Once you have identified your target market by completing thorough research of the local population’s demographics and reviewed the surrounding area, it is time to write your marketing plan. A marketing plan is the blueprint of strategies to help you win and retain customers.
Considered the heart of your business, a marketing plan includes detailed information about your business location, prices of products and services, promotional methods, and the product itself. Including the 4Ps (Place, Price, Promotion, Product) of Marketing in your marketing plan will help to focus your content.
• Place - Identify target markets. Describe product location & distribution.
• Price - Outline pricing strategy. Prepare marketing budget.
• Promotion - Develop advertising strategy. Identify your business’s competitive advantage.
• Product - Define products/services. Describe product location & distribution.
• Using the Four Ps, what does your marketing plan look like? Use the space below to outline your marketing plan.
NOTE: A sample Marketing Plan provided by the Wyoming SBDC is available for download from the course player RESOURCES tab in the Marketing 101 course.
How to create a marketing plan:
The scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for. For example, you could create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing strategy or simply focus on a specific channel like SEO, social media marketing, content marketing. like in this example:
Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.
One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well-written executive summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future plans, and other important contextual facts.
Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.
Include things like:
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Simple marketing goals
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High-level metrics
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Important company milestones
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Facts about your brand
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Employee anecdotes
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Future goals & plans
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And more
Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to keep it under three to four paragraphs.
Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of value.
Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.
You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get the right visitors.
Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your business solve customer problems?
Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.