Following our attempt to offer a comprehensive perspective on marketing, in this entry we will explain what a marketing plan is. It sounds similar to a marketing strategy, but it isn’t: the former are based on the latter. Just to pose an initial definition, a marketing plan is an operational document that sketches the advertising strategies. It is part of the overall business plan. The previously mentioned strategies are the ones that your business will pursue in order to generate leads and reach its target market (or audience in the case of music promotion).
Marketing Plan: a Broader Definition
In more particular terms, a marketing plan details the reach of the business and the PR campaigns that are meant to happen in a specific period. Your document must include the techniques you’ll use to measure the effect of the previous two. (As an additional fact, when you measure your success, you commonly use numeric results which people in the biz call KPIs.)
There are four basic components of a marketing plan. For starters, it must include market research that justifies your prices, as well as new market entries. Secondly, messages that are exclusively written for your specific audience (considering demographics, of course). Thirdly, the selection of the platforms in which you will promote your product (such as the Internet, magazines, or radio). Finally, the metrics: those numeric guidelines that measure the results of your efforts.
How To Create a Market Plan
From the technicalities of this, you can probably guess that companies—and, even more commonly, large companies—are the main producers of the market plan. Regardless of this fact, you, as an independent and emergent business person, can still create one. Here are the steps.
First, you consider the value proposition of the business, which is the overall promise of value you’ll deliver to the customer. When doing this, keep in mind that the value proposition must include the purpose of your product; i. e., the way it will be useful to the customer. In second place, you need to identify the target market of your brand. (And you do so by researching a lot). Afterwards, you include the justification of your proposal. Specifically, you focus on the creation, timing, and placement of the campaigns you will follow. Lastly, do not forget to explain your metrics, because these are the ones that will ensure you can objectively observe your results.
Conclusions: Should an Emerging Artist Follow a Market Plan?
The simple answer is yes. Even if it is not as complex as the one a company must follow, it is still useful to promote your music. To make it in the music industry, you must listen to as much advice as possible. Turning your intuitions into actual technical knowledge on the subject is always beneficial—even more so if you’re venturing into such a competitive environment.
