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7 Components of a Market Research Proposal

by George Kuhn

Posted at: 5/9/2023 12:30 PM

A market research proposal is the first and most critical step in your project or choosing a market research consultant .

It gives you all of the information you need on the process, approach, and most importantly: the cost 💸💸.

You can also tell a lot about a market research company from the interactions you have before signing on the dotted line.

In this article, our market research company shares everything you need to know about market research requests for proposals.

It will teach you what to look for, what the process looks like, and the key components of an RFP document.

Article Contents

What is a Market Research Proposal?

• Market Research Proposal Components
• What a Proposal Tells You About a Market Research Company

Looking to submit a request for a proposal to a market research company? Contact Drive Research by emailing [email protected] or completing an online contact form on our website.

A proposal for market research is a document that works as a template for the research team and client, determining the steps to take in proper order. What’s more, they ensure the project runs smoothly and follows a key set of steps. 

Market research proposals typically include the following:

• Objectives: The purpose of this section is to clearly define the key goals of the market research project. Like any other project, when there are no objectives, things can get messy–fast. Labeling the project objectives works to avoid this and ensures the rest of the proposal makes sense. 
• Type of approach: While the objectives section is the most important, the approach section has the most details. Going over each step of the entire process is critical for this point, as it almost acts as a map of how the project will go. 
• Project timeline: Just as it sounds. Including a timeline in a market research proposal is necessary to ensure the client is aware of how the project will progress. Additionally, this helps to keep the research team aware of deadlines and goals. 
• Estimated cost: Pricing will always be included in a market research proposal. Usually, costs for a project will be a fixed price. Like many aspects of market research, costs depend on different variables within the project. 

Another key detail to point out here is that proposals are especially important because there are so many different types of market research methods to choose from. 

While the four elements listed above are essential in a proposal for any type of research project, their details will vary based on the type of research being conducted. 

A research team that’s well-versed in multiple industries will be able to craft an effective research proposal that’s unique to their client. 

Below, we’ll expand on the points mentioned above.

Free Resource: Download Our Free Market Research RFP Template

Market Research Proposal Components 

A market research proposal includes a set amount of key components. Each section offers essential information and should always be reviewed to ensure you are selecting the best market research agency for the job.

Looking for assistance in creating a market research proposal to send to agencies? Here is your ultimate guide to writing a market research RFP .

Below are the key components of a market research proposal:

Proposal Component #1: Objectives

This is the general recap of key questions that need to be answered in the market research.

It should address your expectations, what you want to learn from the market research, and what you plan to do with the results.

In this section of the proposal, the market research company should communicate how well they listened and understood the key objectives of your project from the prospecting meetings.

This is an important component of a market research proposal.

It is important both sides have a clear understanding of what the general goals and objectives of the research are.

Your objectives will shape survey or interview questions, and guide the final results. Do not hesitate to discuss any comments or concerns when you receive the proposal. 

💡 The Key Takeaway: As with any market research project, a proposal will contain clear project objectives. This includes project expectations and how the data will be used. 

Proposal Component #2: Approach

In this section of the market research proposal, the firm should outline the approach.

This approach should set the table for the types of methodologies of choice and most importantly, why they are the best options for the client.

Here the proposal may talk about approaches to market research such as:

• Hosting 2 online focus groups followed by an online survey.
• Conducting 15 in-depth interviews (IDIs) followed by an email survey.

Whatever the methodology is, the firm should spend some time discussing the value of each methodology and why it was chosen over other options.

For instance, online surveys offer the best return on investment (ROI) for a client. This is because online surveys are cost-effective , offer a quick turnaround, and capture quality data.

This is part of the story we share for our market research case studies . All great market research companies have a patented process.

💡 The Key Takeaway: For this section of the proposal, the approach will detail what type of market research will be used and other relevant information.

Proposal Component #3: Design

Now that the approach is laid out, the market research company should get into the details here.

The design phase of the market research proposal outlines the structure of each of the market research instruments.

This component of a market research proposal may include:

• A moderator's guide for a focus group
• A survey document for an online survey
• An interview guide for an IDI

This section should explain some of the questions the market research company is considering asking, how long the survey or interview will take, what populations the market research will be targeting, and so on.

For example, if the market research company is proposing focus groups, the proposal will discuss the location of the groups, honorariums, recruitment methods, and more.

This is the crux of the market research proposal. The detail is in the design and it's where the market research company can shine.

The design component is where they can show their expertise and experience. This is where the pretenders are separated from the contenders.

💡 The Key Takeaway: In this section of the proposal, further details about the chosen method of research are provided. This step is essential when it comes to giving clients peace of mind about their projects. 

Proposal Component #4: Fieldwork

During the fieldwork section of the proposal, this is where your organization will read about the number of groups, the number of survey completes, or the number of interviews.

You may also learn about how the firm proposes cutting the audiences or creating quotas .

Here the market research firm should also share how the project will start with a soft-launch email survey before fully launching fieldwork.

Additionally, in this section of our market research proposals, we also share with our clients that they will receive a live data link that they can access 24/7 with a passcode.

This gives our clients up-to-the-second data when their project is active.

To give you a preview, here is an example client portal created for online surveys.

💡 The Key Takeaway: The fieldwork section covers how the feedback will be gathered for the client project. Additionally, this is a chance for the team to discuss how demographics will be handled. 

Proposal Component #5: Reporting

The reporting component is another key section of the market research proposal. This is where your team will read about the analysis and reporting plans of the market research company.

It should give you a mental picture of how the report will be structured.

This would most likely include:

• An executive summary
• Recommendations
• Infographic
• Customer persona
• An appendix of question-by-question results

Depending on the complexity of the project, the market research firm should also touch on some advanced analytics such as TURF analysis , text analytics , regression , correlation , or any other non-traditional form of reporting.

Below is an example infographic you might receive from a market research company, like Drive Research.

Example Infographic of a Market Research Report

💡 The Key Takeaway: This section covers how the received data will be analyzed and reported. It covers how the data will be arranged and interpreted by the team.

Proposal Component #6: Timeline

In one of the final sections of the market research proposal , the market research firm should highlight the timeline.

This not only includes a total start-to-finish estimate in weeks (or months) but a breakdown of each section.

Our market research firm often finds Gantt charts work very well for these timelines. The breakdown here should include kickoff, set up, design, fieldwork, and reporting.

💡 The Key Takeaway: Including a timeline off provides additional peace of mind for clients. This section simply details the due dates for project steps. 

Recommended Reading: How Long Does Market Research Take?

Proposal Component #7: Costs

Lastly, the market research project proposal must highlight the expenses. This total cost is often what our clients (and any human being) want to jump to first.

We typically either include this on the cover page or at least in the email sent to the client. The cost should give some details on how it came to be.

For instance, the cost of market research could be based on hourly rates and the time expected to complete each task.

The scope should also talk about the hard pass-through costs such as incentives or rentals of panels.

💡 The Key Takeaway: An authentic market research proposal will always include cost. This keeps both parties informed and aware of the best pricing strategies. 

What A Proposal Tells You About a Market Research Company

Aside from project cost, there are a few other important factors in choosing a full-service market research supplier .

Here are a few things to consider when reviewing a market research proposal from agencies and firms.

How quickly do they turn it around?

Understanding the estimated project timeline showcases how fast the market research company can move. More importantly, it reflects how much of a priority your project is for them.

If they are taking a week or longer to produce a fairly straightforward and simple proposal, they may not be considering you as a priority client.

Speaking from experience, the research industry moves fast. A week is an eternity in business as far as our market research company  is concerned.

How clean and professional does it look?

The layout and format of a market research proposal will give you some insight into what their reporting, infographics, and deliverables will look like.

A sloppy thrown together proposal is a sign of bad things to come. Remember, this should be the phase where a third-party market research firm is trying to win you over.

If the first document you receive from a vendor is not up to your standards, it is likely not the firm you'd like to move forward with.

How flexible is the market research company?

Are they willing to work with you on scope, process, and cost if your budget requires it?

If they show some flexibility and are willing to make adjustments as part of the proposal process, it is a sign they will be easy to work with throughout the coming weeks.

At our market research company , we like to act as an extension of your team. In the proposal phase, we try to do everything we can for your team to meet your goals.

How consultative is the market research partner?

Market research companies often get a bad rap for being laser-focused on charts, numbers, and analytics. They sometimes fail to see the bigger picture: How can clients use this data to improve everyday business operations?

While we can speak for other firms, we can certainly speak behind the mission of Drive Research.

Sure, we love statistics and data as much as the next analyst. However, every market research project includes a level of consultation to assure our clients are walking away with actionable insights.

Here are a few ways we add consultative elements to the market research process:

• If a prospective client asks for a quote for phone surveys, but we know online surveys are the fast and more cost-effective option, we'll share pricing for both phone surveys and online surveys. We always have our clients' (and participants') best interests in mind.
• Our proposals often include detailed information about the market research process such as where we sample survey respondents, project work plan, key deliverables, and more.
• Our market research reports include actionable recommendations for how our clients can use their unique data to improve sales, marketing, operations, and other areas of their business.
• Every project ends with a debrief meeting where our team reads the report page-by-page to assure all parties have a full understanding of the data.

How responsive are they?

If you send an email to a prospective market research vendor asking them a question about the scope or price, it should not take days to get a response.

Think of it this way, the service is likely not going to get better once they close the project and have you as a client.

The best service you will get from any company is when they are trying to get you to sign the dotted line. Sad but very true.

For more context about choosing a market research company, watch this short 60-second video.

Final Thoughts

A market research proposal may seem simple enough. 

And while this type of document isn’t difficult to construct, it contains many moving parts–which all depend on the needs of the client. This is why it’s crucial to have the proposal handled by a team of trustworthy experts!  

Aside from containing the necessary information, an effective market research proposal will be handled by an equally effective market research team. Covering everything from key objectives to costs, a well-written proposal is the first step to a successful market research project.

Need a Market Research Proposal? Contact Drive Research

Drive Research is a full-service market research company. We provide both qualitative and quantitative research services to organizations across the world.

If you are interested in receiving a market research proposal from Drive Research, contact us today!

• Message us on our website
• Email us at [email protected]
• Call us at 888-725-DATA
• Text us at 315-303-2040

George Kuhn

George is the Owner & President of Drive Research. He has consulted for hundreds of regional, national, and global organizations over the past 15 years. He is a CX-certified VoC professional with a focus on innovation and new product management.

Learn more about George, here .

Categories: Market Research Analysis

Need help with your project? Get in touch with Drive Research.

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How to Create a Market Research Proposal (+Template)

Continuing the market research series, in this article, we’ll discuss what a market research proposal is and how to create one.

To recap, what we’ve covered so far in the series, we’ve talked about what market research is, the different types of market research you need to do to grow your business, and the benefits of conducting market research .

What is A Market Research Proposal

Conducting market research is expensive, and if you work in a large organization, then you would need to justify such expenses.

Before conducting your research you’d need to shed some light on past data about your market, gaps in the data, and why new research is necessary.

This is where a Market Research Proposal come in to play.

Typically, a research proposal is a document proposing a research project, usually, these proposals are done by a scientist or an academic. 

The proposals are then evaluated on the cost and potential impact of the proposed research, and on the soundness of the proposed plan for carrying it out. Research proposals generally address several key points:

• What research question(s) will be addressed, and how they will be addressed
• How much time and expense will be required for the research
• What prior research has been done on the topic
• How the results of the research will be evaluated
• How the research will benefit the sponsoring organization and other parties involved

The same principles apply here, only that your business market environment is what is being researched, which is your target market.

A market research proposal is a document that details the what, the where, the when and the how of market research and the information and costs associated with it.

If this sounds complicated, then here’s what you need to know about a market proposal. It addresses:

• Why market research is necessary and what you aim to gain from the research
• What resources are required for the research
• Past research done on your market
• How the data from this market research will be collected, stored and used
• How the research will benefit your business

Keep in mind that at this point you are not conducting the research yet, you are simply providing a rationale behind why market research is necessary.

In the next article in this “Market Research” series, we will discuss the process of conducting market research, but for now, we need to provide a compelling document on why, how, when and where the research will be conducted.

11 Steps to Create A Market Research Proposal

Now that you know what a market research proposal is, it’s time to create one. There are 11 steps to create a sound and compelling market research proposal

1. Market Research Proposal Summary

Start your proposal by briefly explaining the purpose of the market research and why it is required. Also, give an overview of what the desired outcome of the market research is.

If your business is interested in pouring resources into an in-depth market research then surely, there is something you hope to gain from it.

Remember to provide reasoning for the need of this specific market research and let whoever is reading this, such as the CEO, COO. know what contributions this research will make to the company.

TEMPLATE TO USE:

The market research project, entitled [RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE] hopes to discover more information regarding market trends in [SPECIFIC AREA]. The following summary will give an overview of the causes, processes, and possible effects of the market research proposal, detailed below.

2. Research Objectives

In this section of your proposal give full details about what problem has been identified that requires market research to be conducted. I.e. Show why there is a specific need for this research in the first place.

Explain what the market research results will be used for and how they will help achieve the overall goals. Describe the goals which you hope to achieve with this project.

The proposed market research project contains the following objectives:

• Objective one
• Objective two

3. Background Information on Past Market Research

Odds are you’re not the first person/company to conduct research on your market. This means that there is existing information on your market. However, this knowledge might be outdated, or might not provide the data your business needs.

So, in this section explain what information already exists on this topic and what is already known. Also, highlight the gaps in knowledge that the market research will hopefully fill.

Here you will show information from existing sources regarding the specific topic to be researched. It is great to provide cited sources, graphs, charts, and statistics. 

You will use this section to show that you know a great deal about the market you will be researching, but you also need to show the holes in the current knowledge.

You can then demonstrate the specific need for your proposed research plan, and how this market research plan will fill these holes and contribute to the knowledge of this subject.

4. Market Research Proposal Hypothesis

If your business needs to conduct market research, then you probably have a few ideas of what you hope to get or learn from the research.

In this section describe what you believed to be the likely outcome of the market research and what you hope to learn.

5. Research Target Audience

Your business doesn’t target everyone, and odds are your business targets different audience types. So who is this research targeted at?

This is a very important part of your proposal and you need to be as detailed as possible about the target audience or audiences you will be researching.

Also, describe how you will source this target audience and how you will ensure they meet the correct criteria.

6. Data Collection of Market Research

Time to get to the good stuff. In this part of your proposal, you MUST detail all the data collection methods that will be used during the market research and, how they will be carried out. 

You MUST also explain how the accuracy of data will be maintained, how potential candidates for the research will be approached and, if applicable, how they will be reimbursed for their time and contribution.

Use specifics and consider potential questions such as.

• How will you maintain the accuracy of data? 
• How will you approach potential survey or research candidates? 
• Will these participants be paid for their time? 
• At what times of day will you make phone calls? 
• In what ways will you ensure an accurate data sample? 

The more information you can provide in this section, the better.

Our methods of data collection will be best suited to the project at hand. Research methods will include:

• Focus groups
• Collection of social media data
• Surveys via the Internet, phone, or email
• Long range in-home consumer tests
• Distribution of samples
• In person promotionals

These individuals will be selected [HOW THEY ARE SELECTED] to ensure an appropriately constituted pool of data from which we can infer accurate insights and trends.

The pool itself comprises of individuals who have expressed to us an interest in participating in such surveys, and they will be compensated by [METHOD OF COMPENSATION]….

7. Research and Analysis Methodology

In this section of your proposal, you are to discuss the strengths and possible limitations of your research methods. 

Provide an overall blueprint for your methodology in approaching research data, and describe the implications of each method of data collection, and explain the methods you will use to interpret the data. 

Lastly, discuss the means of evaluating the collected data and how you will account for errors, holes in data, or inaccuracies.

8. Ethics to be Followed During Research

You’re almost done with your proposal, but there are still a few important details that need to be included. 

Explain how the market research will adhere to ethical codes by thinking about how issues such as participant confidentiality, data security, privacy, and consent of research participants will be addressed.

Include waivers or documents you plan to provide to research participants, if applicable

9. Market Research Timeline

In this section, provide a detailed timeline of when the research needs to begin and when a full report is required, ensure sufficient and realistic time for both data collection and data analysis are considered.

Market Research Timeline

• Task 1 ([DATE] [TIME])
• Task 2 ([DATE] [TIME])
• Task 3 ([DATE] [TIME])

10. Market Research Budget

We’re almost done with our proposal, but it’s time to include arguably the most important section. After all, if your company does not have the funds and resources then there would be no research in the first place.

Provide an overall budget for the proposed project. Make sure to include all possible cost considerations. You can provide a breakdown of those here. 

Don’t forget budgets for sections such as Participant Reimbursement, funds for documents, rental space.

11. Conclusion

This is the last part of your market research proposal. You can add ways in which this market research will provide further benefits or include unique applications of the potential results.

Now that you know the market research proposal process and the importance of market research, in the next article will discuss the actual market research process.

Comment with any questions you have about Market Research Proposals and I will get back to you ASAP.

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Market Research Proposal

Proposal maker.

Setting the direction for any market research effort is an essential and critical step that you have to consider whenever you would like to look into the trends in the marketplace or assess the key factors that affect the purchasing decisions of your target audience. Before doing any program or activity related to the specified matter, you first have to know how to execute an effective proposal writing procedure.

Developing a comprehensive and detailed market research proposal can help you a lot in terms of organizing the market research processes that you would like to conduct as well as the resources that you will be needing.

• Google Docs

Size: A4, US

State the objectives, scope of work, research methodology, target market, and other such important information of your market research by downloading and using this above-shown research  proposal example  template. This ready-made template’s content can be edited and customized in various file formats such as MS Word, Pages, Gooogle Docs, and editable PDF. Hurry up and try it out now!

Market Research Proposal Example

Download and make use of this market research template so that you can conduct your market research effectively. Using this, you can conveniently outline the objectives and goals for your market research, thereby, saving you enough time to do other tasks related to the research. Edit and customize using  MS Word and Pages. You can also click on  multimedia project proposal examples .

Marketing Research Proposal Example

It is important to not let yourself get confused between a market research proposal and a marketing research proposal. The marketing research proposal deals with the presentation of potential promotional and advertising activities that can be implemented by a company to present and market its products, services, deals, and other offers while the marketing research proposal is focused on learning the market movement based on the market’s trends, activities, and size.

Proposal for Market Research Example

Size: 10 KB

If you want to create your market research proposal, one of the things that you can do to help you have an easier time when developing the document is to look into references like downloadable examples. Simply browse through the market research proposal examples in PDF that are available in this post so you can have an idea of how to properly create the best market research proposal for your business.

Free Market Research Proposal Example

Size: 340 KB

Importance of a Market Research Proposal

A market research proposal helps you properly think of the things that truly matter when it comes to the market research. With the help of this document, you can give priority to the factors and elements that can contribute to the advancement and growth of your business .

Using a market research proposal can also give you time to put together relevant and necessary processes that are most likely helpful in achieving not only the goals of your market research activities but the corporate goals of the business as well. Here are some of the reasons why you need to create and use a market research proposal:

1. A market research proposal is one of the most essential documents that are used by businesses to properly plan the entire process of their market research activities. It presents the outline of the market research’s goals and it also focuses on the action plans that can lead the business to the achievement of its objectives and vision.

2. A market research proposal can give an idea about the funding that is needed by the team to execute the activities for market research. Financial support from the organization is needed to be addressed to make sure that all plotted procedures will be implemented accordingly. You may also see business proposal examples .

Developing the market research proposal with the knowledge that funding will be given for its implementation can make the marketing team, as well as the other people involved in the activity, become more proactive and efficient as it is most likely that what they envisioned and planned will be realized.

3. A market research proposal, especially one that contains a marketing SWOT analysis and a market condition overview, can help you look into the external and internal factors that affect your business operations.

The knowledge about the nature of your business, the competition that you need to look out for, the threats and risks that you need to prepare for, the needs and demands of your audience, the movement and shifts in the marketplace, and the opportunities that you should grab can make you become more well-rounded and multifaceted when drafting the market research proposal that you would like to present. You may also check out project proposal examples .

4. A market research proposal can discuss the milestones that are expected to be achieved by the business with the help of market research strategies and general action plans . Hence, this document can persuade and convince its target audience that a proposed market research activity must be approved especially if expected results can excessively benefit the business or provide a solution to its current issues, problems, and concerns.

Sample Marketing Research Proposal Example

Size: 90 KB

Proposal for Marketing Research and Market Intelligence Example

Size: 607 KB

Market Research and Analysis Report for Proposal Referencing Example

Size: 152 KB

Market Research Proposal Content

Different market research proposals have different sections, clauses, or areas of discussion. The content of a market research proposal depends on the purpose of its usage, the scope of the activity, the expected returns of the business, the professional goals of the market research, and the relation of the document’s usage to the vision of the business.

Even if there are differences when it comes to the information that you can see in many market research proposals used in various industries, there are still common or usual information that is seen in any market research proposal. Some of the details that are essential to be included in a market research proposal are as follows:

1. Develop a hypothesis. This is very important as you need to present the potential impacts of the market research proposal when implemented. This can also help you identify the ways on how you can interlink or align all the elements that are essential for the successful execution of all the market research proposal’s areas. You may also see short proposal examples .

2. Present an overview of the market research activities that you would like the business to consider. You have to sum up the intent of the market research as well as the output that you expect from it. More so, you have to discuss the feasibility, attainability, and sustainability of your general plans . Being able to showcase these strengths can help your market research proposal become more appealing and relevant.

3. Just like when making a development project proposal , use a timeline that can give an idea of the entire duration of the market research proposal’s actual usage. You have to set time frames where specific deliverables should be seen or observed already. With this, you can ensure your target audience that the proposal is time-bound and realistic.

4. Especially if you will use technical terms, a proper definition of terms is highly suggested to be included in your market research proposal. This part of the document can make the general proposal more understandable for any reasonable person.

5. Know your targets so you can easily come up with the methodology that is relevant to your needs. All the practices and activities that you would like to immerse in should be thoroughly defined in the document so that the general analysis of the measures of your proposal can be objectively done.

6. Discuss the current market conditions in the marketplace where your business belongs. Aside from the trends that you need to consider, you also have to list down the opportunities that the business can take to help it achieve its goals and return of investments.

Marketing Information Management System Research Proposal Example

Size: 399 KB

Research Proposal Usable for Market Study Example

Size: 99 KB

Market Research and Developing a Marketing Plan Proposal Example

Market Research Conduct and Proposal Drafting Example

Size: 131 KB

Discussion Flow for a Simple Market Research Proposal

The format and discussion flow of the market research proposal can contribute to the document’s successes, or the lack thereof. This is the reason why you have to be careful with how you will present the market research proposal to your audience. You have to ensure that the document is visually pleasing and well-organized so that people will not have a hard time reviewing its content. You may also see  freelance proposal examples .

A basic discussion flow that you can use when presenting the details of your market research proposal are listed below:

• The title of your market research  proposal sample
• The date when the market research proposal has been made and the dates of its updates
• The name of the company who can benefit from the document
• The name of the person who prepared the proposal and the department or division where he or she is assigned at
• The executive summary of the market research proposal
• The objectives of the market research proposal
• The current condition of the business and the market as well as other important existing knowledge
• The expected output of the document’s usage, when approved
• The demographics targeted by the business with the help of the market research proposal
• The processes of data gathering, collection, assessment, and presentation
• The methodology that will be applied for the  research project plan intended for a particular market
• The dates and periods where particular tasks should already be done
• The budget proposed by the team or the individual who made the proposal
• Any ethical considerations that must be looked into before the implementation of the market research

Proposal to Conduct Consumer Experience of Care Surveys or Market Research

Size: 103 KB

Request for Proposal for Solicitation for Contract for Market Research Example

Size: 344 KB

Marketing Research Group Project Proposal Example

Marketing Research Firm Proposal Example

Size: 477 KB

Tips to Develop an Impressive Market Research Proposal

Aside from having an advertising and marketing business plan , you should also have a market research plan. It is not enough for you to rely on your knowledge about the things that you can control. You also have to think of the elements that are not within your hands like the trends in the marketplace and the reaction of your audience and competition with regards to these trends and/or any other market changes.

Listed below are a few of the tips that you can use if you want to develop an impressive market research proposal for your business:

1. Since a market research proposal is one of the first documents that you will be needing for your market research, you have to ensure that the content of the document is flexible enough to adapt to possible changes within the development of the market research planning and implementation phases. You have to ensure that there are windows where appropriate changes can be inserted as well as channels, mediums, or platforms where you can incorporate backup plans when necessary or called for.

2. Keep in mind that the language and tone that you will use when creating the content of the market research proposal must be highly considered.

You have to ensure that the document is formal, business-appropriate, and compelling. Aside from the fact that the market research proposal is expected to be complete with all the details about your proposed market research plan, it is also imperative for you to make sure that the document is understandable, well-defined, and clear. You may also see security proposal examples .

3. Know the basics of market research proposal organization. There are different kinds of structures that you can look into so that your market research proposal can look cohesive and well put together.

The structure of the document should depend on the length of your discussion, the details that you will incorporate in your market research undertakings, and the key factors that you need to give focus and highlight on when presenting the complexity of the market research. You may also like budget proposal examples .

It will rather be more efficient for you if you plan to use references like templates and examples while preparing your market research proposal.

Maximize the help that you can get from the downloadable examples in this post as well as the related discussion that we have presented. Always ensure that there is an organization in the procedures of market research proposal development so you can be well-guided in terms of getting the output that you would like to have for your market research undertaking.

Text prompt

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Generate a proposal for a new school recycling program

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• Knowledge Base
• Starting the research process
• How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

Published on October 12, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on November 21, 2023.

A research proposal describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.

The format of a research proposal varies between fields, but most proposals will contain at least these elements:

Introduction

Literature review.

• Research design

Reference list

While the sections may vary, the overall objective is always the same. A research proposal serves as a blueprint and guide for your research plan, helping you get organized and feel confident in the path forward you choose to take.

Table of contents

Research proposal purpose, research proposal examples, research design and methods, contribution to knowledge, research schedule, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research proposals.

Academics often have to write research proposals to get funding for their projects. As a student, you might have to write a research proposal as part of a grad school application , or prior to starting your thesis or dissertation .

In addition to helping you figure out what your research can look like, a proposal can also serve to demonstrate why your project is worth pursuing to a funder, educational institution, or supervisor.

Research proposal length

The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.

One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.

Download our research proposal template

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Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.

• Example research proposal #1: “A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management”
• Example research proposal #2: “Medical Students as Mediators of Change in Tobacco Use”

Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:

• The proposed title of your project
• Your supervisor’s name
• Your institution and department

The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.

Your introduction should:

• Introduce your topic
• Give necessary background and context
• Outline your  problem statement  and research questions

To guide your introduction , include information about:

• Who could have an interest in the topic (e.g., scientists, policymakers)
• How much is already known about the topic
• What is missing from this current knowledge
• What new insights your research will contribute
• Why you believe this research is worth doing

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As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review  shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.

In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:

• Comparing and contrasting the main theories, methods, and debates
• Examining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
• Explaining how will you build on, challenge, or synthesize prior scholarship

Following the literature review, restate your main  objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.

To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.

For example, your results might have implications for:

• Improving best practices
• Informing policymaking decisions
• Strengthening a theory or model
• Challenging popular or scientific beliefs
• Creating a basis for future research

Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .

Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.

Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.

Download our research schedule template

If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.

Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:

• Cost : exactly how much money do you need?
• Justification : why is this cost necessary to complete the research?
• Source : how did you calculate the amount?

To determine your budget, think about:

• Travel costs : do you need to go somewhere to collect your data? How will you get there, and how much time will you need? What will you do there (e.g., interviews, archival research)?
• Materials : do you need access to any tools or technologies?
• Help : do you need to hire any research assistants for the project? What will they do, and how much will you pay them?

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.

A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.

A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.

All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.

Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

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How to Write a Winning Market Research Proposal

The current pandemic may have curbed our travel, but that doesn’t mean we don’t all still know the value of having good maps and a suggested itinerary. Indeed, a solid plan of action makes any endeavor — whether it be a fun-filled vacation, an educational goal, or a professional enterprise — more focused, less stressful, and, thus, more effective. It doesn’t matter if life interrupts our plans (“Hello, COVID-19!”); in fact, interruptions are a given, but we still know that good plans prepare us for whatever lies ahead. They help us to define our priorities and clarify our needs so that we can better manage our resources. The result: we are better prepared to handle uncertainties and more formidable and more productive in whatever we choose to do.

