Tips to Creating Digital Marketing Plan Template in Excel

Advertising & Marketing

Creating a marketing plan template in Excel can help you plan your strategy with ease, and allow you to create a clear plan for acquiring leads, generating sales, and managing your digital marketing budget.

Our world is evolving at a rapid pace, and if we want to keep up, we should use all the available tools at our disposal. “Standing on the shoulders of giants” is a concept from the 12th century, but it is especially relevant today. Creating a digital marketing plan template could become very text heavy, and end up more like an encyclopedia. However, creating a marketing plan template in Excel can help you plan your strategy with ease, and allow you to create a clear plan for acquiring leads, generating sales, and managing your digital marketing budget.

What to include in your template?

Obviously, a digital marketing strategy depends on your individual needs, what type of business you’re in, and what you plan to achieve, but there are a number of steps you can take to create the best marketing schedule template for your business. Remember that your strategy should be evolving too, so make sure to properly evaluate what works for you, and also what doesn’t, and then adapt and evolve your strategy as appropriate. In order to help you stamp your mark in the digital marketing world, we have compiled a general guide of things you should consider.

1. Create your marketing plan template in Excel: Your time is precious, so use tools that will help you make the most of your time. Excel will help keep your plan concise and well laid out, so you can spend your time on analysis of the results, rather than reading through reams of text.
2. Make a table of contents: While your marketing schedule template might begin small, it will evolve over time. Plan ahead and make life easier for your future-self, and keep an up-to-date table of contents.
3. Identify your goals: Having a great marketing strategy is one thing, but it will mean nothing if you cannot track your progress and see the fruits of your labour. Define clear goals so you can see where you are headed, and then respond accordingly depending on how close you are to achieving these goals.
4. Know your ideal customer: Without customers, it will not matter how good your strategy is. Do not assume what your customers think or want. If possible, try to survey actual customers to figure out what they need, and how you can deliver this to them.
5. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses: It is easy to pat yourself on the back when you are successful in a particular aspect of your marketing, and it is important to do so. But remember that every failed attempt is another step towards finding that successful method. Be sure to be your biggest critic, and allow your weaknesses point you in the right direction towards success.
6. Consider your media assets: Review and check your existing assets, such as websites, social media accounts and what campaigns you run. Be sure to include word-of-mouth exposure, as this can expand your business exponentially.

One of the many downfalls that people encounter when entering into the digital marketing landscape, is the failure to monitor their results. A spreadsheet helps you keep clear, and well-defined objectives, monitor the results and then act accordingly to grow your business. You don’t even need to install Word or Excel, the C Excel Library contains tools to read, edit, and create Excel spreadsheet files in .NET Apps.

There is no one way to create your digital marketing plan template, but ask yourself the right questions, and you will already be on the right track to getting the best answers. Remember to be your biggest critic and always strive to improve on your existing plan. The digital marketing world is a fast-moving one, but there are many useful tools out there to help us move with it.