How To Write A Marketing Plan

A good marketing strategy for your business will provide you with the needed compass that will direct more customers to your enterprise.

Every entrepreneur who intends to build a successful business will certainly need to write a good marketing plan.

As an entrepreneur, a good marketing plan for your business will ensure you identify your target market, as well as how you intend to get to them, and how you intend to keep making them demand your products or services.

SAMPLE PLANS

How To Write a Marketing Plan

 

  • Identifying the Market Situation

An effective social media marketing plan for a small business should be able to properly assess the trends and happenings in the marketplace. This should also include an analysis of the competitors of the small business.

A marketing plan executive summary outline should highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats posed by the competitors in the market. A thorough analysis of these factors will help the small business situate its competitive advantage even in its franchise marketing plan sample.

  • Identify the Target Market

The ideal internet marketing plan outline for a small business should be able to identify and isolate potential customers and patrons of its goods and services. The small business should avoid making the mistake of broadly classifying its target market, to maximize profits as well as reduce cost.

An example in this instance would be for a small business that sells foreign language instructional materials, to seek a market comprised of students and international workers, who may be required to travel to other parts of the world for study and work.

  • Identify the 4Ps of Marketing

A sample of marketing plan outline for a small business must essentially address the major pillars of marketing which include Product, Place, Pricing, and Promotion. The product will be what the small business is offering to sell to its target market.

The place will involve where the customer or target market can be brought into contact with the service or goods to be sold. An essential attribute of place in the email marketing plan outline is that it must be accessible for the receipt of goods to be sold and the customers who will make the purchases.

Pricing involves offering the goods/services to the final consumer at a price that will make the small business profitable, which can be borne by the target market and that takes into cognizance the competition in the marketplace.

Promotion includes all activities that create awareness and patronage for the goods/service to be sold to the market.

  • Create a Marketing Strategy

This step entails the small business stating in great detail, how it will go about promoting/advertising the service or product it intends to offer to the marketplace.

For example, instead of the marketing stating ambiguously that it intends to advertise in a local newspaper, the plan should be broken down into specifics such as the name of the newspaper or publication, the targeted demographic, how often the advertising will run as well as other detailed information.

  • Provide a Marketing Timeline and Budget

This section of a product marketing plan for a small business should give a detailed view of the expenses to be incurred in the course of marketing the product/service, as well as when set objectives will be met.

This part of the plan should also include a means of measuring achievement and timelines. For instance, the marketing plan format should state how much will be generated from television advertising over 30 days, through the sale of a product via that channel.

When creating examples of sales and marketing plan, bear in mind that the plan must be adjusted with the following in mind:

1. The Objectives must be realistic.

In order words, the global marketing of a small business must set achievable targets that are broken down into small steps and goals.

2. The objectives must be Time-bound and measurable.

A new product will not be instantly accepted by the target market.

Therefore the marketing plan outline of a small business must make room for continued customer engagement with the product offering to create a market share for the small business.

COMPONENTS OF A MARKETING PLAN

This marketing plan template identifies some key sections you must not fail to include in your marketing plan for your business.

Executive Summary

This is the section that gives an overview of your marketing plan.

The executive summary is simply a summary of the key aspects of your marketing plan. It is what readers read first, but what you must write last.

Your Product Offering

In this section of your marketing plan, you will have to write out the products and services you will be offering to your customers. You must exhaust the listing of all your products and services offering to know exactly what products and/or services you are offering your customers.

Target Customers

This section of your marketing plan should describe the market you are targeting in the course of doing your business. You must make an effort in describing exactly the various groups that make up your target market.

Also, efforts must be made towards defining their age group and gender and maybe their interests.

You must be very meticulous in identifying your target market because your sales and marketing strategies will revolve around them.

Unique Selling Point (USP)

This section is where you clearly describe your unique selling point. Your unique selling point is what differentiates you from your competitors.

In this section, you have to clearly describe what makes you stand out from the rest of the competition –what advantages you have over the others.

Your unique selling point could be your product pricing strategy or maybe the quality customer services you have to offer.

Pricing and Positioning Strategy

This section allows you to disclose your pricing and positioning strategy. It is very important to note that both your pricing and positioning strategies must be in harmony.

For instance, you do not want to offer very low pricing for your products and/or services when you have clearly stated that your business wants to be recognized as a leading brand in the industry.

Offering your products or services at a very low price will only make customers not be attracted to your brand, and make them not want to even consider demanding the products or services you have to offer.

Distribution Plan

This is the section of your marketing plan where you are to clearly explain how customers will get your products or services.

To write a good distribution plan, you will have to answer questions such as how will customers demand your products or services? Will it be directly from your company or through your website?

Will your customers buy your products from distributors and retailers? You must brainstorm several ways in which you will be able to get your products to your customers and make sure you document them in this section of your marketing plan.

Offers

This section of your marketing plan is where you will write out any offers you will be providing your customers. Offers are simply special deals you offer to your customers, either to attract new customers or to make sure more customers make more return purchases.

Your offer could include free trials of your products, discount offers for more purchases, money-back guarantees, etc. However, you must identify and stick to the offer that is best suited for your business.

Marketing Materials

You will also have to describe your marketing materials in your marketing plan. Your marketing materials are simply the resources you utilize in the promotion of your business to customers.

These will include such things as your business website, your business brochure, business cards and flyers, business catalogs, etc.

Also, in this section of your marketing plan, you will make sure you identify the marketing materials that have been completed, and the ones that are yet to be completed, as well as the ones you will have to create.

Promotion Strategy

This section is a very important one in your marketing plan. It is in this section that you will clearly and fully detail how you will be able to get the attention of your customers.

There are various ways you could go about this, such as placing adverts on television and radio, advertising online on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, etc., use of direct marketing, etc.

Whichever one you decide to adopt, be sure that it suits your business, and helps you fully capture the attention of your customers.

Financial Projections

This is the final section of your marketing plan where you have to make financial projections for your business.

When writing the financial projection section, you must include all the financial information so far from the various sections of your marketing plan.

For example, you must include all the expenses you will incur as well as all the expected results as regards sales, profits, and attraction of new customers.

You should not see your financial projection as 100% accurate; rather, you should see it as a guide.

Your financial projection will only help you see things from a good perspective, and help you identify the various strategies that will afford you the most return on your investment.