For businesses, good plans are based on good research. More than good products and services, good information sets profitable companies apart from their competition, allowing them to prepare for — and plan for — success. This is why market research proposals are so important. A market research proposal is a document a company uses to map out its future. It unites company stakeholders in joint discovery of information so that everyone knows who and what really matters. In short, a market research proposal outlines the specifics of an information-gathering project. This is how to write a winning one:

Keep It Brief

A market research proposal is sometimes called a “market research brief” because it's just that: brief. It should also be clearly written with no unusual acronyms or industry jargon and only the necessary points to underscore the overall research objective (as well as how it will be addressed) highlighted.

Include a Company Overview

The beginning of the proposal should include a short overview of the company, including such details as its mission and vision statements; market performance history; industry facts, figures, and trends; competitor data points and any other past research findings that shed light on the issue(s) at hand and why further research is needed.

Clearly Define the Objective

The research objective is the most important part of the proposal, as it clearly outlines the information a company needs, and, thus, defines the overall goal of the project. It’s basically the question a company wants to be answered and needs to be specific and measurable (but not necessarily quantitative) with the desired outcome.

Explain the Research Methodology

Of course, a market research proposal should also include a section explaining how the information to address the research objective will be obtained. Details about data collection (including the definition of the target audience, sample selection criteria, and proposed methodology) need to be clarified (since specific demographic, technological, economic, political, and even environmental concerns inevitably impact research outcomes) and should be evident with reasons for their use thoroughly transparent.

List Expected Outcomes

Finally, a good market research proposal needs to include a list of expected outcomes. An estimation of budget concerns, as well as a timeline for specific research milestones and project completion, should be listed here, along with an overview of projected deliverables to be anticipated. This helps both company executives and researchers to remain focused and on point.

Ready to Learn More?

A winning market research proposal isn’t just the one that seals the deal on a research project. It’s the one that provides actionable insights for companies and researchers alike. Following a determined set of standards, a winning market research proposal has the potential to garner data that can be used to inform better business decisions. Our team at Research America has the expertise needed to craft winning market research proposals that yield meaningful results for all involved. Please contact us to learn more.

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How to Write a Market Research Proposal

The market research proposal is an important first step in near all studies. First and foremost, a skeleton that details a study’s direction, goals, and focus, such proposals are typically the first point of reference for management. While the proposals make or break a project’s funding, there is one other strength no research team can ignore: direction.

Critical for any undertaking that involves research, direction helps with both the pragmatics and concepts of near all studies. Market research proposals are vital for outlining both. They also explain the potential returns or results a study can yield. Ideally, the proposal should convince outside readers while informing research and development teams.

Language is important for writing a proposal, as is organization. A lot of detail goes into the typical research proposal, and sometimes there is no clear place for essential odds and ends. Luckily, there is a general organization, or logic, that most research proposals adopt. This allows readers to quickly absorb details, jump to pertinent sections, and digest its conclusions.

While not mandatory, using these structures add a cohesion that makes reading these papers more convenient and cohesive. Length, detail, and overall complexity are all factors when considering how a research proposal should be organized. Similarly, weigh the study’s goals and potential returns. Not every proposal necessitates the same sections. In fact, simple studies can do without a lot of sections that more involved or longer studies require. That mentioned, never write off these critical five elements of your research proposal.

Overview, Definition, and Terms

Important for summing up the study’s incentives, intents, and overall feasibility, overviews prep readers for the project’s strengths. Like everything else in a proposal, clarity is also all-important. Definitions and terms are vital. Overviews are also excellent for showcasing market conditions, opportunity, goals, and overall impact to ROI. While very important, always make sure to focus on the client. Their edification should be at the forefront of any proposal writer’s mind.

Hypothesis and Goals

While referenced in the overview, extrapolation about a project’s actual agenda goes a long way. Near everyone reviewing a research proposal will search for a hypothesis. While fine to reference in the overview, an outright hypothesis will always predominate the research proposal and its direction. Be clear as possible!

The hypothesis itself, however, explains the goal’s prospective burdens, costs, and returns. Also explain how these different elements combine to form a whole level of different parts. Perhaps most intrinsic is the order of said goals, as well how they compliment each other.

Realizing goals requires exploring a range of target segments that can appreciate the product, content, or whatever else. Exploring these different targets includes any range of periphery methods, not to mention actual possibilities. What is vital, however, is a full explanation as to why the target is pertinent.

Methodology and Conditions

The logical extension, research proposals must detail methodology. Include practices and conditions, study types, analysis standards, and other crucial aspects. Make sure extrapolation focuses on the actual methodology, however. Pragmatic intricacies can be glossed over, but that really depends on the reader. Researchers will typically want to know about the whole process, while management typically focuses on efficacy and ROI.

Discuss.io can offer deliverables within 48 hours, the fastest in the industry. Establishing a clear timeline  is still critical though. Product and content dev teams typically need to keep informed. A common timeline really encourages such cohesion, not mention also keeps MR better aware as to the product or content’s direction. Along with setting a schedule, timelines also helps inform team members of their objectives and schedule. Such a cohesive view both informs researchers as reminds them of the importance of each task.

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How To Write Market Research Proposal: Tips and Best Practices

Entrepreneurs and companies need to get critical information about their industry or specific market landscape to help ensure their business becomes a success.

This is where market research plays a role. But to be effective, proper steps must be outlined through a market research proposal.

If you’re a business owner or a marketer, you must learn how to write a market research proposal correctly . So here’s a handy step-by-step guide on how to do just that. Plus, we’ll throw in a free template to help you get started.

Table of Contents

How To Write a Market Research Proposal

When drafting a market research proposal , you can adopt various styles depending on the industry or business. But to put forth a more organized proposal, it helps to adhere to proven structures and follow these steps.

1. Start with an overview

It’s always wise to open with an overview to give the readers of the proposal a general idea of what the market research is all about, as well as set their expectations. If you don’t want to use the term overview, you can also go with an executive summary or an introduction.

You can do a simple overview consisting of one to three paragraphs. Or if the situation calls for it, you can also present your executive summary with supporting information that may include any or all of the following:

• Definition of terms. List the terms that will be used in the market research proposal. Make sure to define them properly.
• Market conditions. Give an overall picture of the current market conditions. Explain the industry’s state and the competition level, as well as mention relevant economic or even political factors.
• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. You can also present market conditions through a SWOT diagram, which summarizes everything neatly.
• Feasibility. If you want to cut to the chase, state the overall feasibility. You can also consider including the potential ROI (return on investment ).

2. Define the objectives

When writing a market research proposal, define the project’s goals as clearly as possible. You can begin with a larger, encompassing objective and then break it up with its corresponding parts. 

If you are dealing with multiple goals, make sure to explain how each separate objective relates to or affects one another.

Remember that clearly defined goals will guide the execution of the market research project – from the budget to the types of surveys or questions you will use.

3. Outline the execution

Market research can be accomplished in various ways, but there needs to be a clear plan for executing it.

Outline your methodology and approach to getting the information you need. As far as methods are concerned, you can choose from options like organizing focus groups, deploying online surveys, or holding interviews over the phone or face-to-face.

You should also consider if your approach is multi-faceted. Will the surveys be done once or through a series of batches? Will you follow up on the first wave of interviews with email surveys? 

Never forget to include the rationale for choosing your methodology. Factors to remember include costs, logistics, and timeline.

4. Explain how the results will be analyzed and reported

Market research proposal creation would be incomplete without including the mechanics for analyzing and reporting the results.

You must present a concrete plan for how the market research data will be collected and safely stored. 

Next on your list is to explain how the data will be analyzed. Of course, what comes after is the reporting part. It’s more than just presenting the facts. You should also include your interpretations and, more importantly, your recommendations.

5. Discuss the timeline, costs, and conditions

Market research takes time and isn’t free. So, you’ll need to define your timeline and expected costs clearly.

It’s also important to tackle the terms and conditions of the market research project. The more transparent you are, the more you can prevent misunderstandings in the future.

Download the Market Research Proposal Template

When drafting a market research proposal, you can accomplish things faster using a reliable template. 

Sign up now for a free account at Fill to get a market research proposal template. It’s just one of several templates that we offer for free.

Market Research Proposal

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Market Research Proposal

It’s not enough to know how to draft a market research proposal. You also have to be aware of common mistakes people commit when preparing these proposals.

• Lack of details. When you already know how to create market research proposals, you use certain structures and templates repeatedly. But sometimes, you forget to add elements that make your proposal look legit instead of being an apparent copy of another.
• There is not enough review and fact-checking. We’re not talking about simple spelling and grammar errors. We’re referring to the information you included in your market research proposal. Are they up-to-date? Are the sources considered trustworthy?
• There is too much hype. Be careful not to get caught up in the excitement of your proposal. Remember that you are dealing with business people. Be realistic and be clear about the goals. The last thing you need is to promise something you can’t deliver.
• Disorganized presentation. You can follow a decent structure when writing your market research proposal. But if you don’t organize the information you present in each section, you will you’re lose your reader’s interest.
• Underestimating visuals and diagrams. Yes, it’s showing real data is important, but you can be more persuasive by strategically using visuals, graphs, charts, and tables in your proposal. 

Using Fill to Create Your Market Research Proposal

Now that you know how to write a market research proposal, it’s time to put your learnings into practice immediately.

Create an account at Fill and grab a free market research proposal template today.

Andria is a seasoned content writer, specializing in document management solutions and HIPAA compliance, providing valuable insights for businesses and professionals alike.

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Market Research Proposal Template

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How to Write Effective Marketing Research Proposals

Table of Contents

Are you struggling to write effective marketing research proposals that will leave a lasting impression? Are you unsure how to structure your ideas and approach in a way that resonates with clients?

If so, then this article is for you! Here, we’ll provide step-by-step guidance on  how to write marketing research proposal templates that get results.

We’ll also explore key tips used to create winning bids. Whether you’re an experienced market researcher or starting out, these tips will help you produce convincing proposals that deliver excellent outcomes.

What is a Marketing Research Proposal?

Market research proposals are documents that sell your services to potential clients. It aims to educate them about what they can accomplish by hiring you to complete their projects or research .

It typically outlines the research project’s objectives, methods, costs, timeline, and expected results.

Key Elements of Marketing Research Proposal

A summary outlines the purpose and objectives of the proposed marketing research project. It should provide an overview of what will be investigated, as well as how this knowledge can benefit the organization.

This section lists what information needs to be gathered from the research study and why it is needed. These should focus on gaining insight into customer behaviour, attitudes, or preferences that can help inform decisions made by the company.

Targets refer to the target audience who will participate in the research. This includes criteria like age group, gender, profession, and other demographic characteristics relevant to the topic being studied.

Methodology

The methodology defines the methods and techniques used to collect data during the research process. This may involve interviews, surveys, focus groups, field experiments, and so on, depending on the study’s scope.

A timeline provides a realistic schedule for carrying out the project. It should identify when each phase begins and ends while addressing potential roadblocks or delays.

Proposed Budget

A proposed budget outlines the estimated costs of conducting the research study. This ensures sufficient resources are available to cover all expenses for successfully carrying out the project.

How to Write Marketing Research Proposal Templates

Get to know the client..

You might already have written audience personas available that can help you shape your proposal’s tone, language, plan, or other components. If not, it’s best to start researching the client’s target audience, industry, products/services, keywords or topics, and other relevant details.

It also helps to ask about the client’s pain points so you can better address them.

Knowing their main pain points gives you an idea of how to market your products or services as the best solution for their problems. Consider how your experience, expertise, and background can benefit them.

List the scope of work.

Include a scope of work section in your marketing proposal , which describes all the services you plan to provide the client. It should fulfill marketing tasks that clients do not have enough time or resources to accomplish.

For example, the Scope of Work for a social media marketing proposal may outline the following tasks:

• Creating a content calendar
• Uploading or automating posts
• Analyzing social metrics.

Provide timelines for deliverables.

Based on the scope of work outlined, provide estimated time frames for each deliverable associated with the project. This will help keep track of progress throughout its development and establish expectations between both parties involved.

Include costs and terms.

Include a cost breakdown in your proposal and any applicable terms or conditions. Explain what they are paying for and how much they will be charged, so there are no misunderstandings later down the line. This section can include the following:

• Pay rate (by milestone, week, and so on.) or pricing strategy (flat or hourly rate)
• Payment requirements (deposit required before project start, full payment due upon completion, and so on)
• Work location (on-site or remote)
• Any warranties you may provide
• Situations that warrant the termination of a contract

Show how you plan to measure results.

Demonstrate how you plan to measure the effectiveness of the research once it has been completed. Present strategies for tracking key performance indicators such as response rates, ROI, sales numbers, and so on. This will make potential clients more confident that you know what you’re doing.

A well-constructed, persuasive marketing research proposal is essential to attracting and acquiring new clients. It should provide relevant details about your research goals and highlight what clients can gain from working with you.

With the help of these steps on how to write marketing research proposal , you should have no trouble getting started. Now get out there and start putting together those winning research proposals!

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Marketing Proposal Guide: Write, Design & Track + Templates

Learn how to make a marketing plan proposal for a marketing strategy or consultant. Discover the best marketing proposal format for your strategy or campaign.

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Short answer

What is a marketing proposal?

A marketing proposal is a detailed plan that outlines advertising, marketing, and brand enhancement strategies for a client's company. Usually crafted by a creative marketing agency or an in-house marketing team, this document is shared with the business's top decision-makers.

Most marketing proposals flop, but this can be avoided

Many marketing professionals find it a challenge to craft a proposal that truly resonates with potential clients, one that speaks directly to their needs and visions.

We put hours into crafting the perfect marketing proposal, only to be met with skepticism during the actual marketing presentation .

It’s true… making a marketing proposal that clients love is extremely difficult, but it’s not impossible. I can teach you how.

We’ll delve deep into how to make a marketing proposal that prospective clients will like so much they’ll read it with attention from start to finish.

Let’s get started.

Are you making proposals the wrong way?

A marketing plan can be presented as a dense text PDF, a visual presentation, or a modern interactive web story.

The most common way of making marketing proposals is a text-dense PDF format, but that’s also the least effective. A PDF format makes it practically impossible to stand out from the crowd, or engagingly convey information.

This is why leading marketing agencies are moving to interactive web-based proposals that can include live data and multimedia, embed e-signature forms, and can be easily read on mobile.

Here’s what the difference looks like between legacy PDF and modern proposals:

Marketing plan proposal in static PDF format

Modern interactive marketing proposal format

What are the main types of marketing proposals.

Whether you're looking to elevate a brand's market position, dive deep into market trends, or launch a focused marketing project, getting to grips with each type of marketing proposal will let you build strategies that hit the mark and deliver impactful results.

7 main types of marketing proposals:

1) Marketing strategy proposal

Offers a comprehensive plan for reaching marketing objectives, including how to position in the market, identify the target audience, and select the best marketing channels.

2) Market analysis proposal

Suggests an in-depth look at the market to spot trends, analyze competitors, and understand potential customer needs, helping shape informed business strategies.

3) Marketing project proposal

Details a particular marketing project with its goals, required resources, timeline, and the anticipated benefits for the business.

4) Marketing campaign proposal

Describes the aims, strategies, schedule, and expected results of a specific marketing campaign, with a focus on targeted promotional efforts.

5) Marketing budget proposal

A financial outline that specifies how funds will be distributed across different marketing activities, highlighting cost efficiency and expected return on investment.

6) Lead generation proposal

Concentrates on methods and strategies to attract and convert potential customers into leads, including the tools and approaches for successful lead gathering.

7) Performance marketing proposal

Targets marketing strategies with a focus on tangible results, underlining quantifiable achievements like conversions, sales, and return on investment from specific marketing actions.

What is the best marketing proposal format?

Based on our internal analysis of marketing proposal performance, with over 100K reading sessions, we’ve come up with an optimal content structure for a marketing plan proposal.

This marketing plan proposal outline works well both for marketing agencies or consultancies looking to persuade prospective clients and for internal teams seeking to promote their marketing projects internally.

What to include in a marketing proposal

Introduction and overview: A brief introduction to the marketing plan, highlighting its purpose and key objectives.

Market context and challenges: An analysis of the current market environment, including key challenges and competitors in the arena.

Target audience segmentation: Detailed profiling of the target audience, including IT managers, software developers, tech startups, and IT consultants.

Key objectives and goals: Specific goals such as user acquisition targets, conversion rate improvements, and brand awareness metrics.

Strategic approach: Outline of the strategic approach, including product differentiation, content marketing, and influencer partnerships.

Tactical game plan: Detailed tactics for each strategy, including online advertising, content creation, and influencer collaborations.

Budget and financial planning: A comprehensive financial plan detailing budget allocation for various marketing activities.

Implementation timeline and milestones: A timeline with key milestones, such as finalizing the marketing plan, launching campaigns, and assessing progress.

Performance metrics and KPIs: Definition of key performance indicators for measuring success, including user acquisition rate, conversion rate, and user engagement metrics.

Review and optimization strategy: A plan for continuous review and optimization of marketing strategies based on performance data and user feedback.

Conclusion and next steps: Final remarks summarizing the plan and outlining the next steps for implementation.

How to write a compelling marketing proposal (9 steps)

Whether you represent a marketing agency, a marketing consultant, or an internal marketing team, decision-makers will want to know how you intend to reach the desired company goals.

And whether you are a seasoned pro or just getting started, a structured approach to making a professional proposal can make all the difference.

From initial research to the final polish, each step is designed to help you communicate your vision and value with clarity and confidence.

1. Conduct research on clients

Focus on information about your potential client’s industry trends, target audience’s key demographics, distinct pain points, and competitive landscape to craft a well-informed marketing strategy.

With this, you can personalize your proposals to businesses by reflecting their ethos and ambitions within your pages. Thus, guaranteeing that every solution you propose resonates with key stakeholders.

Start with the company’s public face , including its website, press releases, and published interviews, to grasp its market position.

Leverage their social media accounts to reveal their brand voice and customer engagement strategies.

Look at your target client’s competitors . Doing this lets you determine what sets them apart. It will also help uncover gaps that can be transformed into opportunities, and you can highlight those in your proposal.

Get data and insights from your prospect’s reports and case studies to help you understand their industry trends and consumer behavior.

For instance, let’s say you are creating a proposal for a solar power solutions company.

When you visit their website, ask yourself: How do they showcase their products? What is their price range? Premium or budget-friendly?

Perhaps they highlight eco-friendly benefits, energy independence, or their unique longer-lasting solar battery system in their content and homepage.

Using your findings, start creating a content strategy outline for the proposal that highlights the brand’s strengths and speaks directly to their consumers.

As for pricing , this should help you customize your marketing services to appeal to their specific customer base.

With this approach, you can form the first layer of the foundation of your entire project.

2. Identify the client needs

The key difference in your proposal will be its ability to mirror the client’s needs accurately and innovatively. What this entails is diving deep into what drives a business, its challenges, and its aspirations.

In essence, this takes your preliminary client research to the next level and goes beyond visiting websites and reading case studies. This requires a more direct approach and communication with your prospects.

As a marketing expert, recognizing these needs lets you align your action plan with the client’s specific needs .

It becomes a game-changer in the bidding process, as it elevates your proposal from a standard pitch to a customized solution.

How do you nail this?

Engage in direct conversations with your potential clients to know what they aim to achieve.

Also, involve project stakeholders in these discussions since they can provide other perspectives that might otherwise be missed.

What you gain from your conversations will help you formulate a detailed plan that addresses your prospect’s needs. Completing this step helps transform your marketing agency from a service provider to a strategic partner.

Moreover, you should create a custom assessment for your potential clients to personalize your proposal process. This is particularly effective for larger projects, where understanding nuances is crucial.

For instance, let’s say you are creating an assessment for a retail client. Include a wide variety of questions that explore their use of automation tools, customer engagement strategies, and online sales process efficiency.

A deep dive like this lets you uncover common elements in their business and highlights specific areas where your marketing expertise can drive significant growth.

3. Set clear objectives

Define the specific goals your marketing solution aims to achieve to have a clear direction and purpose when writing your business proposals.

Without this clarity, your proposal might be aimless and unclear. Hence, diminishing its impact.

What should you do?

Align your objectives with your prospect’s goals . Understand what they want to achieve through their marketing efforts.

Tailor your proposal to your prospect. Based on your alignment with prospect's needs, ajust your project objectives and overall proposal to meet their project goals.

Leverage professional tools like SMART to structure your objectives. Using this framework helps make sure that each objective is precise, trackable, and attainable within a specific timeframe.

Break down your strategy into project phases and give each phase its own set of objectives. With this, you demonstrate a well-thought-out plan.

Here's a handy infographic explaining the SMART framework:

Let’s see this process in action - say you are crafting a digital marketing strategy proposal for a brand expanding into digital products like courses, software solutions, and webinars.

First, align your plan of action with their goal: to captivate and convert their potential customer base into digital learners.

Then, dig further to know what their end-game is: Are they aiming to become thought leaders? Is their primary focus to make more software subscriptions ? Are they tapping into current trends to attract a wider audience?

Afterward, use the SMART framework to ensure each objective in your strategy is focused and achievable.

For instance, set a target to increase webinar sign-ups by 30% within 3 months through targeted social media campaigns and email marketing.

With a structured objectives list, your client gets to visualize each step towards successfully diversifying their business.

Here's a great example of an objectives slide:

4. Design your strategy & tactics

Once you have your objectives, it is time to develop a game plan. You should detail how you will achieve the set objectives by including the specific actions you will deploy.

Doing this provides your prospects with a clear, transparent view of your approach . Thus, boosting their trust and confidence in your capabilities.

To craft an effective proposal, thoroughly understand your prospect’s target customers to directly tailor your marketing plan to those who matter most to their business.

Who are they?

What drives their decisions?

You should also leverage data to inform your choices and show why certain approaches are more likely to succeed.

Analyze market trends, customer behaviors, and previous campaign results to identify opportunities to capitalize on.

With this data-driven approach, you bring a level of precision and personalization to your proposal.

Here's an example of a game plan slide:

For example, let’s say you are developing a social media marketing strategy proposal for a company eager to expand its online presence. Start by identifying your prospect’s target customers on social platforms.

Are they millennials drawn to visual content and influencer marketing? Your business plan should then align with this discovery.

So, propose a blend of creative content and influencer collaborations and use data to show the effectiveness of those strategies.

Additionally, make sure your entire proposal is understandable. Avoid overly technical terms that could confuse the project team or stakeholders.

Break down strategies into clear, actionable steps and explain how each will contribute to effective marketing campaigns and overall business goals.

Of course, do not forget a common theme in this guide, your prospect’s needs. Align your strategies with the client’s marketing objectives to guarantee that every tactic you propose moves towards these goals.

5. Provide expected outcomes & KPIs

Clients want more than promises; they seek tangible results. Give them KPIs and a clear forecast of the results you aim to achieve to demonstrate accountability and set benchmarks for success.

Here's an example of an interactive outcomes slide:

How do you do this?

Choose KPIs that are most relevant to the strategic marketing plan you are proposing. Make sure these indicators align with the marketing challenges you aim to tackle.

In addition, you should detail how you will track progress using specific metrics.

If you create your marketing proposals with Storydoc , then analytics are tracked for you automatically from the get-go, and you can get all the insights you need from the built-in analytics suite.

If you’re using some other form of web content you could use a streaming data analytics platform to monitor real-time insights into how your campaigns are performing.

What this shows is foresight and assures clients that you have a solid plan to measure and achieve results.

Here's a brief video explaining how the built-in analytics panel works:

Consider that your persuasive marketing proposal for an SBA loan investor company focuses on its goal to educate and build trust with small business owners.

Set clear KPIs and expected outcomes:

Aim for a 20% growth in social media followers to broaden the reach to potential borrowers across platforms.

Secure a 50% boost in site traffic through SEO-optimized articles on SBA lending practices.

Strive for a 15% increase in direct inquiries about SBA loans, indicating heightened interest and engagement.

Do not forget to detail how you will track these with regular updates via dashboards and monthly reports.

With this, you will show that you are going to handle the project with full transparency and precise measurement of progress.

A structured approach like this is especially critical in financial services marketing, as it guarantees precise targeting and messaging. It helps build trust and credibility in a sector where accuracy and reliability are paramount.

6. Establish a timeline

A chronological timeline will be your roadmap that marks significant milestones and allocates when clients can anticipate results.

Including this in your marketing proposals provides you and your clients with a structure. It also guarantees that everyone involved stays on track . Hence, avoiding misunderstandings, overlaps of phases, and delays.

Here's an example of a timeline slide:

To establish a timeline effectively, break down major phases into manageable tasks. Use a visual timeline in your business document like a Gantt chart .

This visual aid helps clarify the project timeline, including the specific hours dedicated to each task.

Here’s a scenario: You are creating a proposal for a company launching a digital marketing campaign to promote its creatine supplements.

Use Microsoft Project, GanttPRO, and Wrike to outline a visual timeline.

Then, break the campaign into phases:

Begin with a 2-week market research phase, focusing specifically on the target demographic for creatine supplements and competitive analysis in the supplement industry.

Follow this with a dedicated 4-week content creation phase to produce blog posts, how-to guides on using creatine for fitness goals , and engaging social media content highlighting user testimonials and creatine benefits.

Conclude with a 4-week content distribution and promotion phase, targeting fitness enthusiasts and health-conscious consumers.

Then, include bi-weekly check-ins with the marketing team to monitor and adjust the campaign as needed.

7. Include costs & terms

A well-detailed cost structure, paired with clear terms, sets the foundation for a harmonious partnership.

It helps prevent disputes and aid decision-making , as it sets clear financial obligations and conditions.

How do you set this up?

Break down costs for the types of marketing services you are offering, especially when specialized services are involved in complex projects.

Outline payment terms straightforwardly and specify the payment schedule, including any deposits required and the preferred payment methods.

For instance, if you are crafting a proposal for a comprehensive digital marketing campaign, list individual line items for each service. Additionally, clearly state the specific deliverables under each category.

Here’s an example you can take inspiration from:

For payment terms, incorporate details like having 35% due upon contract signing, with the balance payable monthly.

As for contract terms, specify duration, like a 1-year commitment, including conditions like a 45-day notice period for termination.

Laying out these terms eliminates ambiguities and promotes transparency. Plus, you can make sure your clients understand their financial commitment.

8. Write the marketing proposal

You've gathered insights, set objectives, planned strategies, provided KPIs, and outlined the costs and terms. Now, it is time to package this into a compelling proposal that resonates with potential clients.

Set up a solid framework to make sure you present your plan persuasively and coherently to guide the client through your vision and plan .

Use Storydoc to create personalized decks or dynamic presentations to “WOW” your potential clients.

What are the key elements you should work on?

Start with a cover page that includes the project title, your company's name, and the date. With this, you can set a professional tone right away and gain a favorable first impression.

Next, craft an executive summary. Treat this as your elevator pitch and not as a mere brief of your entire proposal. Summarize the client's needs, your proposed solutions, and why your agency is the best choice.

Then, delve into the specifics like the ones we discussed throughout this guide. Describe your proposed services, detailing how each element addresses the client's unique challenges and goals. Be precise, yet comprehensive.

Moreover, include case studies or examples of your previous success. They will show proof of your expertise and ability to deliver results. However, make sure to only include case studies relevant to the client's industry or challenge.

9. Use an interactive marketing proposal template

Consider using structured marketing proposal templates , so you do not have to scramble every time you propose to a prospect.

It’s also a good idea to move away from legacy proposal formats like PDF or PPT and upgrade your documents to interactive web experiences. These are much more attention-grabbing, compelling, and persuasive.

You can grab one of the tried and tested templates below to make your best proposal ever in record time.

3 biggest mistakes to avoid when crafting a marketing proposal

Knowing what to include is not the end to crafting a marketing proposal that woes prospects. It is also critical to know what NOT to do. Otherwise, the goodwill you earn from the good parts of your proposal will become futile.

