How to make an infographic

Because we get how difficult it can be to know how to make an infographic, we’ve created this easy 7-step guide to help you build and develop your infographic with as little hassle as possible. By following these seven steps, you can create effective infographics.

In the first step of our guide on how to make an infographic, we recommend that you determine your audience. Knowing who you’re creating this content for can help you determine where the infographic will exist, such as social media platforms or an email newsletter. Additionally, your audience can help you choose the right data visualizations (more on this later) and which types of infographics to use. To illustrate, imagine if you create an infographic on rockets. How that infographic looks will be very different if produced for children vs. rocket scientists. Generally, your audience will come from all of your consumers or a small sect.

Create a copy outline

The next step in learning how to make a good infographic is to create a copy outline. Creating an outline will help you focus your topic and stay concise. Your outline should include the following:

A common use of infographics is to visualize data, but creating useful and easy-to-read data visualizations can be difficult and frustrating. You should select the correct chart for the dataset you’re displaying; doing so will make it far more effective. Here are a few types of data visualizations you can pick from:

As you create your visualization, remember only to include the necessary data and avoid complicated visuals with multiple lines and charts. It’s also essential to create a chart with one specific takeaway that’s immediately obvious and avoid any overuse of data labels.

How to make an infographic in minutes.

Add text using any of our 18,000 licensed fonts from the Adobe Fonts library. Start from text templates that feature curved type, grids, and font pairs to find the perfect fit for your infographic.

It’s your infographic, so make it unique, make it you. Adobe Express allows you to make changes to every aspect of your design — from text styles to the background color. It’s easy to create an infographic that stands out. Play around with the various tools until you’re happy with what you see in the preview panel.

Animaker

Primarily an animated video development tool, Animaker also offers the option of building animated infographics. With a built-in library of animated characters, scenes, icons and images, users can pick and choose their story elements to build an animated infographic step by step.

As with other tools, Animaker offers a variety of animated templates to use as the foundation for your infographic. Each template is essentially a video that is then dropped into their graphic editor to be customized for your needs.

For someone who’s never created a video before, there’s a slight learning curve that non-animated infographic tools don’t typically have. Also, note that you do need to have Flash Player enabled to use the tool.

Biteable

Biteable is a powerful video creator that lets you create HD-quality videos for free. And since we’re all about infographics here today, let me assure you that you can definitely build convincing-looking video infographics with this tool.

It has a number of infographic video templates that you can pick from and edit to your heart’s content. With tons of stock footage, icons, fonts, and more, designing your own video infographic on Biteable is quick and simple for even a novice.

Free users can publish their custom infographic videos directly to YouTube and Facebook, while the paid plan lets you download them, store them inside your Biteable account, or publish them to the social channel of your choice.

Source:

https://www.lucidpress.com/blog/how-to-make-an-infographic-in-7-steps
https://www.adobe.com/express/create/infographic
https://buffer.com/library/infographic-makers/

How To Become a Grant Writer: A Complete Guide

There are several opportunities available for a rewarding career as a grant writer. You may help change lives by writing proposals for grants that serve a good cause. Researching what a grant writer does and how to become a grant writer before you make your career decisions may help you decide if grant writing is the right career path for you. In this article, we explore what a grant writer is, explain how to become one, discuss what they do, provide a list of relevant skills you can improve to succeed, and answer some frequently asked questions about the role.

A grant writer assembles and sends out a company or organization’s proposals for grants. Grants are funds awarded or gifted to companies and organizations by private and public foundations so that they can fulfill some philanthropic purpose, conduct research, or develop a new product. Most grant writers work for one organization, however it’s possible to offer this service as a freelancer as well. These writers’ main goal is to apply and qualify for as many grants as possible to increase the organization’s budget.

How to become a grant writer

1. Earn a degree

Before beginning work, it’s important to earn your bachelor’s degree in English, communication, or another relevant field. Degree programs generally take between three and four years of full-time study to complete, depending on your province or territory and course load. You may choose to pursue an advanced degree after your undergraduate studies, which may give you a competitive edge, increase your pay, and further develop your writing skills.

2. Learn how to write grant proposals

Once you complete your bachelor’s degree, refine your grant writing skills. You can do this by enrolling in an online certificate program for grant writing. You may also choose to take a class online that teaches you about grant writing.

Many resources offered online for writing grant proposals are free or inexpensive. These professional development courses and certifications can help you gain skills to use immediately in the grant writing career field. Earning a professional certification may make you a more desirble candidate and increase your chances of getting hired.

3. Gain experience

Most entry-level grant writing jobs require two years of experience. The best way to gain experience is through a volunteer or internship opportunity. Many employers want to hire a grant writer that has experience in the industry that they are writing grants for to ensure that the writer can write industry-specific content. For instance, if you would like to apply for a job that writes grants for a healthcare company, it may be helpful to volunteer or intern in the medical field for grant writing.

You may also try networking with other grant writers. They may know of some open positions that would be suited to your skills. These experienced professionals may provide you with helpful tips to enhance your chances of getting hired.

4. Update your resume

It is important to update your resume before you apply for work in this industry. Your new resume should reflect the skills you gained while completing an internship or volunteer opportunity, and you can use those opportunities as relevant work experience. Occasionally, the organization you volunteered for may offer to hire you on as a full-time employee, depending on your success while volunteering.

