Start promoting your store with a short written plan. Note the result you want to achieve, whom you are offering the product to, what need it meets, and how a customer can get in touch. For each action, set a deadline, an owner, costs, and a measure of the result.
Choose channels you have enough money and time to maintain. As you carry out the plan, record inquiries, purchases, and actual costs separately. On the date you set, review these records and decide what to continue, change, or stop.
Set a measurable goal
Marketing plan goals are specific, measurable results. They may relate to revenue, foot traffic, or customer retention. For your first plan, choose one goal you can check using store data.
Write down the desired result, timeframe, and how you will count it. If you plan to increase a particular metric, record its starting value. If you have no previous records, set up tracking first. Do not substitute assumptions for actual data.
Clarify exactly what you are counting: inquiries about a selected product, completed purchases, or revenue from a defined product group. Use the same definition throughout the review.
Describe the customer through their needs and buying circumstances
Your target audience is a specific group of people most likely to buy your products or services. Describe who needs the offer you selected, why they need it, and under what circumstances.
Talk to customers. Ask open-ended questions so they can answer in their own words:
- What are you choosing this product for?
- Why did you decide to buy this particular one?
- How does it meet your need?
- What could we improve?
Record their answers separately from your own assumptions. Do not assign customers a motive they did not mention. If you do not have answers yet, label your audience description as a hypothesis and test it in conversations.
Shape your offer and prepare your message
List what you offer, what problems it helps solve, and what benefit it provides. For each promise, check that you can deliver it in your store.
Prepare a message around the need you selected. Name the product, show its features, and explain how to buy it. Check the price and availability before publishing. Do not promise a service you have not set up yet.
You do not need to be on every channel for content marketing. Make a plan you can keep up with: allow for preparing photos and text, responding to inquiries, and checking results. Set the number of materials according to your goals and available time.
For each channel, write down a specific action and who is responsible. For example: the owner takes product photos, while a sales assistant checks availability and answers questions. Before launch, make sure customers know how to get in touch.
Plan cash expenses and your own time
Set your budget according to your business goal, the store’s financial situation, and the return on previous efforts, if you have that data. Set an amount to test the offer and a date to review the budget.
Account separately for the owner’s time spent creating materials. Record planned costs and hours, leaving space alongside them for actual figures. If you hire a contractor, agree on the scope of work, deadline, and cost before work begins.
Illustrative example of a completed plan
Suppose a store owner selling tableware is testing an offer of gift sets. All numbers, timeframes, decisions, and results below are an instructional illustration. They are not statistics, a standard, or a promise of results.
| Plan item | Owner’s decision |
|---|---|
| Goal and timeframe | Get 10 set purchases in four weeks. Count completed set purchases separately. |
| Audience | Test the hypothesis: customers looking for a gift within a specified price range. |
| Offer | Show the contents, photos, and price of each set. |
| Channels and actions | Prepare materials for one store page on a social network and display the sets at the point of sale before the test begins. |
| People responsible | The owner prepares materials and tracks expenses. The sales assistant responds to inquiries and records their outcomes. |
| Resources | Plan expenses of UAH 1,500 and 6 hours of the owner’s work. |
| Tracking | Review the records weekly. At the end of the fourth week, compare the goal, purchases, expenses, and time. |
Suppose the actual spend was UAH 1,200 and 8 hours. The store recorded 20 inquiries and 8 set purchases. The goal of 10 purchases was not met, and more time was spent than planned.
Promotion expenses divided by the number of recorded purchases come to UAH 150: 1,200 ÷ 8. This calculation does not include the value of the owner’s time or other store expenses. Do not use it as a profit metric or as proof that promotion caused all the purchases.
Record inquiries and check the results
Keep a working log with the date, product or request, source as reported by the customer, outcome of the inquiry, and purchase if you were able to link one to the inquiry. Leave the source unknown if it is unknown. Do not attribute a purchase to a channel just because you published there.
Distinguish service metrics from your own records. For example, Calls in a Google Business Profile counts taps on the call button. Record completed conversations and purchases separately. Do not enter the number of taps in the sales column.
When reviewing materials, do not make a final decision based only on the first encouraging results: early experiment results can sometimes be misleading. Stick to the planned review date. After reviewing, compare the goal, actual purchases, expenses, and time. Review unresolved inquiries and decide on a specific change for the next plan.
Review the store’s monthly results in Torgsoft
To assess a store’s performance for a month, Torgsoft has the «Аналіз → Період» (Analysis → Period) mode. Use it to review the store’s performance for the month in which you carried out the promotion plan. This feature is described in the article on analyzing sales results for a period.
Review the monthly report together with the plan, inquiry log, and expense records. Use them to decide on the next action: refine the offer, change the planned tasks, or review the budget. To draw conclusions about the source of a specific purchase, use information collected separately. Comparing the monthly report with the plan alone does not prove the impact of advertising.
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