One misstep can jeopardize your chances of securing that coveted client. Identifying and sidestepping common mistakes enhances your proposal's effectiveness and positions you ahead of competitors who might still be making them.

Start taking notes and do not fall for the usual traps of marketing proposals.

1. Overpromising

Offering the moon captures your client’s attention, right? While that might look like a winning strategy for some, it is not.

When reality does not measure up to those lofty promises, disappointment rises. With this comes broken trust and fractured client relationships.

What do you do to avoid this?

Be realistic and transparent about what you can deliver. Plus, set achievable goals and communicate potential challenges upfront.

You should also ground your proposals in data and past experiences. Use them as benchmarks for what's attainable.

When you do not overpromise, you build credibility and showcase your integrity and commitment to honesty.

2. Being too vague

When clients cannot see a clear path, they will hesitate to take the first step with you. It suggests you do not fully understand their needs or the project itself. That ambiguity breeds doubt, and that’s a silent proposal killer.

So, make your proposal as detailed and tailored to the client's specific requirements as possible. Conduct thorough research and present a thorough, step-by-step strategy to paint a clear picture of the path forward.

Additionally, incorporate precise language and avoid jargon that could obscure your message.

With a well-defined plan, you demonstrate professionalism and a deep understanding of the client's needs. It also strengthens their confidence in your ability to execute the plan effectively.

3. Ignoring client needs

Every client has unique business needs. That’s why they are looking for customized solutions, not one-size-fits-all approaches.

When you ignore those needs, prospects will perceive a lack of attention and care from your end. This fosters a sense of being undervalued, making them question your commitment and suitability for the project.

Prioritize active listening and engage in detailed discussions to understand their objectives and challenges. You should also regularly seek feedback throughout the project to guarantee alignment.

Moreover, do not be afraid to ask probing questions and show genuine interest. Incorporate the insights gathered from these conversations to develop an effective marketing proposal.

With this, you show that you value their input and are adaptable to their needs.

Burkhard Berger is the founder of Novum ™. He helps innovative B2B companies implement revenue-driven SEO strategies to scale their organic traffic to 1,000,000+ visitors per month. Curious about what your true traffic potential is?

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Understanding the Basics of Content Marketing

The role of research in content marketing, practical steps to conduct content marketing research, crafting content based on original insights, conquer content marketing research today, the complete guide to content marketing research.

• Content marketing research is essential to making sure your content resonates with your audience and offers unique insights.
• According to a survey of professional marketers, 89% reported that their original research either met or exceeded expectations.
• Research includes understanding audience preferences, staying on top of industry trends, differentiating content, and leveraging data to make informed decisions. 
• Share original insights with your audience by analyzing trends from fresh perspectives and crafting compelling narratives around data. 

The Strategic Approach to Content Marketing

• Identify your audience. Before you write a word, know who you’re writing for. Understand their pain points, their needs, and the questions they’re asking during each stage of the customer journey.
• Set clear objectives. Are you aiming to generate leads, boost brand awareness, or establish thought leadership ? Your content should align with your goals.
• Choose the right channels. Not all content fits every platform. A detailed whitepaper might thrive on LinkedIn but may not get the same traction on Twitter. Tailor your content to the platform and the audience it reaches.
• Engage and interact. Content marketing isn’t a one-way street. Engage with your audience, respond to their comments, and encourage discussions. It’s about building relationships, not just broadcasting messages.
• Understand your audience’s needs and preferences
• Stay updated with industry trends and shifts
• Differentiate your content from the sea of information on the internet

Making Informed Decisions

• Tailor content to your audience. Know what your audience is looking for and create content that speaks directly to their needs.
• Spot opportunities. Identify gaps in the market or topics that haven’t been extensively covered. This is your chance to shine and offer something unique.
• Measure and adjust. Track how your content performs. If something’s not working, research will help pinpoint the issue so you can tweak your approach.

Staying Ahead of The Curve

• Keep an eye on competitors and stay one step ahead
• Understand emerging technologies or methodologies that can impact your industry
• Ensure your content remains relevant and timely

Building Credibility

1. define your objectives.

• What do I want to achieve with my content? Is it brand awareness, lead generation, customer engagement, or something else?
• Who am I trying to reach? Is it industry leaders, potential clients, or maybe a niche segment within your market?

2. Know Your Audience Inside Out

3. Scope Out the Competition

4. dive into data.

5. Stay Updated with Industry Trends

6. test and iterate.

• Engagement rates
• Overall reception

7. Organize Your Findings

• Original content. 58% of marketers say that original written content is the most important type, giving your content a unique flavor. Instead of echoing what’s already out there, offer fresh perspectives and make your brand a go-to source for new ideas.
• Unique Data. Consider conducting your own surveys, studies, or experiments. This not only provides exclusive data for your content, but also positions your brand as a thought leader in the industry.
• Engaging with experts. Invite industry experts for interviews or Q&A sessions. Their unique viewpoints can add depth to your content and bring in perspectives that might not be widely discussed.
• Analyzing trends. While it’s essential to stay updated with industry trends, try to approach them from a different angle. Ask questions others aren’t asking and challenge the status quo. This fresh take can make your content more intriguing.
• Storytelling with data. Data is powerful, but it’s the story you weave around it that captures attention. Use your original insights to craft compelling narratives that resonate with your audience’s challenges and aspirations.

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About the Author - Lauren Basiura

Lauren is a writer for Marketing Insider Group , a top-rated Content Marketing Agency . Connect with her on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on all things MIG.

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How To Create Content Marketing Proposals That Land The Best Clients

There are two things every agency or freelancer needs out of a content marketing proposal:

• The ability to convey clear, comprehensive goals, services, and results that win new clients
• The ability to templatize content marketing proposals in order to efficiently win new business and reduce the amount of unpaid work that has to be done for each pitch.

For these reasons, we’d like to walk you through the in’s and out’s of writing your own content marketing proposals based on strategies that we’ve seen work best.

And don’t forget to download the FREE proposal template built with content marketers in mind.

👉 Download the Content Marketing Proposal Template

What is a content marketing proposal?

A content marketing proposal is a document or slide deck that lays out a specific set of goals, roadmaps, the scope of work, and pricing plans for a content marketing program.

They’re primarily used by agencies and freelancers as a way of detailing a plan of execution for a company’s content strategy. In-house teams can also repurpose these proposal templates for their own internal business case pitches.

• Agencies and freelancers often use proposals to demonstrate that they understand exactly what is required to build a content marketing program that will reach the client’s goals.
• In-house content marketing departments can use proposals to request larger budgets and make compelling cases for the need of additional skills and resources.

Additionally, content marketing proposals give teams as much visibility into the work before actually digging into the content process.

Considerations before creating a content marketing proposal

It’s hard to give universal guidance on how to create the best content marketing proposal given the complex relationships and types of campaigns that companies can run.

For example, one proposal might be for an audience-driven social media content program while another might be focused completely on organic traffic from SEO. The proposal for each program type might look quite different.

For this reason, let’s walk through some of the biggest considerations for you and your team before you get started on your proposal.

1) Is there a content marketing department and strategy already in place?

This is especially relevant if you’re a freelancer or an external marketing agency that needs to plugin to the in-house marketing team.

Your proposal can look remarkably different if you’ll be helping to execute on an already approved content marketing strategy than if you were asked to build the content marketing plan from scratch.

You might no longer be responsible for developing the goal KPIs, researching the target audience, or creating plans for different channels that the in-house team already has resources for.

In other words - are you responsible for the strategy, the execution, or both?

2) Which services will you need to offer in order to fulfill their content marketing needs?

It’s important to be thorough about which services you’ll need to offer in order to bring a content marketing strategy to life.

By services, we mean all of the types of content and channels that you’ll be creating content for AND we’re referring to any related strategy and services that are required to ensure the work in the proposal is a success.

For example:

We’ve worked on plenty of blog campaigns as an SEO content agency in which the target audience was already defined and the in-house team was building YouTube and social media content. Our proposal will only need to include blog content and necessary SEO research such as investigating related queries, trends, and competitor gaps.

BUT, for SEO content, we may need to include technical SEO and development services if those aren’t already being handled by another team. If the website’s UX is flawed, the load times are slow, or various CTA forms could enhance conversions, offering those services (or at least consulting on best practices) can ensure that we’ll deliver the success we promised in our proposal.

3) How to align on shared content marketing goals

You can include target KPIs for growth based on the industry of the company and any known benchmarks for the type of content marketing you’ll be doing.

For example, you might decide to include:

• X% increase in new users MoM
• X% increase in engagement rates (likes, shares, time on page, etc.)
• X% increase in Y conversions (eCommerce transactions, newsletter sign-ups, etc.)

Depending on the nature of your relationship with the company that you’ll be submitting your proposal to, we recommend developing a shared conversation about goals prior to solidifying them.

This will help with retention and client satisfaction.

In our experience, it’s critical to hear what the company’s overall goals and target KPIs are. However, we’ve also seen that it’s equally important that we temper their expectations based on our own experiences. For this reason, we recommend making the goal-setting part of the proposal more conversational before solidifying it.

For example: In SEO, a company might hire us to create blog content that generates eCommerce sales for specific products. However, due to the nature of blog content, we can help the client understand the best metrics (such as assisted conversions or email sign-ups) to measure success by.

Additionally, we’ll likely need to explain that bottom of the funnel content targeting highly specific queries often results in the largest number of conversions - but not the largest number of pageviews. So if a client is expecting both enormous traffic growth as well as an increase in sales, we need to explain that those are two separate goals.

Sections To Include In Content Marketing Proposals

The following sections are typically what’s included in a standard content marketing proposal. Follow along with your template as we discuss the best practices for each section.

Cover the overview and goals

The overview and goals section is meant to give the ten-thousand-foot view of the project. It succinctly defines what you’re setting out to do as well as the overall goals of the project. Think of this as a type of “ mission statement .”

Neither of these things will shock the company you send the proposal to as they’ll likely have given these to you already. The purpose of this section is to lay out the task prior to showing them how you’ll achieve the goals.

Define a clear scope of work

Getting the scope of work correct in your proposal is vital to both you and the company you’re pitching to. Laying out everything that your team is able to execute gives everyone a clear understanding of what you’ll be responsible for.

It also allows you to reference the proposal at a later date should a company ask for something outside of this scope, protecting you from unreasonable requests and unnecessary costs.

Below are some of the most common things to include in your scope of work section.

Content Strategy

Try not to confuse this section with THE content strategy . You haven’t been paid to start doing things like keyword research , yet - so don’t do too much work upfront.

In a proposal, you’re actually laying out the strategy for the overall campaign. This means a high-level overview that’s meant to sell your company’s plan. This might include:

• Campaign schedule
• Content types and deliverable expectations
• Buyer persona targeting
• Your role and how you alleviate your prospective client’s workload
• Distribution

For each of the previous bullets, write out a paragraph or two about how you create this, why you’re so effective at creating it, and why you think including this is the ticket to success.

You can think of this section as a way for you to summarize what you’ll be doing and why you’re the one worth choosing.

Types of content

Remember to include the specific types of content you’ll be responsible for, whether it’s content production or just strategy.

Common types of content in marketing proposals include:

• Social media posts/ads
• Email and newsletters
• Blog posts, articles, ebooks, case studies, and white papers
• Videos, webinars, and courses
• Landing pages

Competitor analysis

A simple, yet effective part of the proposal in which you discuss the importance of identifying exactly who your competitors are. This should include the insights that competitor research will provide your team, and how you can use that data to help inform the overall strategy.

Additionally, we like to include short phrases that show off our experience with competitor analysis. This might include a statement about how companies tend to only see their competitors as the people who make the same products or offer the same services. In content marketing, however, the people creating the content that you’re competing with are oftentimes outside of your industry altogether.

Content roadmap

Including a note about the roadmap allows you to tell your prospective client that they’ll have full visibility into the entire plan prior to its execution.

This should position you as transparent, honest, and allow you to frame the project as a partnership with built-in flexibility based on trends and priority shifts.

Market and audience research

No good content marketing strategy is without market and audience research. Your goal is to reassure the client that you won’t be creating a strategy based on intuition or guesses.

Instead, you’ll be making relevant, up-to-date, data-driven decisions with the help of tools, data sets, and the expertise of the client’s sales and customer success teams.

Recommended reading: 10 Customer Persona Tools & Templates

Timeline and Workflow Layouts

One of the best ways to display your organizational and project management skills is to put the strategy into the understood timeframe for the campaign. This initial timeline doesn’t need to include exact dates but should include workflow steps, number of deliverables each week, month, quarter, etc.

Additionally, include any tools/resources you’ll provide them to showcase visibility and be sure to express your desire for accountability.

This could be access to a workflow platform like Asana. Or, it could be letting them know that they’ll have access to a shared editorial calendar.

Recommended reading: What is a Channel Plan and Why Do I Need One?

Relevant Case Studies

If you want to put your content marketing proposal over the top of your competitors, include relevant case studies for them to review.

By relevant, we mean including a case study for a content marketing campaign that was in a related industry or in which you achieved the same KPIs that the prospective client wants to achieve. Or even better, both.

If you’re just starting out, you might not have the luxury of being able to select from a large portfolio. However, you should still find a way to frame any case studies you have to be relevant to your new client.

Pricing and Fees (Aka Investment)

It’s important to provide the pricing associated with the project. This breakdown gives companies an understanding of what each deliverable requires from a budgeting perspective.

We’ve also found that it can be helpful to offer 2 or 3 options in the pricing section for the opportunity to upsell more valuable services or more deliverables.

However, unless explicitly asked for, avoid providing line item pricing. You can incidentally create questions about the value of certain services and even fuel a desire for a custom a la carte style plan.

For the sake of positioning, we recommend labeling this section with the word “investment” rather than “price” or “cost.” It tends to give a better impression and true understanding of the partnership you’re entering into. Recommended reading: Content Marketing Budget Examples For All Business Sizes

Content Marketing Proposal Template

As promised, here’s our content marketing proposal template that we’ve used in the past to land several clients. In it, we’ve included tips and suggestions for how to go about your content marketing pitch.

We recommend that you start with a quick overview of the presentation structure, followed by your specific approach in building successful content marketing campaigns. This part is meant to serve as the ‘hook’, to showcase that you are capable of servicing the client’s needs.

The template also includes slides where you can insert specific recommendations for clients, your pricing structure, and a section for social proof where you can dive into what others have to say about you.

Please remember that this is a sample template with fonts, branding, logos, and color scheme relevant to Content Harmony. It is fully customizable and we highly recommend that you alter it according to your needs. The template has placeholders for areas where you fill in details like the client name, examples of your work, and testimonials.

Please use your own logos, images, and styles to nail your content marketing pitch. Replicating our template as is won’t give your prospect the best impression.

Mistakes to Avoid in Your Content Marketing Proposal

In addition to the best practices recommended above, we believe that it is important you keep an eye out for common pitfalls, too. Avoiding these common missteps can often mean the difference between landing that $5,000 monthly retainer client or receiving a polite email that the prospect has decided to go in a different direction.

Failure to Show Competence in the Client’s Business Model / Industry

When you’re pitching a content marketing proposal, you’re effectively telling the client that you understand their industry, their target audience, and key personas as well as they do or better. Whether your proposal covers audience building via social media or organic traffic growth, your client has to trust that you’re up to the task.

Content marketing strategies targeting Kubernetes applications are markedly different from those aiming to build an engaged audience around winter clothing. Your proposal must show that you have a track record of success with similar businesses.

Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t have to mean industry experience. It’s often more important to match the business model or audience. But if you’re pitching to a SaaS company with examples of projects you’ve done in travel & tourism, with wildly different audience segments and personas, there’s a high chance you won’t be picked.

But what if you’re trying to enter a new industry altogether and need that first client for experience? In that case, we recommend that you either build a compelling case for why the prospect should pick you despite minimal experience in their vertical or pick up one or two one-off projects in that niche before pitching to clients with a monthly retainer.

Making the Proposal About You, Not the Client

Some folks start their content marketing pitch with a long-winded introduction about their agency and go into detail about their past work, their clients, and big wins.

That’s one of the fastest ways for your prospect to switch off.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your prospect doesn’t want a laundry list of your achievements. Your accomplishments matter, but the prospect is most interested in understanding whether or not you can solve their marketing challenges. That’s the only reason they’ll give you their cash; the more you make your proposal about yourself, the less the chances of success.

We’re not saying that you should avoid name dropping or showcasing key wins. But use it strategically, such as towards the end of the pitch. Always start the proposal with an understanding of the client’s problems and your roadmap / strategy for solving them.

Once you’ve hooked them in and aroused their interest, give them a reason to trust you and work with you. That’s where you bring in the element of social proof: by showcasing past work and accomplishments, so they feel confident about their decision.

Failure to Convey a Sense of What It’s Like to Work With You

A content marketing pitch is one step in what will, hopefully, be a long partnership. But it’s these initial few interactions — from the proposal to the onboarding sequence — that can mean the difference between success and failure.

The first few interactions are where you can start to steer the conversation towards goal-setting and expectation management, and give the client a clear idea of what it’s like to work with you.

We recommend that you include the following details in your content marketing proposal:

Communication

How will the client communicate with your team? Who will they work with directly day-to-day? Will it be via email or a Slack channel? What is your average response time for client inquiries?

What types of reports will you send them and at what frequency? For example, you could commit to a bi-weekly overview of project updates and movements in areas like traffic growth, organic keyword rankings, and social media followers.

Project Management

Will you add them to a shared project management tool like Trello or Jira? That way you can tag the client when you need their input on a draft editorial calendar or a new blog post. A shared resource helps everyone stay on the same page and keep track of pending deliverables. It also prevents things like long email chains, where there’s a higher chance of miscommunication.

Don’t get complacent even if you have a great pitch and land the client. The first 100 days are often the most crucial and where you can set yourself up for long-term success.

Give Your Content Marketing Team The Best Tool to Execute on Proposal Strategies

When you’re building your content marketing pitch, it can be worthwhile to give your prospect a teaser of specific tools and ways you’ll build out their content assets.

For example, your prospect may need help with improving and optimizing existing blog content. Some of their content may have ranked well a couple of years ago, but now it’s slipped drastically down the SERPs. Or, your prospect may need new SEO-optimized content written from scratch.

In either case, it’s best practice to demonstrate how you’ll deploy a data-driven approach to solving their problem.

Content Harmony’s brief workflow is a chance to show your client that you adopt a highly structured approach in building content. Embedding screenshots of the tool in your pitch shows the client that you’ve spent time in research: scouring the SERPs to determine the optimal structure, word count, internal and external links, and detailed guidance for writers.

And once the content is written, it’s further analyzed in the Content Grader section to ensure that no stone is left unturned.

You can even paste the client’s current content into the Content Grader to show them how a data-driven content optimization process makes their content better.

Want to see how Content Harmony helps you build content that outranks the competition?

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Derek Flint

Derek is the SEO Content Strategist at Ten Speed, a content optimization and marketing agency that specializes in search engine optimization for B2B SaaS and D2C companies.

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-flint/

Twitter: @I___DEREKflint

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8 Research Proposal Examples & Template to Use

Written by: Raja Mandal

So you have a groundbreaking research idea you've spent months or even years developing, and now you're ready to take the next step.

How do you get funding for your research, and how should you approach potential funders? The answer is to create a convincing research proposal.

Unfortunately, most research proposals often get rejected. According to the European Research Council, the success rate for repeat proposal applications was only 14.8% in 2023 .

Pitching a novel research concept isn’t enough. To increase your chances of securing funding, your research proposal must check the right boxes in terms of clarity, feasibility, aesthetic appeal and other factors.

If you’re looking for inspiration to create a persuasive and feasible proposal, you’re in the right place. In this article, we have compiled a list of research proposal examples to help you create yours.

These examples will help you understand how to organize your proposal, what information to include and how to present it in a way that encourages others to support your project.

Let's dive in!

Table of Contents

What is a research proposal, what to include in a research proposal, 8 research proposal examples & templates, research proposal faqs.

• A research proposal is a document that outlines your proposed research project, explaining what you plan to study, why it's important and how you will conduct your research.
• A well-structured research proposal includes a title page, abstract and table of contents, introduction, literature review, research design and methodology, contribution to knowledge, research schedule, timeline and budget.
• Visme's research proposal examples and templates offer a great starting point for creating engaging and well-structured proposals.
• Choose a template from Visme's research proposal examples and customize it to fit your needs.
• With Visme’s proposal maker , you can create a research proposal that stands out. Access a drag-and-drop editor and advanced features like AI tools , collaboration features, brand wizard and more.

A research proposal is a structured document that outlines the core idea of your research, the methods you intend to use, the required resources and the expected results.

Think of it as a sales pitch for your research. It answers some big questions: What are you planning to explore? Why is it important to conduct the research? What are your research objectives and the methods you’ll use to achieve them? What are the potential outcomes or contributions of this research to the field?

A research proposal serves two primary purposes. First, it convinces funding bodies or academic committees to support your research project expected to bring new ideas and insights. Second, it provides a roadmap for your research journey, helping you stay focused, organized and on track.

Now, we'll discuss what to include in a research proposal. You'll learn about the important parts of a research proposal template and how they help present your research idea clearly.

Here’s an infographic that you can use to understand the elements of a research proposal quickly.

1. Title Page

Start your research proposal with a title page that clearly states your research. The title page is like a book cover, giving the first impression of your project. Therefore, you must ensure the design is engaging enough to attract your audience at first glance.

Include the following details on your title page:

• Title of your research
• Contact Details
• Name of the department or organization
• Date of submission

2. Abstract and Table of Contents

After the title page comes the abstract and the table of contents.

The abstract is a concise summary of your project that briefly outlines your research question, the reasons behind the study and the methods you intend to use. It is a quick way for readers to understand your proposal without reading the entire document.

The table of contents is a detailed list of the sections and subsections in your proposal, with page numbers. It helps readers navigate through your document and quickly locate different parts they're interested in.

3. Introduction

The introduction of your research proposal sets the tone for the rest of the document. It should grab the reader's attention and make them want to learn more. It's your chance to make a strong case for why your research is worth investigating and how it can fill a gap in current knowledge or solve a specific problem.

Make sure that your introduction covers the following:

• Background Information: Set the stage with a brief snapshot of existing research and why your topic is relevant.
• Research Problem: Identify the specific problem or knowledge gap that your study will address.
• Research Questions or Hypotheses: Present the central question or hypothesis that guides your research focus.
• Aims and Objectives: Outline your research's main goal and the steps you'll take to achieve it.
• Significance and Contribution: Explain how your research will add value to the field and what impact it could have.

4. Literature Review

A literature review is a list of the scholarly works you used to conduct your research. It helps you demonstrate your current knowledge about the topic.

Here's how this part works:

• Summary of Sources: Talk about the main ideas or findings from your research materials and explain how they connect to your research questions.
• Finding Gaps: Show where the current research falls short or doesn't give the full picture—this is where your research comes in!
• Key Theories: Tell the readers about any theories or ways of thinking that help shape your research.
• Learning from Methods: Discuss what previous researchers worked on and how their methods might guide your research.
• Recognizing Authors and Studies: Honor the pioneers whose work has had a major influence on your topic.

5. Research Design and Methodology

This section outlines your plan for answering your research question. It explains how you intend to gather and analyze information, providing a clear roadmap of the investigation process.

Here are the key components:

Population and Sample

Describe the entire group you're interested in (the population). This could be all teachers in a specific state or all social media platform users. After that, you will need to explain how you will choose a smaller group, known as a sample, to study directly. This sample should be selected to accurately represent the larger population you are interested in studying.

To choose the right sampling method, you need to assess your population properly. For instance, to obtain general insights, you can use random sampling to select individuals without bias. If the population consists of different categories, such as professionals and students, you can use stratified sampling to ensure that each category is represented in the sample.

Other popular sampling methods include systematic, convenience, purposive, cluster, and probability sampling techniques.

Research Approach

There are three main approaches for the research: qualitative (focusing on experiences and themes), quantitative (using numbers and statistics), or mixed methods (combining both). Your choice will depend on your research question and the kind of data you need.

Data Collection

This section details the specific methods you'll use to gather information. Will you distribute surveys online or in person? Conduct interviews? Perhaps you'll use existing data sets. Here, you'll also explain how you'll ensure the data collection process is reliable and ethical.

Data Analysis

Once you have collected your data, the next step is to analyze it to obtain meaningful insights. The method you choose depends on the available data type.

If you have quantitative data, you can employ statistical tests to analyze it. And if you're dealing with qualitative data, coding techniques can help you spot patterns and themes in your collected data.

6. Contribution to Knowledge

In this section, you need to explain how your research will contribute to the existing knowledge in your field. You should describe whether your study will fill a knowledge gap, challenge conventional ideas or beliefs or offer a fresh perspective on a topic.

Clearly outline how your work will advance your field of study and why this new knowledge is essential.

7. Research Schedule and Timeline

Create a timeline with important milestones, such as finishing your literature review, completing data collection and finalizing your analysis.

This shows that you've carefully considered the scope of your project and can manage your time effectively. Furthermore, account for possible delays and be prepared to adapt your schedule accordingly.

To create this timeline, consider using a visual tool like a Gantt chart or a simple spreadsheet. These tools will help you organize individual tasks, assign deadlines, and visualize the project's overall progress.

Choose a Gantt chart template from Visme's library and customize it to create your timeline quickly. Here's an example template:

The budget section is your opportunity to show them that you've carefully considered all necessary expenses and that your funding request is justified.

Here's how you can approach this part:

• Understand the Rules: Before making calculations, thoroughly review the funding agency's guidelines. Pay attention to what types of expenses are allowed or excluded and whether there are any budget caps.
• Personnel: Salaries and benefits for yourself, research assistants, or collaborators.
• Equipment: Specialized tools, software, or lab supplies.
• Travel: Transportation, lodging and meals if data collection requires travel.
• Dissemination: Costs for publishing results or presenting at conferences.
• Provide Justifications: Don't just list a cost. Briefly explain why each expense is crucial for completing your research.
• Be Thorough and Realistic: Research prices for specific items using quotes or online comparisons. Don't underestimate expenses, as this can raise troubles about the project's feasibility.
• Don't Forget Contingencies: Include a small buffer (around 5% of your total budget) for unexpected costs that might arise.

Using these research proposal examples and templates, you can create a winning proposal in no time. You will find templates for various topics and customize every aspect of them to make them your own.

Visme’s drag-and-drop editor, advanced features and a vast library of templates help organizations and individuals worldwide create engaging documents.

Here’s what a research student who uses Visme to create award-winning presentations has to say about the tool:

Chantelle Clarke

Research Student

Now, let’s dive into the research proposal examples.

1. Research Proposal Presentation Template

This research proposal presentation template is a powerful tool for presenting your research plan to stakeholders. The slides include specific sections to help you outline your research, including the research background, questions, objectives, methodology and expected results.

The slides create a coherent narrative, highlighting the importance and significance of your research. Overall, the template has a calming and professional blue color scheme with text that enables your audience to grasp the key points.

If you need help creating your presentation slides in a fraction of the time, check out Visme's AI presentation maker . Enter your requirements using text prompts, and the AI tool will generate a complete presentation with engaging visuals, text and clear structure. You can further customize the template completely to your needs.

2. Sales Research Proposal Template

Sales research gives you a deeper understanding of their target audience. It also helps you identify gaps in the market and develop effective sales strategies that drive revenue growth. With this research proposal template, you can secure funding for your next research project.

It features a sleek and professional grayscale color palette with a classic and modern vibe. The high-quality images in the template are strategically placed to reinforce the message without overwhelming the reader. Furthermore, the template includes a vertical bar graph that effectively represents budget allocations, enabling the reader to quickly grasp the information.

Use Visme's interactive elements and animations to add a dynamic layer to your research proposals. You can animate any object and add pop-ups or link pages for a more immersive experience. Use these functionalities to highlight key findings, demonstrate trends or guide readers through your proposal, making the content engaging and interactive.

3. General Funding Research Proposal Template

This proposal template is a great tool for securing funding for any type of research project. It begins with a captivating title page that grabs attention. The beautiful design elements and vector icons enhance the aesthetic and aid visual communication.

This template revolves around how a specific user group adopts cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The goal is to assess awareness, gauge interest and understand key factors affecting cryptocurrency adoption.

