7 steps to follow to create a successful marketing plan:

Prepare a mission statement. Your mission statement briefly outline’s your business’ values and services. Be sure to be authentic when creating this statement, as it should reflect your business practices.

Determine your audience. Knowing your audience knows how to best market them. Do some research and create personas for your target audience or niche market. Use these personas as part of your marketing plan to know how to reach them best.

Describe your services. To effectively market your services, you must be able to describe them. First, take inventory of services you currently offer and those you do not but would like to. Then determine what it would take to provide these services in terms of staff, expertise, and costs.

Spell out marketing and promotional strategies. With social media and other channels, there are many options to choose from regarding marketing strategies. Use your personas and services to determine which ones are right for you. This trial-and-error process requires testing and interaction with clients or prospective clients.

Know your competitors. With widespread Internet access through smartphones, your business faces a more competitive market than ever. To compete, you must learn about your competitors and yourself. Determine your strengths and how you can compare to similar businesses based on value, price, products, services, or combination.

Establish quantifiable marketing goals. A successful marketing plan is one with goals in mind. These goals can include the number of new clients you would like to acquire, the number of people you would like to reach, or the amount of income you would generate. Be realistic in setting your goals so that they are more attainable.

Monitor your results. Free online analytics programs for social media and websites make tracking data about your clients more accessible. This allows you to determine better how well your marketing strategies are working and who your potential clients are. From there, you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

With these steps in mind, you can create a marketing plan to help you best meet your goals. Then, as your business grows, you can adapt your project to your needs.