Marketing Plans

The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well written report that many inside and possibly outside the organization will evaluate. It is an essential document for both large corporate marketing departments and for start-up companies.

Essentially the Marketing Plan:

• Forces the marketing personnel to look internally in order to fully understand the results of past marketing decisions.
• Forces the marketing personnel to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which they operate.
• Sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone within the organization should understand and support.
• Is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives.

The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons:

• As part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area.

• For a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem.

• As a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal to the financial community.

Marketing plan outline

The search starts with effective market research. The first 2 points are the most important.

• Who are your best potential customers and where can you find them?

• Understand your competition. Who are you competing with for your customers' time and money?

• The more you know, the better you can craft your approach!

Starting a marketing plan is easy. Getting it finished, though, may mean getting some practical help.