The project methodology includes survey design, data collection, and market research. The expected impact is to enhance customer engagement and position the company as a customer-centric brand.

Do you need additional help crafting the perfect text for your proposal? Visme's AI writer can quickly generate content outlines, summaries and even entire sections. Just explain your requirements to the tool using a text prompt, and the tool will generate it for you.

4. Product Research Proposal Template

Creating a product that delights users begins with detailed product research. With this modern proposal template, you can secure buy-in and funding for your next research.

It starts with a background that explains why the research is important. Next, it highlights what the research is set to achieve, how the research will be conducted, how much it will cost, the timeline and the expected outcomes. With a striking color scheme combining black, yellow, and gray, the template grabs attention and maintains it until the last page.

What we love about this template is the smart use of visuals. You'll find a flowchart explaining the methodology, a bar graph for the budget, and a timeline for the project. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the visual elements you’ll find in Visme.

Visme offers data visualization tools with 30+ data widgets, such as radial gauges, population arrays, progress bars and more. These tools can help you turn complex data into engaging visuals for your research proposal or any other document.

For larger data sets, you can choose from 20+ types of charts and graphs , including bar graphs , bubble charts , Venn diagrams and more.

5. Tech Research Proposal Template

If you’re a tech researcher, we’ve got the perfect template for you. This research proposal example is about predictive analytics in e-commerce. However, you can customize it for any other type of research proposal.

It highlights the project's objectives, including the effectiveness of predictive analysis, the impact of product recommendations and supply chain optimization. The methods proposed for achieving these objectives involve A/B testing and data analysis, a comprehensive budget and a 12-month timeline for clear project planning.

The title page has a unique triptych-style layout that immediately catches the reader's attention. It has plenty of white space that enhances readability, allowing your audience to focus on the critical points.

Submitting to different funding agencies? You don’t have to manually make changes to your document. Visme's dynamic fields can help save time and eliminate repetitive data entry.

Create custom fields like project names, addresses, contact information and more. Any changes made to these fields will automatically populate throughout the document.

6. Marketing Research Proposal Template

Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm and the marketing niche isn’t left out. With this eye-catching template, you can attract attention to your proposed marketing research project for an AI-driven platform.

The main goal of the research is to evaluate the platform's feasibility and marketing potential. To achieve this goal, the scope of work includes a comprehensive analysis of the market and competitors and pilot testing. The proposal also contains a budget overview that clearly outlines the allocation of funds, ensuring a well-planned and transparent approach.

Using Visme's Brand Design Tool , you can easily customize this template to suit your branding with just one click. Simply enter your URL into the brand wizard, and the tool will automatically extract your company logo, brand colors, and brand fonts . Once saved, you or your team members can apply the branding elements to any document. It's that simple!

7. Environmental Research Proposal Template

The environmental research proposal example focuses on carbon emissions, identifies their contributing factors, and suggests sustainable practices to address them. It uses an appropriate sample size and data collection techniques to gather and evaluate data and provide sustainable recommendations to reduce industrial carbon footprints and waste.

From a design standpoint, the green and white color combination matches the theme of nature and environmental friendliness. In addition to its aesthetic appeal, the proposal includes relevant images that support ecological advocacy, making it informative and visually aligned with its purpose.

A key feature of this template is its detailed breakdown of the project's timeline. It uses a Gantt chart to clearly present stages, milestones and deadlines.

Collaborate with your team members to customize these research proposal templates using Visme’s collaborative design features . These features allow you to leave feedback, draw annotations and even make live edits. Invite your teammates via email or a shareable link and allow them to work together on projects.

8. General Approval Research Proposal Template

This research proposal template is a total game-changer - you can use it for any research proposal and customize it however you want. It features a modern and refreshing color scheme that immediately makes it stand out, providing a contemporary look that can adapt to any project's needs.

The template's layout is thoughtfully designed with primary fields that users can easily personalize by changing text, adjusting colors, or swapping images. No matter the research topic, you can tailor the template to fit your specific needs.

Once you're done customizing your research proposal template on Visme, you can download, share and publish it in different ways. For offline usage, you may download the proposal in PDF, PNG, or JPG format. To share it online, you can use a private or public link or generate a code snippet that you can embed anywhere on the web.

Want to create other types of proposals? Here are 29 proposal templates that you can easily customize in Visme.

Q. What Are the Five Steps of Writing a Research Proposal?

Follow these steps to write a solid research proposal:

• Choose a topic within your field of study that can be explored and investigated.
• Research existing literature and studies to build a foundational understanding and prepare your research question.
• Outline your research proposal: introduction, literature review, proposed methodology, budget and timeline.
• Conduct more detailed studies to strengthen your proposition, refine your research question and justify your methodology.
• Follow your outline to write a clear and organized proposal, then review and edit for accuracy before submitting.

If you want to learn more about creating an expert research proposal , we highly recommend checking out our in-depth guide.

Q. How Long Is a Research Proposal?

Research proposals can range from 1,000 to 5,000 words. For smaller projects or when specific requirements aren't provided, aim for a concise and informative proposal that effectively outlines your research plan.

However, the ideal length depends on these factors:

• Projects with complex methodologies or multiple phases may require longer proposals to explain the scope and procedures in detail.
• Universities, academic institutions and funding agencies often have guidelines of a specific length. Always check their requirements beforehand.
• When writing a proposal, adjust the level of study based on the audience. Academic proposals may require comprehensive explanations, while business or non-profit proposals require a more streamlined approach.

Q. How Long Does It Take to Write a Research Proposal?

The time it takes to write a research proposal depends on a few factors:

• Complex research with extensive data collection or analysis will naturally take longer to plan and write about.
• If you're new to writing research proposals, expect to spend more time learning the format and best practices.
• If you've already conducted some research or a thorough literature review, the writing process might go faster.
• Funding applications often have strict deadlines that will dictate your timeline.

Set aside several weeks to a couple of months for researching, writing, and revising your proposal. Start early to avoid stress and produce your best work.

Q. What Not to Do for a Research Proposal?

There are several factors that can make a research proposal weak. Here are some of the most common errors that you should avoid while preparing your research proposal:

• Don’t choose a topic that’s too broad. Focus on a specific area you can thoroughly explore within your proposal’s limits.
• Don’t ignore the rules for formatting and submitting your proposal. Always adhere to the requirements set by your institution or funding body.
• Don’t forget to conduct a thorough literature review. It's crucial to show your grasp of existing research related to your topic.
• Don't be vague about your methods. Ensure they're clearly defined and suitable for answering your research question.
• Don't overlook errors in grammar, typos or structure. A well-proofread proposal reflects professionalism, so review it carefully before submitting it.

Craft Professional & Engaging Proposals with Visme

Writing a compelling research proposal takes effort, but with the right tools, the process becomes a breeze. Use the research proposal examples and templates in this article as a launching point to write your own proposal.

The best part? Visme provides easy-to-use tools with a vast collection of customizable templates, design elements and powerful features.

Whether you're a seasoned researcher or a student, Visme has the resources to help you create visually appealing and well-structured research proposals. In addition to research proposals, Visme helps you create many other document types, such as presentations , infographics , reports and more.

Ready to create your own research proposal? Check out Visme's proposal maker and start crafting professional and engaging proposals in minutes!

Create professional research proposals with Visme

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About the Author

Raja Antony Mandal is a Content Writer at Visme. He can quickly adapt to different writing styles, possess strong research skills, and know SEO fundamentals. Raja wants to share valuable information with his audience by telling captivating stories in his articles. He wants to travel and party a lot on the weekends, but his guitar, drum set, and volleyball court don’t let him.

Research Proposal Example/Sample

Detailed Walkthrough + Free Proposal Template

If you’re getting started crafting your research proposal and are looking for a few examples of research proposals , you’ve come to the right place.

In this video, we walk you through two successful (approved) research proposals , one for a Master’s-level project, and one for a PhD-level dissertation. We also start off by unpacking our free research proposal template and discussing the four core sections of a research proposal, so that you have a clear understanding of the basics before diving into the actual proposals.

• Research proposal example/sample – Master’s-level (PDF/Word)
• Research proposal example/sample – PhD-level (PDF/Word)
• Proposal template (Fully editable) 

If you’re working on a research proposal for a dissertation or thesis, you may also find the following useful:

• Research Proposal Bootcamp : Learn how to write a research proposal as efficiently and effectively as possible
• 1:1 Proposal Coaching : Get hands-on help with your research proposal

PS – If you’re working on a dissertation, be sure to also check out our collection of dissertation and thesis examples here .

FAQ: Research Proposal Example

Research proposal example: frequently asked questions, are the sample proposals real.

Yes. The proposals are real and were approved by the respective universities.

Can I copy one of these proposals for my own research?

As we discuss in the video, every research proposal will be slightly different, depending on the university’s unique requirements, as well as the nature of the research itself. Therefore, you’ll need to tailor your research proposal to suit your specific context.

You can learn more about the basics of writing a research proposal here .

How do I get the research proposal template?

You can access our free proposal template here .

Is the proposal template really free?

Yes. There is no cost for the proposal template and you are free to use it as a foundation for your research proposal.

Where can I learn more about proposal writing?

For self-directed learners, our Research Proposal Bootcamp is a great starting point.

For students that want hands-on guidance, our private coaching service is recommended.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Research Proposal Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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Writing a Great Marketing Research Proposal: Outline to Completion

Market research proposals aren’t as simple as they may seem. Maybe you’re struggling to write your market research proposal , or simply want to make your proposal become even stronger.

Content marketing , especially for a freelancer, can be broken down into a digestible science, and there are several components that will make your market research proposal truly great.

As long as your proposal includes these four elements at the very least, consider yourself good to go.

Not sure how to write them? We’ll break down everything you could possibly need to make your market research proposal great.

How to Structure your Marketing Proposal

A marketing proposal has many different components that need to be considered regardless of the goals. From your proposal, a client needs to understand:

• What are the goals and objectives of the engagement?
• What work is going to be done? 
• When is everything going to be done?
• How much is it going to cost?

In this guide, we’ll cover all of these different facets of a marketing services or marketing research proposal outline and what you should be thinking about when putting together a proposal that will close.

Overview & Goals

Take the time to truly understand what your client is looking for and how you’re able to support them. Get to the specifics of what they’re trying to accomplish.

Think about what you hope to gain from your research, and furthermore, determine why this research is important. Who does it impact? Why are you the perfect person to conduct this project?

In marketing, your goals could also include increasing brand visibility, increasing conversions, average order value, or overall revenue. Regardless of the goals, make sure you outline what you’re working toward as it will set up the rest of the pitch.

Scope of Work

Marketing is incredibly broad and can encompass many different areas. From digital marketing to traditional marketing, there are many different components of what you can work on. Highlight the main areas that you plan on executing.

The options below are only a few examples of what may be included within your digital marketing proposal. Whatever you decide to include within your scope, make sure that everything aligns back to your goals.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is one area that may be included in your marketing proposal. Determine which of your skillsets will best meet the client’s goals. Some examples of digital marketing areas may include SEO, PPC, social media, web design, and online content. 

Outline whether you’ll be working on creating strategies or executing specific tactics. The scope of work is where you get as specific as possible on what you’ll be doing .

Traditional Marketing

If your client is less focused on online strategies, you can include different traditional marketing activities. These range from print media to billboards, trade shows, referrals, and partnerships. 

These are less common marketing activities, but should still be considered depending on your client and their audience.

For Research, Provide Specifics of Your Approach

You may think that you’ve already covered your approach within the objective element, and you might be right. However, you want to have a separate section of your market research proposal within your SOW dedicated to the approach so that you can really hammer out the details. 

Address items such as:

• What will be your specific methods of conducting research?
• Will you have focus groups? If so, how many?
• How many team members will you need, or can you do this alone?

Determine precisely what you’ll need and how you’ll be conducting it. The more specific you are, the more likely the client will be to hire you. They need someone to fit their needs, just as you need someone to fit yours. Address the tiniest of details here so both sides can determine a good fit.

Once you know what you’re going to be pitching, the next step is determining a timeline. Some clients will come to you with a timeframe that they want, but other times you’ll need to provide a timeline of your own.

Be realistic about the amount of time something will take because this is your first step in building trust with your client and your ability to manage expectations.

Presenting a timeline can look like a content calendar, a physical timeline that shows the different deliverables mapped out against a calendar to visually see the dates, or a simple timeframe that says an estimated amount of time each area will take. 

Pricing & Fees

“When money talks, there are few interruptions,” Herbert V. Prochnow claimed .

The cost of performing market research will be a key part of your proposal. This is where your client will likely pay the most attention, which means you’ve got to reel them in. The cost element is imperative for crafting a great proposal.

You deserve to be paid for your work, there’s no question about that. However, it’s important to consider what will be the most cost-effective way for you to be paid. Do you want to be paid hourly, paid upfront, or in staggered deposits? All of these are viable options.

Tiered Pricing

The larger your scope is, the more it’s going to cost. If you know your client is price-conscientious, consider creating a tiered system to your scope. This can be structured in a “good, better, best” model of what you would recommend that would help accomplish the client’s goals. 

Type of Engagement

When putting together the pricing, determine what type of engagement makes the most sense for you and your client. This may be a retainer agreement, an hourly cost, or a project-based fee. This will impact how you structure your payment and how much to charge your client.

Come up with your expense budget and know that part of this will be addressed in your objectives. Since your client will already be thinking about money, you can include this on the front page of your proposal, in your initial email, and so on.

Duration vs. Market Value

One large consideration when figuring out the pricing is thinking about how long the project will take to execute vs. how much the information is worth. Oftentimes clients will want to charge you a lower hourly rate but that doesn’t always account for the years of time you’ve spent building this expertise. Understand what the market rate for this type of work is and the potential ROI that it will bring the client.

One way of determining your rate is to consider your value as a full-time employee or the cost that it would be for them to hire a full-time employee for this type of role. Calculating this number backward can just give you additional information you can work off of.

Presenting Your Proposal

The more complicated your marketing proposal is, the more information you need to provide. The amount of information that’s included within the scope of work will influence how the proposal is delivered. This can be in a text format, presentation, or a simple email. It all depends on your client, your information, and what you think will close the deal.

If you’re looking for a simple template to create your proposal, we have you covered.

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Home » How To Write A Proposal – Step By Step Guide [With Template]

How To Write A Proposal – Step By Step Guide [With Template]

Table of Contents

How To Write A Proposal

Writing a Proposal involves several key steps to effectively communicate your ideas and intentions to a target audience. Here’s a detailed breakdown of each step:

Identify the Purpose and Audience

• Clearly define the purpose of your proposal: What problem are you addressing, what solution are you proposing, or what goal are you aiming to achieve?
• Identify your target audience: Who will be reading your proposal? Consider their background, interests, and any specific requirements they may have.

Conduct Research

• Gather relevant information: Conduct thorough research to support your proposal. This may involve studying existing literature, analyzing data, or conducting surveys/interviews to gather necessary facts and evidence.
• Understand the context: Familiarize yourself with the current situation or problem you’re addressing. Identify any relevant trends, challenges, or opportunities that may impact your proposal.

Develop an Outline

• Create a clear and logical structure: Divide your proposal into sections or headings that will guide your readers through the content.
• Introduction: Provide a concise overview of the problem, its significance, and the proposed solution.
• Background/Context: Offer relevant background information and context to help the readers understand the situation.
• Objectives/Goals: Clearly state the objectives or goals of your proposal.
• Methodology/Approach: Describe the approach or methodology you will use to address the problem.
• Timeline/Schedule: Present a detailed timeline or schedule outlining the key milestones or activities.
• Budget/Resources: Specify the financial and other resources required to implement your proposal.
• Evaluation/Success Metrics: Explain how you will measure the success or effectiveness of your proposal.
• Conclusion: Summarize the main points and restate the benefits of your proposal.

Write the Proposal

• Grab attention: Start with a compelling opening statement or a brief story that hooks the reader.
• Clearly state the problem: Clearly define the problem or issue you are addressing and explain its significance.
• Present your proposal: Introduce your proposed solution, project, or idea and explain why it is the best approach.
• State the objectives/goals: Clearly articulate the specific objectives or goals your proposal aims to achieve.
• Provide supporting information: Present evidence, data, or examples to support your claims and justify your proposal.
• Explain the methodology: Describe in detail the approach, methods, or strategies you will use to implement your proposal.
• Address potential concerns: Anticipate and address any potential objections or challenges the readers may have and provide counterarguments or mitigation strategies.
• Recap the main points: Summarize the key points you’ve discussed in the proposal.
• Reinforce the benefits: Emphasize the positive outcomes, benefits, or impact your proposal will have.
• Call to action: Clearly state what action you want the readers to take, such as approving the proposal, providing funding, or collaborating with you.

Review and Revise

• Proofread for clarity and coherence: Check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
• Ensure a logical flow: Read through your proposal to ensure the ideas are presented in a logical order and are easy to follow.
• Revise and refine: Fine-tune your proposal to make it concise, persuasive, and compelling.

Add Supplementary Materials

• Attach relevant documents: Include any supporting materials that strengthen your proposal, such as research findings, charts, graphs, or testimonials.
• Appendices: Add any additional information that might be useful but not essential to the main body of the proposal.

Formatting and Presentation

• Follow the guidelines: Adhere to any specific formatting guidelines provided by the organization or institution to which you are submitting the proposal.
• Use a professional tone and language: Ensure that your proposal is written in a clear, concise, and professional manner.
• Use headings and subheadings: Organize your proposal with clear headings and subheadings to improve readability.
• Pay attention to design: Use appropriate fonts, font sizes, and formatting styles to make your proposal visually appealing.
• Include a cover page: Create a cover page that includes the title of your proposal, your name or organization, the date, and any other required information.

Seek Feedback

• Share your proposal with trusted colleagues or mentors and ask for their feedback. Consider their suggestions for improvement and incorporate them into your proposal if necessary.

Finalize and Submit

• Make any final revisions based on the feedback received.
• Ensure that all required sections, attachments, and documentation are included.
• Double-check for any formatting, grammar, or spelling errors.
• Submit your proposal within the designated deadline and according to the submission guidelines provided.

Proposal Format

The format of a proposal can vary depending on the specific requirements of the organization or institution you are submitting it to. However, here is a general proposal format that you can follow:

1. Title Page:

• Include the title of your proposal, your name or organization’s name, the date, and any other relevant information specified by the guidelines.

2. Executive Summary:

•  Provide a concise overview of your proposal, highlighting the key points and objectives.
• Summarize the problem, proposed solution, and anticipated benefits.
• Keep it brief and engaging, as this section is often read first and should capture the reader’s attention.

3. Introduction:

• State the problem or issue you are addressing and its significance.
• Provide background information to help the reader understand the context and importance of the problem.
• Clearly state the purpose and objectives of your proposal.

4. Problem Statement:

• Describe the problem in detail, highlighting its impact and consequences.
• Use data, statistics, or examples to support your claims and demonstrate the need for a solution.

5. Proposed Solution or Project Description:

• Explain your proposed solution or project in a clear and detailed manner.
• Describe how your solution addresses the problem and why it is the most effective approach.
• Include information on the methods, strategies, or activities you will undertake to implement your solution.
• Highlight any unique features, innovations, or advantages of your proposal.

6. Methodology:

• Provide a step-by-step explanation of the methodology or approach you will use to implement your proposal.
• Include a timeline or schedule that outlines the key milestones, tasks, and deliverables.
• Clearly describe the resources, personnel, or expertise required for each phase of the project.

7. Evaluation and Success Metrics:

• Explain how you will measure the success or effectiveness of your proposal.
• Identify specific metrics, indicators, or evaluation methods that will be used.
• Describe how you will track progress, gather feedback, and make adjustments as needed.
• Present a detailed budget that outlines the financial resources required for your proposal.
• Include all relevant costs, such as personnel, materials, equipment, and any other expenses.
• Provide a justification for each item in the budget.

9. Conclusion:

•  Summarize the main points of your proposal.
•  Reiterate the benefits and positive outcomes of implementing your proposal.
• Emphasize the value and impact it will have on the organization or community.

10. Appendices:

• Include any additional supporting materials, such as research findings, charts, graphs, or testimonials.
•  Attach any relevant documents that provide further information but are not essential to the main body of the proposal.

Proposal Template

Here’s a basic proposal template that you can use as a starting point for creating your own proposal:

Dear [Recipient’s Name],

I am writing to submit a proposal for [briefly state the purpose of the proposal and its significance]. This proposal outlines a comprehensive solution to address [describe the problem or issue] and presents an actionable plan to achieve the desired objectives.

Thank you for considering this proposal. I believe that implementing this solution will significantly contribute to [organization’s or community’s goals]. I am available to discuss the proposal in more detail at your convenience. Please feel free to contact me at [your email address or phone number].

Yours sincerely,

Note: This template is a starting point and should be customized to meet the specific requirements and guidelines provided by the organization or institution to which you are submitting the proposal.

Proposal Sample

Here’s a sample proposal to give you an idea of how it could be structured and written:

Subject : Proposal for Implementation of Environmental Education Program

I am pleased to submit this proposal for your consideration, outlining a comprehensive plan for the implementation of an Environmental Education Program. This program aims to address the critical need for environmental awareness and education among the community, with the objective of fostering a sense of responsibility and sustainability.

Executive Summary: Our proposed Environmental Education Program is designed to provide engaging and interactive educational opportunities for individuals of all ages. By combining classroom learning, hands-on activities, and community engagement, we aim to create a long-lasting impact on environmental conservation practices and attitudes.

Introduction: The state of our environment is facing significant challenges, including climate change, habitat loss, and pollution. It is essential to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to understand these issues and take action. This proposal seeks to bridge the gap in environmental education and inspire a sense of environmental stewardship among the community.

Problem Statement: The lack of environmental education programs has resulted in limited awareness and understanding of environmental issues. As a result, individuals are less likely to adopt sustainable practices or actively contribute to conservation efforts. Our program aims to address this gap and empower individuals to become environmentally conscious and responsible citizens.

Proposed Solution or Project Description: Our Environmental Education Program will comprise a range of activities, including workshops, field trips, and community initiatives. We will collaborate with local schools, community centers, and environmental organizations to ensure broad participation and maximum impact. By incorporating interactive learning experiences, such as nature walks, recycling drives, and eco-craft sessions, we aim to make environmental education engaging and enjoyable.

Methodology: Our program will be structured into modules that cover key environmental themes, such as biodiversity, climate change, waste management, and sustainable living. Each module will include a mix of classroom sessions, hands-on activities, and practical field experiences. We will also leverage technology, such as educational apps and online resources, to enhance learning outcomes.

Evaluation and Success Metrics: We will employ a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Pre- and post-assessments will gauge knowledge gain, while surveys and feedback forms will assess participant satisfaction and behavior change. We will also track the number of community engagement activities and the adoption of sustainable practices as indicators of success.

Budget: Please find attached a detailed budget breakdown for the implementation of the Environmental Education Program. The budget covers personnel costs, materials and supplies, transportation, and outreach expenses. We have ensured cost-effectiveness while maintaining the quality and impact of the program.

Conclusion: By implementing this Environmental Education Program, we have the opportunity to make a significant difference in our community’s environmental consciousness and practices. We are confident that this program will foster a generation of individuals who are passionate about protecting our environment and taking sustainable actions. We look forward to discussing the proposal further and working together to make a positive impact.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Should you have any questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me at [your email address or phone number].

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy in 9 Easy Steps [Free Template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a nine-step plan to create a winning social media strategy of your own. We’ve even got expert insights from Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing.

How to create a social media strategy:

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template   to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.

Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.

Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Creating your own social media marketing strategy (video guide)

No time to read the whole article? Let Amanda, Hootsuite’s own Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing, guide you through our free social media marketing strategy template in less than 10 minutes:

How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 steps

Step 1. choose goals that align to business objectives, set s.m.a.r.t. goals.

The first step to creating a winning social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success and return on investment (ROI) .

Each of your social media marketing goals should be SMART : s pecific, m easurable, a ttainable, r elevant and t ime-bound.

Psst: Need help getting started? We’ve got social strategy guides for small businesses , financial services , government , higher education , healthcare , real estate , law firms , and non-profits .

Oh, and if you need examples of smart social media goals , we’ve got you covered there too.

Once you’ve decided on your goals, track them in a social media strategy doc — grab our free template if you don’t have one already.

Track meaningful metrics

Vanity metrics like number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates.

For inspiration, take a look at these 19 essential social media metrics .

You may want to track different goals for different social media networks, or even different uses for each network.

For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Start developing a successful social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.

“ It’s easy to get overwhelmed by deciding what to post and which metrics to track, but you need to focus on what you want to get out of social media to begin with,” says Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing. “Don’t just start posting and tracking everything: match your goals to your business, and your metrics to your goals.”

Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Average income
• Typical job title or industry

Here’s a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas .

Don’t forget to document this information in your strategy doc!

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them .

Step 3. Get to know your competition

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It will also help you spot opportunities and weaknesses you can document in your social strategy doc.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into X (Twitter) or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them. If they’re using influencer marketing, how much engagement do those campaigns earn them?

Pro tip : Use Hootsuite Streams to monitor relevant keywords, hashtags and accounts in real-time.

Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime.

As you track, you may notice shifts in how your competitors and industry leaders are using social media. You may come across new, exciting trends. You might even spot specific social content or a campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to optimize and inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “ Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in on a monthly basis is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your own strategy and results.”

Step 4. Do a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts

During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind that they’re capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your accounts verified too to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• X (Twitter)

Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles

Decide which networks to use.

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

Benefit Cosmetics’ social media manager, Angela Purcaro, told eMarketer : “For our makeup tutorials … we’re all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. [X], on the other hand, is designated for customer service.”

Hootsuite’s own social team even designates different purposes for formats within networks. On Instagram, for example, they use the feed to post high-quality educational infographics and product announcements and Stories to cover live events or quick social media updates.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite)

Pro tip : Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use X for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

Or: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

One more: “We will use Instagram to highlight new products and repost quality content from influencers.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Note : While larger businesses can and do tackle every platform, small businesses may not be able to — and that’s ok! Prioritize social platforms that will have the most impact on your business and make sure your marketing team has the resources to handle content for those networks. If you need help focusing your efforts, check out our 18-minute social media plan .

Set up your profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip : Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a TikTok account
• Create a X (Twitter) business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account
• Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Optimize your profiles (and content) for search

Never heard of social SEO ? It’s time to learn.

44% of Gen Z consumers use social platforms to research their purchase decisions, which means it’s extra critical that your channels are optimized for social search.

That means making sure your profile names are clear and descriptive, you’re including relevant hashtags and keywords in your bio and on every post, and you’re using features like alt text and captions to include your target keywords as naturally as possible.

Step 6. Find inspiration

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

“ I consider it my job to stay active on social: to know what’s trending, which campaigns are winning, what’s new with the platforms, who’s going above and beyond,” says Amanda. “This might be the most fun step for you, or the hardest one, but it’s just as crucial as the rest of them.”

Social media success stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. ( Here’s Facebook’s , for example.)

Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.

For learning and a laugh, check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s bi-weekly awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who do you enjoy following on social media? What do they do that compels people to engage and share their content?

National Geographic, for example, is one of the best on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo)

Then there’s Shopify. The ecommerce brand uses Facebook to sell themselves by showcasing customer stories and case studies.

And Lush Cosmetics is a great example of superior customer service on X. They use their 280 characters to answer questions and solve problems in an extremely charming and on-brand way.

Source: lushcosmetics on X

Notice that each of these accounts has a consistent voice, tone, and style. That’s key to letting people know what to expect from your feed. That is, why should they follow you? What’s in it for them?

Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand even if you have multiple people on your social media team.

For more on this, read our guide on establishing a compelling brand voice on social media .

Ask your followers

Consumers can also offer social media inspiration.

What are your target customers talking about online? What can you learn about their wants and needs?

If you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you follow through and deliver what they ask for.

Step 7. Create a social media content calendar

Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Set your posting schedule

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images, link sharing, and re-shares of user-generated content to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns.

Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post .

Pro tip: You can plan your whole content calendar and get recommended best times to post on every network based on your past engagement rate, impressions, or link click data in Hootsuite.

Hootsuite’s Best Time to Publish feature

Determine the right content mix

Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals.

