How to Create a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a comprehensive strategy for your business's marketing efforts in the upcoming year. It includes defining your target audience, determining the methods to reach them, and formulating strategies to engage with customers and drive sales. The goal of this plan is to lay out how to introduce your products and services to your target market.

Review the company’s objectives. The purpose of conducting a situation analysis is to examine your company’s current marketing situation and identify necessary adjustments. Start by evaluating the company’s goals and tasks (if not defined, you must set these first) and check if the existing marketing plan is aligned with achieving these objectives.

• For example: If you're a business owner focused on winter road maintenance and have set a goal to increase revenue by 10% by attracting more contracts, review whether your marketing plan is designed to secure these additional contracts. If so, are the methods effective?

Identify the strengths and challenges of your current marketing efforts. Determine what is currently attracting customers to your business. What is drawing customers to your competitors? Your company’s strengths may be the key to attracting customers, and understanding these strengths is crucial for your marketing efforts.

• Identify specific and clear strengths and advantages that customers will gain by working with you. This is your company’s unique selling point, which plays a major role in determining customer satisfaction.
• Potential strengths could include low costs, excellent customer service, friendliness, or speed.
• Stand out from the competition. This could relate to your company’s strengths, or it could be a specific business aspect of your company. If you want customers to choose you over competitors, you must answer the question: "Why should customers pick you?"
• Also, be aware of your company’s potential weaknesses, as these subjective factors also influence consumers. Once weaknesses are identified, you should begin planning how to address and fix them. If left unchecked, these weaknesses could become strengths for your competitors.

Research your target market. Knowing exactly who your target audience is is a critical aspect of marketing. Understanding your target market and its needs will guide you in determining where and how to advertise. Without knowledge of your target market, you won’t be able to convince customers that your products and services meet their needs.

• Study demographics. You need to know the age, gender, location, and even the income of your customers. Understanding customer psychology is also key. For example, if you operate a cleaning service and your clients are large corporations, understanding what aspects of cleaning services are most valued is essential.
• Use official government data about your market and industry. You may need to look into key economic indicators like price and cost indexes and employment statistics for your local, regional, and city areas.
• If your budget allows, consider consulting with trade groups or organizations that conduct market research and industry trend analysis.
• Study your competitors. The only way to provide something your competitors can’t is by understanding exactly what makes them attractive to their customers. Do your competitors offer better pricing? Faster turnaround times? If so, how do they achieve this? Do they have a way to cut costs in their business plan? Knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses is one of the best ways to help your business succeed.

Identify external opportunities and challenges. These are the objective factors that affect your company, and they come from competitors, market fluctuations, and customers or consumers. The goal here is to evaluate various factors that might influence your business so you can adjust your marketing plan accordingly.

• Start by analyzing market trends, such as observable changes in consumer demand, desires, and expectations for companies like yours.
• Next, consider financial trends that could impact your business, such as the rise of virtual payment methods or the current inflation rate.
• If you're a cleaning service owner and your main customers are large government agencies (like government buildings), tightening government budgets mean your clients are placing greater emphasis on cost. Therefore, your business strategy (and marketing plan) should focus on providing high-quality service at the lowest possible price.

Send out survey letters. If you have a large and enthusiastic customer base, consider sending survey letters. This allows you to gather customer opinions on your strengths and weaknesses. You can then use this feedback to craft a marketing plan based on your strengths (while understanding which assets your business should truly focus on), and also work on improving areas that need attention.

• The survey/questions should be brief and simple. Customers can fill them out, but generally, they won't want to spend too much time or effort. The content should fit on about one sticky note or half a regular sheet of paper. If more content is needed, make sure it doesn't exceed two pages.
• Consider asking short-answer questions instead of just multiple-choice options. You can include some multiple-choice questions if needed, but make sure to add open-ended ones like "What do you like most about our product/service?" and "What would you like us to improve?" You might also ask questions such as "Would you recommend our product/service to friends or colleagues? Why or why not?" These types of questions help gauge current customer satisfaction while also collecting insights on your strengths and weaknesses.
• When sending survey letters, be sure to include a stamped, self-addressed envelope to make it as easy as possible for customers to participate.
• Don't forget to account for printing and postage costs. If you decide to use this method, be sure to include these expenses in your current budget.

