Imagine you’re about to open a new store on Shopify. Would you simply set up the site and hope for the best, or would you develop a marketing strategy to attract and convert customers? 

Naturally, you'd opt for the latter to ensure your venture thrives rather than just surviving! A good marketing strategy helps you understand your customers and customize your message. This not only makes your store visible but helps it stand out from competitors and bring traffic to your website. 
In fact, marketers who proactively develop a marketing plan are 356% more likely to succeed. 

But how do you design a marketing plan the right way?

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How to Develop a Marketing Plan

Setting SMART goals:

A marketing strategy is only as effective as the goals it achieves. To ensure these goals are clear and actionable, use the SMART framework. Here’s how you could plan your goals: 

• Specific: Define what you want to achieve and how you will get there. Let’s say, you want to increase the number of page views per visit. You can achieve this by increasing the number of blog posts published weekly. 
• Measurable: Set measurable goals, understand which metrics to track and how you think of progress. 
• Achievable: Set realistic benchmarks to make sure that there is a balance between long-term and short-term goals.
• Relevance: Match your marketing goals with your company’s goals. For instance, if your company aims to double its revenue, a good marketing goal might be to double the number of site visitors.
• Time-bound: Set deadlines to have a sense of direction and urgency. Track progress as regularly as you can to see if you’re on track to meet your goals. 

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Creating a marketing calendar and budget

Marketing Calendar

Marketers who plan their campaigns are three times more likely to achieve success than those who aren’t. Why?

Because without a marketing calendar, it would be difficult for you to create campaigns, meet deadlines, and accurately allocate resources to each project. Rather than proactive measures, you resort to reactive tactics hampering your long-term strategy.

If you’re like us and you love templates and calendars - then download this kit of calendars to keep you on track. 

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Marketing Budget

Once you have established your marketing strategy, you need to focus on the next step: Finances. Create a budget to match your marketing strategy while keeping your overall company's financial plan in mind.

Here’s what you need to do: 

• Define business goals: Outline what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts, which can help you identify which channels and tactics to prioritize. This helps you understand your cost & ROI (Return of Investment). 
• Gain insight into your target market: Research who your ideal customers are and what they need. The more you understand your target audience, the more efficiently you can allocate your marketing budget. With Vitals Facebook Pexels App you can segment and create highly targeted audiences and unlimited pixels to handle all your tracking needs
• Determine monthly expenses: Account for all costs that you incur in a month for marketing including payroll, software subscription, runnings ads, photo shoots, etc.
• Allocate your budget: Use the 70-20-10 rule for marketing budget allocation. 70% for proven strategies (e.g., high-performing blogs, successful ads), 20% for promising newer tactics (e.g., expanding video marketing) and 10% for experimental "moonshots" (e.g., testing emerging platforms). This approach balances reliability with innovation in marketing efforts.
• Track performance and check ROI: Track performance across channels and make sure to calculate the ROI to help fine-tune your budget. 

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After your goals and budgets are decided, the next step is to identify the best ROI channel and form of marketing for your customers. Let’s dive into the following articles to understand how to market your store across channels and platforms: content marketing, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.