When you are applying for jobs, you may also try reviewing the job description and adjust your resume according to what the position requires. Asking for a letter of recommendation from a representative from one organization you wrote proposals for during your volunteer work or internship, or another relevant professional contact. A reference from a respected source may significantly influence the employer’s perception of your resume.

5. Join professional organizations

Build your network by joining professional groups and organizations that support grant writing, encourage you, and provide connections for potential donors. Working in the nonprofit industry may seem daunting, but it’s helpful to join a group to build a professional community. If you choose to pursue freelance grant work, networking can help you find new clients.

10 Essential Grant Writing Skills

1. Understanding Your Target Audience

Funders want their grants to help solve problems they believe are important, so it is vital to show them you understand their priorities when developing proposals/applications for support.

Usually, the better you align your project proposal with their mission, the greater are its chances of acceptance. Funds in the world we live in are not easy to obtain with much competition. Be sure to study the guidelines of submission on their website before writing your proposal.

2. Research

The next grant writing skill that you want to master as a grant writer is research. Research skills are key to your career as a grant writer, whether you accept it or don’t. They will not only help you when it comes to writing a proposal but will also be your guide for tracking down information and data. Many books on grant writing talk about the power of research and the time it saves.

What do I mean by using the internet? You know those websites that list all of these potential grant providers from which you need to pick just one because they don’t offer much variety? Yeah, those sites can make your life exponentially easier if you’re looking for resources where typically there is none, once again, showcasing how valuable research skills are.

3. Power of Persuasion

This is the skill you need most when it comes to writing a proposal. It’s not always about how strong your argument or research is, but how well you persuade grant providers that you’re the right person for their money.

The first step in this process is being persuasive yourself – convincing others of why they should give up their time and energy on reading through an application because there is something special inside worth investing in. Being able to do this means making your work as clear, concise, and compelling as possible by broadening out any ambiguities before submitting anything for review (a good idea anyway).

4. Take Ample Time for Preparation

To be successful in any type of grant writing, being prepared is necessary. You need to know your content well enough that you are not wasting time on research or editing at a later stage and can focus on what matters most: getting it accepted.

For example, if you’re applying for an arts-related grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), thoroughly researching their guidelines will increase your chances of being awarded compared to someone who doesn’t have as much knowledge about NEA grants.

The second example could be a research grant that you need for your science project. Funding agencies like the NSF and NIH support anything related to human health and disease. Especially if you are a student at a college or university, NSF is where you can hopefully get your grant approved.

5. Pay Attention to Detail

When you are writing and submitting your grant proposals, the most important thing is to pay attention to detail. It includes spelling mistakes, grammar errors, or anything that would show a lack of care in the work you have done.

Even though it might seem like something small when you’re looking at multiple pages of text for one proposal, if there’s even one mistake on any page – like an extra word – it can create confusion with everything else written.

If this happens, then people will be less likely to comply as they’ll think it was poorly done; all of these little things that could’ve easily been fixed matter. If you pay more attention throughout your writing, the result is in your favor.

6. Stay Concise and Clear

Being concise and clear are major aspects of writing grants. It’s important to keep your sentences well-formed, while also being as short as possible. Concise language makes the process not only easier but creates content that appeals more to readers who are looking for something specific at the time.

If you’re trying to show how an idea will work or what it can do, then make sure there’s plenty of detail on those points so that people understand where you’re going with this plan altogether.

7. Don’t Try to be Over Clever

Keep in mind that being clever or witty doesn’t always work. When you try to be over-ambitious with it, the chances of success are lowered, significantly, because people aren’t as likely to take your content seriously and feel like they’re not getting a clear message from what you have written.

Instead, stay on topic and don’t get too cocky about yourself by trying things that just won’t work. Your audience will appreciate it if you keep these ideas out of your content altogether and focus more on staying focused than showing off how well-read you might be.

8. Follow Your Interests

Interests for the particular idea you’re requesting a grant for counts a lot. It is the one factor that really sets people apart in terms of which grant proposal will succeed and which won’t. You’ll always have better success if you’re passionate about your subject; it’s a lot easier to be convincing when you’re genuinely enthusiastic about what you want to do with this grant.

Wrapping Up: What Does a Grant Writer Do?

As a grant writer, you must be able to articulate your organization’s goals, vision, and mission. Grant writers must also have a strong work ethic. A grant writer must be able to juggle multiple projects, maintain a detailed grant tracking calendar, and organize all materials for a grant proposal or grant application submission. Primarily, grant writers follow the entire grant writing process.

Their work involves research, writing, and editing grant proposals or applications for foundations, corporations, and government funders. A grant writer’s work entails submissions of reports to donors and their non-profit’s leadership.

Grant writers help to strategize funding support for their organizations by conducting prospect research and maintaining relationships with funders through relevant updates and communication.

A grant writer is essential. Their efforts sustain and grow non-profits through securing crucial funding. Most importantly, grant writers must demonstrate success. They must know how to craft their proposals and applications in such a way that will properly secure vital funding.

Become a Grant Writer!

