Create a marketing plan that will bring your success!
Planning your marketing is an essential part of your efforts
to attract clients or customers to your business. Everyday, you will be
presented with various marketing communication opportunities. Many
organizations will be just too happy to work with you to market your
business. By planning ahead, it will be easier for you to decide what works
for your business: what fits your budget and what reaches your audience.
Your marketing plan will keep activities and budgets on track year-round.
This module will give you some guidance on how to build a marketing plan and
what to consider when you do this.
As a business owner you are responsible to bring customers
or clients to your business. Failing to do this in an ongoing and cost
effective way will result in your business closing down and you losing money
in the process. Writing your marketing plan can help you identify the most
cost-effective strategies you can use to present your business to your
target audience.
Your written marketing plan need not be lengthy and
complicated. You can even make it as simple as possible. It is an internal
document where you can be honest and direct when describing your company's
weaknesses. A marketing plan gives you a roadmap that can drive action and
point the way. A marketing plan can help
you: Identify which customers are your best prospects.
Evaluate company data against your industry or market. Track results so that
you learn what works.
When you fail to create a marketing plan, you may be moving fast but you may not be
moving in the right direction. Here are five steps to creating a strategic
and practical marketing plan:
Step 1: Check where you are
Have a look at our section on Forms & Format to help you
here, or download one of the various SWOT analysis formats. Your first step
is to take a comprehensive look at your company's challenges, its position
in the market place, the level and intensity of competition and other
factors that may affect your marketing strategies. This is the market
research portion of your plan.
Challenges: When you open your business, you are faced with
the huge task of letting your target market know that you exist and are
willing to serve their needs. You are faced with the challenge of
communicating with your target market to get them to become your customers.
Position in the marketplace: Your promotional strategy
should highlight the "unique selling points" of your business.
Competition: This involves a complete analysis of the
businesses already offering your type of goods and services within your
geographical area (e.g. county, town and city).
You want to learn how many businesses are already in the
marketplace, what they offer and where they are located. By looking at this
data, you can identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of your
competitors in the area of price, quality, selection, promotion, services,
customer service / personnel support, facilities / atmosphere and location.
Step 2: Identify your customers
It is only logical that, in order to market your
products/services, you need to know who your customers are:
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To whom or what do you plan to sell your product to?
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How do customers perceive themselves?
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How do you plan to acquire customers?
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What distribution methods will you need?
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What features do your customers want?
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What are they prepared to pay?
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What form of advertising and promotion will be effective to
produce sales and sell the product? What will promotion and advertising
cost?
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Where is your target customer most likely to buy your
product?
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How important is price to a customer?
How important are product or service quality and convenience to your
customer?
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Focus on customers' needs.
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Listen to your customer.
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Why should anybody buy your product or service?
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What is the benefit or improvement in their condition?
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Whose life will be enriched?
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Who will get the greatest improvement from your product or
service?
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With which customers does your competitive advantage make a
difference?
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With which customers does your competitive advantage make
the biggest difference?
Step 3: Decide on your objectives
Marketing objectives quantify the results you are looking to
achieve. By clearly stating these results in advance, you provide
performance criteria against which your future results can be compared.
Whatever marketing objectives you decide on, they should meet certain
criteria. They must be realistic, measurable and be guided by short, medium
and long-term deadlines.
Profit: Profit objectives state the bottom line progress you
want your marketing efforts to achieve. You may set the goal of achieving 2
percent profit in your first year, and increasing it by 10 percent every
year hereafter.
Market share: Market share objectives state your desired cut
of the total industry sales pie, or at least the local industry. If the
total revenue of all the wedding planners in your county is $2 million, how
much of that is yours? If you only have 2% of that pie, you may want to
increase your share to about 10% after launching your marketing campaign.
Sales volume target: Your sales volume affects your cost
structure. The higher the sales you generate, the lower your cost. Specific
sales volume levels can give you more bargaining power with your suppliers.
Sales volume objectives should clearly state the total goods or services you
intend to deliver. Your goal can be to increase your sales in the next two
months after a marketing campaign by X amount.
Step 4: Writing the plan
Now that you have an overview of customers and market
conditions, you can flesh out your plan. This plan needn't be a formal
document, but should at least consist of a written outline to share with
staff or outside consultants and to refer to later. The plan should cover: A
summary of your market position and goals. A definition of what you expect
to accomplish in a specific time period (e.g.: "We will sell 150 widgets by
the fourth quarter.") A list of target markets, including segmentation and
niche area. An appropriate strategy for each segment or market.
Budget: The final section of your marketing plan is to
determine your budget, making sure that you have the funds to cover your
production, printing, media and other miscellaneous expenses.
Production: This can include the creation of your logo
design, stationery, mailing labels, company brochure, photography used,
advertising and direct mail costs.
Printing: This will cover the printing costs of your
letterhead and envelopes, company brochures and direct mail.
Media: This is the cost of buying media for your print ads,
radio ads and other tactics.
Miscellaneous: Other costs that may be incurred such as
postage, holiday cards, thank you notes and others.
Marketing channels: This is where you choose the types of
marketing materials and distribution vehicles that you will use to attract
target customers, including flyers, postcards, email marketing, newsletters,
Web site and more.
Competitive strategies: How will you respond to your
competitors - for example, if a competitor lowers his price?
Step 5: Map your progress
Use our Marketing Campaign Worksheet or Advertising
Effectiveness Log. Include benchmarks in your plan. Use these benchmarks to
take stock of whether your marketing efforts are paying off or if you should
rethink your approach. Calculate the category and cost of marketing
communications and compare with set specific sales forecasts.
For direct mail efforts, check how the campaign is going by
creating a spreadsheet that includes specifics of each order as well as a
way to identify customers (like a customer identification number). Also,
ensure that you include plans for implementation or a marketing calendar.
Plans are great, but if you don't also designate responsibility, set
deadlines and hold people accountable, marketing efforts can't succeed.
It is important that you respond to the results that you
get. Markets change all the time and you must be ready. Make sure you review
the plan every year to see if you must revisit any goals.