Conduct surveys via email. If you've previously collected your customers' email addresses for communication or monthly newsletters, this method could provide valuable insights. You can send out surveys similar to the ones via postal mail. However, there's a risk that the survey email may be marked as spam. There's also no way to track how many customers received the survey email, nor can you be certain that customers will complete it, even if they do receive it.

Conduct phone surveys. Many people may find phone calls intrusive. However, if your business relies heavily on phone contact, you can't overlook this survey method. Similar to paper surveys, you can ask questions about your key strengths and weaknesses and whether customers would recommend your business to others.

• Aside from the inconvenience of calling, phone surveys have another downside: you won't be able to gather written responses. If you choose to conduct phone surveys, you'll need someone to quickly record the responses. You might need to hire additional staff to conduct the survey and transcribe customer feedback into a spreadsheet or list.

Conduct personal interviews. This method doesn't require too much preparation. You can survey customers while discussing their orders or assisting them as usual. Direct interviews can be one of the best ways to gauge customer opinions and identify areas where your business can improve.

• Similar to phone interviews, you'll need to record the responses during personal interviews. This challenge doesn’t mean the method is ineffective; just plan ahead if you choose this route.

Gathering Information. Review the surveys you've conducted and identify how you plan to grow your business. Then, compare this with any real-world obstacles, such as current and projected market trends, expected costs in the near future, geographical areas, demographics where you've found success, or competitors operating in the same region or targeting similar audiences.

Assigning Responsibilities. As you progress with your marketing plan, it’s crucial to designate specific roles for each person involved. Identify who is best suited for each task and define the responsibilities associated with those roles. It’s also important to establish how you will assess the success of each role.

Marketing Goal Statement. What are your ultimate objectives with this marketing plan? Is it to expand your customer base, introduce new services or promotions, branch into new areas or demographics, or something else entirely? These goals will serve as the guiding principles for creating your strategy.

• Note: Marketing goals should align with your main business objectives.
• When developing your marketing goals, ensure they are tangible and measurable. Without this, analyzing revenue may be challenging, and a clear strategy may be hard to develop.
• Use outcomes like increased sales, more units sold or produced, heightened brand awareness, or the number of new customer accounts.
• For instance, your goal might be "Increase new contracts by 10% or boost social media presence."

Defining Future Customer Approaches. Your strategic plan should target three main customer groups: low-prospect customers (those unfamiliar with your business but likely to encounter your advertising and direct marketing), prospective customers (those who are already familiar with your business, or at least have seen your marketing), and high-prospect customers (those who are aware of your business and ready to engage). You need to devise strategies to approach each group, as this will shape your marketing approach.

• For example: you may choose social media, radio advertising, billboards, or distributing flyers to reach low-prospect customers. For prospective customers who have shown interest, your sales team could directly reach out to convince them that your product or service is the best solution, based on the customer information you've researched.

Developing a Marketing Strategy to Achieve Set Goals. After identifying your marketing goals and customer prospects, you need to outline actionable steps to meet those objectives and attract potential customers. There are several marketing strategies to choose from. Here are some common ones:

• Organizing events within your business or store is a fantastic way to draw a crowd. You could host events like dinners, social gatherings, or any other event that leaves a lasting impression on customers, promotes teamwork among employees, or increases exposure to potential customers.
• Social media advertising campaigns almost always succeed. These campaigns help promote your business and attract customers to your products or services. Competitions can take place in-store or on social media and often require customers to visit your store or follow you online to win small "prizes".
• Consider providing short-term sponsorships for reputable individuals or groups who use your products or services. These sponsorships can even be carried out entirely online through social media. While this may not be suitable for all businesses due to cost, many successful global businesses have shown that it can be highly effective.
• Never underestimate the power of clever or eye-catching advertisements. Find individuals with appealing voices and looks to feature in your marketing campaigns, as this can boost effectiveness.