Source:

https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-a-grant-writer
https://technicalwriterhq.com/grant-writing-skills/
https://www.instrumentl.com/blog/what-does-a-grant-writer-do

Depending on your marketing strategy and how granular you would like your marketing plan to be, you can either create a marketing plan for the whole year’s strategy or one separate marketing plan for each channel you would like to target.

Understanding Marketing Plans

The terms marketing plan and marketing strategy are often used interchangeably because a marketing plan is developed based on an overarching strategic framework. In some cases, the strategy and the plan may be incorporated into one document, particularly for smaller companies that may only run one or two major campaigns in a year. The plan outlines marketing activities on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis while the marketing strategy outlines the overall value proposition.

A marketing plan considers the value proposition of a business. The value proposition is the overall promise of value to be delivered to the customer and is a statement that appears front and center of the company website or any branding materials.

The value proposition should state how a product or brand solves the customer’s problem, the benefits of the product or brand, and why the customer should buy from this company and not another. The marketing plan is based on this value proposition to the customer.

Fast Fact

The marketing plan identifies the target market for a product or brand. Market research is often the basis for a target market and marketing channel decisions. For example, whether the company will advertise on the radio, social media, through online ads, or on regional TV.

The marketing plan includes the rationale for these decisions. The plan should focus on the creation, timing, and placement of specific campaigns and include the metrics that will measure the outcomes of marketing efforts.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

1. Conduct a situation analysis.

Think about how other products are better than yours. Plus, consider the gaps in a competitor’s approach. What are they missing? What can you offer that’ll give you a competitive advantage? Think about what sets you apart.

2. Define your target audience.

Your buyer persona should include demographic information such as age, gender, and income. However, it will also include psychographic information such as pain points and goals. What drives your audience? What problems do they have that your product or service can fix?

3. Write SMART goals.

For example, your goal could be to increase your Instagram followers by 15% in three months. Depending on your overall marketing goals, this should be relevant and attainable. Additionally, this goal is specific, measurable, and time-bound.

4. Analyze your tactics.

For example, if your goal is to increase your Instagram followers by 15% in three months, your tactics might include hosting a giveaway, responding to every comment, and posting three times on Instagram per week.

5. Set your budget.

While you’re writing out your tactics, be sure to note an estimated budget. You can include the time it’ll take to complete each tactic in addition to the assets you might need to purchase, such as ad space.

Marketing Plan Timeline

A marketing plan timeline allows your team to view all projects, campaigns, events, and other related tasks in one place — along with their deadlines. This ensures everyone on your team knows what’s due, when it’s due, and what’s up next in the pipeline. Typically these plans cover marketing efforts for the entire year, but some companies may operate on a bi-annual or quarterly basis.

Once you’ve completed your analysis, research, and set goals, it’s time to set deadlines for your assignments. From new blog posts and content initiatives to product launches, everything will need a deadline. Take into account any holidays or events taking place over the course of the year.

While setting deadlines for the entire year may seem daunting, start by estimating how long you think each task will take and set a deadline accordingly. Track the time it actually takes for you to complete similar types of projects. Once you’ve completed a few of them, you’ll have a better idea of how long each takes and will be able to set more accurate deadlines.

• Brainstorming: This is the first phase where your idea comes to life in a project outline. Decide what you want to achieve and which stakeholders need to be involved to meet your goal. Set a due date and set up any necessary meetings.
• Planning: This can include determining the project’s scope, figuring out how much budget will be allocated for it, finalizing deadlines and who is working on each task. Map out any campaigns needed for each project (social media, PR, sales promotions, landing pages, events, etc.).
• Execution: This third phase is all about your project launch. Decide on a date to launch and monitor the progress of the project. Set up a system for tracking metrics and KPIs.
• Analysis: In this final phase you will analyze all of your performance data to see whether or not your marketing efforts paid off. Did you meet your goals? Did you complete your projects on time and within budget?

All projects and their deadlines should be in a central location where your team can access them whether that’s a calendar like HubSpot’s tool, shared document, or project management tool.

7 tips to keep in mind while you’re creating your marketing plan

1. Identify, describe and illustrate your target audience

Knowing your target audience is one of the most fundamental steps that every marketing team should take before making any marketing decisions. So by the time you begin writing your marketing plan, you should have your target audience identified.

To help keep your target audience top-of-mind when planning and executing your marketing strategies, it can be helpful to visualize your audience personas. Faux images of your personas, illustrations and icons are all great ways to put a face to your personas’ “names”.

2. Visualize important process flows and strategy roadmaps

3. Emphasize important statistics, metrics, and numbers in your marketing plan

4. Use your main marketing goal to guide your design

One of the main goals of your marketing plan is to identify your high-level marketing goals. Your marketing plan design should be driven by this goal–in your page layouts and in the design elements you use.

You can do this by picking a design motif that reflects your goal and using that throughout your marketing plan. This could be a particular shape or item (for example, using images of plants in a work plan to represent growth) or a color scheme that reflects the mood of your mission.

5. Vary your page designs to make your marketing plan engaging

That’s why while you could use the same page layout throughout your whole plan, it’s a good idea to vary your page design. Mixing up your design will prevent your plan from being too predictable. Plus, you will have more flexibility to visualize information creatively.

6. Visualize your top channels using charts, icons, and pictograms

It’s important for your team to understand your highest-performing channels. That way, you can identify areas you may want to funnel more resources into, whether it be social media, paid ads, mobile app advertising, organic or referral traffic.

