How to Create a Marketing Plan

A new year stretches out before you, inviting your creative marketing strategy to fill the blank spaces on the calendar and bring impressive results to benefit your business. Do you feel the excitement of new possibilities? Are you motivated to bravely overcome challenges? The year might be taunting you with the unpredictable.

 

Intimidating? Maybe. Doable? Absolutely! What you need is a plan. If you’re wondering where to begin, here are five steps to creating your marketing plan for the year.

 

What are your goals? That is, what is your boss breathing down your neck about? To create a plan, start with your objectives and be specific. Here’s an example based on what we see at image.works:

Perform an analysis of the geographic market, looking at the demographic profile of the area, especially if you’re entering a new market or opening a new branch. Is the area full of renters who may be ready for their first home? Then a goal of loan growth could focus on an audience of first-time homebuyers, in this case renters. In contrast, if it’s an area where most families already own a home, promoting home equity loans and lines of credit may be a better way to achieve loan growth.

 

Think about the last time you promoted the product or service that you’re focused on. What did you do to reach your audience? Were your efforts successful? What have competitors done? Do a competitive landscape analysis. 

 

This analysis includes identifying your competitors, researching their strategies and strengths and then focusing on your advantage. Understand what your competitors offer, review the marketing they’ve got underway and consider industry trends. This data can inform your decisions, ensuring your marketing is timely, relevant and effective. 

 

It’s also important to take a digital perspective. Which keywords are being searched most often? That’s your indication of what your audience is looking for. Google Analytics can help too! If you want to focus on home equity loans, for example, look at when during the year visitors are coming to your home equity webpage.

 

After you’ve analyzed the competitive landscape, then ask: What is it that only you can offer? Friendly service, a focus on the community, free checking – these are common attributes across financial institutions. So how do you stand out? Maybe you have special services that cater to small businesses, offer a debit card that benefits local schools or provide financial education resources like workshops, webinars and certified financial counselors. Play to your strengths!

 

What does success look like to you? Consider the typical response rate to ensure a realistic goal. 

 

Comparing address lists against actual sales can reveal campaign effectiveness. If you partner with image.works, we can do a matchback analysis for direct mail. We link mailings for specific campaigns to conversions, and there are conversion metrics to tap into for digital marketing, helping you to optimize budget allocation. You’ll be able to understand which channels really influence sales. When we look at results, the question is this: What did you get for your investment? 

 

So, decide ahead of time the results you’re aiming for, track your progress and use the data to inform future decisions. 

 

After you’ve completed these five preliminary steps, it’s time to focus on your strategy. The frequency of collateral is important, as is the method. The same strategy doesn’t work for everyone. This isn’t a time for cookie-cutter marketing. The days are over when you could throw a wide net and generate a large haul. Effective marketing is audience-focused, targeted, timely and relevant. You must reach the right audience with the right message at the right time with multiple touchpoints. Here are some effective tools to consider.

 

Automation: You’ve likely heard the advice to work smarter, not harder. When it comes to marketing, this means making use of automated programs that remove the heavy lifting. 

Multiple touchpoints: Add direct mail to your digital strategy to make your promotions more effective. 98% of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered, and 77% sift through it immediately, based on data from the United States Postal Service. When your audience sees both physical and digital messages, you’re sure to stay top of mind.

 

Big events: Is there a merger or acquisition in your future? What about a core conversion, new branch opening or brand refresh? All of these are opportunities to spread the word about what you offer and how you’re growing. Keep audiences informed by providing key details, creating awareness and garnering support for a positive experience.

 

Think about big events in the lives of your audience too. Different loans meet people’s needs depending on their life stage. image.works’ Life Stage Connect program recognizes milestones for various demographics to target the right audience with the right loan promotion – student loans, home loans, vacation loans and more – based on their current life experience: college-bound students, new parents, empty nesters and retirees. 

 

These are just a handful of the strategies available. To show you how effective they can be, here’s a case study for a financial institution in Mississippi that benefited from the SmartTrack program. Wanting to increase loan revenue and retention, they enlisted image.works to target creditworthy individuals shopping for loans elsewhere. With our SmartTrack program, we targeted those individuals with a series of attractive postcards and emails focusing on auto, home and personal loans. After just the first quarter of a year-long campaign, the institution saw outstanding results, with 35 new loans opened and a total of $949,205.40 in new loan balances.

 

As you create your plan for the year, don’t get too tied to it. A marketing plan is meant to be a living document that gets adjusted as the year goes on. 

 

With a trusted marketing partner like image.works, you enjoy the benefits of ongoing conversations all year. We’ll help you make adjustments based on market changes and which campaigns are performing best. We also bring legacy data to the conversation. We’ve been helping financial institutions across the country create their annual marketing plan for over 25 years, so we’re able to provide insight into what to market when for the best results.

 

If this is the first time you’re creating a strategic marketing plan for the year, take comfort in knowing year two is easier. Fast forward for a moment and see yourself reviewing this year’s  results. Your brand awareness is higher. Any automation you’ve put in place is already running in the background. You’ve got solid data to determine what works well and what ought to be adjusted. You can set new goals and revisit past ones with fresh insight. The marketing train gains momentum. 

 

And now it’s go-time. The new year is here. Your marketing budget is ready to be allocated. You’ve got fresh inspiration for effective campaigns. If you’d like help, image.works has a creative team ready to roll that includes copywriters, designers, digital specialists and project managers to get you going, keep you on track and celebrate the wins with you. Let’s get started!