Define the role of social media. Various social media platforms can serve as a cost-effective way to advertise your business and should be integrated into your overall marketing plan. Social media is ideal for promoting special offers, discounts, events, and connecting with your target audience.

• Engage on social media to keep your business on top of your customers' minds. Share blog posts or links that address problems your customers might be facing and offer your solution.
• Discussion topics, promotions, and surveys can help you draw attention to your business while gaining deeper insights into your customers' preferences, strengthening your relationship with them.

Set a budget. You may have great marketing ideas and strategies for reaching customers, but if your budget is limited, you’ll need to rethink your approach. Your budget must be realistic, reflecting both the current state of your business and your projected growth potential.

• Evaluate your current financial situation. You’ll want an accurate figure for your budget, so consider what you can afford to spend at this point. Avoid overspending on a single project in the hope that your marketing plan will revolutionize your business, as failure can lead to significant financial loss.
• Start by breaking down your marketing budget and sticking to the range you can afford. Look for reliable ads that have a proven track record of success in reaching new customers.
• Don’t hesitate to adjust your plan. If a certain advertising method isn’t yielding results (for example, newspaper ads failing to reach your target audience), redirect the time and money you’ve been investing in that channel to more effective advertising options.

Start with an Executive Summary. This section will provide basic information about your product or service and summarize the entire document in one or two paragraphs. Writing this section first helps you get an overview of the details you’ll address in the following sections.

• This is a useful approach for staff, consultants, and colleagues to quickly understand the essence of your plan.

Describe the target market. The next step is to use your research to outline your target market. Keep this section simple and clear, ideally in bullet points. You can begin by describing the demographics of your market (such as age, gender, location, or occupation if relevant) and then detail their interests as they relate to the product or service you offer.

List your objectives. This section should not exceed one page. Here, you will list all your marketing objectives for the upcoming year. When setting these objectives, apply the S.M.A.R.T. criteria – that is, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound (S stands for Specific, M for Measurable, A for Attainable, R for Realistic, and T for Time-bound).

• For instance, a SMART goal might be "Increase overall revenue from government sector clients by 10% by the end of 2016."

Define your marketing strategy. In this section, you will answer the "how" of your plan, outlining your overall marketing strategy. Your goal is to focus on your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – that is, the distinct advantage you have over your competitors. This point should be clearly analyzed after you think through and plan your marketing strategy. Your strategy is about selling your USP.

• Here, you need to describe your customer approach (such as attending trade shows, radio advertising, telemarketing, online ads) and the general method you will use to persuade customers. Focus on the customer needs you’ve identified and how your USP will fulfill those needs.
• The key here is to be as specific as possible.

Budget breakdown. In this section, you will outline the total amount you plan to spend and how it will be allocated. It's best to break the expenses into categories, listing the total for each category.

• For example, you might allocate $5,000 for trade shows, $5,000 for radio ads, $200 for flyers, $1,000 for a new promotional campaign, and $2,000 for website optimization.

Review your annual plan (at least yearly). Don’t assume your plan is flawless and free from risks. Most marketing experts advise that businesses should review their marketing plans at least once a year. This helps you assess what has been accomplished, evaluate whether things can continue progressing based on current information, and decide if any changes are needed in the marketing plan.

• Be objective in your annual review. If something isn’t working or an individual hasn’t met the company’s standards, you may need to discuss why the outcome fell short or why an employee failed to meet their responsibilities. Alternatively, if everything is going off track, you might need to reconsider the entire plan. In such cases, hiring an independent consultant is invaluable. A consultant can review your plan, assess the successes and failures, and help you restructure your plan if necessary.

• Remember to consolidate the needs and ideas from each department (and any employees, if you feel satisfied) into your marketing plan. This is crucial to ensure that the marketing plan aligns and is consistent with the company's business plan, mission, vision, and core principles.
• If necessary, in your marketing plan, you may include charts, graphs, etc., to clarify or provide additional details for the sections above.

• You should evaluate your marketing plan at least once a year to determine whether your strategy is successful and reassess any areas that have not succeeded.
• Key factors contributing to the development of your marketing plan will always evolve. This is because these factors are constantly changing over time, so you need to continuously update your marketing plan.