7. Use borders or color blocks to organize your pages into sections

That being said, you may want to put more than one topic on the same page, like if both topics are directly related. In that case, you can organize the page into sections using borders or blocks of background color.

A few more marketing plan design best practices:

Keep your design elements like fonts, icons and colors consistent

Download your marketing plan as a PDF

It’s important that your team is on the same page. Sharing your marketing plan via Google Docs or a file-sharing service can be unreliable. In most cases, it’s easier to simply download your marketing plan as a PDF and share it with your team that way.

Include a table of contents to make it easy to find specific information

This tip is pretty self-explanatory. Even if you’re putting together your marketing plan as a presentation, a simple table of contents at the beginning will give your audience an idea of what they can expect.

Sources:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing-plan.asp
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-plan-template-generator
https://venngage.com/blog/marketing-plan/
Marketing plans

“Mobile marketing is interruptive,” Farmiloe said. “It’s because of this power that a marketer has to let the consumer determine how and when to receive marketing material. That’s why almost every app comes with the option to turn notifications on or off. The consumer has to hold the power with mobile marketing.”

How to develop a business marketing plan

Your marketing plan outlines the strategies you’ll use to achieve both goals and the specific actions your marketing team will employ, such as the specific outreach campaigns, over which channels they will occur, the required marketing budget and data-driven projections of their success.

1. Create an executive summary.

Marketing campaigns should not be considered individual functions. Marketing is the story of your brand as told to customers; like any narrative, its tone and characters should remain consistent. An executive summary details your marketing goals for the next year and helps tie each campaign together.

When establishing your marketing goals, they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound – or SMART. These goals should work together to achieve both internal and external harmony, telling a consistent story that informs customers of your exact message while building on its previous chapters.

For example, you may set a SMART goal to increase your company’s social media traffic by 15% in a 90-day time frame, and plan to achieve this by creating four relevant, informative and high-quality posts per week on each platform, using your company’s brand kit.

2. Identify your target market.

Before you write a marketing plan, you need to find and understand your niche. Ask yourself who the specific demographic is that you’re targeting. For example, if your business sells 30-minute meals, then those who work traditional 9-to-5 jobs are likely in your market. Study that group of individuals to understand their struggles and learn how your business can solve the problem.

FYI: Targeting your audience can drastically improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and help you avoid wasting resources on fruitless campaigns.

3. Differentiate your brand with inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing utilizes internal tools – such as content marketing, social media activity and search engine optimization (SEO) – to attract a customer’s attention primarily through online communication. Content marketing can include informative blog posts, interviews, podcasts with relevant industry figures or supplementary guides on how to best use your product. For example, if you sell cooking supplies, consider posting several fun recipes around the holidays that your tools can help prepare.

Each of these strategies empowers the others in a loop to achieve greater customer attention. A strong content offering can improve your search engine ranking, which brings more people to your website and social pages. You can then share those developed content pieces to that wider audience, who will again improve your search engine rankings. All of this can be done without the expense of a famous endorser or commercial advertising campaign.

4. Identify competitors that also target your customers.

No matter how original your product or service may be, there is always competition for your target customer’s dollar. Small business personnel seldom take the time to study their competitors in depth or pinpoint companies outside their industry that are just as capable of luring customers away. Knowing who your competitors are, their core competitive advantages, and how they might respond to your offerings – like price cuts or increased communication – helps you devise strategies to combat such losses.

By seeking out these competitors, you can develop ways to differentiate your business by providing consumers with the things they may be lacking from your competition. Observe how your competitors operate to find ways in which you can stand out and steer your target audience toward your business.

Did you know? According to SmallBizGenius, 19% of small businesses fail because of their competitors.

5. State your brand position for your target customers.

Ultimately, your brand – and what it symbolizes for customers – is your strongest advantage. You should be able to write a simple declarative sentence of how you will meet customer needs and beat the competition. The best positioning statements focus on solving a problem for the customer in a way that promotes the best value.

6. Budget the plan.

When implementing a strategy, consider the marketing budget you will allot. Marketing requires money for various reasons, including paid promotions, marketing software, events and outsourced costs. Consider your budget when creating the plan so that there is money available to spend on marketing tactics to achieve your goals.

While drafting the plan and evaluating your course of action, note the estimated cost, assets, and time required to achieve the stated goals; this will help when it comes time to set the actual calculated budget. Any goals that you create should be realistically achievable within the budget you have set.

Purpose of a Marketing Plan

• To clearly define the marketing objectives of the business that align with the corporate mission and vision of the organization. The marketing objectives indicate where the organization wishes to be at any specific period in the future.
• The marketing plan usually assists in the growth of the business by stating appropriate marketing strategies, such as plans for increasing the customer base.
• State and review the marketing mix in terms of the 8Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence, and Performance.
• Strategies to increase market share, enter new niche markets, and increase brand awareness are also encompassed within the marketing plan.
• The marketing plan will contain a detailed budget for the funds and resources required to carry out activities indicated in the marketing plan.
• The assignment of tasks and responsibilities of marketing activities is well enunciated in the marketing plan.
• The identification of business opportunities and any strategies crafted to exploit them is important.
• A marketing plan fosters the review and analysis of the marketing environment, which entails market research, customer needs assessment, competitor analysis, PEST analysis, studying new business trends, and continuous environmental scanning.
• A marketing plan integrates business functions to operate with consistency – notably sales, production, finance, human resources, and marketing.