(We know, it’s tempting to jump on every meme, but there should always be a strategy behind your social media marketing efforts!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule :

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds :

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Whatever you decide on, be sure to document it in your strategy doc.

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch, you may not have figured out how often to post to each network for maximum engagement yet.

Post too frequently and you risk annoying your audience. But, if you post too little, you risk looking like you’re not worth following.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• TikTok: 3-5 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• X (Twitter): 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Pro tip : Once you have your social media content calendar planned out, use a scheduling tool to prepare messages in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day.

We might be biased, but we think Hootsuite is the best social media management tool. You can schedule social media posts to every network and the intuitive calendar view gives you a full picture of all your social activity each week.

Try It Free

Step 8. Create compelling content

Remember those mission statements you created for each channel in Step 5? Well, it’s time to go a bit deeper, a.k.a. provide some examples of the type of content you’ll post to fulfill your mission on each network.

If you’re not sure what to post, here’s a long list of social media content ideas to get you started. Or (to make it even easier) you can use an AI tool like OwlyWriter to generate on-brand content in a flash.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

This last point especially will help you avoid any tension when your colleagues want to know why you haven’t posted their case study/whitepaper/blog post to TikTok yet. It’s not in the strategy, Linda!

Ideally, you will generate content types that are both suited to the network and the purpose you’ve set out for that network.

For example, you wouldn’t want to waste time posting brand awareness tweets if you’ve designated X/Twitter for primarily customer support. And you wouldn’t want to post super polished corporate video ads to TikTok, as users expect to see short, unpolished videos on that platform.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

The first question to ask is: is there cohesion between your content types? Is your content providing value? Do you have a good mix of entertaining, or educational content? What does it offer that makes a person stop and spend time? Creating a few different content pillars or categories that encompass different aspects of storytelling for your brand, and what you can offer your audience is a good start.

This brings us to Step 9.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

That’s why it’s important to document your progress along the way.

Look at performance metrics

In addition to the analytics within each social network (see Step 2), you can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Benchmark your results

You’ve got your numbers, but how do they stack up to the competition in your industry? Industry benchmarks are a great way to evaluate your performance against other businesses in your category.

If you’ve got Hootsuite Analytics , you can use our built-in social media benchmarking tool to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for metrics like followers, audience growth rate, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and much more.

You’ll also find resources to improve your performance  right in the summary section:

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

Once this data starts coming in, use it to re-evaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, social marketing campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your social media marketing strategy in real time.

You’ll want to check the performance of all your channels at least once a week and get to know the basics of social media reporting so you can track your growth over time.

Pro tip: If you use Hootsuite, you can review the performance of all your posts on every network in one place. Once you get the hang of checking your analytics, you may even want to customize different reports to show specific metrics over a variety of different time periods.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your social media strategy is working. Ask your followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations, and what they’d like to see more of. Then make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Finalizing your social media strategy

Spoiler alert: nothing is final.

Social media moves fast. New networks emerge, others go through demographic shifts.

Your business will go through periods of change as well.

All of this means that your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to stay on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to watch our 5-step video on how to updating your social media strategy for 2024:

Social media strategy template

Ready to start documenting? Grab your free social media strategy template below!

What’s next? When you’re ready to put your plan into action, we’re here to help…

Save time managing your social media marketing strategy with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can easily:

• Plan, create, and schedule posts to every network
• Track relevant keywords, topics, and accounts
• Stay on top of engagement with a universal inbox
• Get easy-to-understand performance reports and improve your strategy as needed

Try Hootsuite for Free

With files from Shannon Tien .

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Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.

Amanda Wood is a senior social marketing professional who combines analytical and creative thinking to build brands.

As head of social at Hootsuite, Amanda oversees the global social strategy encompassing organic and paid social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, a social engagement and listening strategy, and an employee advocacy program.

As the leader of a high-performing social team, she has extensive experience collaborating with creatives to bring campaigns to life on social and drive business results.

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How Technology Marketers Lead the Way in AI Experimentation [New Research]

• by Robert Rose
• | Published: February 21, 2024
• | Trends and Research

In a 20-minute demo, the sales engineer deftly clicked through the interface, configured a new image set, assigned the metadata, and set the rights-management properties. He logged in as different users to demonstrate a sophisticated workflow. Then, he published an asset and showed how the system presented it in channel-specific formats.

No fewer than five times, he mentioned how “easy” it was for the business user to do what once only experts could do.

I interrupted him. “Here’s the thing,” I said, “That isn’t easy for someone who doesn’t understand what you’re doing.”  

As technology marketers, what you offer to the world seems simple from the outside. You provide a new tool to help your customers do something they couldn’t before acquiring it. But the more amazing the thing they can now do, the more skilled they usually need to be at using it.

Said another way, a chainsaw in the hands of a lumberjack is a simple tool. But in my hands? It’s an ER trip waiting to happen.  

Today, businesses work with some of the most sophisticated digital technology and interfaces in any industry. But that doesn’t make technology easier to market. It still involves a complex and difficult journey made more challenging by how quickly things change.

We looked at the answers of 272 technology marketers who responded to CMI’s July 2023 survey to find out. (For more information about the full study of 1,084 marketers, see B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends .)

One not-too-surprising finding: Tech content marketers outpace their marketing peers in AI use. More than two-thirds (79%) of tech marketers say they use AI compared with 72% of B2B marketers as a whole and only 58% of enterprise marketers. 

What else to expect this year? Technology marketers say they’ll focus on these things in 2024:

• Increasing traffic, leads, and sales
• Nurturing existing clients
• Leveraging AI for content creation while ensuring authentic, quality content
• Enhancing content creation processes and systems
• Focusing on thought leadership
• Measuring content performance and value.

The most common trends mentioned center around:

• AI proliferation in content creation — with concerns about authenticity and oversaturation.
• Authenticity and uniqueness — valuing human-created content that stands out from AI-generated noise, prioritizing quality over quantity.
• AI’s impact on SEO and content ranking — changes in SEO strategies to accommodate AI algorithms, emphasizing FAQ-oriented and thought leadership content.
• Increased personalization — hyper-personalized content delivery using AI-driven tools to cater to individual personas or niche segments.

Let’s look deeper into the research sponsored by Foundry , an IDG, Inc. company .

Table of contents

Team structure

Content marketing challenges

Use of content types, distribution channels, and paid channels

Social media use

Content management and operations

Measurement and goals

Success factors

Budgets and spending

Action steps

Methodology

Ai use: 79% of technology marketers use generative tools.

Many respondents predicted a rise in the use of AI to generate content . In fact, 79% say they already use AI for content-related tasks. How?

More than half (53%) use generative AI to brainstorm new topics. Around half use the tools to write drafts (48%) and research headlines and keywords (43%). Fewer said they use AI to outline assignments (29%), proofread (19%), generate graphics/images (10%), and create videos (7%) and audio (7%).

Most don’t pay for generative AI tools (yet)

Of those using generative AI tools, 88% use free tools (e.g., ChatGPT ). Thirty-seven percent use tools embedded in their content creation/management systems, and 30% pay for tools like Writer and Jasper .

AI in content remains mostly ungoverned

When asked if their organizations have guidelines for using generative AI tools, 26% said yes, 63% said no, and 11% were unsure.

“Change, especially rapid change, is not something most organizations adapt to quickly,” says Yadin Porter de León , global content marketing executive. “The capabilities of generative AI tools currently represent a form of rapid change that very few people can even grasp. So, it’s no surprise that very few companies have created or communicated guidelines for its use … because they don’t know how.” 

Yadin says marketers should:

• Educate your team members so that they can be, at the very least, AI-literate.
• Establish an AI council to organize activities across the organization.
• Establish clear policies and guidelines for using AI.
• Identify use cases for the business and run pilot projects guided by those principles.

How AI is changing SEO

In the open-ended responses, several respondents predicted AI’s significant impact on SEO. How will AI’s integration in search engines shift technology marketers’ SEO strategy? Here’s what we found:

Twenty-seven percent say they’re not doing any of those things, while 29% say they’re unsure, suggesting that many may be doing little to nothing.

Now is the time to act.

Ryan Brock , chief solution officer at DemandJump, says, “The days of building a keyword list based on metrics like search volume are over … at least for now. Until the dust settles and we collectively figure out what kinds of answers we trust Bard (now known as Gemini) with and which ones will always require a more thoughtful comparison of sources to find, we’ve got to use topical authority as the North Star for our tactical content decisions.”

Ryan thinks of it this way: “I’m still going to be working to answer basic questions as part of my pillar content strategy, but I also acknowledge that answering them works more to build a foundation of topical authority than to drive immediate, convertible traffic.

“Those traffic and conversion-driving queries will become harder to come by than they’ve ever been, so when I find one I need to rank well for, I should be able to do so quickly and efficiently. Competing on a query-by-query level just doesn’t work when every business in a sector sees the same dwindling number of targets.

“Building interconnected, ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ style networks of pillar content is the best way to lay the proper topical authority foundation so you can rank fast when you find a term that’s ripe for true thought leadership.”

Team structure: How does the work get done?

Generative AI isn’t the only issue affecting content marketing these days. We also asked marketers about how they organize their teams .

Among larger technology companies (100-plus employees), more than half (54%) say content requests go through a centralized content team. Others say each department/brand produces its own content (22%), and the departments/brand/products share responsibility (20%). Three percent indicate other, while 1% say they outsource it.

Content strategies integrate with marketing, comms, and sales

Seventy percent say their organizations integrate content strategy into the overall marketing sales/communication/strategy, and 2% say it’s integrated into another strategy. Fourteen percent say content in marketing is a stand-alone strategy, and 4% say it’s a stand-alone strategy for all content produced by the company. Eight percent say they don’t have a content strategy. The remaining 2% say other or are unsure.

Employee churn means new teammates; content teams experience enlightened leadership

Thirty-three percent of technology marketers say team members resigned in the last year, 28% say team members were laid off, and about half (51%) say they had new team members acclimating to their ways of working.

While team members come and go, the understanding of content doesn’t. Fifty percent strongly agree, and 30% somewhat agree that the leader to whom their content team reports understands the work they do. Only 14% disagree. The remaining 6% neither agree nor disagree.

And remote work seems well-tolerated: Only 21% say collaboration is challenging due to remote or hybrid work.

Content marketing challenges: The right content, lack of resources

Most technology marketers (61%) cite creating the right content for their audience as a challenge.

Other content creation challenges include differentiating content (58%), creating content consistently (49%), creating quality content (43%), optimizing for SEO (43%), creating enough content to keep up with internal demand (40%), and creating content that requires technical skills (36%). One in four (25%) say they are challenged to create enough content to keep up with external demand.

Other hurdles

The most frequently cited non-creation challenge, by far, is a lack of resources (66%), followed by aligning content efforts across sales and marketing (52%) and aligning content with the buyer’s journey (52%). Forty-five percent say they have difficulty accessing subject matter experts, and 44% say they are challenged with workflow issues/content approval processes. Only 28% cite keeping up with new technologies as a challenge, 27% pick a lack of strategy, 12% say keeping up with privacy rules, and 13% point to tech integration issues.

Use of content types, distribution channels, and paid channels: Staying at the top

We asked technology marketers about the types of content they produce, their distribution channels , and paid content promotion. We also asked which formats and channels produce the best results.

Popular content types and formats

As in the previous year, the three most popular content types are short articles/posts (96%), case studies/customer stories (93%), and videos (90%). Eighty-two percent use thought leadership e-books/white papers, 81% use long articles/posts, 63% use data visualizations/visual content, 62% use product/technical data sheets, and 56% use research reports. Less than half of technology marketers use brochures (45%), interactive content (35%), livestreaming content (34%), and audio content (31%).

Effective content types and formats

Which formats are most effective?

Fifty-nine percent say case studies/customer stories deliver some of the best results. Almost as many (57%) name thought leadership e-books/white papers. Slightly more than half say research reports (53%) and videos (51%).

Popular content distribution channels

Regarding the channels used to distribute content, 90% use blogs and social media platforms (organic), followed by webinars (79%), email newsletters (78%), and email (74%). Sixty-four percent use in-person events, and 58% use digital events.

Less frequently used channels include:

• Microsites (40%)
• Podcasts (30%)
• Hybrid events (24%)
• Branded online communities (23%)
• Digital magazines (21%)
• Direct mail (19%)
• Online learning platform (18%)
• Print magazines (12%)
• Mobile apps (7%)
• Separate content brands (3%).

Effective content distribution channels

Which channels perform the best? Most surveyed tech marketers point to webinars (56%) and in-person events (53%). Forty-four percent say blogs, 43% pick email, and 37% say social media platforms (organic).

Popular paid content channels

When technology marketers pay to promote content , which channels do they invest in? Ninety-three percent use paid content distribution channels.

Of those, 77% use social media advertising/promoted posts, 71% use sponsorships, 70% use search engine marketing/pay-per-click, and 66% use digital display advertising. Around one in three use native advertising (38%) and partner emails (33%). Far fewer invest in print display advertising (11%).

Effective paid content channels

Search engine marketing and pay-per-click produce good results, according to 61% of tech marketers. Fifty-three percent say sponsorships deliver good results, followed by social media advertising/promoted posts (43%) and partner emails (34%).

Social media use: One platform rises way above

When asked which organic social media platforms deliver the best value for their organization, technology marketers (92%) pick LinkedIn. Twenty-seven percent cite YouTube as a top performer, 18% say Facebook, and 10% pick Instagram and Twitter. Only 1% cite TikTok.

It makes sense that 73% say they increased their use of LinkedIn over the last 12 months, while only 36% boosted their YouTube presence, 19% increased Instagram use, 15% grew their Facebook presence, 12% increased X use, and 9% increased TikTok use.

Which platforms are marketers giving up? Did you guess X? You’re right — 34% of marketers say they decreased their X use. Twenty-four percent reduced their use of Facebook, with 14% decreasing on Instagram and YouTube, 3% pulling back on TikTok, and only 2% decreasing their use of LinkedIn.

Interestingly, we saw a significant rise in technology marketers who use TikTok: 17% say they use the platform, which is triple from last year (5%).

Content management and operations: The right tech isn’t a guarantee

To explore how teams manage content, we asked tech marketers about their technology use and investments and the challenges they face scaling their content .

Content management technology

Among the technologies used to manage content, technology marketers point to:

• Analytics tools (82%)
• Social media publishing/analytics (73%)
• Email marketing software (71%)
• Content creation/calendaring/collaboration/workflow (66%)
• Content management system (58%)
• Customer relationship management system (57%)
• Marketing automation system (38%)
• Sales enablement platform (30%)
• Digital asset management (DAM) system (24%)

But having technology doesn’t mean it’s the right technology (or its capabilities are used). Only 29% say they have the right tech to manage content across the organization. Thirty-two percent say they have the technology but aren’t using its potential, and 28% say they haven’t acquired the right technology. Eleven percent are unsure.

Even so, 40% of technology marketers say their organization is likely to invest in new technology in 2024; however, another 39% say it’s unlikely. Twenty-one percent say their organization is neither likely nor unlikely to invest.

Scaling content production

This year, we introduced a new question to understand what challenges technology marketers face while scaling content production .

Almost half (49%) say it’s a lack of communication across silos, and the same number say it’s not enough content repurposing. Thirty-one percent say they have no structured content production process, and 29% say they lack an editorial calendar with clear deadlines. Six percent say scaling is not a current focus.

Among the other hurdles are difficulty locating digital content assets (19%), translation/localization issues (17%), technology issues (15%), and no style guide (13%).

Measurement and goals: Generating sales and revenue rises

Almost half (43%) of technology marketers agree their organization measures content performance effectively — but the same amount (43%) disagree. Thirteen percent neither agree nor disagree. Only 1% say they don’t measure content performance.

The four most frequently used metrics to assess content performance are conversions (77%), website traffic (73%), email engagement (72%), and website engagement (70%). Sixty percent say they rely on quality of leads, 58% use social media analytics, 55% rely on search ratings, and 52% say quantity of leads. Less than half use tracking the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber, and/or customer (32%) and email subscribers (31%).

The most common challenge measuring content performance experienced by technology marketers is integrating/correlating data across multiple platforms (88%), followed by extracting insights from data (82%), tying performance data to goals (81%), organizational goal setting (73%), and lack of training (71%).

Among the goals assisted by content marketing, 82% of technology marketers say it created brand awareness in the last 12 months. Eighty percent say it helped generate demands/leads, 71% say it helped nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, and 61% say it helped generate sales revenue (up from 48% the previous year).

Less than half say it helped grow loyalty with existing clients/customers (46%), grow a subscribed audience (42%), and reduce customer support costs (14%).

Success factors: Know your audience

To separate top performers from the pack, we asked technology marketers to assess the success of their content marketing.

Twenty-seven percent rate the organization’s success as extremely or very successful. Another 58% report moderate success, and 15% feel minimally or not at all successful.

The most common factor for successful technology marketers is knowing their audience (81%).

That success factor makes sense because “creating the right content for our audience” is the top challenge. Top-performing content marketers prioritize knowing their audiences to create the right content for those audiences.

Top performers also set goals that align with their organization’s objectives (74%), have a documented strategy (67%), and collaborate with other teams (64%). Thought leadership (62%) and effectively measuring and demonstrating content performance (59%) also help top technology performers reach content marketing success.

Several other dimensions identify the differentiators of top technology performers:

• 75% of the most successful say they’re backed by leaders who understand their work. In contrast, just 50% of all tech respondents feel their leaders understand.
• They’re less likely to report a lack of resources (57% of top performers say they lack resources vs. 66% of all tech content marketers).
• They’re more likely to have the right content management technologies. About half (49%) of the top performers say they have the technology they need, compared with 29% of all tech marketers.
• Nearly three-fourths (74%) of top performers say they measure content performance effectively, compared with 43% of the whole set of tech marketers.
• They are more likely to use content marketing successfully to create brand awareness (96% vs. 82%), nurture subscribers/audiences/leads (82% vs. 71%), generate sales/revenue (81% vs. 61%), grow loyalty with existing customers/clients (64% vs. 46%), and grow a subscribed audience (57% vs. 42%).

Little difference exists between top performers and all respondents when it comes to the adoption of generative AI tools and related guidelines.

Budgets and spending: Holding steady

To explore budget plans for 2024, we asked technology marketers about their knowledge of their organization’s budget/budgeting process for content marketing. Of the 53% who have knowledge of their budgets, we followed up to assess the specifics.

Content marketing as a percentage of total marketing spend

Here’s what they say about the total marketing budget (excluding salaries):

• 18% say content marketing consumes at least one-fourth of the total marketing budget.
• More than one in three (37%) indicate that 10% to 24% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.
• Just under half (45%) say less than 10% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.

Content marketing budget outlook for 2024

Forty-eight percent think their content marketing budget will increase this year compared with 2023, whereas 39% think it will stay the same. Only 7% think it will decrease, and 6% are unsure.

Where will the budget go?

Next, we asked where respondents plan to increase their spending.

Sixty-nine percent of technology marketers say they would increase their investment in video, followed by in-person events (60%), thought leadership content (54%), webinars (41%), paid advertising (40%), online community building (27%), audio content (22%), digital events (21%), and hybrid events (11%).

Of course, content doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Kami Buckner , HPC solutions marketing manager at Dell Technologies, notes that content must be integrated into a larger plan and support the customer journey by driving them to other content.

“Videos, in-person events, and thought leadership content may rank similarly in this survey because they are often developed to complement each other,” she says. “Thought leadership content is an important component of any event plan, and videos are an effective peripheral asset that can engage an audience to generate interest in downloading long-form thought leadership pieces, generate excitement before and after events, and be displayed at the event.”

For example, Dell developed a 15-second video to use on social media to drive viewers to a landing page, which hosted the 60-second sizzle reel to promote an upcoming event. We also:

• Launched thought leadership content around the video and event.
• Created and displayed another video at the event highlighting key points in the new thought leadership content that could be shared post-event.
• Developed a virtual reality experience for the event that built credibility for Dell Technologies, both hosting and serving thought leadership content.

Action steps: What tech marketers should do

These results from tech marketers reflect what we find across other B2B organizations. You should know your audience, lean into brand awareness, integrate data across the buyer’s journey, and invest more in thought leadership, events, and video.

But what should you prioritize as a technology marketer? Given where you are in 2024 and your relationship with modern technology, put these three things at the top of your list:

• Lean into the brand and develop relationships early and often . Marketing pundits laugh at the idea of technology companies developing “relationships” with audiences and buyers. They cynically surmise, “Nobody wants a relationship with their hydraulic actuator provider.” That may be true, but it doesn’t relieve you from trying. Today’s world makes it more imperative that technology companies differentiate, not just by providing the fastest, cheapest, easiest, or most scalable product on the market. You must also differentiate by helping customers be the best versions of themselves. As I used to say to my marketing team, “Our competitive advantage isn’t that we help people become better digital asset managers; it’s that we help digital asset managers become better people.” That leads to the second action.
• Grow owned media’s importance in your products and services. A differentiating strategy provides a reason for people to engage with you outside the small portion of their lives that goes into their buying journey. Owned media experiences create an ecosystem of value for your customers in the pre- and post-buying journey, foster a competitive advantage, and celebrate the complexity your products inherently induce. Yes, your tools are complex and sophisticated and do amazing things. Let you be the source of how to do those things better than anyone else.
• Connect first-party data. How you connect your buyers’ digital interactions will be the fabric that develops better relationships with your customers. If you understand their true intentions, needs, and wants, and more importantly, how they evolve, you can optimize every experience that leads and follows a sale. Of course, you likely must make big changes to implement any one or all three of these action steps. An audit, where you examine all your customers’ content-driven experiences along their journey, can help you develop a plan for which ones to keep, which should change, and which should be sunset for good. Creating this ecosystem gives you the power to transform what is seen as overly complex and hard into a worthwhile evolution and innovation. Your technology is not there to make the customer’s journey “easy” — it’s there to make it “worth it!” 

For the 14 th annual content marketing survey, CMI and MarketingProfs surveyed 1,080 recipients around the globe in July 2023, representing a range of industries, functional areas, and company sizes. The survey was emailed to a sample of marketers using lists from CMI and MarketingProfs.

This article presents the findings from the 272 respondents, mostly from North America, who indicated their organization is a technology company and that they are either content marketers or work in marketing, communications, or other roles involving content.

Of this group, 84% represent B2B companies, while 13% work for B2B+B2C brands, and 3% say they work for a tech company of a different nature. Thirty-six percent work at businesses with more than 1,000 employees, 36% work at places with between 100 and 999 employees, 23% work for brands with 10 to 99 employees, and 5% work at tech companies with between one and nine employees.

Thanks to the survey participants who made this research possible and everyone who helped disseminate these findings throughout the content marketing industry.

Interested in sharing the key takeaways from this report with your team or associates? You can download a summary here (registration required).

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

About Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Institute (CMI) exists to do one thing: advance the practice of content marketing through online education and in-person and digital events. We create and curate content experiences that teach marketers and creators from enterprise brands, small businesses, and agencies how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. Global brands turn to CMI for strategic consultation, training, and research. Organizations from around the world send teams to Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing-focused event, the Marketing Analytics & Data Science (MADS) conference, and CMI virtual events, including ContentTECH Summit. Our community of 215,000+ content marketers shares camaraderie and conversation. CMI is organized by Informa Connect. To learn more, visit www.contentmarketinginstitute.com .

About Foundry, an IDG Inc. company

Foundry helps companies bring their visions to reality through a combination of media, marketing technologies and proprietary data on a global scale. Our intent data and martech platforms are powered by data from an owned and operated ecosystem of global editorial brands, awards, and events, all engineered and integrated to drive marketing campaigns for technology companies. Foundry is dedicated to generating and innovating with data, driving demand for technology marketers with 38 offices in markets around the globe. Foundry is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group, Inc. ( IDG ), the world’s leading tech media, data, research and marketing services company. To learn more about Foundry, visit www.foundryco.com .

Robert Rose

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Nike Marketing Strategy

The Nike Marketing Strategy has undoubtedly contributed to the brand’s remarkable success and solidified its position as a dominant player in the global athletic footwear and apparel market. Nike’s strategy has revolutionized the industry, reshaping how businesses engage with consumers and establishing a lasting imprint on the online and offline shelves.

By meticulously crafting its marketing initiatives, Nike has created a brand identity that resonates with its diverse consumer base, captivates their imagination, and cultivates a loyal following.

In this analysis, we will examine the intricacies of Nike’s Marketing Strategy, dissecting its key components, marketing goals and objectives, target audience, marketing mix, key strategies, and marketing channels. We will also provide insights on how Nike’s marketing strategy can be applied to your business.

Nike Marketing Goals and Objectives

Nike’s marketing strategy goals and objectives align with the company’s core values and mission . From promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion to driving sustainability and responsible sourcing, Nike aims to positively impact society and the environment.

Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Nike recognizes the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in today’s society. With this goal, Nike aims to create a marketing strategy representative of different cultures, races, genders, and backgrounds. The company understands that embracing diversity can better connect with its diverse customer base and build stronger brand loyalty.

To achieve this objective, Nike creates inclusive advertisements and campaigns that showcase athletes from various backgrounds, ensuring that people from all walks of life feel represented and included. For example, their “Dream Crazier” campaign featured female athletes breaking barriers and inspiring future generations.

Nike collaborates with athletes, influencers, and organizations championing diversity and inclusivity. By leveraging these partnerships, Nike spreads positive messages, educates its consumers, and drives conversations around critical social issues.

Innovations for Sustainability

As sustainability continues to be a global concern, Nike recognizes the need to address its environmental impact. The company has ambitious goals to develop innovative solutions and create sustainable product materials.

In pursuit of this objective, Nike invests heavily in research and development to find alternative materials and manufacturing processes that reduce its carbon footprint. For instance, the brand has introduced materials like Flyknit, which uses less waste and energy than traditional footwear construction methods.

Moreover, Nike is working towards implementing circular economy principles, aiming to close the loop in the product lifecycle. They strive to reduce waste and ensure that old products can be recycled or repurposed. The company’s Move to Zero initiative focuses on achieving zero carbon and waste across its supply chain.

By taking these sustainability initiatives, Nike minimizes its environmental impact and meets the growing expectations of its eco-conscious consumers.

Advancing a Transparent and Responsible Supply Chain

Nike recognizes the significance of transparency throughout its supply chain and aims to promote fair labor practices, reduce social and environmental risks, and ensure worker safety.

To fulfill this objective, Nike has implemented numerous measures. The company thoroughly audits its suppliers’ factories to ensure compliance with labor laws and fair working conditions. It collaborates with third-party organizations and NGOs to drive transparency and enforce higher labor standards within its supply chain.

Nike actively engages in responsible sourcing practices through partnerships with organizations like the Fair Labor Association and the International Labor Organization. They provide training and resources to suppliers to improve working conditions and help them meet sustainability standards. By focusing on transparency and responsible sourcing, Nike aims to maintain consumer trust and set an industry example for ethical business practices.

Investing in Communities

Nike understands that it has a role to play in the communities where it operates. The company believes in giving back and supporting organizations that strive for economic empowerment, education, and equality.

To achieve this objective, Nike invests in community programs and initiatives that uplift individuals and provide them with opportunities to succeed. The Nike Community Impact Fund supports local organizations that focus on youth development and provide access to sports, education, and life skills training.

Uplifting Unity and Encouraging an Active Lifestyle

Nike aims to inspire and motivate individuals, especially younger ones, to lead active and healthy lifestyles. The company believes that sports can break barriers, unite communities, and bring out the best in people.

To accomplish this objective, Nike creates marketing campaigns, such as “Just Do It,” encouraging individuals to challenge themselves, set goals, and push past their limits. By featuring athletes from various sports, Nike aims to inspire people to participate in physical activities and embrace a more active lifestyle.

Nike also develops innovative products and technologies that enhance athletic performance and make sports more accessible. Through their Nike Training Club and Nike Run Club apps, the company provides free workout programs and training resources to help individuals achieve their fitness goals.

By uplifting unity and promoting an active lifestyle, Nike not only connects with its target audience but also supports the well-being of individuals and communities as a whole.

Who is Nike Target Audience?

