A goal without a plan is just a wish - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The 90 Day Launch Plan

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Good planning and solid goals are just the beginning of a successful business launch in 2020. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, our 90-day to launch plan will be your most effective strategy to ensure a successful takeoff. 

This 3 phase plan is essential for all managers as it provides a framework for all the vital channels of digital marketing.

Below is an example framework of the ask marketing 90 day plan. If you want to launch a successful business in 2020, you need to follow this.

We have broken down the stages of the ask Marketing 90 Day Launch Plan, to help you understand the process, and even implement it in your own business. 

Phase 1: 90 days out

The initial 30 day stage is about aligning the vision with the business goals, to create a strong marketing strategy and roadmap, ultimately laying the foundations for the business launch. During this phase, we highly recommend the involvement and input of all key stakeholders. If there is a critical time to align the aspirations of the team, it is now. 

Marketing Strategy Workshop

• Recommended participants: ask Marketing (or your chosen Marketing Consultancy Team), the main decision-makers within the business (CEO or Founder, COO, General Manager), the internal marketing team (if any)
• Optional additional participants: Your chosen brand team or agency (if the logos, colours and branding has already been developed), ask Marketing UX designer or developer (or your chosen website developer) 

The Brand Marketing Workshop is key to developing a true understanding of your company. This is an important and intensive team workshop to navigate to the core of your business and reveal the true value of your brand. If you engage with the team at ask Marketing for this workshop, the outcomes will form the backbone of everything you will work on together. The key outcomes of this workshop are 100% tailored to the type, industry and stage of your business.

Competitor Analysis‍

A competitor analysis is an imperative step for all businesses. Analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the market and particularly with your direct competitors is vital to create a marketing strategy.

The best part is, the competitor analysis doesn't just relate to marketing. Each of the 4 P’S (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) can be analysed and manipulated due to the findings from a competitor analysis. It’s important for all aspects of your business. 

What tactics do your direct and indirect competitors use for marketing? What products and services do they offer? What price point do they start at? How many employees do they have? Is their website good? Do they do partnerships?..... And so many more.

Again, a competitor analysis is about asking the right questions, to gain information which can leverage your strengths, identify and eliminate your weaknesses and enhance business opportunities. We can help you do this. 
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Internal Marketing Executive - Recruitment and Training

The ask marketing team are the perfect fit for those who already have, or have scope to add an in-house junior marketing resource.  We leverage your internal marketing capacity and act as your ongoing strategic partner, committed to delivering measurable results in a cost effective way. Use our Virtual Marketing Managers as an extension of your business. 

Don’t have an  internal resource? No problems. We can develop the role with you, support the recruitment, training and development process. 

We would recommend ensuring that this person is recruited and developed at this early stage of the process, to ensure they are across the strategic planning and decision making. 

You can hear more out how bring on an internal resource, successfully outsourcing the leadership and the critical link between them here.
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Digital & Social Media Marketing Strategy‍

Based on the outcomes and information extracted from the competitor analysis, brand marketing workshop, and branding guidelines, a 12-month marketing growth strategy is developed. This strategy will include but won’t be limited to: target market(s) and personas, the full marketing funnel the relevant digital channels required within each phase, and key metrics (i.e how will you measure success). 

The strategy should be segmented into a top-down, funnel model that optimises the journey towards a conversion point. By using this approach, it is much easier to have conversations with key stakeholders around activity which is to be “always-on” versus “optional” activity, depending on its role within the stream toward user/customer conversion. 

NB: This strategy will also link directly with the key objectives required for the website development. 

Pre Launch Photography Shoot

• Recommended Participants: ask Marketing (or your chosen Marketing Consultancy Team to provide shoot support and direction), your ask Marketing partner photographer or other, the main branding decision-maker(s) within the business (CEO or Founder, COO, General Manager), the internal team (for any team portraits)

Content, Content…. Content. 

With the groundwork complete, this is the time to capture a collection of imagery to portray the overall look and feel of the business. The shot list required will depend on the channels outlined in the strategy and your industry. The shot list may include shots for: organic social media, paid social media ads, website, PR, or other marketing collateral.

It is important to keep in mind that each of these channels will require different specifications, colour formats and angles. If you are working with one of the ask Marketing partner photographers, the team will assist you in putting together a comprehensive brief and shot list to ensure you reach the outcomes required. Other key factors to keep in mind for this photoshoot include delivery timelines and methods, required props or styling and team uniforms/dress code. 

Click here to see some work from two of our ask marketing preferred photographers Megann Evans and Chantelle Kemkemian.

Pre-Launch Marketing Calendar

Organisation is key. 

Your ask marketing team or chosen marketing service, will then create a pre-business-launch calendar. This calendar is a highly detailed action plan to deliver your marketing strategy and keep actions consistent and relevant at all times.

The actions within the calendar are not just chosen at random. Each activity drives a specific deliverable i.e social media engagement, email subscribers etc. Elements of each action including date, image used, time of action, copywriting, social channels, links, collaboration or partnerships, events etc. will be planned with extreme detail in this calendar, so no mistakes can be made.

