There are 7 steps in setting up your marketing plan and each one is critical and as important as the next. Please don't skip any of the stages. At times, you may feel like you don't need to or can't be bothered doing some of the stages, or you just skip over it because you think you already know the outcome. But trust me, they are all important and as most have found, once you sit down and examine the detail, you find more and more invaluable information. 

The 7 stages are:

1. Goal Setting,
2. Determining Your Target Audience,
3. Analyzing Your Market,
4. Determining Your Unique Value,
5. Selecting the Right Platforms,
6. Planning the Right Content, and
7. Monitoring and Measuring. 

This is one of the most important steps, and I don't know why, but it is something that a lot of people skip over. Please don't.

Clarifying your goals and having them clear in your mind, or pinned to your notice board, is critical to the success or otherwise of your overall plan and its outcomes.

Using the SMART framework is one of the best ways to create a clear, decisive goal. SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timeframe. Using the worksheet to the left will help you in this process. And don't forget the last one, timeframe. Timeframes help you with planning, tracking and motivation, all of which lead to a higher success rate of reaching your goals. 

Motivation is the key to having a successful goal. Breaking them down into actionable steps can help, as well as setting deadlines, and feeling confident and enthusiastic, so congratulate yourself when every milestone is achieved, to keep you feeling motivated. 

I have covered Step 2, Determining Your Target Audience, in depth in Section 5 of Delicious Photography: The Ultimate Handbook, however, I have included the target audience worksheets from my book in the free download of my Marketing Plan workbook. Refer to the link below.

The critical actions of Step 2 include researching your ideal customer, analyzing their demographics, preferences, behaviors and pain points. Creating customer personas is a helpful method of knowing your individual audience segments, so that is another useful tool to include in this step.

Step 3, Analyzing the Market, includes a SWOT analysis of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and can be achieved through brainstorming. Brainstorming is a creative thought process that is used to generate new ideas and concepts necessary to achieve your goals. No idea should be considered too foolish in the beginning as it may lead to other more concrete ideas. A worksheet for this will also be included in my free marketing booklet. 

In Step 3, you will also need to study your competitors, understand what they are doing that is successful for them, and then decide where you can differ from them but do better. 

Step 5 is to choose marketing platforms based on your target audience's preferences. Cover areas such as:

• what social media platforms do they use,
• the best places for paid ads,
• possible email marketing,
• events.

Step 6 is to create a Content Strategy.

• Plan engaging, relevant content that aligns with your goals.
• Consider blog posts, videos, infographics.
• Use a content calendar to stay organized and consistent.

Step 7 covers monitoring and measuring your performance. This includes:

• Allocating resources for each marketing activity. Setting budgets for ad spends, what tools you need, and prioritizing high-impact, cost-effective strategies. 
• Launching campaigns and tracking their progress.
• Tracking website traffic, sales conversion rates and evaluating their effectiveness.
• Regularly reviewing results and adapting to changes to the market or unexpected challenges.