Have a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is vital for a focused approach to promoting your business effectively. It doesn’t need to be complicated and will help you eliminate those ad hoc activities that don’t achieve your goals.

The process of developing a marketing plan ensures that you evaluate your past activities, assess your target markets and competitors, set goals and determine the tactics required to achieve those goals as well as setting a budget for your future activities.

There are five main components to a marketing plan. These are:

1. Purpose & Mission

Why the marketing plan has been developed and your business’s vision.

2. SWOT Analysis

In this section you assess the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your products, target markets, distribution channels, competitors, financial factors and the environment your business operates in.

3. Strategy & Objectives

This is the overall direction you wish to take in line with your business vision, accountability in terms of the bottom line, and measurability in terms of the targets to be achieved.

4. Marketing Tactics

This is where you detail and schedule what you’re going to do in relation to target market, product, promotion, pricing, distribution and any other areas that you choose to cover.

5. Budget, Evaluation & Implementation

Your spending requirements, financial implications that contribute to the bottom line, how and when outlined activities will be carried out and who is responsible for each.

You may also like to include an additional section in the marketing plan outlining internal and external factors that could potentially become issues affecting the plan. This will give you a true indication of what issues your business may face during implementation.

For help developing a marketing plan for your business, contact us.

Back