By: Carol Thayer, Extension
Specialist
www.ianr.unl.edu
Overview
The ability of your business to generate and sustain product sales and
services will determine net revenues and the profit you make which can
be assessed using a marketing plan outline. Unless
you are the one in a thousand who has products or services that sell
themselves – the generally unrealistic dream of every business owner –
the level of sales and profits realized by your business will be
directly related to your efforts to identify and respond to market
opportunities.
Experience indicates that developing a marketing plan and identifying
your sales goals are vitally important activities. Your marketing plan
reflects your realistic assessment of the market potential of the
products and services you want to sell. A typical marketing plan is
based on data from census reports, trade sources, and reflects your
decisions on the geographic area you intend to serve.
A marketing plan will focus on the strategy you will use to get your
message to your target market (those with the purchasing power and
unsatisfied needs that can be met with the product or service you plan
to offer) and create more sales and profits. It will help you focus
your marketing efforts and advertising dollars on the market segments
where people are most likely to buy your products and services. It
provides part of the basis for financial planning. A well-developed
marketing plan with marketing goals that are both optimistic and
realistic will help you secure needed credit from suppliers and
lenders.
Preparing Your Marketing Plan Outline
The following worksheet focuses on a number of issues important in
your marketing efforts. It is intended to be "user friendly," with a
simple questionnaire style approach. However, it is important to
assess the market – to do your market research – before starting to
mark your responses to each of the issues. To complete a marketing
plan, you need to learn: (1) who your target market is, (2) what that
market needs, (3) how your market prefers to buy, (4) how your product
or service stands out in the crowd, and (5) the feasibility of
marketing your product or service in a particular market segment.
Focus your information gathering based upon the issues addressed in
this worksheet. Talk to people who may be your future customers. Ask
about and record their interest in products and services like those
you intend to sell. Try to determine if there is a niche for something
of higher quality or of lesser quality that can be sold for a lower
price. Learn everything you can about your customers and their
spending habits. Write down all the information so you can refer to it
later. Identify the competition and study the strengths and weaknesses
of their businesses. Go to a library and look up population trends and
the age distribution of the local population. The Chamber of Commerce
in your area should also be able to provide additional statistics
about your market. You can't know too much about your customers and
markets. Go through the marketing plan outline below.
MARKETING PLAN OUTLINE AND SALES GOALS
A Product/Service for the Market:
Our main product or service will be:
Our product/service will sell because:
If our product or service is something people do not need, they will
buy it because:
The benefits of our product/service are:
The competitors are:
Location and Type of Market:
Our market will be:
local
multi-county
statewide
multi-state
national
international
a combination (list)
other (describe)
Our typical customer is:
an individual
a family
a business
gov't unit
The typical customer is located in:
a rural area
suburbs
a trade center
large city
Typical Individual or Family Customer:
The customer is: male female male or female
and is a
child
youth
young adult
middle-aged adult
elderly adult
person of almost any age
The typical customer's income level is: high middle low no
typical level
The typical customer buys: _____ items/purchase, makes _____
purchases/year, for _____ items/year
The majority of purchases are made: seasonally yearly for
special occasions
The principal reason an individual/family customer will buy our
product/service is:
The number of customers in our market is: increasing constant
decreasing
Typical Business Customer:
Our business customer is: male female male or female, and is an
owner employee
Our business customer's yearly revenues are: < $50,000 $50,000 -
$200,000 > $200,000
Our business customer buys: _____ items/purchase, makes _____
purchases/year, for _____ items/year
The principal reason a business will purchase our product or service
is:
The number of business customers in our market is: increasing
constant decreasing
Sales, Distribution, and Service:
Our principal sales method will be:
Our principal distribution method will be:
Our principal method of providing follow-up service to customers will
be:
Advertising:
We will secure advertising advice from:
Our principal means of advertising will be:
In addition, we will advertise by:
The target audience of our advertising will be:
The geographic area for our advertising will be:
A brief summary of our advertising plan is:
Our advertising budget will be: $_____ in 1st year; $_____ in 2nd
year; $_____ in 3rd year.
Or, as a percent of sales: ____% in 1st year; ____% in 2nd year; ____%
in 3rd year.
We will evaluate advertising effectiveness by:
Sales Goals:
Our 1st year sales goal is: _____ units @ $_____/unit = $________
total sales
Our 2nd year sales goal is: _____ units @ $_____/unit = $________
total sales
Our 3rd year sales goal is: _____ units @ $_____/unit = $________
total sales
Market Penetration:
Attaining our first year goal will give us _____ percent of the market
for our principal product or service.
Attaining our second year goal will give us _______ percent of the
market,
and the third year penetration will be _______ percent of the market.