Nike’s target audience encompasses many individuals who share a common desire for athletic excellence, style, and innovation. From professional athletes seeking top-quality gear to fashion-conscious urban dwellers and trendsetting youth, Nike appeals to a diverse demographic and psychographic mix.

Demographics

Nike caters to a wide range of demographic groups that span various age, gender, income, and occupation segments. However, their primary target audience can be described as follows:

• Athletes: Nike initially positioned itself as a brand for athletes, and this remains a core focus. Professional and amateur athletes, sports enthusiasts, and fitness enthusiasts are a key target audience for Nike. The brand’s association with high-performance sports, such as basketball, soccer, running, and tennis, makes it especially appealing to athletes looking for top-quality gear;
• Youth: Nike has a strong appeal among the younger generation. Nike has successfully gained relevance and credibility with younger demographics by employing celebrity endorsements and collaborating with popular athletes, musicians, and influencers. Its products are often perceived as stylish and trendy, making them highly desirable among the youth market;
• Men and Women: Nike products are designed to cater to both men and women. The brand offers a wide range of athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories tailored to suit the specific needs and preferences of each gender. Nike has successfully positioned itself as a unisex brand, appealing to both men and women equally;
• Urban Dwellers: Nike’s targeted demographic also includes urban dwellers. The brand’s trendy and fashion-forward image resonates well with city dwellers who value athletic attire for workout sessions and casual wear. Nike’s athleisure offerings, such as leggings, sweatshirts, and sneakers, appeal to urban consumers who seek comfort and style in their everyday lives.

Psychographics

In addition to demographics, Nike also targets specific psychographic segments, focusing on individuals whose values and lifestyle align with the brand’s ethos:

• Ambitious and Competitive: Nike caters to ambitious, competitive individuals who value personal achievement. Their products enhance performance and help athletes reach their full potential. Nike’s marketing campaigns often emphasize the importance of hard work, dedication, and pushing one’s limits, resonating with those eager to excel in their chosen sport or activity;
• Self-Expressive: Nike customers often seek to express their individuality through their clothing and footwear choices. Nike offers various styles, colors, and customization options, allowing customers to curate their unique look. By providing opportunities for self-expression, Nike appeals to individuals who value their style and want to stand out from the crowd;
• Trendsetters and Innovators: Nike has positioned itself as an innovative brand that constantly pushes the boundaries of design and technology. The brand’s collaboration with tech companies and continually releasing cutting-edge products have cemented its reputation as an industry leader. Nike appeals to trendsetters and early adopters who value innovation, trends, and staying ahead of the curve.

Geographic Reach

Nike’s target audience is not limited to a specific region or country. The brand has a global reach and caters to consumers worldwide. Through strategic distribution channels and an extensive retail network, Nike’s products are available in major cities, urban centers, and even remote locations. Nike’s marketing campaigns are adapted to resonate with local cultures and preferences, ensuring their brand message reaches a wide range of consumers.

Marketing Mix of Nike

Nike’s pricing.

Price is an integral component of any company’s marketing mix strategy, and Nike is no exception. Nike’s price strategy plays a significant role in determining its product positioning, market share, and overall profitability. Nike is known for its premium pricing strategy, which reflects not only the value of its products, but also the brand image it has established over the years.

One key aspect of Nike’s pricing strategy is positioning itself as a premium brand in the athletic footwear and apparel market. Its high-quality products, innovative designs, and cutting-edge technologies support this positioning.

Nike uses a skimming pricing strategy, setting its prices higher than those of its competitors. This strategy allows Nike to capture a substantial portion of the market’s willingness to pay a premium for its products, thereby increasing its revenue and profitability.

Nike’s pricing strategy is also influenced by the perception of exclusivity and desirability associated with its products. By maintaining relatively high prices, Nike creates an impression that its products are of superior quality and are reserved for a select group of consumers.

This strategy helps in promoting the notion that owning Nike products is a symbol of status and achievement. Nike’s focus on celebrity endorsements and sponsorships further adds to its premium brand image and justifies its price points.

Nike also utilizes a value-based pricing approach, considering its products’ benefits and perceived value from the customers’ perspective. The company invests heavily in research and development to continuously innovate and develop advanced technologies, such as Nike Air, Flyknit, and Dri-FIT. Incorporating these technologies increases Nike products’ performance, comfort, and durability, justifying their higher prices.

Nike also employs price discrimination strategies, offering various products at different price points to cater to multiple market segments.

For instance, the company offers premium products under its flagship brand, Nike, targeting athletes and sports enthusiasts who seek high-performance gear. At the same time, it has sub-brands like Jordan and Converse, which cater to specific segments like basketball and lifestyle, respectively, but at a relatively lower price point.

In addition to its premium pricing strategy, Nike also adopts various pricing and promotional strategies to boost sales and gain a competitive advantage. The company often offers limited edition collections, collaborations, and product launches, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity among consumers. These tactics help Nike generate buzz and excitement, encourage impulse buying, and drive sales at premium prices.

However, Nike’s premium pricing strategy does come with specific challenges. Firstly, it may restrict the brand’s penetration into price-sensitive markets, where consumers are unwilling to pay a higher price for athletic wear. Additionally, competition from other brands , including Adidas , Under Armour , and Puma, offering similar products at lower prices, can impact Nike’s market share and sales.

Nike’s Product

The product element is vital in driving Nike’s brand image, market positioning, and customer loyalty within its marketing mix. By offering innovative and high-quality products, Nike has maintained its competitive edge and captured a significant market share.

Nike’s commitment to product innovation is a cornerstone of its marketing strategy. The company invests heavily in research and development to create cutting-edge designs and technologies that cater to athletes’ and consumers’ evolving needs and preferences. Nike constantly pushes the boundaries of innovation by introducing new materials, technologies, and features, ensuring that its products provide superior performance and quality.

One key aspect of Nike’s product strategy is its focus on segmentation. The company recognizes that not all consumers have the exact sportswear needs, and therefore, it offers a vast range of products to cater to various sports, activities, and consumer preferences.

Nike designs and develops products specifically tailored to different sports, such as basketball, running, soccer, and tennis. This approach allows Nike to capture niche markets and establish itself as a go-to brand for athletes and sports enthusiasts across different disciplines.

Nike understands consumers value authenticity and connection with their favorite sports teams, athletes, and sports moments. To leverage this aspect, the company has successfully established strategic partnerships and endorsements with some of the biggest names in sports, including Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Serena Williams.

These partnerships enhance Nike’s product offering and associate the brand with the values and achievements of these iconic figures, creating a sense of identity and loyalty among consumers.

Brand loyalty is a crucial component of Nike’s product strategy. The company leverages its substantial brand equity to foster emotional connections with consumers and create a sense of exclusivity. Nike continuously releases limited-edition products, collaborates with prominent designers, and makes special collections, generating buzz and anticipation among its target audience.

By creating a sense of scarcity and uniqueness, Nike cultivates a community of brand advocates who eagerly await new product releases and are willing to pay a premium for Nike’s products.

In addition to its core products, Nike has expanded into other categories, such as accessories and apparel. This diversification allows the company to cater to a broader customer base and offer a complete sports lifestyle experience. Nike’s apparel range includes performance-oriented clothing and fashionable and athleisure options, further broadening its appeal beyond just sports enthusiasts.

Nike’s Place

When it comes to placing its products, Nike strategically utilizes various channels to reach its target customers and create a strong brand presence.

First and foremost, Nike operates through direct-to-consumer channels, including its retail stores, Nike.com, and mobile applications. These direct channels give Nike complete control over the customer experience, product assortment, and pricing.

By owning its retail stores, Nike can create a consistent brand image and deliver a personalized shopping experience. Nike’s website and mobile applications also play a crucial role in its direct-to-consumer strategy, allowing customers to browse and purchase products conveniently from anywhere.

In addition to its direct channels, Nike distributes its products through a vast network of retail partners, including sporting goods stores, department stores, specialty retailers, and online platforms.

By partnering with these retailers, Nike expands its reach and ensures that its products are available to customers in various locations, both physical and digital. This strategy helps Nike reach a broader customer base and allows the company to leverage the expertise and brand recognition of its retail partners.

Nike also invests heavily in creating brand experiences through pop-up shops, events, and collaborations. These temporary retail spaces and experiential marketing initiatives allow Nike to engage directly with consumers, generate buzz, and create exclusive partnerships. By providing unique and interactive experiences, Nike builds emotional connections with its customers and promotes brand loyalty.

Furthermore, Nike understands the importance of international markets and has established a solid global presence. The company operates in over 170 countries, with a network of subsidiaries, distributors, and licensees. This extensive global reach ensures that Nike’s products are accessible to customers worldwide.

Nike’s global distribution network is strategically designed to adapt to local preferences and cater to specific market needs. For instance, in emerging markets like China, Nike has localized its operations and marketing efforts by investing in sponsorship deals with popular sports teams, athletes, and events.

Nike also employs a lean supply chain management system to enhance its distribution efficiency. The company has built strong relationships with manufacturing and logistics partners to ensure timely delivery of its products. Nike’s focus on supply chain optimization enables it to respond quickly to changing market demands, minimize inventory levels, and reduce lead times, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction.

In recent years, Nike has embraced digitalization and e-commerce, recognizing the shift in consumer behavior and the importance of online channels. Nike has significantly invested in technology, digital platforms, and data analytics to improve its customers’ online shopping experience. By leveraging digital marketing tools and social media platforms, Nike can connect directly with its target audience, build brand awareness, and drive online sales.

Nike’s Promotion

Nike’s success can be attributed to its effective promotional strategies, which have helped the brand establish a strong presence in the market.

Nike utilizes various promotional activities to engage and connect with its target audience. Here are some of the various promotional strategies employed by Nike to build brand awareness and drive sales.

• Advertising: Nike heavily invests in advertising to promote its products globally. The brand partners with popular athletes and celebrities who serve as brand ambassadors. Nike leverages their influence and popularity to create impactful advertisements that resonate with consumers.

These ads are featured across various media channels such as television, print, billboards, and digital platforms.

• Sponsorships and Endorsements: Nike is known for its extensive sponsorships and endorsements with professional sports teams, leagues, and individual athletes. By associating with renowned athletes and teams, Nike enhances brand visibility and establishes its credibility in sports.

The brand sponsors major sports events, such as the Olympics, NFL, NBA, and FIFA World Cup, which further strengthens its connection with consumers.

• Digital Marketing: Nike excels in digital marketing by leveraging the power of social media platforms. The brand maintains active profiles on various social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter (now X), Instagram, and YouTube. Nike uses these platforms to engage its audience by sharing engaging content, product updates, behind-the-scenes footage, and inspiring stories. The brand also employs influencer marketing to tap into niche markets and reach a wider audience.
• Content Marketing: Nike strongly emphasizes content marketing to engage its target consumers. The brand produces high-quality content through blog articles, videos, and interactive experiences. Nike’s content inspires and motivates individuals to pursue an active lifestyle and overcome challenges. By creating valuable and relevant content, Nike positions itself as a trusted source of information and inspiration.
• Experiential Marketing: Nike creates immersive experiences to connect with consumers on a more personal level. The brand organizes events such as Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club, which provide opportunities for consumers to engage in physical activities and connect with like-minded individuals.
• Public Relations: Nike actively engages in public relations activities to maintain a positive brand image. The brand supports social causes and initiatives, such as the Nike Foundation’s focus on empowering girls through sport. Nike also handles controversies and crises promptly and transparently, addressing consumer concerns and maintaining brand credibility.
• Retail and Merchandising: Nike’s retail stores are crucial in promoting the brand. Nike stores offer consumers a unique shopping experience featuring innovative designs and technologies. The stores showcase various products and provide personalized services to enhance customer satisfaction. Nike also works closely with retailers to ensure brand consistency and effective merchandising strategies.

What are Nike Marketing Strategies?

Global Expansion

Nike’s global expansion strategy has significantly contributed to establishing the brand as a worldwide leader in athletic footwear, apparel, and equipment. The company’s marketing strategies have also been central to its success in penetrating new markets and capturing a global customer base. Some of Nike’s critical approaches have allowed the company to thrive internationally.

• Brand Consistency and Image: Nike has maintained a consistent brand image across regions, ensuring a worldwide unified message and customer experience.

The iconic Nike Swoosh logo and the “Just Do It” slogan are instantly recognizable and associated with the brand’s core values of performance, innovation, and empowerment. By consistently reinforcing its brand image through marketing campaigns and endorsements, Nike has effectively built trust and credibility with consumers, regardless of geographical location.

• Localized Marketing Campaigns: While maintaining a consistent brand image, Nike also recognizes the importance of tailoring marketing campaigns to local cultures and preferences. The company understands that what works in one market may not necessarily resonate with customers in another. Hence, Nike invests in extensive market research to gain insights into cultural nuances, consumer behavior, and preferences in different regions.

This knowledge allows them to create localized marketing campaigns that connect with local consumers on a deeper level. For example, Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign in China featured Chinese athletes and local cultural references, effectively appealing to the Chinese audience and strengthening their connection to the brand.

• Strategic Partnerships and Sponsorships: Nike has leveraged strategic partnerships and sponsorships with global sports icons, teams, and events to increase brand visibility and strengthen its association with excellence in athletics.
• Digital Marketing and E-commerce: Nike has embraced digital marketing and e-commerce strategies to expand its global reach and engage with customers beyond physical retail stores. The company heavily invests in online advertising, social media marketing, and content creation to build brand awareness and engage with target audiences worldwide.
• Retail Expansion and Distribution Channels: To facilitate global expansion, Nike has strategically expanded its retail footprint by opening flagship stores in prominent cities worldwide. These flagship stores act as brand showcases, offering immersive customer experiences and creating brand loyalty.

In addition, Nike has also established partnerships with third-party retailers, ensuring its products are widely available across different markets. By leveraging multiple distribution channels, Nike maximizes its global reach, making its products accessible to consumers in both urban and rural areas.

Sponsorships and Partnerships

This is one of Nike’s most impactful marketing strategies. Nike has established itself as a brand that aligns with top athletes, sports teams, and sports events worldwide. By associating its brand image with these high-profile entities, Nike can reach a broad audience and strengthen its brand recognition and loyalty.

Nike’s partnerships with athletes are especially significant, as they allow the company to leverage its star power and embody the values of competitiveness, athleticism, and excellence. The iconic Nike swoosh logo has become synonymous with some of the biggest names in sports, such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. 

These partnerships help Nike increase its brand visibility and inject credibility and authenticity into its marketing efforts.

One of Nike’s most successful athlete partnerships is with basketball legend Michael Jordan. In 1984, Nike signed Jordan, then a rookie, to a groundbreaking sneaker deal, creating the iconic Air Jordan line.

The collaboration with Jordan transcended the basketball court and became a cultural phenomenon. The Air Jordan sneakers gained a cult-like following and became a symbol of urban style and status. Nike’s association with Jordan has boosted its sales and solidified its position as a leader in the athletic footwear market.

In addition to individual athletes, Nike establishes partnerships with sports teams and organizations. For example, Nike has long-standing relationships with teams in major sports leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and Premier League.

These partnerships allow Nike to showcase its products and connect with sports fans worldwide. By outfitting star players and prominently displaying its logo on jerseys and uniforms, Nike can gain exposure and build brand loyalty among fans.

In addition to sponsoring athletes and teams, Nike also partners with major sports events and competitions. For instance, Nike has been involved with the Olympics for decades, providing innovative apparel and footwear for athletes at the world’s biggest sporting event. This association with the Olympics helps Nike reach a massive global audience and positions the brand as a leader in performance gear.

Moreover, Nike often collaborates with other brands and designers to create limited-edition and co-branded products. These partnerships, known as “collabs,” generate hype and excitement among consumers, driving sales and creating a sense of exclusivity.

Notable collaborations include Nike x Off-White, Nike x Travis Scott, and Nike x Supreme. By collaborating with influential fashion, music, and art figures, Nike can expand its reach beyond sports and tap into new consumer segments.

Nike’s marketing strategy for sponsorships and partnerships extends beyond endorsement deals. The company actively seeks to meaningfully engage with its sponsored athletes and partners, creating a sense of community and shared values.

Nike often features these athletes and partners in its advertising campaigns, showcasing their stories and achievements to inspire consumers. This approach helps Nike build a more personal connection with its customers and reinforces the brand’s image as a champion of sports and athleticism.

Nike’s Online Marketing

As digital technology continues to evolve, Nike has embraced the power of online marketing to reach and engage with its target audience. The company’s online marketing strategies have significantly impacted its overall marketing success. Highlighted below are various aspects of Nike’s online marketing and how it has helped the brand achieve remarkable growth and brand loyalty.

• Nike’s Website: Nike’s official website is a critical online destination for consumers to explore and purchase their products. The website is visually appealing and user-friendly, providing customers with a seamless browsing and shopping experience worldwide. Nike strategically highlights its latest products, collaborations, and marketing campaigns on the homepage to generate excitement and interest.
• Social Media Presence: Nike harnesses the power of social media platforms to connect with its target audience, build brand awareness, and drive engagement. The company maintains active profiles on popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Each platform is utilized to its fullest potential with tailored content and strategies.

Nike’s social media content is diverse, from product launches and athlete endorsements to behind-the-scenes glimpses into the brand’s culture and values. The company leverages the influence of famous athletes and celebrities to amplify its messaging and connect with fans. Nike’s social media campaigns often go viral, generating buzz and increasing brand visibility.

• Influencer Marketing: In recent years, Nike has successfully incorporated influencer marketing into its online strategy. Nike effectively taps into their massive followings by collaborating with influential athletes, celebrities, and social media personalities to reach new audiences and drive brand engagement.
• Mobile Marketing: Recognizing the shift towards mobile usage, Nike has developed a robust mobile marketing strategy. The Nike mobile app provides a personalized experience for users, offering exclusive content, training programs, and seamless shopping capabilities. The app utilizes push notifications to update users on the latest product releases, sales, and events.
• Data-driven Marketing: Nike leverages the power of data analytics to drive its online marketing efforts. By analyzing user behavior and purchasing patterns, Nike gains valuable insights into customer preferences, enabling them to tailor marketing campaigns to specific target segments. Data-driven marketing also allows Nike to optimize their website’s layout, improve user experience, and allocate resources efficiently.

Nike’s understanding of customer data has further extended into personalized email marketing. The company sends targeted emails to customers based on their browsing and purchasing history, showcasing products that align with their interests. These personalized emails help drive repeat purchases and foster brand loyalty.

Nike’s Storytelling Approach

Storytelling has allowed the company to connect with its target audience and differentiate itself from competitors in the sportswear market .

Nike’s storytelling approach is rooted in its brand purpose, which is to inspire and enable athletes of all levels to reach their full potential. The company understands that consumers today are not just looking for products, but also for brands that align with their values and aspirations. By leveraging the power of storytelling, Nike creates emotional connections with its audience and brings its brand purpose to life.

One way Nike tells its story is through powerful marketing campaigns that feature inspirational athletes. These campaigns often highlight the triumphs and struggles of these athletes, showing how they overcame obstacles and achieved greatness. By associating itself with these athletes, Nike taps into their stories of success and uses them to inspire its target audience.

Nike’s storytelling approach extends beyond these traditional marketing campaigns. The company also uses various digital platforms to engage with its audience and share compelling stories.

Nike’s social media channels, website, and mobile apps serve as vehicles for storytelling, allowing the company to connect with consumers on a more personal and interactive level. Through these platforms, Nike shares the stories of athletes, both famous and everyday heroes, who push their limits and inspire others to do the same.

Nike also emphasizes the power of user-generated content in its storytelling strategy. The company actively encourages its consumers to share their stories and experiences with Nike products, creating a sense of community and authenticity.

By featuring these stories on its platforms, Nike showcases the impact its products have on athletes of all backgrounds. This approach strengthens the bond between Nike and its customers, as well as drives word-of-mouth marketing and brand advocacy.

Nike’s storytelling approach has proven to be highly effective in engaging consumers and building brand loyalty. By using powerful narratives and relatable stories, Nike has successfully connected with its target audience on an emotional level. This approach sets Nike apart from its competitors, who may focus more on product features and performance. Nike’s ability to inspire and motivate consumers through storytelling has made it a leader in the sportswear industry and a globally recognized brand.

Nike’s Segmentation Strategy

Nike, the world’s leading athletic apparel and footwear brand, has perfected its segmentation strategy. By understanding the diverse needs and preferences of its target market, Nike has effectively positioned itself as a brand that caters to various customer segments. This approach has helped Nike maintain its dominant market position and build a loyal customer base. Let’s take a closer look at Nike’s segmentation strategy:

• Demographic Segmentation: One key aspect of Nike’s segmentation strategy is demographic segmentation. Nike targets customers of all ages and genders but customizes its products and marketing messages to appeal to specific demographics. 

For instance, Nike offers a range of products for men, women, and children, with designs and styles tailored to their preferences. Additionally, Nike recognizes the growing influence of millennials and Generation Z and has developed specific campaigns and product lines to cater to their needs and interests.

• Geographic Segmentation: Nike’s geographic segmentation strategy focuses on targeting customers based on location. Nike has a global presence and strategically tailors its brand image and product offerings to suit the tastes and preferences of consumers in different regions.

For example, Nike understands the importance of soccer in Europe and has invested heavily in marketing initiatives and sponsorships related to the sport in countries like England and Spain. In contrast, it emphasizes basketball in North America, particularly the United States, where basketball is immensely popular.

• Psychographic Segmentation: Psychographic segmentation involves categorizing consumers based on their attitudes, interests, and lifestyle choices. Nike understands that athletes and sports enthusiasts have unique mindsets and lifestyles, and it leverages this knowledge to connect with its target audience.

Through endorsements and collaborations with professional athletes and sports teams, Nike effectively communicates its brand values of excellence, determination, and achievement. This strategy resonates with its target customers who seek high-performance apparel and footwear to support their active lifestyles.

• Occasion-based Segmentation: Nike recognizes customers’ different footwear and apparel requirements for specific occasions. To cater to these needs, Nike’s segmentation strategy includes targeting customers based on particular occasions, such as running, basketball, or soccer.

By offering specialized products designed for each activity, Nike ensures customers can access the necessary tools to enhance performance. This approach also aligns with Nike’s commitment to innovation, constantly developing new technologies and materials to make its products suitable for different occasions.

Sustainable Marketing

In recent years, sustainability has become a key focus for companies across industries, and Nike is no exception. The company has recognized the importance of implementing sustainable practices in its marketing strategies to align with consumer values and address global environmental challenges. Nike’s commitment to sustainable marketing showcases its dedication to positively impacting the planet while still promoting its brand and products.

Nike’s sustainable marketing efforts are evident through various initiatives and campaigns that prioritize eco-friendly practices, social responsibility, and transparency. Let’s examine some of Nike’s notable sustainable marketing strategies.

• Sustainable Product Innovation: Nike has been investing heavily in sustainable product innovation. One of its notable innovations is the Nike Flyknit technology. This manufacturing process significantly reduces waste by using a single strand of yarn to create the upper part of a shoe, eliminating the need for multiple materials and traditional cutting methods. By promoting sustainable products like the Flyknit , Nike positions itself as an industry leader in environmentally friendly manufacturing, appealing to eco-conscious consumers.
• Communication Transparency: Nike has been striving for transparency in its communication regarding sustainability initiatives. The company openly discusses its progress towards sustainable goals, including reducing energy and water use, managing waste, and reducing carbon emissions.

By sharing this information with the public, Nike establishes trust with consumers concerned about the environmental impact of their purchasing choices.

• Branding and Storytelling: Nike utilizes its marketing channels to communicate compelling stories surrounding its sustainability initiatives. The company has created engaging campaigns highlighting its positive impact through sustainable practices, such as recycling programs, community involvement, and responsible sourcing.

These stories resonate with consumers who prioritize sustainability and enhance Nike’s brand image as a socially responsible corporation.

• Circular Economy Initiatives: Nike actively engages in circular economy initiatives to minimize waste in the apparel and footwear industry. The company has introduced recycling programs, such as the Reuse-A-Shoe program, which transforms old sneakers into materials for sports surfaces.

Additionally, Nike has partnered with organizations and suppliers to promote closed-loop recycling to further reduce waste. By actively participating in the circular economy, Nike demonstrates its commitment to a more sustainable future.

Nike Marketing Channels

Nike employs a diverse and comprehensive marketing channel strategy to reach and engage its customers. Utilizing a wide range of touchpoints ensures that its products and brand message are accessible to consumers across various platforms. From physical retail stores to online platforms and social media, Nike employs a multi-faceted approach that leverages technology, partnerships, and personalized experiences to connect with its audience.

Nike’s marketing channels include the following:

• Retail Stores: Nike has a strong presence in physical retail stores worldwide. The company operates its Nike-branded stores as well as partners with other retailers to showcase and sell its products;
• Online Store: Nike’s e-commerce platform is a crucial marketing channel where customers can purchase directly. The online store offers a wide range of Nike products and exclusive releases;
• Nike App: The Nike app allows users to engage with the brand, browse and shop for products, track their fitness goals, get personalized recommendations, and access exclusive content and events;
• Social Media: Nike effectively uses social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter (now X), and Facebook, to engage with its audience. The company leverages these platforms to promote new products, share inspiring stories, and build a community around its brand;
• Sponsorships and Partnerships: Nike partners with high-profile athletes, teams, and organizations to expand its reach and strengthen its brand image. Through sponsorships and partnerships, Nike collaborates on product collaborations, sponsors significant sporting events, and generates brand buzz;
• Influencer Marketing: Nike collaborates with influential athletes, celebrities, and social media personalities who embody the brand’s values and lifestyle. These influencers help promote Nike products and create a sense of authenticity and aspiration among their followers;
• Advertising Campaigns: Nike is known for its impactful and emotionally powerful advertising campaigns. The company invests heavily in creating TV commercials, digital ads, and other forms of media to captivate audiences and convey its brand message;
• Direct Mail and Email Marketing: Nike leverages direct mail and email marketing to reach out to its customers with personalized offers, updates on new product releases, and invitations to special events;
• Mobile and In-store Experiences: Nike integrates technology into its marketing strategy by creating engaging mobile apps and in-store experiences. This includes features like augmented reality (AR) in-store try-on experiences, gamification elements, and interactive displays to enhance customer engagement;
• Brand Partnerships: Nike strategically partners with other brands or designers to create limited-edition collaborations that generate hype and appeal to different customer segments;
• NikePlus Membership: Nike offers a membership program called NikePlus, where members receive exclusive benefits, access to limited-edition products, personalized product recommendations, and invitations to members-only events;
• Local Community Engagements: Nike engages with local communities through events, sponsorships, and partnerships with local sports teams, clubs, and initiatives. This helps the brand build a strong connection with customers at a grassroots level.

How To Apply Nike Marketing Strategy To Your Business

Defining your brand image.

One key aspect of Nike’s marketing strategy is its solid and recognizable brand image. To apply Nike’s brand strategy to your business, it is crucial to define your brand image. Here are some steps to help you:

• Identify your target audience: Nike caters to athletes and individuals who value performance and style. Similarly, determine who your target audience is and what they value in a brand;
• Understand your unique selling proposition: Nike stands out for its innovative, high-quality products. Identify what sets your business apart from competitors and articulate it clearly;
• Craft your brand identity: Nike’s identity revolves around celebrating sports culture, athleticism, empowerment, and determination. Define the values, personality, and visual elements that resonate with your target audience;
• Consistency across touchpoints: Nike ensures consistency in messaging and visual identity. Apply this principle to your business by maintaining a consistent tone, imagery, and brand experience across your website, social media, packaging, and customer interactions;
• Engage with storytelling: Nike effectively engages customers through captivating stories, reinforcing its brand identity. Find unique and compelling narratives that align with your brand image to build emotional connections with your audience;
• Leverage social media: Nike strategically utilizes social media platforms to engage with customers and share its brand story. Use social media channels to actively listen, engage, and create meaningful conversations around your brand.

Effective Segmentation and Targeting

Nike’s marketing strategy is built upon a strong foundation of effective segmentation and targeting. By understanding its customers and tailoring its marketing efforts towards specific segments, Nike has maintained its position as a leading brand in the sports apparel and footwear industry.

