Marketing Plan Template
Marketing Plan Template
If you are clear on your overall business direction, your first step in planning your marketing is research.
Competition research
Find your direct and indirect competitors yes everyone has a competitor in business. Find them and learn from them. Find out:
what they are doing and where they are marketing try and get copies of their marketing material,
the sort of customers they attract,
what they are doing better than you,
the things you do better than them,
how they price their products,
why people choose to buy from them and not you.
If you really want to get into depth, explore their website source code to check out the keywords they are using and get a Google alert set up so you can be kept up to date with what they are doing.
Customer research
Next you need to research your customers. The more you know and understand them and their needs and wants, the better positioned you will be to be able to satisfy what they are looking for.
Discover who your customers are, their age and gender, where they live, how much they earn, what they value, what is important to them, what they dislike, how often they buy products or services like yours and what they look for in a business and a product.
Make sure you define your perfect "A" client right down to attitude and personality if this is important to you. For example my "A" clients generally are entrepreneurs, constantly full of great ideas and need help in focusing and taking the ideas to completion. They may be slightly "scattered" in approach, value knowledge and experience and appreciate holistic solutions rather than task solutions.
Really get inside your customers mind. Check out demographic research on things such as Generation Ys, Neo's and grey nomads to understand what makes them tick. After all you are in business not just to make money, but because you want to make a difference, make people happy and solve their problems.
Product/service research
Once you know your customers and your competitors better, take time to look back at your products and services. Impartially look at each one and ask yourself what is great and not so great about each one. Why do you have that service/product and what need is it trying to fill? Why do people buy it? Why don't they buy it? What results does your service or product achieve for people?
Other research
Yes ... still more research is needed before you can begin to plan. How effective is your current distribution method? What is working and what isn't working? What about your production process? How about your sales process?
Once you have all of this data, you can start planning for the coming year.
Many of the marketing planning tools available were written before internet marketing became big ... and don't address the challenges of running an internet business. This means you are only getting part of the story. All modern businesses need to plan for both on-line and off-line marketing.
Online marketing is much more than a website it includes things such as affiliate programs, auto-responders, blogs, e-books, shopping carts, social networking sites and a host of other things.
Print marketing is what many people think of when they think about marketing and yes it is still important. This includes things like marketing collateral such as brochures, flyers, business cards, corporate gifts and posters. It also includes direct mail and customer mail. These two areas are some of the most overlooked and most profitable forms of marketing you can do. Print marketing also includes things such as books and articles.
Advertising both on-line and off-line needs to be considered in your marketing plan. Always make sure you calculate return on investment by tracking results and measuring the response you get. If you are not at least making back the cost of the campaign each and every campaign you are throwing money away unnecessarily there are much better methods available than expensive brand advertising.
PR is another area you need to address. What events will you hold or be part of? What is your press release cycle? Will you run seminars/teleseminars/webinars? Will you exhibit at a tradeshow or sponsor someone or a cause?
Then there is a more general category of marketing from where you can create massive amounts of customer traffic. This includes alliances, client nurturing, upselling, competitions, joint ventures, referrals and a whole lot more.
The bottom line with marketing is you need to do a little bit every day. Work out the areas you want to tackle, plan them into your calendar, get advice on how to do it and then implement and measure the results.
Marketing Plan Template - To learn more about this author, visit Ingrid Cliff's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Marketing plans sit within an overall business plan they are one of the vehicles to help you deliver your business goals and objectives. Without a clear business direction and strategy, your marketing plans will never be 100% effective. Always start with gaining clarity on the direction of your business before filling in your marketing plan template and the activities you will undertake.
If you are clear on your overall business direction, your first step in planning your marketing is research.
Competition research
Find your direct and indirect competitors yes everyone has a competitor in business. Find them and learn from them. Find out:
what they are doing and where they are marketing try and get copies of their marketing material,
the sort of customers they attract,
what they are doing better than you,
the things you do better than them,
how they price their products,
why people choose to buy from them and not you.
If you really want to get into depth, explore their website source code to check out the keywords they are using and get a Google alert set up so you can be kept up to date with what they are doing.
Customer research
Next you need to research your customers. The more you know and understand them and their needs and wants, the better positioned you will be to be able to satisfy what they are looking for.
Discover who your customers are, their age and gender, where they live, how much they earn, what they value, what is important to them, what they dislike, how often they buy products or services like yours and what they look for in a business and a product.
Make sure you define your perfect "A" client right down to attitude and personality if this is important to you. For example my "A" clients generally are entrepreneurs, constantly full of great ideas and need help in focusing and taking the ideas to completion. They may be slightly "scattered" in approach, value knowledge and experience and appreciate holistic solutions rather than task solutions.
Really get inside your customers mind. Check out demographic research on things such as Generation Ys, Neo's and grey nomads to understand what makes them tick. After all you are in business not just to make money, but because you want to make a difference, make people happy and solve their problems.
Product/service research
Once you know your customers and your competitors better, take time to look back at your products and services. Impartially look at each one and ask yourself what is great and not so great about each one. Why do you have that service/product and what need is it trying to fill? Why do people buy it? Why don't they buy it? What results does your service or product achieve for people?
Other research
Yes ... still more research is needed before you can begin to plan. How effective is your current distribution method? What is working and what isn't working? What about your production process? How about your sales process?
Once you have all of this data, you can start planning for the coming year.
Many of the marketing planning tools available were written before internet marketing became big ... and don't address the challenges of running an internet business. This means you are only getting part of the story. All modern businesses need to plan for both on-line and off-line marketing.
Online marketing is much more than a website it includes things such as affiliate programs, auto-responders, blogs, e-books, shopping carts, social networking sites and a host of other things.
Print marketing is what many people think of when they think about marketing and yes it is still important. This includes things like marketing collateral such as brochures, flyers, business cards, corporate gifts and posters. It also includes direct mail and customer mail. These two areas are some of the most overlooked and most profitable forms of marketing you can do. Print marketing also includes things such as books and articles.
Advertising both on-line and off-line needs to be considered in your marketing plan. Always make sure you calculate return on investment by tracking results and measuring the response you get. If you are not at least making back the cost of the campaign each and every campaign you are throwing money away unnecessarily there are much better methods available than expensive brand advertising.
PR is another area you need to address. What events will you hold or be part of? What is your press release cycle? Will you run seminars/teleseminars/webinars? Will you exhibit at a tradeshow or sponsor someone or a cause?
Then there is a more general category of marketing from where you can create massive amounts of customer traffic. This includes alliances, client nurturing, upselling, competitions, joint ventures, referrals and a whole lot more.
The bottom line with marketing is you need to do a little bit every day. Work out the areas you want to tackle, plan them into your calendar, get advice on how to do it and then implement and measure the results.
Marketing Plan Template - To learn more about this author, visit Ingrid Cliff's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a hands-on franchise consultant. He said, I am the nuts and bolts person who tends to the details for my clients. Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Ingrid's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
|
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Power of Concentration Networking Impacts Income Tips for QuickBooks Backup How Search Engines Work Authentic Leadership |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
|
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||