A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organise, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given time period.
Marketing plans can include separate marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, but all of them work toward the same business goals.
Here’s a brief guide to writing a marketing plan for your business
Executive Summary
The executive summary is a high-level overview of your marketing plan. This section should be able to stand alone, giving the reader a clear picture of what you plan to achieve, even if they don’t read the rest of the document.
Mission Statement
Your mission statement is the foundation of your marketing plan. Although it may not play a direct role in your marketing activities, your mission statement plays an important role in determining your overall strategy.
This section should tell the reader what the objective of the plan is. Writing this bit is also a great way to focus your thoughts on what you want to achieve.
Target Markets
Identifying your target market is a key part of a successful marketing strategy. You need to understand who your products or services are for to create effective marketing campaigns.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis helps you understand your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal to your business and opportunities and threats come from outside.
This can reveal opportunities for growth and reveal vulnerabilities that need to be managed. If you’re unfamiliar with how to prepare a SWOT analysis, you can refer to this guide.
Marketing tactics
Your overall marketing strategy is what you’re setting out to achieve. Tactics are how you plan to achieve your strategic objectives.
This could include using PPC advertising, SEO, and other marketing channels to reach your target audience.
Budget
A detailed budget is an essential part of a marketing plan. It should include all the costs associated with your marketing strategy, such as software licenses, advertising costs, and staff salaries.
Marketing Goals
Your marketing goals should align with your business goals.
They should be set out using the SMART method:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound
A marketing plan is a crucial tool for business. It helps you stay focused, reduces the risk of running out of resources, and allows you to measure your progress and adjust your plans as necessary.
To help you get started with writing your own marketing plan, here’s a helpful template with a bit more detail.
Now you have your marketing plan and you know what you want to achieve, it’s time for the how.
Whichever marketing channels and tactics you decide are right for you, we can help. Get in touch with us today to arrange your free consultation and we’ll design a campaign to turn your plan into a reality.