Nike segments its target market based on various factors such as demographics, psychographics, and behaviors. Demographically, Nike targets individuals across different age groups, from kids to adults, and various income levels. Psychographically, Nike focuses on active, health-conscious customers who value quality and performance. Behaviorally, Nike targets professional athletes and everyday individuals who engage in sports and fitness activities.

One key reason behind Nike’s success is its ability to connect with its target audience on an emotional level. Through powerful storytelling and innovative marketing campaigns, Nike has been able to create a strong emotional bond with its consumers. It has successfully associated its brand with attributes such as inspiration, determination, and excellence.

Nike also understands the importance of personalization and customization. They offer a wide range of products that can be customized to meet the specific needs and preferences of their customers. This approach allows Nike to cater to individual tastes and preferences, making their customers feel valued and unique.

Leveraging Key Industry Influencers

Nike understands these individuals’ power and influence over their target market and uses them strategically to connect with consumers on a deeper level.

By partnering with athletes, celebrities, and other influential figures in the sports and fashion industries, Nike can leverage its credibility, popularity, and reach to promote its products. These influencers act as brand ambassadors, endorsing Nike’s products through various channels such as social media platforms, advertising campaigns, and public appearances.

Nike carefully selects influencers who align with its brand values and resonate with its target audience. Whether it’s a renowned basketball player like LeBron James or a high-profile fashion model like Bella Hadid , Nike ensures that these influencers embody the spirit of the brand and inspire customers to embrace the Nike lifestyle.

This strategy helps Nike increase brand awareness and enhances its reputation and credibility. By associating with well-respected and admired individuals, Nike positions itself as a leader in the industry and earns the trust and loyalty of consumers.

To apply this strategy to your business, you can identify key industry influencers within your niche and establish partnerships or collaborations with them. By leveraging their influence, you can gain credibility and expand your reach to a broader audience. However, it is essential to ensure that these influencers align with your brand values and resonate with your target market to ensure the authenticity and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Compelling Storytelling

Nike recognizes the incredible impact of connecting with consumers emotionally through compelling narratives. To apply the brand’s storytelling approach to your own business, follow these key principles:

• Authenticity: Nike understands the importance of being genuine. In your storytelling, be true to your brand’s identity and values. Share real stories that resonate with your target audience, emphasizing your unique selling proposition;
• Inspire and Motivate: Nike’s advertisements and campaigns aim to inspire and motivate their consumers. Similarly, tell stories that evoke emotions, ignite passion, and encourage action. Show how your product or service can improve lives and make a difference;
• Engage with Characters: Nike excels at introducing relatable and aspirational characters in their marketing campaigns. Create memorable characters that your audience can connect with. Develop narratives around these characters to engage and immerse your audience in your brand story;
• Showcase Triumph over Adversity: Nike frequently highlights stories of perseverance and triumph over adversity. You can create a strong emotional connection with your audience by emphasizing the struggle and ultimate success. Demonstrate how your product or service can help customers overcome challenges or achieve their goals;
• Consistency across Platforms: Nike maintains a consistent storytelling approach across different platforms, ensuring that their message is seamlessly communicated. Apply this principle to your business by aligning your brand story across all marketing channels, including social media, website, content marketing, and advertisements;
• User-Generated Content: Nike actively encourages its customers to share their stories and experiences, often incorporating user-generated content in its campaigns. Implement user-generated content strategies to engage your audience and amplify their voices. Encourage customers to share their experiences and showcase their relationship with your brand.

Product Innovation

Nike has consistently focused on developing innovative and cutting-edge sports footwear, apparel, and equipment to meet the evolving needs of athletes and consumers.

The company’s product innovation strategy encompasses several key elements. First, the company invests heavily in research and development to drive technological advancements. This includes partnering with athletes and sports scientists to understand their performance needs and develop products that enhance athletic performance.

Nike also strives for continuous improvement and regularly updates its existing product lines. Nike ensures its products remain relevant and competitive by incorporating customer feedback, market trends, and the latest technologies.

In recent years, Nike has emphasized sustainability and responsible manufacturing more. The company has introduced eco-friendly materials, such as Nike Flyknit, and initiatives to reduce waste and carbon emissions. This commitment to sustainability aligns with consumer preferences and helps differentiate Nike from its competitors.

Nike has deployed a powerful marketing strategy that has contributed to its status as one of the world’s most iconic and valuable brands. The company’s focus on creating a solid emotional connection with consumers by leveraging powerful storytelling and athlete endorsements has helped to build a loyal customer base.

Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan, combined with innovative and high-quality products, has positioned the brand as a symbol of inspiration, determination, and excellence. By consistently emphasizing the importance of performance and athletic achievements, Nike has successfully targeted athletes and sports enthusiasts, maintaining a solid presence in the sporting goods industry.

Nike’s strategic partnerships and sponsorship deals have also enabled the brand to align itself with top athletes, teams, and events, enhancing its reputation and driving brand recognition. This approach has also allowed Nike to tap into the influence and reach of these celebrities and athletes, reaching a broader and more diverse audience.

The company’s marketing strategy has extended beyond traditional advertising, with a robust digital presence and engagement on social media platforms. Nike has effectively utilized digital marketing to connect with its target market, using user-generated content, interactive campaigns, and online communities to foster brand loyalty and engagement.

Daniel Pereira

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The Ultimate Marketing Plan Template For 2024 [FREE]

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Marketing Plan. Get our marketing plan template for FREE + Budget plan + Calculators + best marketing toolkit for 2024.

Rakefet is the CMO at Mayple. She manages all things marketing and leads our community of experts through live events, workshops, and expert interviews. MBA, 1 dog + 2 cats, and has an extensive collection of Chinese teas.

Learn about our

Natalie is a content writer and manager who is passionate about using her craft to empower others. She thrives on team dynamic, great coffee, and excellent content. One of these days, she might even get to her own content ideas.

Updated May 1, 2024.

It takes time to build a marketing plan and it will change anyway, right? 100%. But creating your digital marketing plan is worth every minute of your time. If you build a business without a marketing plan, it’s like constructing a house without a blueprint. And you need a really good marketing plan template to get you on the right track.

Before we give out all the information and knowledge you need to create your winning marketing plan, let's start by giving you a FREE Digital Marketing Plan Template for 2024 . This is a great example of a great marketing plan that looks snazzy, too 😉.

Click on the image below, and make your own copy or download it to start using this template today.

Now that you have your marketing plan template, let's go over some basics before diving into more advanced aspects of marketing planning.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a document that details how you're going to execute your strategy. It's written for a specific period of time and explains both your current situation and your future plans.

What’s the difference between a marketing plan and a business plan?

A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. A solid online marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, without a sound strategic foundation, it is of little use to a business. It has to have a set of concrete tasks and marketing tactics to follow.

Why do you need a marketing plan?

There are a ton of reasons why every brand and marketing team needs a good marketing plan.

Here are the top 3 reasons:

Create better goals

When you have specific goals to achieve you can plan your way to achieve them. Having too general goals like "growing my business" VS. measurable KPIs like "I want to grow my revenue by $600K, and to do that I need 1,000 new customers" is different.

Actual KPIs can help you plan exactly what will get you there. We recommend you set up some SMART goals - which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-framed.

Improve your focus

Marketing without focus can be very messy and super ineffective. Have you ever tried to run a company meeting without an agenda? Just like meetings, marketing needs focus.

The best tip we can give you is to focus on specific activities and have them done well. A digital marketing plan will help you focus on exactly the tasks that will impact your success.

Of course, things will change and your plan will change as well. But as long as you are using a good marketing plan outline you will have your next month’s tasks written down and your work will become that much more effective.

Stay consistent

The purpose of a marketing plan is to ensure that marketing activities are relevant and timely to achieve the organization's business objectives. It's a plan defining a sustainable competitive position and defining the resources necessary to achieve it.

Now that you know what a marketing plan is and what’s used for let’s talk about the key components that it’s built out of.

How do you make a good marketing plan?

A good marketing plan should have the following parts -

• Executive Summary
• Mission statement
• Market Analysis (SWOT)
• Competitor Analysis
• Target market & buyer personas
• Marketing objectives and KPIs
• Pricing strategy
• Growth strategy
• Marketing channels

And as a bonus we’ve added two more sections:

11. BONUS: How to assemble the right marketing team 12. BONUS: Top tools for marketing plan creation & design

Each of these key elements is vital for the right execution of your marketing strategy and I promise you it’s not as difficult as it looks.

Let’s dive in.

1. Create an executive summary

This might seem a little too formal for some marketers out there but it’s essential and I’ll explain why.

Marketing plans tend to get really long so it’s better to create a quick summary and highlight some of the key points of every aspect of your plan right at the beginning. This becomes the foundation of your marketing plan.

There is no set length for an executive summary but it should cover all of the main elements of your marketing plan. It should also quickly tell your story and highlight what you are trying to achieve. Add your KPIs, marketing channels, market strategy, and budget.

A good executive summary should give a quick taste of the entire plan and entice the reader (investor, upper management, CEO, etc) to read the rest.

Here’s a great 2-minute video from Hubspot that shows how to write an executive summary from start to finish.

The next section of the marketing plan has to do with your “why”.

2. Create a mission statement

A good mission should have 3 critical components -

• An overall mission or vision of the company
• The company’s core values
• The goals and marketing objectives

The key is to keep it precise, short, and powerful. Don’t write a long essay, don’t just throw a bunch of jargon around, and do get some input from the employees at the company.

Employee feedback on this is critical because marketing and sales activities have to align with the mission of the company so all the various teams in the business have to be in agreement on the general mission.

The worst thing you can do is have a mission that has no direct correlation to the actual activities or tasks. Such a mission won’t help you grow your business .

What’s the difference between the company vision and its mission?

The vision is like the why, the overarching goal and foundation of the company. The company’s mission includes the vision and adds to it the actions and activities that the company will do to help advance its vision. Here’s a great video by Simon Sinek that explains this concept.

Now let’s talk about how you are going to go about achieving that mission.

The first step is to understand the market and your particular industry.

3. Market analysis

Have you ever seen the TV show Shark Tank?

The first part of any pitch is a personal story and a quick description of the founders’ “why”. This is where you can find the vision and mission of the company.

Next, they almost always mention the size of the market and they quantify the opportunity that they are presenting to the sharks.

This is exactly what a market analysis is.

A market analysis is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of a market. It looks at the size of the market in terms of the value ($) and volume (quantity of product sold) and often highlights some of the latest trends or environmental conditions that define the opportunity cost.

So how do we do this?

A great way to structure this is by using the SWOT analysis technique.

What is a SWOT analysis?

A common marketing framework that can help you create a good marketing analysis is called the SWOT framework . It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats .

Strengths - what is your company really good at? what makes you unique? what unique advantages do you have over your competition? What is your value proposition? What are some of the key resources, processes, and capabilities that your company has?

Weaknesses - what are the weakest points of the business? What are some of the areas in which you could improve on? What is your company lacking compared to your competitors?

Opportunities - what are the biggest trends in the market that could give your company an edge or an advantage? These could be demographic patterns, lifestyle choices, population dynamics, or governmental regulatory policies.

Threats - what are some of the external factors in the market that could negatively impact your business? What are some environmental factors that you should be aware of? What are some possible changes that could threaten your business performance and success?

Pro tip: Want to do your own SWOT analysis? Get our Marketing SWOT Analysis Template .

4. Competitive analysis

The next vital step is to understand your competition and what the competitive landscape looks like in your industry or niche.

The main questions your competitive analysis should answer are:

• Who are the competitors?
• What marketing strategies are they employing?
• And how are they going about achieving their goals?

Here’s one of my favorite competitive analysis frameworks from the renowned Myk Pono:

Now that you’ve completed your competitive analysis it’s time to zero in on your ideal customer.

5. Define your target market and buyer personas

The best way to create target personas for any brand is by creating a customer journey map. A customer journey map is a visual representation of all the various touchpoints that your brand has with a prospective customer.

This is a critical part of creating your marketing strategy.

Google introduced the moment of truth concept and this really relates to our discussion of marketing channels but it’s important to mention here as well.

Shoppers can find and interact with your brand through hundreds of channels, both online and brick-and-mortar. The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) concepts represents that stage of the buyer’s journey that leads them to find your product or solution for their problem.

Identifying the specific problem that the customer is looking to solve is critical. This is how you define your persona and this is what ultimately affects the rest of your marketing decisions.

Here's a great buyer persona template from Hubspot to help you create better audience personas.

6. Define your goals and KPIs

The first step when building a marketing plan is to understand and define which business goals are the plan aiming to achieve. Business and marketing should always go hand-in-hand - remember that. Questions you should answer are:

• What are the business goals I need to achieve?
• What KPIs will get me to achieve my goals?
• What does my marketing funnel look like?

Pricing is often part of the market and competitive analysis sections but sometimes brands discuss it separately. It depends on how important price considerations are for your business and how competitive your market is. For example, if a major advantage in your business is that your product is priced significantly lower than your competition then a pricing strategy will play a key role in your marketing plan.

On the other hand, if you are a brand like Apple that is trading on the quality and its other features more than a price comparison, then your focus will be less on price.

There are 5 common pricing strategies:

1. Cost-based pricing

This is when the price is solely based on the costs of the products. The company simply takes the cost it takes to produce the product or service and adds a markup.

2. Value-based pricing

This strategy is based on the perceived value of your product. So a great example here is a company like Apple that prices its products significantly higher than its competitors because of the perceived value they provide.

3. Competitive pricing

This is when a company sets a price based on what the competition is charging. A great example here is gas stations. Each gas station competes with the other stations on the block, trying to outbid the other.

4. Price skimming

This strategy involves setting a high price and then lowering it as the market evolves. A lot of tech products have a high price when they first launch in order to maximize profit and increased their perceived value.

5. Penetration pricing

Penetration pricing is the exact opposite of price skimming. It involves pricing a product really low at first in order to enter a competitive market, and then increasing the price slowly over time.

Fit your pricing strategy to your target customers

It's important to fit your pricing strategy to the specific customer segment that you are trying to reach. If you are markeing to the early adopters then price skimming will work. If you want to be adopted by the early or late majority then you may have to try penetration pricing.

You can always use customer feedback to get more data on this and make a better decision.

As you can see, there are a lot of different pricing strategies out there. Picking the right one for your business will depend on the previous steps in your marketing plan - the customer (or buyer) pain point, the market analysis, and the competitive analysis.

8. Define your marketing budget

Your marketing budget plan depends on your business stage

Much like marketing goals and KPIs, your budget planning depends on your business lifecycle stage (are you a startup or an established brand). Normally, startups invest more in gaining market share and acquiring new customers, whereas established brands would invest more in retention and reputation.

Your niche is also a factor

Each industry has a different marketing structure and consumer behavior, so your niche defines your marketing budget allocation as well. eCommerce in a competitive niche like fashion, for example, will need ways to lower its CAC (customer-acquisition-cost) and upsell.

Spending tipping point

You can't expect that if you invested $20,000 and got 1,000 leads to keep the same proportion at $200. Every channel should have a different amount allocated to it based on the return on investment (ROI) and your profit margins.

So make sure you invest enough into each channel to move the needle. You can benchmark with other businesses in your niche, or use a rule-of-thumb by which at least 20% of your expected revenue should be invested in marketing.

Lead generation and branding

Start planning your budget.

The first step when planning your marketing budget is to understand what are the growth channels that have worked for you so far and are part of your digital marketing strategy for the next year. According to each channel's effectiveness and cost, you can start allocating your monthly and yearly spend.

Questions you should answer for that are:

• What are the most effective growth channels I have so far?
• Are there more growth channels I want to test next year?
• Does seasonality affect my sales?
• Align your budget with your KPIs (!)

Now that you’ve identified what and how to spend your marketing dollars, it’s time to pick the marketing channels that you will be using to grow your business.

9. Define your marketing channels

It's important to decide on the specific marketing mix that is best for your business. Social media platforms and other marketing channels have absolutely exploded in the last decade so you have a ton of channels to choose from.

Now, remember to have an authentic brand presence on every channel and only expand to ones that fit your brand strategy . Here are some of the top ones that you should consider for your marketing plan template:

Content marketing

Content marketing is very powerful for inbound marketing. Studies show that 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content per day and the year-over-year growth in traffic is 7.8X higher for content leaders.

Companies like Capterra and Quuu attribute their success to really good content.

Now, remember, content is a long-term game, short-term wins are very rare. You should create, design, and post content consistently and continue to optimize.

Social Media

Social media is another powerful marketing aspect of any brand’s marketing strategy. It provides an opportunity for you to present your brand in a visual way through images and videos.

Studies show that 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users, so don’t ignore these platforms if your brand isn’t “sexy” enough.

The marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk has always said that brands in the construction or plumbing industries should absolutely post content and interact with their audience on social media. If you bring people value you will generate leads that will eventually convert into sales .

>> Want to get more engagement and traffic from social?

Email marketing

Email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing channel. Studies show that marketers make $44 for every $1 they spend on email marketing. It’s 40X more effective than using social media to generate sales.

If you are a B2C company then this is an absolute must. You should be sending out weekly or biweekly campaigns, you should set up some automatic welcome and cart abandonment flows, and you should definitely set up some email automation for the customers that convert through a popup.

If you are primarily B2B you might think that email marketing is not as powerful for you but that is absolutely not the case. According to WordStream , 59% of B2B marketers say that this is the most effective way to generate sales.

Another great way to use this channel is for branding. For example, a lot of companies leveraged the global COVID pandemic to engage in new ways with their target customers. They used really creative ways to send really helpful and cheerful emails that helped lift people’s spirits.

Advertising

Last but not least, there’s advertising. This is our specialty here at Mayple . We have over 1,500 talented ads experts that we match with the brands that we work with. Advertising is an important aspect of your marketing strategy that you should absolutely have on your digital marketing plan template.

There are several ways you could utilize advertising as a marketing channel .

First, there is social advertising. You could advertise on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Quora. Then there are Google Ads that come in the form of PPC or you could use a tool like Taboola or Outbrain to leverage Google’s Display Network.

You could also retarget your site visitors using ads on any of these networks. This type of advertising is particularly effective and we recommend it to all the brands that we work with.

Now let’s talk about your marketing or growth strategy.

10. Define your growth strategy

After you’ve set your marketing goals, KPIs, and budget, it's time to plan your marketing activities for this year! Ready? 💪

What to consider when planning your marketing?

After you figured out what are the channels you're going to invest in, the marketing plan should show all the activities you're going to run under each growth channel.

Here are some examples you can use:

Paid media marketing campaigns

To plan and design your paid campaigns correctly you should know what are the most effective channels you are going to start using and to build a marketing funnel that shows you when are you going to advertise to "first-touch" prospects (people that don't know you yet) and what will remarketing prospects will want to see in order to be persuaded to take the next move.

Now, plan the marketing activities for each of your marketing funnel stages (from the awareness stage to the decision stage) and prospects' journeys from the setup stage to the live campaign stage. You can also add special events and design seasonal promotions in your paid campaigns such as sales season and other special occasions.

Content strategy & distribution

Content marketing is all about connecting with your customer base and potential buyers at every level of the funnel. An effective content distribution strategy should take into consideration the types of content you want to publish and the ideal distribution channels for your potential customers at each stage of the marketing funnel.

Another important thing to remember about content is consistency.

Don't plan your content on social channels if you won't have the resources to be consistent with your posting. It's better to focus on fewer things and do them well. Content can include any valuable engagement you have with your audience, whether it's on your Facebook, on a blog post, or in your email marketing .

Some of your content efforts will be ongoing (for example, SEO) and some will be building assets for future use (for example, Video).

Offline / Local

Ok, so we’ve covered all the aspects of an effective marketing plan.

Now let’s talk about the type of expertise you will need to assemble to execute your strategy.

11. BONUS: How do you build the perfect marketing team?

As we all know, marketing management can be lonely (at every size of business by the way), so a crucial factor in your marketing success is building a good team to execute your marketing plan. It can be an in-house team, a team of experts you hire, or as in most cases, a hybrid of in-house employees combined with marketing service providers ( agencies or freelancers).

3 Fundamentals of a good marketing team:

Here are the three top elements of a really effective marketing team.

I'll start by saying a good marketing team depends first and foremost on its leader (Yeah, that's you!). When you choose the right people and know how to manage them right, your success rates are already good. At the end of the day, good marketing starts with a good strategy, continues with a reasonable plan, and depends on great execution.

Expertise blend

Your strategy and plan require specific human capabilities so they will be executed well. If you're planning on running paid media campaigns, you better start your year with an expert on your team that knows the job and that you can count on to deliver on your expectations.

To decide whether to hire an in-house employee or a service provider, you should consider two things:

• What is more important for you - flexibility or control?
• Do you have access to

In my experience, experienced marketing professionals either demand very high salaries or work independently / in small agencies (for example ecommerce SEO agencies ).

Measurement and performance

We're back talking about your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and so should you in every marketing decision you make. After you made sure you have all the needed resources in terms of human talent to get your plan running, you'll need to keep tracking, measuring, and motivating them to be focused on achieving your goals and KPIs.

Not an easy task, especially when you need to measure both in-house employees and service providers. It’s important to understand what KPIs are relevant to each of your team members, and how to run these tracking sessions in a way that will bring everyone together to achieving better results for your business.

Questions to ask a

Questions to assess their experience, with respect to your unique business requirements:

• What industry-relevant experience do you possess?
• What kinds of campaigns have you previously managed?
• Can you show me some examples?

Questions that assess their ability to build the campaign strategy you need:

• How do you plan a campaign?
• How do you decide on each campaign’s distribution?
• Do you A/B test different campaign messages?

Questions about reporting and KPIs - clear expectations!

• Which KPIs do you think are relevant to us?
• Which KPIs do you expect to reach?
• Which reporting format do you use?
• What would be the frequency of the reports you generate?

Excellent. You now know how to assemble your marketing team.

And you might be asking yourself, how do I write this marketing plan? It’s going to take me ages! There is so much research that goes into it, do I have to do it all manually?

The answer is no way! There are a ton of marketing tools & software that can help you create your actionable marketing plan way faster.

Here are a few.

12. BONUS: What are the best tools to use to create a marketing plan?

Here are some of the top marketing tools to use to create your marketing plan.

Tools for research

There are numerous tools to use to obtain all the market research and business analytics for your marketing plan.

Alexa is a great tool to get insights into your market and your competitors. It has some really great advanced features that can show you your site demographics, where your traffic comes from, and the traffic sources of your competitors.

Similarweb is another great tool for research. It’s like Alexa in that it has some very similar features but has more reporting capability, and has other metrics like geography, referring sites, and SEO metrics.

Ahrefs is one of the top SEO tools out there. It can give you some of the most sophisticated information about the types of backlinks you or your competitors have, search engine rankings, and much more.

Tools for collaboration

Basecamp is a great tool for team collaboration. You can use it to message your team, store and organize project files efficiently, and work better with your team. There are so many data points to gather for your marketing plan and you will need to collaborate with multiple teams in your company.

Slack is another great tool for team collaboration. Though it’s more focused on communication it does provide a great way to store information and collaborate with co-workers (and it has a slick design and an easy-to-use interface).

Speaking of design, let’s talk about visual design tools and software for your marketing plan.

Tools for charts and presentations

This is a great design tool for making charts. They have a really easy-to-use drag and drop design interface that allows you to create fancy charts and diagrams for your marketing plan in minutes.

Canva is a great design tool for all kinds of design projects. It has a wide range of features that you could use to design amazing graphics and download them for your marketing plan.

13. BONUS: Top marketing plan examples

There are so many areas of digital marketing and if you want to be really efficient you should make a plan for each one. The best way to learn is from the experts so let’s look at some of the best sample marketing plans. You can download any of these or save a copy for yourself.

Content Marketing Strategy Template - by Buffer

This is a really great plan for your content. It breaks down every process from discovering your ideal customers, to creating their buyer persona, finding the main challenges that your content could solve, and so on. This is a really in-depth guide designed for any content marketing out there.

Simple Marketing Plan - from Cengage

Here’s another really great marketing plan example. This one looks really old school, so if you are a visual learner this one is probably not for you. But if you want to see a really well-written explanation of every section of a traditional marketing plan, you will get a lot of this example. Download it and fill it out, you will get a lot of value out of it.

One Page Marketing Plan Template - from SmartSheet

Ok, if that wasn’t simple enough for you, here’s a quick one-page cheat sheet that you can use to quickly summarize your entire marketing plan. This one is really useful for a quick brainstorming session, especially when working with a remote team.

Marketing Strategy Template for Increasing Blog Traffic - from Sumo

Sumo has some incredible marketing plan templates. I used one of their templates to grow an Instagram account from 0-30k subscribers in 18 months. And here they strike again with a super-specific template & strategy on how to take your blog traffic to 10,000 visits in just 12 weeks.

Marketing plan infographic for specific projects - from Visme

Speaking of content, let’s talk about video.

Creating a video strategy for a brand can be a pretty complex task. You have a bunch of teams, a variety of factors to consider, and it can become a big mess pretty quickly. So, if you want to create a strategic marketing plan template for a specific project like that, then use this infographic template from Visme to display everything and make it all really easy for the whole team to follow.

This format is especially powerful when you’ve hired a digital marketing consultant because that’s when things can get a little unclear. So organizing every project into a quick infographic can provide a really great way to keep everyone organized.

Email List Marketing Strategy Template

An email list is one of the most powerful tools any business has. It’s really hard to grow your list and keep subscribers engaged. Here’s a great marketing plan example for growing a list to over 1,500 new subscribers in 12 weeks.

Email Marketing Plan Template - from Hubspot

Here’s a great email marketing planning template from Hubspot that helps you create better emails. Hubspot is an incredible software product for any brand and they make incredible templates and guides on virtually every aspect of digital marketing. This template in particular has 3 parts - email planning, analytics, and A/B testing.

Ecommerce Marketing Plan Template - from Sumo

We’ve been focusing more and more on eCommerce businesses recently, and you can learn all about it in our eCommerce marketing guide . Here’s an example of a marketing plan that takes you through all the steps of growing your eCommerce revenue in 12 weeks.

eCommerce Marketing Plan Example - from Drip

Here’s another great marketing plan example from Drip. This one is a broad overview of each section and has some additional tracking info to fill out, that the other plans didn’t cover. It’s a quick and easy one.

14. How to Create a Social Media Marketing Template

This is something that we get asked often. Sometimes a marketing manager or brand owner doesn’t want to design a whole new marketing plan from scratch, but only wants to focus on their social media.

How do you go about creating a social media marketing plan ?

Here’s a high-level overview of how to go about it.

1. Choose your SMART Goals.

We’ve spoken about this at the beginning of this article, and it’s super crucial that any kind of plan starts with some goals that make sense.

SMART stands for -

Here’s an example of a vague goal:

-We will increase our blog traffic to 100k monthly uniques.

Here’s how you turn that into a SMART goal:

- We will increase our blog traffic by 10% each month for the next 12 months by increasing all of our posts to 3,000 words and optimizing on-page content.

Did you notice how I set a deadline on that SMART goal?

T stands for time-bound and deadlines are absolutely crucial.

2. Define your target audience

It’s time to narrow down who your ideal customer is.

First, start by looking at your data on Google Analytics or any other tool you’re using. Find out as much information on your audience as you can.

This could include:

• Average income
• Shopping habits

3. Look at your competitors

4. analyze your social data.

Now that you know what your competitors are doing, compare that to where you are holding with your current marketing efforts.

Look at the following things on each channel:

• How many followers do you have
• How much engagement (likes & comments) you get
• Which types of posts are most successful
• Days of the week and times your account gets the most engagement
• Best times to post

5. Decide on accounts & channels

Next, choose the right social media platforms for your business. Decide which ones you want to use and for what purposes. It could be that one channel you could use for impressions, and on the other one, you really care about the engagement.

Here’s what we do at Mayple:

• Facebook - Organic impressions + ads to get new brands and marketing experts signed up -> lead generation and sales
• Instagram - Organic impressions + engagement aimed at marketers
• LinkedIn - Organic engagement + traffic for brand growth

You might find that Pinterest is a perfect platform to get traffic, while Instagram is primarily for sales. It totally depends on the industry, design, content format, and type of business you have.

6. Get some inspiration

Now that you’ve decided on the channels you’re going after, look at some of the best social media posts for your niche and make an inspiration wall for yourself.

