Essentially, marketing plans are road maps to success. They cover goals, budget, creative assets, costs, and ultimately, the desired ROI on campaigns.
Effective plans use clear goals and strict processes to drive results. A large part of any marketing campaign lies in the budget and in the overall financial objectives.
Marketing plans come in many different forms. Plans are built for single advertising campaigns and for an entire quarter or year of marketing efforts.
Every company works this a little differently, and, ultimately, the responsibility falls on the marketing director.
A single marketing campaign plan is much easier to digest and understand, but a large-scale plan has the flexibility to cross-promote multiple mediums while shifting budgets toward the highest performing outlets.
Plans can have set budgets or flexible budgets, depending on how the company operates.
Budget setting is a top financial objective for any marketing plan. How much money is available and where will it spend.
Budgets are broken down and distributed across different mediums, with money going toward the creative and the media itself.
Budgets for things such as radio and television airtime, billboards or print advertising are set on a flat rate, whereas digital spends are capped and monitored more closely, as the ads are served in a less static ecosystem.
Setting clear KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, in a marketing plan is important for meeting financial objectives.
What is the goal of your marketing plan? Setting a conversion KPI that measures the actual sales and that clearly shows the cost per customer acquisition (CPA) makes it possible to closely predict profits resulting from the marketing campaign.
Setting an awareness KPI means you are raising brand awareness but are not measuring actual returns. Awareness campaigns do not have hard financial objectives set in the market plan outside of spend and desired reach.
The biggest financial objective of any marketing plan is sales and ROI. If you spend $10 dollars marketing, what is your return?
Marketing plans are intended to generate profits, and the close monitoring of return is useful.
CPA-based campaigns are very useful for this exact reason. Knowing the value of your average customer and the exact cost of a lead generated or of a sale made, creates clear financial objectives in a marketing plan.
There are some simple steps that will help you to set financial objectives:
Imagine that you set a financial goal and achieve it. You earned all the money you wanted. What now? Think about what you are going to do with the earned money.
Always try to make your money work and earn. You can do it by for example further investments.
Segregate your financial goals regarding their length of time:
Short-term financial goals (six months to five years). Mid-term financial goals (five to ten years). Long-term financial goals (more than ten years).
Try to set a target date for each financial goal. For example, if you are going to retire in 25 years, make sure you save enough money by that time.
It is impossible to achieve all your financial goals at the same time. Therefore, you should decide on which goal is the most important to you and which you need to achieve first.
For example, if you want to save money for your child who is going to college next year and save money for your retirement, focus on the first goal first.
Calculate how much money you possess at the moment and determine how much you still need to save.
You can also think about how much time you have to achieve your financial goal and calculate the amount you need to save each month.
Some of the benefits of setting financial objectives:
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