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An effective marketing plan should
spell out the marketing objectives of a business and provide details
about how they will be reached. A marketing business plan needs to be
based on research and sound marketing strategies, which will help the
business to reach its objectives. Business marketing plans are usually
written for periods ranging from one year to five years.
Besides creating a strategic marketing plan, you also need to define
how the plan will be implemented on a day to day basis. An effective
sales marketing plan serves as a reference document that can be used to
monitor the progress of the business and to improve performance.
1.
Executive summary
A company marketing plan needs to have an executive summary, which
appears in the beginning, and gives an overview of the main points. It
is best to write the executive summary after you have written the rest
of the plan. This helps to ensure that your plan makes sense and covers
all the important details.
Your plan should include your overall business strategy, mission
statement, key objectives, and the strategy for reaching these
objectives.
2.
Internal and external analysis
You need to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats) analysis to gain an understanding of the internal and external
environment.
Analyze the internal strengths and weaknesses of your business to
determine where you stand. For example, your strengths may include
having trained and experienced employees and unique products or
services, and your weaknesses may include a lack of financial
resources. In the same way, you need to analyze the opportunities and
threats associated with your area of business.
The marketing plan analysis can help you to identify the most promising
customers and to find the best ways of reaching them. You can also
think about ways to overcome your weaknesses.
3.
Marketing objectives
Create marketing objectives by analyzing your business and the
environment in which it operates. The product marketing plan needs to
define what you intend to achieve, which may be in terms of sales
growth in the next year. It should also mention how you intend to reach
your target.
Create marketing plan objectives that are SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound).
4.
Marketing strategy
Your marketing plan strategy should be based on your competitive
strengths as compared to the competition. You need to be clear about
what you will gain by entering the market segment you are considering.
Identify the segments in which you have a competitive advantage, and
determine whether you will be able to sell enough of your products or
services in those segments for the efforts to be worthwhile. It may be
easier to target the segments in which you already have customers.
If you intend to enter a new segment, you will have to arrange for
additional resources and manpower. Decide about how you will position
your product or service so it will stand out in comparison to the
competition and look attractive to your target customers.
5.
Marketing tactics
Once you have decided about your marketing objectives and the strategy
that will help you to reach them, you need to plan the tactics that
will help you to you’re your plans into reality.
Consider the seven Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion,
People, Processes, and Physical Evidence, while thinking about the
tactics that will help you to reach your marketing objectives.
6.
Implementation
Your small business marketing plan needs to have a schedule that
provides details of what is to be done and by when. It should clearly
state the resources and personnel needed to reach the objectives, and
the related marketing costs should be included in the budget. It is
best to focus your money and resources on a small area, rather than to
spread them too thin.
Identify a person who will be responsible for implementation of the
sales and marketing plan. For marketing plans to work, someone needs to
monitor the progress, push matters, and to take action when plan
implementation falls behind schedule or costs exceed budget.
An effective marketing plan can help you to decide which customers
you want to target and enable you to stay ahead of the competition.
Marketing planning helps businesses to keep existing customers happy
and to acquire new customers.
Here's To Your Achievement,
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