Building A Marketing Plan: Six Categories To Get You Started (Part 3)

June 7, 2024
Spotlight Branding

Ok, so you’ve committed to building a marketing plan. You have a spreadsheet with four rows, one for each quarter, and a blank series of columns because you are unsure what categories to use. Though we will give you some ideas to get started, it is also important to note that you don’t need four rows. Why? Because nothing says, you have to do this by quarter. That is how we do it here at Spotlight, but that doesn’t mean you have to. We will, however, explain our rationale for doing this in the future. 

Let’s come up with a few categories right now. Each number is its own category. We have included lettered points below them to show you what each category encompasses. 

  1. Referrals 
  2. Digital Advertising
    1. Google & Social Media included
  3. Social Media
    1. Organic Posts
  4. Email Marketing
    1. Emails To Your Lists 
    2. Emails to Paid Lists 
    3. Email Marketing Through a 3rd Party 
    4. Email Newsletters
  5. Events (In-Person or Digital)
    1. Webinars
    2. Workshops 
    3. Seminars
    4. Attending Local Events (Booths)
  6. Other (Catch-All)
    1. Print Marketing 
    2. TV
    3. Radio
    4. Podcast

If you hate the list we just provided you, that’s completely fine. You still have a plan even if you swap them out with ones that make sense to you. That doesn’t mean it won’t have to get adjusted, which is another area we will devote time to in future blogs. Having categories, even if you are not entirely sure you are sold on them for the long term, lets you organize your marketing plan better. 

Keep In Mind What’s Important 

When you have six categories, you can ask yourself what you want to do within each. (It would be much more challenging if we were to come to you and ask what marketing you want to do without giving you any of the categories. This is why they work.) Determining what kind of digital advertising you wish to pursue becomes significantly more straightforward. Even though we have devoted extensive time to discussing the categories, please don’t lose sight of how they are a bonus. They are secondary components of a marketing plan. 

There are four components of a marketing plan that should still be your primary focus. This is what we discussed during our first blog in this series {LINK}, but they are significant enough that they bear repeating: 

  1. What your firm is doing 
  2. When you are doing it 
  3. What do you think it is going to result in (or what do you hope it accomplishes)
  4. What it is going to cost

If you can answer these four questions, everything that follows is subjective. Getting these questions answered in written form is still step one. 

What’s Next?

In our next blog, we’ll discuss what Version One of your plan should look like. By the end of it, you should have a clear vision of what your marketing efforts will look like over time. Then, we’ll tell you how to maintain and modify one.

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Spotlight Branding

Spotlight Branding is a content marketing and branding firm for lawyers and other professionals. Our goal is to help you create an online presence that positions you as a credible expert in your field, keeps you connected with your network in order to stay top of mind and increase referrals, and to become more visible online so prospects can find you!