Marketing Plan Objectives

Market Research – Market Analysis/Consumer Analysis

Market analysis includes topics such as market definition, market size, industry structure, market share and trends, and competitor analysis. Consumer analysis includes the target market demographics and what influences their buying decisions – e.g., loyalty, motivation, and expectations.

Target Market

This defines the target customers by their demographic profile, such as gender, race, age, and psychographic profile, such as their interests. This will assist in the correct marketing mix for the target market segments.

SWOT Analysis

• Strengths are the organization’s competitive advantages that are not easily duplicated. They represent the skills, expertise, and efficiencies that an organization possesses over its competitors.
• Weaknesses are impediments found in the operations of an organization, and they stifle growth. These can include outdated machinery, inadequate working capital, and inefficient production methods.
• Opportunities are prospects for growth in the business through the adoption of ways to take advantage of the chances. They could include entry into new markets, adopting digital marketing strategies, or following new trends.
• Threats are external factors that can affect the business negatively, such as a new powerful competitor, legislative changes, natural disasters, or political situations.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy section covers actual strategies to be included according to the marketing mix. The strategy centers on the 8Ps of marketing. However, firms are also at liberty to use the traditional 4 P’s of marketing – product, price, place, and promotion. The 8 P’s are illustrated below.

Digital marketing channels, which became popular in the early 21 st century, may eventually overtake traditional marketing methods. Digital marketing encompasses trending methods, such as the use of social media for business.

Marketing Budget

The marketing budget or projection outlines the budgeted expenditure for the marketing activities documented in the marketing plan. The marketing budget consists of revenues and costs stated in the marketing plan in one document.

It balances expenditures on marketing activities and what the organization can afford. It’s a financial plan of marketing activities to be carried out – e.g., promotional activities, cost of marketing materials and advertising, and so on. Other considerations include expected product volume and price, production and delivery costs, and operating and financing costs.

10 Marketing Plan Templates to Get You Started

1. Restaurant Marketing Plan Template

This marketing plan features stock photos of food that you can replace with your own. It also has a versatile design that can be tailored to your own brand style and even an entirely different industry.

2. Real Estate Marketing Plan Template

3. Content Marketing Plan Template

4. Social Media Marketing Plan Template

5. Digital Marketing Plan Template

6. Product Marketing Plan Template

7. Personal Marketing Plan Template

8. Marketing Plan Presentation Template

9. Retail Marketing Plan Presentation Template

Customize this marketing plan template online and download it in PDF or PowerPoint format, or save the slides separately in image format. You can also present this presentation online using a link — no downloads needed!

10. Marketing Plan Infographic Template

Sources:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4-creating-effective-business-marketing-plan.html
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/marketing-plan/
https://visme.co/blog/marketing-plan/
Marketing plans

Ultimately, you want marketing that provides a consistent flow of high-quality leads to help fuel new sales opportunities and drive growth. You want your technical target audiences and customers to be happy to hear from you and not dread it. And you have a limited budget and tight bandwidth.

5 Critical Steps to Developing a Marketing Plan

Marketers have a saying: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Without planning and a sound strategy, how can you know where you are going or what you need to do to get there? Here are five steps to develop your marketing plan.

Before jumping into the tactics and execution, your marketing team should ask the leadership team to define their business goals for the next 1-3 years. Your goals can be externally focused, internally focused, or perhaps a mix of both.

When developing goals (at the business level or otherwise), write them in the SMART format that ensures accountability. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound and represents business goals such as:

While you are setting business goals, be sure to also set a marketing budget for the year. A good rule of thumb for setting a marketing budget is 6-to-12% of gross revenue with higher spending in the early phases as you establish your marketing foundation.

7 marketing plan examples and templates

1. Visit Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge positions itself as “An Authentic Louisiana Experience” by fostering a rebirth of local passion and enthusiasm. From a detailed SWOT analysis to a well-defined target audience, there are plenty of takeaways you can apply to your marketing plan.

2. University of Illinois

In this high-level overview of the marketing strategy for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and its 2021 recruitment cycle, the University of Illinois maps out a detailed marketing plan. One thing that stands out in this marketing plan is the approach of defining objectives, tactics, and success metrics for every segment.

3. HubSpot

4. Monday.com

If you want to put together a plan that already lives in a project management tool, this one from Monday.com can come in handy. Using this template, you can track all of your marketing initiatives, strategies, business goals, budgets, and marketing campaigns. The best part is you can transform data with a variety of data visualizations, including kanban, calendar, timeline, gantt, map, form, workload, and more.

5. Evernote

Evernote is another great example that can help you outline your marketing plan and keep track of your progress. The template is broken down into seven main sections: Details, Research, Goals & Objectives, Buyer Persona, Calendar, Evaluation, and Sign Off. For each section there is an explanation to lead your next step.

This guide from G2 takes you step by step through creating a marketing plan, with well-defined sections and examples to ease the process. It covers every critical aspect of a marketing plan, and you can easily edit and customize it for your business.

