Marketing Plans
A marketing plan is a report which describes how a given property (be it a brand, a product, or a service) is to be marketed. It covers all aspects of marketing for this object, including (but not limited to) advertising, promotions, and sales.
Marketing plans are meant to provide marketing goals as well a framework in which they can be achieved. Because of this, they should contain not only a marketing strategy, but the context for that strategy. Read more about the key components of a marketing plan.. 1.
There are a variety of reasons why one would undertake the writing of a marketing plan. Learn the why and how of marketing plans.. 2
Although any sort of property can be marketed, marketing plans do vary depending on what industry is being targeted and what, in particular, is being marketed. Learn More about different types of marketing plans
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Key Components of a Marketing Plan:
- Mission Statement: This is basically the overview of your marketing game plan. Your Mission Statement should provide a “big picture” view of what in brief, will be accomplished through following your marketing strategy.
- Situational Analysis: Knowing the climate of the market your product is in is the most important part of developing an effective marketing strategy. In this section, you should look at and analyze data pertaining to your product or brand such as what kind of competition it is experiencing, who is buying it, and how people perceive it. The conclusions you make in this section should feed into what type of marketing strategy you choose to adopt. If retirees are the ones buying your product, but single mothers respond positively to it in test groups, you might conclude that this segment of the population is worth marketing to.
Marketing Plan Key Components Cont..
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Marketing Strategy: This is the part of your plan where you clearly define your approach to marketing this brand or product, and what this will accomplish. Are you going to change the image of a brand? Increase awareness of a product in a certain age category? How? These are the sorts of things you need to include in your marketing strategy. You should address all of the ways in which you will be marketing, such as through advertising, sales, promotions, pr, etc.
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Budget: The Budget section of your report should cover such things as how much money you will be allocating to each facet of marketing, the pricing structure of your product (if applicable), and your projected earnings.
Other Sections to Include:
There are of course other things you might want to include, such as:
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Introduction: Summary of all that will be covered in the report.
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Alternative Marketing Strategies: Strategies that seemed promising, but that you are choosing not to implement. This section gives you a chance to preemptively explain why these alternative strategies are no good before you go into what you are actually choosing to do.
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Product Focus: This section gives you the opportunity to take a more in-depth look at your target market, meaning that the Situational Analysis section would be more focused on competitor analysis and a look at the market environment.
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Writing a Marketing Plan
Things to Remember:
- There is no one way to write a marketing plan – the person or organization you are writing for might have their own preferences, and these should override anything a guide tells you about how to write one. It is definitely the case that any marketing plan will include some kind of overview, analysis of the market, statement of objectives, marketing strategy, and budget. As to what these are called and how they are organized, plans vary.
- The style and tone of marketing plans also might differ, but not as widely. A marketing plan is a formal document, even if it ends up serving as an internal memo. It will be shared with the client, so it must be presentable. What might change is how it is formatted and how detailed it is expected to be. Sometimes marketing plans are written as PowerPoint (ppt) documents, so that they can easily be presented. In other instances they might be written as bulkier PDF documents. Once again, this is mostly a matter of preference.
- Marketing Plans are always written in the form of outlines. Make sure to give some sort of numbered heading to each distinct section. Make sure your Marketing Plan is, first and foremost, well-organized and easy to follow.
Uses:
Marketing plans are usually written to accomplish one of two goals:
- To Establish a Plan of Action for a New Client: Externally contracted marketing companies may need to write a marketing plan upon first acquiring a new client. This lets the client know that the marketing client they’ve selected has an understanding of their product and allows both sides to agree on a way to market it.
- To Review/Update an Existing Plan: Many times it is a company’s policy to update its marketing plan annually or semi-annually. This is done in order to refine or revise the existing strategy, to take a look at what has worked and what hasn’t and make changes accordingly. After applying one marketing strategy for a year the results might show that it is necessary to take an entirely new direction. Or the plan might be working, in which case goals can be reassessed. This sort of marketing plan might not be a huge departure from the one created a year earlier, but as a progress report it is invaluable.
Some Useful Marketing and Business Development Links
RIG SEM - Rock Island Group Search Engine Marketing Division Rigsem.com
Rock Island Marketing - Marketing Division Website Rockislandmarketing.com |
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