3 words for effective marketing plan

Who? What? How?

These three questions or words can determine marketing plan for any product, brand, or company. This is the greatest thing I learned this week, thanks to some of the most awesome people around me.

The WHO?

Who buys your product? This is the most fundamental question that most companies tend to ignore in writing the marketing plan. The who decides your buyer personas, what they like, where they go for information, their demography, choices, likes, dislikes, and etc tells a lot about what you need to get their attention. If you don’t know who you are targeting, you will probably write a great marketing plan but will be completely useless. More on finding your buyer persona and identifying them in later posts.

The WHAT?

Now that you know that Lisa is your buyer, who has ABC certifications, who reads these blogs, attends these specific events, has these 3 specific challenges, is measured on these 3 goals, etc, next step is to design messaging and positioning to address it to her. Now that you know what is her definition of success in her role or job, your messaging will appeal to her success, your features should overcome her challenges and benefits. Your messaging should fit her needs exactly or closely.

The HOW?

This is where the traditional marketing plan comes into picture where you define where to put your money and how to execute on your plans. The only difference is that now you know WHO buys your product and WHAT to message them. As you know which events and content platform they refer to, you can put your money where your buyers go to. This could help you to pull back from hundreds of channels and focus deep on very specific and targeted channels where your buyers journey goes through.

This Who? What? and How? could solve the mystery of making a right marketing plan that works.