7. Smartsheet

With this pre-built marketing plan template from Smartsheet, you can outline the purpose of your business, its strategic goals, its target market, and its standards of performance, ensuring you have a thorough plan of action. If you want a detailed marketing plan, this editable PDF will guide you through the process.

Get market ready

A great market strategy sets the stage for future marketing success. Whether you are seasoned marketing pro or a budding entrepreneur, develop your marketing prowess with Developing a Winning Marketing Strategy from the University of Illinois. Considering a career in social media marketing? Build job-ready skills from the industry leaders with the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate or Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate.

Маркетинг в социальных сетях (Meta)

Performance Advertising, Digital Marketing, Brand Management, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Content Development, content management, Marketing Content Development, Campaign Management, Ad Management, Meta Ads Manager, Meta advertising, Marketing Optimization, Digital Analytics, Marketing Strategy, Communication, Ads Manager

Sources:

https://www.trewmarketing.com/blog/best-practices/five-critical-steps-to-developing-a-marketing-plan
https://www.shopify.com/blog/marketing-plan-examples
https://www.coursera.org/articles/marketing-strategy

Growth alliances are strategic collaborations between companies. They further the growth goals of the involved parties. Take JCPenney and Sephora. For Sephora, it can’t hurt for the makeup retailer to have more stores across the country. JCPenney, however, needed to keep up with powerhouses like Macy’s and its fully-fledged makeup section.

14 Types of Business Growth Explained

Businesses of any size look for ways to expand their market share and increase revenues. Companies often choose to implement specific growth strategies to advance their business. Understanding these strategies can help you lead strategic initiatives for company growth. In this article we explain the types of business growth strategies used by companies today with ideas to help you grow your organization.

Business growth is a phenomenon that occurs when business owners, employees and outside factors influence the success of a company. A business grows when it expands a customer base, increases revenue or produces more product.

Growth is the goal of most businesses and is the reason behind many decisions that affect the daily workings of a company both internally and externally. Business growth is impacted by consumer trends, market opportunities and decisions made by company leadership.

Strategic: A strategic approach focuses on long-term growth through specific initiatives. Businesses often move into this growth stage after a period of organic growth. Companies may try to gain a share in untapped markets or plan to produce new inventory.

Business Growth Strategy

A growth strategy allows companies to expand their business. Growth can be achieved by practices like adding new locations, investing in customer acquisition, or expanding a product line. A company’s industry and target market influence which growth strategies it will choose.

1. Use a growth strategy template [Free Tool].

Don’t hit the ground running without planning out and documenting the steps for your growth strategy. We recommend downloading this free Growth Strategy Template and working off the included section prompts to outline your intended process for growth in your organization.

2. Choose your targeted area of growth.

It’s possible that your growth plan will encompass more than one of the initiatives outlined above, which makes sense — the best growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For example, growing your unit sales will result in growth in revenue — and possibly additional locations and headcount to support the increased sales.

3. Conduct market and industry research.

Researching the state of your industry is the best way to determine if your desired growth is both necessary and feasible. Examples could include running surveys and focus groups with existing and potential customers or digging into existing industry research.

4. Set growth goals.

These goals should be based on your endgame aspirations of where you ideally want your organization to be, but they should also be achievable and realistic – which is why setting a goal based on industry research is so valuable.

5. Plan your course of action.

6. Determine your growth tools and requirements.

The last step before acting on your plan is determining any requirements your team will need through the process. These are specific resources that will help you meet your growth goals faster and with more accuracy. Examples might include:

7. Execute your plan.

Throughout this time, make sure you’re holding your stakeholders accountable, keeping the line of communication open, and comparing initial results to your forecasted growth goals to see if your projected results are still achievable or if anything needs to be adjusted.

Free Growth Strategy Template

Fill out this form to access your template

1. Viral Loops

Some growth strategies are tailored to be completely self-sustainable. They require an initial push, but ultimately, they rely primarily (if not solely) on users’ enthusiasm to keep them going. One strategy that fits that bill is the viral loop.

Ideally, your incentive will be compelling enough for users to actively and enthusiastically encourage their friends and family to get on board.At its best, a viral loop is a self-perpetuating acquisition machine that operates 24/7/365.

Instead of needing as many leads as possible at the top, a viral loop funnel requires just one satisfied user to share with others. As long as every referral results in at least 1.1 new users, the system continues growing.

2. Milestone Referrals

Companies that leverage viral loops generally offer a flat, consistent offer for individual referrals — businesses that use milestone referrals offer rewards for hitting specific benchmarks. In many cases, "milestones" are metrics like the number of referred friends.

For example, a business might include different or increasingly enticing incentives that come with one, five, and 10 referrals as opposed to a fixed incentive for each referral. A company will often leverage this strategy to encourage users to bring on a volume of friends and family that suits its specific business goals.

The strategy also adds an engaging element to the referral process. When done right, milestone referrals are simple to share with relatively straightforward objectives and enticing, tangible products as rewards.

3. Word-of-Mouth

4. The "When They Zig, We Zag" Approach

Sometimes the best growth strategy a company can employ is standing out — offering a unique experience that sets it apart from other businesses in its space. When monotony defines an industry, the company that breaks it often finds an edge.