Phase 2: 60 days out

The next 30 days in the 90 day plan is where things begin to take shape. All the hard work from Phase 1 is starting to pay off as you see elements of the brand’s flavour emerging through the website and pre-launch marketing. 

Website V1 Launch

A teaser, preview, whilst waiting for more information. 

Whilst your business is ready to prepare for a launch, some future customers might be early to the party. Make sure your business has some pre-launch online presence with a ‘coming soon’ landing page. This is beneficial for lead generation purposes (subscribers) and to let future customers know when you’ll be up and running e.g. Coming February 2020. Building excitement around your brand and an online presence is important for launch. 

Click here to see a recent example of how our pre-launch strategy using a V1 website, which outperformed lead generation targets by 300% and delivered a 16% website conversion. 

Technical Tools and Implementation 

Your chosen marketing managers will then help implement the necessary tools required to execute the marketing strategy. Both back-end and front-end tools will be implemented - depending on which are relevant for your business. 

Some tools include: 

• Chat-Bots and messenger services 
• Automation programmes 
• Ads Manager 
• FB website pixel
• Google Analytics 
• Scheduling tools for social media posts 
  

The extent of the tools used will depend on your marketing strategy. 

Commence Pre-launch Marketing

A brand launch won’t be very successful without some pre-launch marketing. The goal of this activity is to create some excitement, build awareness and begin positioning your brand and business within the customer’s mind, before you even launch. As you market during pre-launch, you’ll increase curiosity around your new product and you’ll be more likely to reach your audience when you do launch.

According to Coschedule.com these are some of the best tips to pre-launch marketing:
 

Build Launch Calendar

An accurate launch calendar is important for a successful product launch. Choosing the launch date, and working backwards to create a realistic time frame for pre-launch marketing is vital for positioning your brand before D-Day. This calendar should encompass every step of the next 60 days. 

Our biggest tip here is to be realistic. Don’t plan 100 things to do over 60 days, as well as all of the back-end planning and work that goes into a business launch. Remember that often, quality is more important than quantity.

This launch calendar could also schedule in weekly check-ins with your team, to ensure that the business launch date will not be impacted by current issues and work load. 

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Phase 3: 30 days out

With time no longer of the essence, things are getting real towards the end of the 90 day plan.
Keep to the original pre-launch calendar, keep communication channels open within your team and make the final touches to the website and imagery before D-Day. 

Launch Photography Shoot

Do you really need more content? Yes! And here's why.

‍Did you miss something in the original shoot? Was a product or location not completed then? Was a team member away?

Often when a business sets out to launch their brand, they don't have everything completed 90 days outs. That’s why, closer to the end of the 90 day plan, when everything is finished, the final polish is applied and final decisions are made, it is important to capture this. Ultimately, the more content you have to use for marketing and branding during the launch period, the better!

This is the beginning of your new brand. 

Website V2 Launch

The V2 Website (Version 2) is what your website looks like when complete. Filled with the flavours of the brand, the website should match your business and industry.

The V2 of your site will generally include pages similar to: Home Page, About Us, The Team, Pricing, Packages, Projects etc. (whatever is applicable to the service and industry). The pages, design, information and overall feel of your website is your choice. We recommend working alongside the experts, such as our UX/UI and web developers and creative designers, who will create a website to suit you and your business.

Here are some examples of V2 Websites created by our ask marketing team: 

• https://www.kurosydney.com/ 
• https://www.cobbleworks.com/ 
• https://www.rdvis.com/ 
• https://www.apexstrengthsociety.com.au/
  

Takeoff: Launch

And just like that 90 days is over! D-Day has arrived and your brand is ready to be launched with success.

But it’s not time to sit back and relax. Now the other side your business is in full swing - your service or product. With less time to focus on the business launch and marketing, this is when the recruitment of your internal junior marketing resource and ongoing marketing consultancy from a VMM is not only helpful, but arguably vital for your business. 

Like most things in the world, businesses change often, so it is important to constantly analyse, review and update strategies based on marketing and business results post launch. A VMM will help you to create a customised data dashboard in order to aid key business decisions and keep a finger on the pulse moving forward. This will allow you to do what you do best - run the business. 

Click here to read our case study on our recent 6-month launch project for one of Sydney’s newest fine dining precincts.

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Do you need help with strategic digital marketing for your business?

All you have to do is Ask!

At Ask Digital Marketing, we combine decisive digital strategy and managed marketing execution to help B2B service-based businesses build demand, establish thought leadership and own their industry through digital business marketing.

Stop waiting. Start building. Experience success.

Just get in touch with us and we can discuss your business to help you navigate the digital marketing landscape towards success.

Let’s harness the power of digital marketing today!

For more great marketing content, connect with our company leaders, Alexandra King and Stephanie King, or follow our Ask Marketing LinkedIn page.

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