Marketing Plan
- A sound marketing plan, which includes your market research, your location, the customer group you have targeted, your competition, positioning, the product or service you are selling, pricing, advertising, and promotion, is the key to the success of your business
- Derek Hansen, founder of American Capital Access, explains the importance of knowing your customer base. “You’re in business to serve a customer need. If you’re not sensitive to customers, don’t know who your customers are, how to reach them and, most of all, what will convince them to buy your product or service, get help.”
- Effective marketing, planning, and promotion begins with current information about the marketplace
- You can start this process by visiting your local library, talking to customers, studying the advertising of other businesses in your community, and consulting with any relevant industry associations
After you have all the necessary information, outline your plan
Step One: Define Your Business
- Your product or service
- Your geographic marketing area—neighborhood, regional or national
- Your competition
- How you differ from the competition—what makes you unique
- Your price
- The competition’s promotion methods
- Your promotion methods
- Your distribution methods or business location
Step Two: Define Your Customers
- Your current customer base—age, sex, income, neighborhood
- How your customers learn about your product or service—advertising, direct mail, word of mouth, Yellow Pages
- Patterns or habits your customers and potential customers share—where they shop, what they read, watch, listen to
- Qualities your customers value most about your product or service—selection, convenience, service, reliability, availability, affordability
- Qualities your customers like least about your product or service—can they be adjusted to serve your customers better?
- Prospective customers whom you are not currently reaching
Step Three: Define Your Plan and Budget
- Previous marketing methods you have used to communicate to your customers
- Methods that have been most effective
- Cost compared to sales
- Cost per customer
- Possible future marketing methods to attract new customers
- Percentage of profits you can allocate to your marketing campaign
- Marketing tools you can implement within your budget—newspaper, magazine, or Yellow Pages advertising; radio or television advertising; direct mail; telemarketing; public relations activities such as community involvement, sponsorship, or press releases
- Methods of testing your marketing ideas
- Methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign
- The marketing tool you can implement immediately
The final component should be your overall promotional objectives—to communicate your message, create an awareness of your product or service, motivate customers to buy and increase sales, or other specific targetsObjectives will make it easier to design an effective campaign and help you keep that campaign on the right track |