Say your company developed an app for transitioning playlists between music streaming apps. Assume you have a few competitors who all generate revenue through ads and paid subscriptions — both of which frustrate users.

In that case, you might be best off trying to shed some of the baggage that customers run into trouble with when using your competitors’ programs. If your service is paid, you could consider offering a free trial of an ad-free experience — right off the bat.

The point here is that there’s often a lot of value and opportunity in differentiating yourself. If you can "zig when they zag", you can capture consumers’ attention and capitalize on their shifting interests.

5. In-Person Outreach

It might be a while before this particular approach can be employed again, but it’s effective enough to warrant a mention. Sometimes, adding a human element to your growth strategy can help set things in motion for your business.

Prospects are often receptive to a personal approach — and there’s nothing more personal than immediate, face-to-face interactions. Putting boots on the ground and personally interfacing with potential customers can be a great way to get your business the traction it needs to get going.

This could mean hosting or sponsoring events, attending conferences relevant to your space, hiring brand ambassadors, or any other way to directly and strategically reach out to your target demographic in person.

6. Market Penetration

Competition is a necessary part of business. Imagine that two companies in the same industry are targeting the same consumers. Typically, whatever customers Business A has, Business B does not. Market penetration is a strategy that builds off of this tug-of-war.

Market penetration increases the market share — the percentage of total sales in an industry generated by a company — of a product within a given industry. Coca-Cola, the most popular carbonated beverage in the United States, has a 42.8% market share. If competitors like Pepsi and Sprite were looking to increase market penetration, they would need to increase market share. This increase would imply that they are acquiring customers that were previously buying Coca-Cola or other carbonated beverage brands.

7. Development

If a company feels as if they have plateaued and their current market no longer has room for growth, it might switch strategies from market penetration to market development. While market penetration focuses on a company and its current market, market development strategies lead businesses to tap into a new one.

Authorship:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-business-growth
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/growth-strategy

State boarding schools offer free education and affordable boarding. As well as many having an excellent academic reputation and some impressive facilities, they offer a broad programme of extra-curricular activities for a third of the cost of an average independent boarding school.

What Does Boarding School Cost?

If you’re a parent exploring boarding school options for your son or daughter, you’ve likely noticed that choosing a private school is more than an educated decision. It’s also a significant financial decision and truly an investment in your child’s future. You may be asking “are boarding schools expensive?” or “how much does boarding school cost?”

Well, the short answer is that it all depends on the type of school, location, and how much financial assistance your family receives. So, bottom line, despite tuition ranging from $60,000- $75,000 at many schools, you could actually find it is more cost effective than many private day schools in your region.

Average Cost of Private School

Private schools are unaffiliated with any local, regional, state, or national government and do not receive public funding. Private school tuition varies depending on education level and the institution’s affiliation.

Cost of Private Day School

Cost of Private Boarding School

There are only a few hundred boarding schools in the United States. Most of them are on the East Coast. Modern boarding schools offer room and board in addition to day school classes. As with other private schools, boarding schools tend to charge higher tuition for higher level classes.

Do I need to live in the school’s catchment area?

In line with state day schools, all state boarding schools follow the National Curriculum for England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and students take the same exams. Most students study GCSEs and A Levels, but some state boarding schools offer different pathways. For example, the IB is available at Hockerill Anglo-European College, you can study BTECs at schools including Steyning Grammar School Day and Boarding and Dallam School, and vocational courses at Richard Huish College.

Only a very few schools do have close links with some of the UK’s top independent schools. Wellington Academy is sponsored by the independent school Wellington College, and Holyport College is sponsored by Eton College, with students being able to use some of Eton’s facilities.

How are state boarding schools different from independent schools?

Most importantly, state boarding schools cannot and do not charge for education, as this cost is covered by the state. Class sizes may be larger than an independent school and more in line with state day schools, which can have anything from 22-29 students. They may have slightly shorter holidays than independent schools; many schools that offer Saturday morning lessons will have shorter terms than state day schools.

In most state boarding schools, the majority of children are day students – but many of them enjoy an extended day alongside the boarders. Some schools, such Gordon’s School charge a compulsory ‘day boarding’ fee of several thousand pounds to all day students, which covers after-school activities. Others, such as Wymondham College, will offer free day places for students who attend only for normal school hours attendance, and charge a day ‘boarding fee’ for students who want to stay for breakfast, dinner, extra-curricular activities, and study support.

Day students can enjoy the benefits of boarding life while still sleeping in their own bed every night and without paying boarding fees. They get access to the specialist teaching, sport and arts facilities found at an independent school, a broad extra-curricular programme, and the opportunity to stay at school for an extended day to complete prep/homework.

Sources:

https://www.armyandnavyacademy.org/blog/what-does-a-boarding-school-education-cost/
https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-private-school
https://whichschooladvisor.com/uk/guides/uk-state-boarding-schools-what-where-how-much

Maybe you’re considering homeschooling as an option for your kids right now, but you’re not sure where to start. Or maybe you’re just curious about how it works. Whatever your current situation is, this bird’s-eye view of homeschooling will give you the info you need to take the next best step for your family.

HOW DOES HOMESCHOOLING WORK?

Homeschooling is an increasingly popular educational alternative in which children learn outside of conventional schools under the general supervision of their parents.

