Most growth marketing activities focus on structural elements. A growth framework provides a blueprint for all of your marketing. Growth marketing adapts your blueprint to your current marketing needs. Unlike traditional marketing, a growth marketing campaign is a tactical approach that puts theory into action.
What about a marketing plan? Let’s break down what a marketing plan is, its purpose, and what it takes to make an effective plan for your growth marketing efforts.
A marketing plan takes all of the different elements of your growth marketing strategy and brings them together. It puts them into an actionable plan that gives you a clear, 10,000-foot view of what you’re trying to achieve, where you’re going, when you’re going to get there, and how you’re going to do so.
A marketing plan also goes beyond strategies and tactics. It includes budgets and considers how a growth-specific marketing plan integrates with a business’s larger marketing initiatives — as well as its mission and goals.
A growth framework functions as a consistent blueprint. A growth marketing strategy identifies your goals and what you need to do to achieve them. A marketing technique or tactic is a specific and circumstantial marketing activity.
In comparison to all of these, a growth marketing plan acts as a roadmap. It is simultaneously broad in scope and detailed in nature to create sustainable growth. It highlights a step-by-step path from vague growth marketing frameworks and strategies to detailed campaigns and tactics that achieve your brand’s marketing goals.
The purpose of a marketing plan is simple. But what does a marketing plan actually look like?
There are many different elements of marketing plan activity. As already mentioned, these pull from across your growth marketing efforts and include some (but not all of) the following.
You can’t create a plan without a marketing goal. What is it that you’re trying to achieve with your growth marketing?
These can be vague objectives when you’re strategizing. When you create a growth marketing plan, though, you want to be specific.
This can come through setting KPIs (key performance indicators) to show you how well your marketing is performing. You can also flesh each objective out into a SMART goal. These are:
A marketing plan must start and end with your goals. This is what your plan is helping you reach, and it must be in focus from the get-go.
Along with a thorough understanding of your objectives, you also want to collect the right data. This is a critical part not just of marketing but of growth marketing, in particular.
One of the central aspects of growth marketing is that it replaces gut instinct with data-driven decision-making. You want this to be a factor when crafting a marketing plan, too. Some of the key data points you want on hand include:
Gather this information. Then use it to better inform and guide the process as you flesh out your marketing plan.
Finally, make sure you’re aware of the various growth marketing channels, tools, and techniques that you have available. These are important, as they are the “boots on the ground” elements of your plan. They are the tactical tools that will turn strategy into reality.
Each tactic in your growth marketing plan should connect to one of the three key growth strategy pillars. These are:
From data to tools to goals, it’s important to put all of the right things into your digital marketing plan. That way, they can collectively paint a realistic picture of how you can reach each marketing goal.
If you need to create a growth marketing plan for your business, it’s important to do so thoughtfully. Here are a few steps you can follow to make the process smooth and effective.
Once you’ve gathered everything, you can create a data-driven step-by-step plan that uses your current resources to achieve your growth marketing goals.
Every growth marketer is aware of the importance of growth strategy and tactics. But it’s important to remember to make a growth marketing plan, too.
This brings everything together. It creates a roadmap to follow as you use specific campaigns and tactics to turn strategies and frameworks into bonafide marketing realities. This delivers results and helps you reach your business goals.
If you’re not sure where to start with your growth marketing plan, reach out! Our growth marketing team can help create a growth marketing strategy to accomplish your business goals.
