
This way, there’s a clear record of what you’re trying to accomplish and how to measure it.
Step 4: Determine Your Marketing Budget
Many companies think that it’s impossible to create a marketing plan without having enough money to invest in paid marketing.
Actually, that’s not true at all!
You can create a solid marketing plan without breaking the bank or spending more than you have to.
There are various options open to you depending on the type and range of your marketing budget, including:
- Paid Advertising
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing (writing articles, creating videos)
- Email Marketing
- Public Relations
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Thinking about your target audience, product, and marketing goals will help you figure out how much money to allocate for your budget.
You’ll want to spend your budget on what will help you reach or accomplish your goals.
Step 5: Choose your marketing initiatives and strategies
This is the part of your marketing plan where you describe what is actually in the marketing plan and how you will execute it.
Choosing the strategies is the stage where you figure out how often to post on social media, what your email marketing schedule will be like, and how much you’re going to spend on paid advertising.
This is also where you’ll put together your plan for content marketing, PR, and anything else you’re going to do as a part of your marketing plan.
You should base your marketing initiatives on what you’ve figured out in the previous steps.
You know your target audience, what they want and need, and how much you’re willing to spend on your marketing efforts.
Now it’s time to put all of that together into your plan for how you’re going to market your product or service!
Here are some strategies that you can use.
Step 6: Get Your Plan In Place
The last step to creating a marketing plan for your product is to get it all in place.
You need to put your plan into action and make sure that everyone involved knows what they’re responsible for.
Marketing is a team effort, so make sure everyone who’s involved knows what they need to do and when it needs to be done.
Step 7: Establish a User Onboarding Process
This is something that a lot of companies forget to do…
Users sign up for your product, but then?
They expect you to walk them through the process and show them how to use your product.
This is why it’s so vital that you have a user onboarding process in place and ready to go.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re doing your best to walk new users through the process and give them helpful tips at every step along the way. Not only does a great onboarding help them get the most out of what you offer, but it also lays the groundwork for a great user experience.
When you have a solid onboarding process in place, your users will have a much better time when they’re trying out your product.
That means that they’ll come back again and again.
Onboarding can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be, and the first step is figuring out what your users need to know to get started.
If you’re offering something that people aren’t familiar with, then onboarding will be more complicated than it is with a product everyone has already got used to.
There’s a huge drop-off rate in SaaS products when users don’t understand how to use them, so make sure that you have a good onboarding process in place, and your users will stick around!
Step 8: Track Your Results and Adjust As Needed
The final step in an effective marketing plan is to track your results and make adjustments along the way.
Just because something worked in the past doesn’t mean it will work again, so you need to be flexible and willing to make changes as you’re making progress.
Marketing is all about testing different strategies, messages, angles, and approaches.
It’s not about doing the same thing over and over again.
This is the best way to ensure that your new product or service marketing plan will be effective and successful.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to create a marketing plan for your new product, it’s time to start putting it into action.
Make sure you’re tracking the results of what you’re doing and making the necessary adjustments to the plan.
If you do these two things, then your marketing plan for a new product will be effective and successful.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you write a marketing plan for a new product?
The first step is to understand your audience and define your USP. Once you’ve got that figured out, you should define your marketing goals. You’ll also need to establish a user onboarding process and finally, you should track the results of what you’re doing, and adjust as needed.
What are the 7 elements of a marketing plan?
The 7 elements of a marketing plan are:
– Understanding your audience
– Defining a unique selling proposition (USP)
– Establishing goals and benchmarks
– Setting a budget for marketing activities and goals
– Identifying marketing initiatives and strategies
– Setting up a user onboarding process
– Tracking results and adjusting as needed
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a document that outlines how you’re going to market and sell your product or service. It’s a roadmap of how you’re going to get people interested in buying what you’re offering.