Some homeschooling families operate like small-scale versions of conventional schools, with textbooks and tests and traditional grades. Other families freely adapt ideas from other alternative educational philosophies such as Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, or the Sudbury model, while still more give their children considerable control over what is learned and how learning takes place.

Occasionally, some parents choose to supplement their children’s school experience, calling such enrichment "homeschooling." While such an approach can be useful, it is qualitatively different from what we call homeschooling, which is a substitute for, rather than an adjunct to, the conventional school experience.

Define The Schedule

One of the benefits of homeschooling can be the increased flexibility—something you probably need, especially if you are also attempting to do your regular job from home. Still, too much flexibility with no predictable schedule is likely to backfire big-time. In fact, one of the benefits of a traditional school program is the structure. Consistency helps kids stay focused and move seamlessly from one activity to another so they don’t get distracted and sabotage your life for sport. When it comes to crafting your daily schedule, you have options.

Option 1: Follow a Traditional School Schedule

This method basically requires you to model your homeschooling schedule after your child’s usual school schedule. Start your day in the very same way you ordinarily would (get dressed, have breakfast, grab backpacks), then settle into your school space (more on that later) to start the day however your kids would at “real” school. (Hi, morning meeting or first-period science.) Don’t beat yourself up if you end up starting things 20 minutes late, but do your best to stick to set times. Note: Definitely don’t let “morning meeting” take an hour, unless you are prepared to add six more hours to the school day than you planned.

If you’re going to follow your child’s regular school schedule, pull it up (your kid’s teacher would be happy to email it to you) and start making any necessary changes to suit your real life. So, if music is from 10 to 10:40, that might mean watching YouTube videos of African drummers or putting on Taylor Swift and dancing around. The idea behind following the school schedule is that it gives you a ready-made outline and condenses your teaching time. If you have two parents working from home at the moment, you can even trade off from “period” to “period.”

Option 2: Follow a Full-Day Learning Schedule

Some homeschooling parents opt to follow a looser schedule that incorporates blocks of learning time, punctuated by periods of normal home life, from morning ’til night. This method may be more challenging to implement when your child is used to attending regular school, but the gist is that learning happens all the time and you don’t need to explicitly block it out. For example, you might incorporate a science lesson into hands-on lunch prep, or turn bedtime stories into a targeted history lesson. (“Let’s talk about what was going on in the world at the time of Little House on the Prairie.”)

The Benefits of Homeschooling

Public school, private school, homeschool, charter school—the education options are endless these days! If you’re trying to decide whether homeschool or public school is better, here are some of the most common benefits to homeschooling.

Homeschooling provides flexibility.

Since homeschool parents are the teacher, principal and superintendent all at the same time, they have the freedom to create their own school experience for their kids. They can choose the curriculum and customize their school schedule to best meet the needs of their family. If they want to take a long trip in the middle of the school year, they can rearrange their schedule—or even take their schoolwork with them!

Your homeschooling pace is customizable.

Homeschool students get to learn at their own pace. They might fly through the math lesson on telling time but need another week to understand fractions. You have the freedom to slow down or let them work ahead (sometimes even into the next grade level) if they’re consistently nailing their lessons. This is partly why 78% of homeschoolers score significantly higher on standardized tests! 2

Homeschooling allows for learning outside the classroom.

Homeschooling doesn’t just happen in the home, and it usually doesn’t look anything like school. Parents have much more freedom to work outside, go on field trips, travel and teach beyond a classroom. They have more flexibility and fewer funding or transportation issues that a larger class might have. Everyday outings turn into unexpected lessons when you learn to think like a teacher!

Homeschooling lets you individualize the education.

Homeschooling allows you to vary the teaching material depending on your child’s interests and their preferred learning style. Does your daughter love astronomy? You can spend more time on the solar system during science class. Does your son especially enjoy working with his hands? You can add physical, hands-on activities into your lessons (like using building blocks to do a math problem or sidewalk chalk to write his spelling words). Is your child into computer games? Set up the online program Xtra Math to help them with their math facts.

Teaching the Essentials

The goal of every parent is to teach and equip kids to be healthy, well-balanced, happy, productive, self sufficient adults. A good homeschooling parent will home educate with that in mind!

You will need to sit next to your kindergarten and first grade as they are learning for form letters and numbers, read words, and understand math principles. But as they master the basics (in 2nd or 3rd grade) you need to encourage them to be self motivated learners.

A Word From Verywell

Whether you’re currently homeschooling your child or planning to embark on homeschooling in the future, the most important thing you can do to prepare for this educational journey is to familiarize yourself with your state’s laws and regulations regarding homeschooling. This information provides a foundation for how you will pursue homeschooling with your student.

Likewise, you also should research the colleges and universities your student is most interested in attending. Knowing their admission requirements ahead of time can help you tailor your student’s experience accordingly. And as for a diploma, if you plan to issue your own, the HSLDA has several templates that you might find useful.

References:

https://www.hsc.org/how-does-homeschooling-work
https://www.purewow.com/family/how-does-homeschooling-work
https://www.ramseysolutions.com/financial-literacy/what-is-homeschooling
https://www.123homeschool4me.com/homeschooling-in-only-15-hours-week_7/
https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-does-a-homeschooler-get-a-diploma-5076111