How to create a marketing plan for startups in the early-stage
As much as the growth of startups in the world has been exponential, it does not mean that it is simple to start a business from scratch. The number of startups that are founded is inversely proportional to those that actually achieve the long-awaited success. There are several reasons why startups don’t succeed and certainly, the lack of marketing planning can be one of them.
A lot of people believe that startups need to focus more on sales than marketing, as the sale “brings an immediate result” and the lack of resources does not allow investing in marketing, as the result “tends to be in the long term”. This way of thinking may even have some coherence when we focus on the word “result”, but it characterizes one of the biggest pitfalls in the startup world.
Marketing for early-stage startups works as a guide, a foundation for the sales team. This base is represented by the marketing plan, a fundamental tool to reduce risks and facilitate the sales process. With a marketing plan, in addition to building brand authority and generating demand, some basic questions can be answered:
- Who is my target audience?
- Where is it?
- What is the best approach?
As most startups seek “exponential growth”, these questions become fundamental for this dream to become a reality.
How to start a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is made up of a few steps. Check out each of them below with a brief explanation:
Step 1: Executive Summary
This step consists of looking within yourself! It is a summary of what the startup is. Answering “who am I”, with at least: the startup’s mission, vision, goals, and value proposition. For those who had doubts about the role of marketing for startups in the early stage, here is clear that it is much more than “generating demand and supporting the sales process”. Marketing becomes crucial to the basic structuring of the business.
The Golden Circle. Font: simonsinek.com
The golden circle is a model created by Simon Sinek and has been adopted by several startups as support in step 1 of the marketing plan. Answer the questions “why do I it?”, “what do I do?” and “how do I do it?” can be more complicated than it looks. Check out this TED to learn more about The Golden Circle.
Step 2: Market Research
At that moment, we started to understand who the target audience is, the persona, the competitors, and how the startup in question is in relation to all this. These surveys are carried out in different ways, tracing data available in the market or even carrying out their own research. Some examples of analysis tools for this phase can be empathy map, SWOT, and BCG matrix.
Check for more information: The concept of BCG.
Step 3: Strategy
Many people jump into the strategy without going through phases 1 and 2. Thinking of a strategy can be exciting but it is needed preparation to better understand how to segment properly, how to apply the 4Ps, 4Cs, and 4As. The strategy also includes defining your budget and timeline.
Step 4: Execution
It is time for action! The execution phase is when we create, test, and launch our products or service. That’s the exact moment when we transform all the dreams written in all phases into reality. This is the moment where people face the truth. A lot of synergy with different areas is needed to succeed in this phase.
Step 5: Analytics
There is no news here, despite that, I might say this is one of the most important phases – and it consists of evaluation and monitoring. A marketing plan must be adjusted according to the market response after launching the service. Every plan is open for failures and or adjustments, knowing what they are and when they need to be done is the key to real success.
Now that you know more about the components of a marketing plan, it is time to start yours or review it, in case you already have.
What are the challenges you face to create a marketing plan?
Share those in the comments and let’s have a fruitful conversation about it.