Look for posts or videos that catch your eye, designs, color schemes & messaging that would work well for your content.

7. Decide on post types and formats

Next, decide on the exact types and formats of your posts.

Here are a few post formats you could pick from:

• Carousel posts
• Instagram Stories
• Short-form content
• Long-form content

I recommend deciding on 4-5 formats and testing them out for a few weeks.

8. Create a social media calendar

Now it’s time to put it all together into one calendar.

Use a scheduling app like eClincher , Sendible , CoSchedule , or Later .

They all have different features, so find something that fits your needs and budget.

Once you upload all of your posts into one calendar you can see it all visually, and see your post frequency for each platform.

9. Test for 30-60 days and re-evaluate

Are you excited? It’s time to launch this thing!

Launch your posts for the next 1-2 months and see how they do. After 2 months, re-evaluate your progress, and double down on the posts that did really well.

Take out the posts that didn’t do so well.

Continue optimizing as you go along.

Top Social Media Plan Templates

Here are a few of our favorite social media plan templates. You can use these to plan your calendar, to better optimize your strategy, and to rock out like the top brands out there.

Social Media Audit Template by Hootsuite

This template is a really great general for all of your needs. They have a separate tab for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Each tab is divided into a grid for all your accounts, performance, audience, goals, and even a SWOT analysis. These guys cover it all!

Get it ->

We’ve covered pretty much everything you need to know about how to plan, create, and design your digital marketing plan. Your plan should be the basis for all of the marketing initiatives of your marketing department. It should serve as the guideline for creative marketing material, setting up your campaigns, and your plan of action.

We’ve already created a really effective marketing plan template, which you can get - here .

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• Standardized Format for Electronic Submission for Marketing Applications Content for the Planning of Bioresearch Monitoring (BIMO) Inspections for Center of Biologics Evaluation and Research Submissions

GUIDANCE DOCUMENT

Standardized Format for Electronic Submission for Marketing Applications Content for the Planning of Bioresearch Monitoring (BIMO) Inspections for Center of Biologics Evaluation and Research Submissions June 2024

Not for implementation. Contains non-binding recommendations.

This guidance is being distributed for comment purposes only.

Submit Comments by 08/05/2024

Although you can comment on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 10.115(g)(5)), to ensure that the FDA considers your comment on a draft guidance before it begins work on the final version of the guidance, submit either online or written comments on the draft guidance before the close date.

If unable to submit comments online, please mail written comments to:

Dockets Management Food and Drug Administration 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm 1061 Rockville, MD 20852

All written comments should be identified with this document's docket number: FDA-2024-D-2221

This draft guidance applies to electronic submissions of data and information from the major (i.e., pivotal) studies  used to support safety and efficacy claims in biologics license applications (BLAs) and new drug applications (NDAs) regulated by the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), as well as supplemental applications containing new clinical study reports.  It also applies when these data and information are submitted in certain investigational new drug applications (INDs)  in advance of a planned BLA, NDA, or supplemental submission.  This draft guidance, when finalized, will contain the same data and information requirements described in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) draft Standardized Format for Electronic Submission of NDA and BLA Content for the Planning of Bioresearch Monitoring (BIMO) Inspections for CDER Submissions Guidance for Industry, when finalized.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Picture this: you’re browsing online for some new work clothes, and you add something to your virtual cart but ultimately decide not to buy it. Then later, you see an ad on social media for the abandoned garment. Some scratch their heads at this, but it’s actually an example of omnichannel marketing.

The prefix “omni” means “all,” and “channel” is a reference to the many ways customers might interact with a company—in physical stores, by surfing the web, on social media, and in emails, apps, SMS, and other digital spaces. And this omnichannel approach can be a powerful way to meet your customers where they are, providing them good service in line with their preferences and needs. (Note that, in this article, we use the terms “customers,” “consumers,” and “shoppers” interchangeably in referring to omnichannel marketing in both B2B and B2C contexts.)

More and more, customers move across all channels—in person, online, and beyond—to get what they want. But not every customer is looking for the same thing, and omnichannel marketing acknowledges that. Some people want more services for certain transactions; others prefer low-touch, 24/7 interactions. Effective omnichannel marketing , then, happens when companies provide a set of seamlessly integrated channels, catering to customer preferences, and steer them to the most efficient solutions.

So why is omnichannel marketing important? Research on the omnichannel experience  shows more than half of B2C customers engage with three to five channels each time they make a purchase or resolve a request. And the average customer looking to make a single reservation for accommodations (like a hotel room) online switched nearly six times between websites and mobile channels. If these customers encounter inconsistent information or can’t get what they need, they may lose interest in a brand’s products or services.

And this can translate into business outcomes. Omnichannel customers shop 1.7 times more than shoppers who use a single channel. They also spend more.

Sometimes the term omnichannel is used in the context of customer service or customer experience . And it’s also used as a descriptor of other elements that go into supporting an organization’s omnichannel efforts—for instance, omnichannel supply chains , which is shorthand for an approach in which companies ensure that their supply chains are optimally set up to support omnichannel marketing efforts.

What are examples of omnichannel?

Omnichannel approaches are commonly used in retail  (both B2B  and B2C ), but you’ll also find it in healthcare and other spaces. Medtech companies , for instance, use a variety of channels including digital marketing, inside sales, portal and e-commerce, and hybrid sales-rep interactions to engage with healthcare professionals.

Several omnichannel examples  can illustrate various approaches:

• Best Buy typically focuses on commerce (both in store and online), but boosted its in-store experience by creating offerings for customers to explore smart home-technology solutions, pairing them with free in-home advisory services. And its mobile app lets customers “scan to shop” from catalogs and curbside, or buy online and pick up merchandise in the store itself, smoothing the end-to-end journey for customers with the 24/7 tech support from its Geek Squad. Best Buy’s Totaltech support offer was compelling to customers—it launched with 200,000 memberships in 2018, which climbed to two million within a year.
• Beauty retailer Sephora emphasizes omnichannel personalization, relying on rich in-app messaging, personalized push notifications, and easy ways for customers to book in-person consultations. Its in-store technology is a powerful complement that allows employees to access customer favorites and suggest products they might try next. Its loyalty program also plays an important role. The efforts are already driving value for Sephora: data showed that customers visiting the retail website within 24 hours of visiting a store were three times more likely to make a purchase, and orders were 13 percent higher than for other customers.
• Nike takes an ecosystems view of omnichannel, extending the brand experience and offering customers an ever-growing platform of content, offers, and community interactions. Its SNKRS and Run Club apps, for example, facilitate in-person meetups, running groups, and events. It also has an app for delivering individual workouts and fitness programs, creating experiences that go far beyond shoe and apparel lines to meet customers in their day-to-day routines.

Learn more about our Retail  and Growth, Marketing & Sales  practices.

How has omnichannel been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Omnichannel rose during the COVID-19 pandemic as more consumers turned to e-commerce. Due to the increased demand for contactless shopping during the height of the pandemic, US grocery stores saw 20 to 30 percent of their business shift to online . Before the pandemic, e-commerce accounted for just 3 to 4 percent of total sales for grocers.

The shifts made during the pandemic are likely to persist . In the pandemic, people gravitated to curbside pickup, “buy online, pay in store” models, and self-checkout at higher rates than in the past. And recent research indicates these behaviors are “sticky”—indeed, about 70 percent of people who first tried self-checkout in the pandemic say they’ll use it again.

Introducing McKinsey Explainers : Direct answers to complex questions

What do customers want out of the omnichannel experience.

Customers want a compelling and personalized omnichannel user experience with robust digital capabilities, both online and offline. About 60 to 70 percent of consumers research and shop both in stores and online . More concretely, over one-third of Americans  made omnichannel features—think buying online and picking up in store or curbside—part of their regular shopping routines since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Nearly two-thirds of those individuals plan to continue doing so. And younger buyers, like Gen Zers, embrace omnichannel enthusiastically; these customers don’t think in terms of traditional channel boundaries, and they expect brands and retailers to provide a seamless experience, no matter where they are.

In a sense, all customers are omnichannel customers now, McKinsey partner Tiffany Burns  explains in an episode of the McKinsey on Consumer and Retail podcast :

“Many retailers still think, ‘There are omnichannel interactions and store interactions, and I’m optimizing those two things separately. I have two different teams working on and thinking about those experiences.’ But as a consumer, when I go on the retailer’s website or app, I expect to see availability, a connection to what’s in the store, and a way to order things that I can pick up in store. I also expect to be able to stand in the aisle in the store and research a product. Today, consumers are figuring out workarounds to do all those things: they’re switching over from the app to Google, looking up the product, and searching for reviews.”

Organizations that make shopping a seamless omnichannel experience , or provide an app that helps customers find their way or see what’s in stock in the store, are already creating experiences that are a win for omnichannel customers .

Is omnichannel the same thing as phygital? And what is phygital, anyway?

Omnichannel is a business strategy, while “phygital” (a portmanteau that combines the word “physical” and “digital”) refers to the integration of the physical and digital worlds.

The term suggests a completely connected world that is both physical and digital at the same time . While fewer consumers are visiting brick-and-mortar stores and choosing to use e-commerce instead, more than 80 percent of retail sales still occur in a physical location . By 2030, the shopping experience will be highly personalized , and some activities may even take place in the metaverse . According to a recent survey, 80 percent of US adults  want personalization from retailers with multiple, personalized touchpoints , which can include a mobile app, digital displays, interactive screens, tech-enabled associates, and point of sale.

What about omnichannel vs multichannel?

When it comes to omnichannel vs multichannel, the key difference is the focus at the center of all efforts. Omnichannel is a customer-centric approach in which all channels are integrated so the customer has a unified and consistent experience whether they are at a physical store, using an app, or on a website. Multichannel, in contrast, tends to revolve around products instead of customers. It aims to inform as many people as possible about the product or brand, and the channels are not linked, so the customer experience is often different for each channel.

An interview with an insurance executive, Eric Gewirtzman of BOLT , makes that distinction relatable: “Insurance customers are already moving between various channels,” Gewirtzman says. “But there’s a big difference between being multichannel and being omnichannel. Just because carriers have, say, an exclusive agent channel, an independent agent channel, and a website, doesn’t mean they’re omnichannel. Too often, consumers will get a different experience and different results depending on which channel they use. This has to change. If there is no awareness between the channels, sales are lost.”

Learn more about our Financial Services practice.

What is omnichannel personalization?

Omnichannel personalization refers to the way organizations might tailor the customer experience for individuals across physical and digital channels. This includes multiple touchpoints that cater to the customer’s preferences pre-visit, during the visit, and post-visit. Customers receive products, offers, and communications that are unique to them as individuals.

Efforts to personalize the omnichannel market can have a big payoff. Indeed, getting omnichannel personalization right  could help companies increase revenue by 5 to 15 percent across the full customer base.

While companies recognize the power of omnichannel personalization, they may face roadblocks in implementing these efforts for a variety of reasons:

• Omnichannel personalization requires a lot of investment in technology  (both software and hardware). Personalizing physical spaces often starts from scratch because it requires enabling digital touchpoints such as screens, kiosks, or tablets for store associates, which may not exist.
• It is difficult to deliver a seamless customer experience and train employees. The front line needs training to understand and reinforce the customer journey.
• Traditionally, companies operate their digital and physical channels independently. Omnichannel personalization requires companies to rethink their organizational structure across both the digital and physical parts of the business .

These barriers, however, can be overcome. Five steps can help companies achieve omnichannel personalization :

• Define the omnichannel personalization strategy and learning agenda. It’s crucial to develop a clear view on key moments of influence in the customer journey , and then identify what outcomes are desired at each step of that journey. Finally, an organization needs to prioritize use cases to test, looking at their ability to deliver business benefits and value to customers.
• Address five digital touchpoints to activate personalized experiences in physical environments. Companies need to connect digital and physical footprints to drive omnichannel personalization, especially at touchpoints where these worlds converge. Five are particularly important: mobile apps, digital displays, interactive screens, tech-enabled associates, and point of sale.
• Use an omnichannel “ decisioning engine ” to deliver experiences and measure performance. This can help organizations identify, quickly and accurately, the next best action to take with each customer.
• Implement agile operating practices. Personalized marketing goes beyond mere technology; it requires new ways of working, and agile marketing teams  can help in this regard.
• Activate omnichannel personalization in the field. To bring all these elements together, a company’s sales force must be fully aligned and well trained. In-person teams could make your customer’s day, so frontline personnel need to support personalization efforts, understand their value, and use digital tools to deliver the complete experience.

What is omnichannel strategy?

An omnichannel strategy for marketing is a way of ensuring that your efforts drive tangible business value. Rather than rushing blindly into the space, or haphazardly approaching it, organizations should step back and think about underlying business value drivers. Excelling in omnichannel depends on a laser focus on value creation, looking at both strategic and customer priorities to craft the omnichannel strategy that will be most effective for their unique circumstances.

The most successful companies set their omnichannel strategy by leading with their strategic ambition and aspirations for customer experience. There are three primary omnichannel strategies :

• Commerce. This prioritizes cross-channel shopping experience both in store and online.
• Personalization. This strategy focuses on tailored, targeted, and relevant cross-channel engagement at scale.
• Ecosystem. Here, the strategy aims to provide rich cross-channel platforms integrated with consumer needs and lifestyles.

Learn more about our Growth, Marketing & Sales  practice.

What’s involved in omnichannel operations?

Organizations can build leading omnichannel operations , spanning a variety of areas. By strengthening the foundation of your omnichannel operations and focusing on strategy, structure, and processes, you could gain a performance edge.

Topics to explore include mastering omnichannel supply chains , creating a customer-centric supply chain strategy , designing the omnichannel distribution network of the future , reimagining the role of physical stores , and more.

What should I know about B2B omnichannel?

Omnichannel has become a permanent part of B2B sales , with e-commerce, face-to-face, and remote videoconference sales all a necessary part of buyers’ experience. According to a 2021 McKinsey survey of US-based B2B decision makers, 94 percent of respondents view today’s B2B omnichannel reality  as being as effective or more effective than before COVID-19. The findings also revealed that B2B customers regularly use ten or more channels to interact with suppliers, up from five in 2016.

B2B omnichannel efforts can be a path to grow an organization’s market share, but loyalty is up for grabs, with customers more willing than ever to switch suppliers for a better omnichannel experience. B2B decision makers use more channels than ever before to interact with suppliers, and being attuned to those channels will be important.

There are five must-dos for B2B companies seeking to retain customer loyalty and succeed in omnichannel:

• offer a performance guarantee (nearly 80 percent of B2B customers say it’s crucial)
• show product availability online
• enable purchases over any channel
• provide customer service in real time
• ensure the customer experience is consistent as buyers toggle between channels

While B2C omnichannel efforts might be the first to spring to mind, omnichannel experience is crucial to giving all customers a better and more seamless journey.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s insights on marketing and sales —and check out omnichannel-related job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ The new B2B growth equation ,” February 23, 2022, Arun Arora , Liz Harrison , Max Magni, Candace Lun Plotkin , and Jennifer Stanley
• “ Omnichannel: The path to value ,” April 30, 2021, Holly Briedis, Brian Gregg , Kevin Heidenreich, and Wei Wei Liu
• “ Omnichannel shopping in 2030 ,” April 9, 2021, Praveen Adhi , Eric Hazan , Sajal Kohli , and Kelsey Robinson
• “ Redefine the omnichannel approach: Focus on what truly matters ,” June 22, 2020, Jorge Amar , Raelyn Jacobson , Becca Kleinstein, and Allison Shi
• “ The end of shopping’s boundaries: Omnichannel personalization ,” February 10, 2020, Gal Gitter, Meg Raymond, Kelsey Robinson , and Jamie Wilkie

Want to know more about omnichannel marketing?

Related articles.

Omnichannel: The path to value

The new B2B growth equation

What is the metaverse?

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Nov 21, 2023

AI in Digital Marketing - The Ultimate Guide

• Digital Marketing

AI has evolved from a fantastical notion to a game-changer for digital marketers today. It's become the secret engine driving personalized ads, predictive analytics, customer experiences, and much more.

In this article, we'll break down what AI means for digital marketing , examples of its use, challenges and tools (not just ChatGPT!), and consider the skills you need to face it to your advantage. 

What is AI in Digital Marketing?

Ai digital marketing tools, examples of ai in digital marketing.

• How to use AI in Digital Marketing
• What are the Pros & Cons of AI Digital Marketing
• What are the Most Common Skills Used in AI-Driven Digital Marketing

“AI is a tool, it's a technology. It's as useful as the person putting it to work” Clark Boyd, Founder at Novela & Marketing and Management Professor

AI in digital marketing uses artificial intelligence capabilities such as data collection, natural language processing, machine learning, and data analysis to get customer insights and automate marketing tasks and decisions. 

The advantage of AI is that it will help you gain insights into customer behaviors at speed by harvesting vast amounts of data. These can be used to respond to and tailor a customer’s needs depending on their actions and preferences. AI is also able to adapt and improve over time using feedback and new data.

Artificial intelligence offers great opportunities for marketers to be more effective and personalized. This means customers get relevant content that can be triggered by actions on a site, an ad, or a branded message.   

But AI doesn’t replace the roles and efforts of humans! It is a technology that complements and enhances those but it requires human skills to use it effectively.  

While ChatGPT may be the most talked-about generative AI tool, there are so many more out there that are helping marketers in their daily roles. They can help marketers in a variety of functions from content generation to automation to SEO and design. 

Here are some of the best AI tools out there: 

• Jasper - A content generation and optimization tool designed for augmenting content production
• Writer - A highly-rated content generation tool that can repurpose content and includes an AI writing assistant 
• Midjourney - Generative AI that can convert natural language prompts into images
• Optimove - A customer data platform with AI-based marketing functions
• Zapier - Helps automate workflows by connecting apps and services that your company uses
• Manychat - Provides an interactive customer experience using NLP to respond to customers on social platforms including WhatsApp
• Evolv.ai - Uses AI and machine learning algorithms to improve customer experiences in real-time
• Surfer SEO - A cloud-based on-page optimization tool that analyzes and compares your pages against what currently ranks on the SERPs
• Perplexity - Similar to ChatGPT but more suitable for research as it uses web citations in a clearer way. 

A Guide to ChatGPT Prompting

The power of AI means it can be leveraged across many digital channels. Companies use it for social media campaigns, to automate tasks and processes, and for digital advertising. 

It can also be used in any industry. Beauty brands use it to deliver a tailored customer experience such as Sephora’s AI chatbot-powered shopping service, while publishers like The Economist use AI-driven programmatic advertising to target and influence ‘reluctant readers’.  

One of the most successful and well-known for using AI effectively is streaming giant Netflix which employs the technology to provide personalized recommendations based on user preferences and behavior. 

Check out some amazing examples of AI in marketing to get inspiration.

How to Use AI in Digital Marketing

As AI technologies have become more accessible and easier to use, companies have started to use them in daily tasks such as creating content for PPC ads or setting up triggered email workflows.  

When we asked our membership community at the Digital Marketing Institute about AI, over half felt their roles are changing due to the technology while 44% already use it. Of those who use artificial intelligence, 45% believe it has helped increase their productivity. 

But what are marketers using AI for?

1. Content and image creation

Marketing teams are often under pressure to create content quickly for many purposes and channels. However, creating good content takes time and effort, and a lot of marketers are time- and resource-poor. 

AI software such as ChatGPT and Jasper has exploded because it helps people to generate content: that’s why they’re called generative AI tools!  This could be email subject lines, ad copy, landing pages, blogs, or anything else you need for your content marketing . You can also use AI writing prompts to create catchy headlines and customize content for your audience which drives personalization. You can also use AI to boost your influencer marketing campaigns and manage your relationships. 

Using these tools saves time and money. However, make sure to read over any content before publishing it live to ensure it has personality and fits in with your brand voice. 

"People use AI because it's lower cost and highly scalable. But if you don't have a good creative platform and it doesn't come from creative and data-driven insights, then it's just spray and pray really,” says Mischa McInerney , CMO at the Digital Marketing Institute   

“44% of marketers have used AI for content production” AI Marketing Benchmark Report 2023

2. Customer service and support

AI-driven chatbots have been around for a while as a way to communicate with and provide information to customers. When people want to get instant answers to simple queries or interact with a brand, they first go to a chatbot. 

However, AI has a bigger role when it comes to customers. It can improve customer experience by personalizing content and messaging, anticipating customer needs, streamlining purchasing, and directing queries or concerns to the right department or agent.

48% of marketing leaders say AI is making the most significant difference in how customers interact with them - SEMRush

3. Customer segmentation

Customer segmentation and targeting help you identify and influence your most valuable customers. However, doing this manually can be time-consuming and costly.  

AI can use algorithms to segment your prospects and customers into groups or segments of people with similar interests, needs, or behaviors. 

You can then communicate with and target these segments with relevant and customized messaging that can be adapted and adjusted in real time. Recommendation systems can suggest products, services, or offers that match customer preferences while Natural Language Processing (NLP) can analyze customer feedback and reviews to improve your products, services, or customer experience.

Artificial intelligence has huge potential in the area of search engine optimization (SEO) . Search engines such as Google have been using sophisticated algorithms that crawl and index web pages to rank them. Now, AI is becoming further integrated with that process in a way that is changing the world of search even more, through Search Generative Experience (SGE) . 

AI can automate and improve keyword research and content optimization by analyzing user behavior, along with creating meta tags and headings. Marketers can also use it to predict SEO trends, user behavior, and algorithm updates through predictive SEO.  

Voice and visual search are becoming more important ways for people to find information, and AI can help optimize both. This can be done by focusing on NLP and long-tail keywords and including relevant metadata on images.

5. Pay-Per-Click advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a form of advertising where you pay when someone clicks your ad. As a strategy, PPC marketing is important as it can attract new customers through targeted campaigns, get quick results, and be easily tweaked and optimized. 

AI can be used to enhance your PPC campaigns by optimizing:

• Keyword research
• Bidding and targeting
• Ad creation
• Ad scheduling and placement
• Predictive analysis
• Fraud detection

As the technology continues to evolve, marketers can see new ad formats, targeting techniques, and measurement tools for PPC. This is why it’s so important to keep an eye on developments and stay up to date . 

6. Data analytics

With so much data available from a wide variety of channels, marketers can often feel overwhelmed. However, artificial intelligence can process vast volumes of data at speed. This can help marketers gain insights from data, along with using historical data to predict trends and behaviors. 

AI can also be used to detect anomalies in data and uncover patterns. The combination of AI and data analysis can help drive hyper-personalization. The more you know your customers better , the more targeted you can be in your messaging and approach. In retail, for example, it can be used to manage inventory and optimize customer service.

ChatGPT has excellent data analysis capabilities, especially if you use its Advanced Data Analysis plugin. This enables you to feed a spreadsheet to ChatGPT, and it then helps you to unearth deep insights above the data in your spreadsheet.

Ultimately it’s about using AI technology in data analysis to drive better business insights in a way that works for you.

7. Email marketing

Email marketing is an important part of any marketing strategy as it continues to be an effective way to convert prospects and engage customers. Using AI tools in your email marketing can save you time and improve performance.

By using AI in emails, you can:

• Analyze email performance to identify how to optimize your email strategies (e.g. high-performing subject lines)
• Create triggered workflows driven by user actions
• Conduct campaign and workflow analysis
• Craft copy tailored to your audience
• Personalize content to audience segments 
• Enable dynamic content
• Perform A/B testing

AI can also curate your email lists by comparing metrics to determine the value of an email address or email list. You can also get insights about your email schedule by tracking the value generated by each email and analyzing the frequency.

Did you know?  63% of users trust AI email-generation tools but double-check their work, while 25% fully rely on AI-generated emails - Selzy

A Quick Guide to ChatGPT Prompting

What are the pros and cons of ai in digital marketing.

As with any evolving technology, there are advantages and disadvantages to using artificial intelligence. There are also ethical implications to take into account in terms of data privacy , bias, and discrimination. 

“AI is no longer a niche topic for a few tuned-in geeks. It’s an area that all marketers need to become knowledgeable about; quickly.” Jim Leckinski, Associate Professor at Kellogg School of Marketing, Northwestern University. 

The Pros of AI in Digital Marketing

• Boosts productivity - Automate a variety of jobs so your time and effort can be redirected to more difficult and strategic tasks. 
• Drives efficiency - Handle mundane and repetitious activities such as data input, separating marketing campaign leads, and replying to consumer queries.
• Reveals insights - Eliminate guesswork and provide data-driven capabilities to develop a more effective marketing approach and open up new marketing opportunities. 
• Increases ROI - Predict buying behavior and choices by evaluating data, improving the UX, and providing consumers with the content they require to complete their buyer journey. 
• Create and optimize content - Automate content creation to produce quality content at scale for all online channels. 
• Personalize at scale - Analyze customer data and generate personalized recommendations or content to enhance customer experience. 
• Predictive analysis - Forecast consumer behavior or market trends based on historical data to help more accurate and effective planning. 
• Automate tasks - Handle routine tasks such as data analysis, customer segmentation, email sorting, data entry or basic reporting.

The Cons of AI in Digital Marketing

• Bias - AI can only be as effective as the data it draws on so it’s not inherently neutral. This means you need to be aware of the potential for racial, gender, cultural, or socioeconomic biases in your AI-driven strategies.
• Inaccuracy - Mistakes or inaccuracies in data can lead to faulty analyses and potentially costly business decisions. 
• Ethics - Ethical concerns include the manipulation of user data and behavior, consent, and the ‘creepiness factor’ in hyper-targeted ads.  
• Data sensitivity and security - AI systems often require access to extensive datasets, which may include sensitive information that needs to be securely managed. 
• Transparency - As AI-generated content becomes more common, questions about transparency, plagiarism, authorship, and IP ownership become relevant. 

What are the Most Common Skills Used in AI-Driven Digital Marketing?

The key to using AI technology effectively is to make it fit in with your role. It's not enough to know how to use artificial intelligence. You also need to know why you're using it. Does it align with your business and career goals? Will it help you deliver organizational objectives more efficiently?

You need to understand the basics but also take a deep dive into AI to use it to meet your goals whether that be generating leads or improving customer service. 

Here are some of the key technical skills you should consider brushing up on to improve your broader competency with AI tech:

• Data management
• Data analysis
• Content personalization
• Marketing automation
• Process analysis and improvement

Developing these skills using AI may alleviate some of the fear you might feel when dealing with the technology. The more familiar you become with the models and technology, the less intimidating it becomes!

But it’s not just about hard skills like coding or content marketing. Companies seek marketers with outside-the-box thinking and skills that make them solution-focused. 

“ I speak to a lot of people in ad agencies and learning and development at big companies and they often talk about hard skills. I want to see people learn how to code. I want to see them apply this and get ROI,” says Clark Boyd on the DMI podcast . 

Four areas that are important to focus on for broader or soft skills in the context of AI are:

• Strategic thinking
• Agile thinking

These critical professional skills will perfectly complement your digital and technical skills as you prepare for the AI-driven future of marketing.

Top tip: You can even use AI in your job search to help you find the right roles and align your CV and cover letter to any job description.  

Conclusion: AI in Digital Marketing

We know that artificial intelligence can be daunting and it’s difficult to see where and how it fits into your role. But it shouldn’t be seen as a threat. AI can become an invaluable ally as you look to effectively meet your goals. 

After all, AI tools are great for looking after mundane, predictable, and labor-intensive tasks. This frees you up to focus on the more creative and strategic aspects of your job. 

Understanding and mastering AI will also give you a personal boost. You will gain new skills and real-life experience in a generative technology that’s going to become more widespread and an area that companies look for to recruit or promote.  

“Awareness is the first step to change. The question is, are you going to sit on the sidelines and let this evolve or are you going to dive in with two feet and try to understand it, learn it, try it and apply it?” concludes Lecinski on the DMI podcast on getting started in AI . 

Use AI to elevate your digital marketing activities

Artificial intelligence is a game changer for marketers as it helps personalize, optimize and automate many key marketing activities. Our new short interactive AI course (with practical walkthroughs) will help you understand the fundamentals of AI and use key AI tools for research, content development, data-driven decision-making, and creative design. Reserve your spot today!

• Podcast: How Useful is AI in Digital Marketing?
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