If you are starting to work in the digital market or plan to increase the reach of your product, you will need to develop a well-defined business plan.
The business plan is the document that will guide all your actions and will answer basic questions such as: What is my business? Where do I intend to go with it? What is the growth potential of my product? How much do I expect to earn next year?
In that case, the question to ask is not “Should I have a business plan?”, but “How do I write a business plan that will help me achieve the expected results?”.
If you don’t have the answers to any of these questions yet, read this text to the end!
But, in the end, what are business plans?
business plans or business plansare strategic documents used by entrepreneurs in order to convey their business vision to their team members or potential investors.
In addition to playing a key role in attracting a well-founded business plan helps you and identify the best strategies to deal with your .
That means you can focus your energy and resources on what you really need to do, instead of wasting effort on actions that aren’t going to deliver results for your business.
What should I keep in mind when creating my business plan?
The first thing you should do is determine your short, medium and long-term goals, taking into account a maximum period of 12 months.
Whatever your business goal, a year is more than enough time to assess if you’re on the right track.
An exercise that helps a lot in these hours is to write what comes to mind. She closes her eyes and tries to imagine the next year.
Where are you? Has your business grown? Do you have a strong customer base? Are you already able to support your family only with your company?
Think of the answers as “macro goals.”
Next, separate the goals into components in order to define the actions you have to put in place to achieve those results.
Do you want an example? If your goal is to increase the visibility of your product on social networks, gaining 1 million followers in the next year, then you will have to invest in ads on facebook, , Instagram or any other where your audience is.
How to write a business plan that really works?
Now that you understand why you need a business plan, and you’ve spent time gathering the information you need to create one, it’s time to get down to business!
A good business plan is the one that answers as many questions as possible about entrepreneurship, and although there is no business plan like yours, there are issues that are common to all.
Let’s see!
company analysis
- What products and/or services do you offer?
- What are the strengths of your business?
- What actions do you plan to take to gain a competitive advantage in your business? niche of specialization?
Market analysis
- How does your market work?
- Is there room for your business to grow?
- How do trends in your market affect your goals?
competitive analysis
- Who are the leaders in your segment?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competition?
- How do they advertise the product itself?
- What works for them and what can be adapted to your business?
Customer Analysis
- Who is your avatar?
- Where do you get information?
- What are their demographic characteristics?
- What problems do they face on a daily basis? And above all, how can you solve these problems?
Marketing plan
- How will you carry out the advertising of your product? (videos, posts, promotion actions, email marketing)
- What channels will you use to talk to your customer (sales page, squeeze page, fan page, website, blog, YouTube channel, etc.)
- How much are you going to spend on advertising? (this is an estimate, as this value may vary depending on your goals and the performance of your campaigns)
Operations Plan
- What is your action plan?
- What are the milestones you need to accomplish by the end of the year?
- If you have partners in your business, what are the roles of each?
Financial plan
- How much money will you need to create your product?
- How much will you need for disclosure?
- Will you have a buyer support service?
- Thinking of hiring marketing automation tools?
- How many people will work with you?
The Y What do they use as their sales platform they are entitled to various services without having to pay more for it.
By answering these questions, you will be able to create a business plan that really fits your goals.
But always remember to come back to those questions as your business grows to make sure your strategy remains consistent with the product or service you offer.
How to reconcile your business plan with your marketing plan?
When creating a business plan, you automatically think about the actions that can generate more sales, right?
For this reason alone, your marketing plan is a key piece for your business!
We have already seen here on the blog that it doesn’t matter how good your product is if no one knows about it. In other words, your product must have visibility.
The bad news is that, like you, thousands of people launch products daily. That is why it is necessary for you to invest time and effort to differentiate yourself from your competition and become a reference in what you do.
Your communication must be attractive and generate empathy in your audience, to the point of convincing users that your product is ideal for the problem they face.
Simply satisfying customers is no longer enough. You have to dazzle them!
The above sentence from marketing scholar Philip Kotler sums up the importance of the marketing plan for the success of your business.
And it must be your mantra from now on if you want to offer an increasingly complete experience for your users, both before and after the sale.
To create a communication that really works you will have to align three aspects: message, target audience and budget.
Message
To “wow” your potential customer, the message must go far beyond “my product is great”. You have to provide really valuable content, which is compatible with the stage in which the user is in the sales funnel.
To identify which content is more relevant, you will have to segment your audience between those who do not know your product, those who have already researched your product and those who have already bought it.
If you’re just starting out now, your audience is mostly top-of-the-funnel, meaning they need to know who you are to make an informed purchase decision.
To be assertive with the public, your sales page must answer three questions: what problems does your product solve? What is the added value of your product? Why are you different from your competition?
Target audiences
Unless you have a product aimed at a very specific niche, think of your audience as always expanding. All people who share the same interests as your avatar are potential customers.
Imagine that you have a baking course for people with lactose intolerance. This is your initial target audience.
But you can also advertise your course to people interested in confectionery, as these people will have no problem consuming lactose-free products.
The They are great allies to promote niche products, as they bring together people with similar interests in the same place.
In the case of Facebook, you can use the Similar Public resource of Facebook Ads, to identify profiles similar to your avatar, in order to channel your communication towards them.
Budget
After you have decided on your message and your target audience, it is time to establish the amount that you will spend on your marketing activities, including spending on campaigns, website, marketing automation tools, etc.
This value is always an estimate and is subject to change as your business matures and your product becomes better known.
In the first month your actions are more focused on generating more visibility for your product, so it is natural that you invest more in paid advertising.
Over time your strategies will become more qualified and you may be able to allocate resources to other areas of your business.
So don’t worry about being precise in the values!
The expense forecast is just a reference for you to identify if you are spending too much or too little to achieve the goals you have set at the beginning.
How often is it good for me to review my business plan?
The answer to this question is: whenever possible.
You must update your business plan every day, week, month, or every time there is a significant change in your business, in your market or in the consumption habits of your avatar.
While this may seem laborious, it is the exact opposite. The updated business plan will save you effort and resources, because it already excludes everything that you have tried and seen that does not work in your business.
Especially in the market for digital products, where things are constantly changing.
But if for some reason you cannot assume the maximum frequency, you should update your business plan at least once a year to have a broad view of all the actions you have implemented and how they have impacted your results.
Talk to your customers and potential customers
To improve sales performance you have to know what your audience likes the most.
You can discover it through A/B tests, analyzing your business data, but still the easiest way to do it is to continue doing satisfaction/opinion surveys.
Opening a space for your client to express their doubts and complaints is a way to nurture the relationship with your potential clients and keep them engaged, as well as providing information so that you can improve what is not so good in your product.
Don’t be afraid to change course
The most important thing to understand is that all business plans can be wrong as they are based on assumptions and cannot predict all changes in the market.
It is possible that you do a year’s advance planning and run out of money to invest already in the first month, as well as the opposite, and recover all the money invested in only your first launch.
Many variables influence your consumer’s purchasing decision, which is why any of the above scenarios require a change in your business plan, either to save your business from bankruptcy or to become a .
Well then, tell us what do you think of our advice?
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