Marketing Plan Basics
To expand your business, increase your market share or better understand your customers, you need a marketing plan.
If you are like most small to medium sized marketing owners you probably do not have a marketing plan, business plan or a budget.
A marketing plan and business plan are crucial elements to your exit strategy and will add value to selling your business when/if you decide to exit.
It is not advisable to undertake or implement the marketing plan and business plan at the time you want to sell as potential buyers want to see proof that your strategies actual work and are not just theory.
There are other documents you can produce if you need to sell your business now, but without a marketing plan and business plan you are less likely to maximise your sale price.
WHY ARE MARKETING PLANS IMPORTANT?
The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons
- To review past activities and the effectiveness
- Analyse customers
- To assess the attributes of a product or service but new and old
- To assess goals and objectives and whether change is required
- To cost those activities
- To guide the sale and marketing personnel
A Marketing Plan is a written document that details the actions necessary to achieve a specified marketing objective(s). It can be for a product or service, a brand, or a product line. It can cover one year (referred to as an annual marketing plan), or cover up to 5 years.
A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, a marketing plan without a sound strategic foundation is of little use.
The marketing plan implements your marketing strategy. It details what you have done in the past and the records the results and what you hope to achieve in the future. The marketing plan is a roadmap that guides you to your goals and objectives.
You don’t need to be an academic genius to write a good marketing plan… you just need the time and desire to follow the processes and be honest about the information even if it requires a change in the organisation or with your own beliefs.
The marketing plan should not be considered as a tool but rather an attitude of the business as everyone is involved in the process.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A MARKETING PLAN?
There are many formats for marketing plans and every company does it a little differently, but this marketing plan format is very complete.
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Baron Consultancy has been business consulting to small and medium size business owners and helping them achieve various key objectives since 1994. They can provide advice on such key issues as business plans, business budgets, business marketing plans, exit plans, personnel recruitment, asset management, sales and marketing and operational analysis.