By: Brett Pearce
www.zeromillion.com
One of the toughest marketing
assignments is to write a marketing plan that is ambitious yet still
attainable, so here we are giving you a marketing plan sample free. By following the guide and using the template below,
anyone will be able to write a top rate-marketing plan.
Before starting on your written plan, you should answer the following
questions
:
1. What is the product or service
you are selling?
2. Who is your market that will
buy the product or service?
3. What need does the above market
have for your product or service?
4. What is the basic message that
you would like to send to this market in regards to your product?
5. What is the best way of getting
in contact with your projected market? (i.e.- T.V, Radio, Print,
Online)
After answering the above
questions you will ready to start on your marketing plan sample free. When
answering question five keep in mind your budget limitations as you do
not want to set yourself up for committing too much money to
advertising.
Follow the template below using your answers to the above questions to
guide you through.
Executive Summary
The Executive Summary can be taken straight from the business plan or
it can be newly written for the marketing plan sample free. Below is a suggested list of things to be included.
Description of the Company
The description of the company should include a brief summary of
the company including when it was founded and some general details
about your company. It should not be more than about 10 lines and
should not go into too much detail about the companies mission or
products and services as this comes later in the Executive Summary.
Mission Statement
This should not be anything new and should be taken directly from
the Business Plan. Most companies have mission statements from day one
and this should be included on all marketing plans.
Products
and Services
The information in this
category could vary depending on the purpose of the plan. If this is a
company wide marketing plan then all products and services should be
listed briefly giving a good description of what each of them can
provide. If this marketing plan were specific to a product, then a
description in more detail would better suit the marketing plan.
Financial
Feasibility
This section should also
come straight from the business plan and give a brief description of
the financial outlook of the company and what effects may arise if the
marketing is not successful. You should not discuss financial plans
for the marketing program in this section of the document.
Strategic Focus and Plan
Mission/
Vision
Not to be confused with the
Company Mission, this statement is what you would like to get out of
the marketing plan. If this is a marketing plan for a single product,
then this statement should state what your company expects out of the
product and they plan to achieve this.
Objectives
The objectives of the marketing
for the particular product, service or company should be outlined in
this section. If one of the objectives is to make 50,000 people aware
of your new product then this is something that should be included in
your objectives. You can also include company objectives in this
section if they are directly affected by your marketing. For instance,
if your goal is to make one million dollars in sales the first year,
then this is an objective that comes in direct contact with the
marketing program.
Competitive Environment
Here is where you need to outline
the competitive environment of your market. This would include any
competitors whether they are in direct or indirect competition.
Situation
Analysis
There are two effective marketing
tools that can be used in a situation analysis purpose. The SWOT
analysis and the BCG Dot Matrix. (Please refer to article on Effective
marketing tools for beginners if you are unsure about these two
tools).
For an in-depth analysis include
both the SWOT Analysis and the BCG Dot Matrix in the Situation
analysis. These diagrams can compare your products to your competitors
and help you to determine the best approach for winning your section
of the market.
Competitive Analysis
This section differs from the
competitive environment as it describes more in-depth how you plan to
effectively market against the competition. This section should
outline direct competition's weaknesses and how you plan to capitalize
on these weaknesses to grab the market share.
.
Market Product Focus
Marketing
Objectives
These objectives can work in two different ways depending on what type
of marketing plan you are writing. If you are writing a company wide
marketing plan sample free, then this
section would outline all of the objectives you wish to attain through
your marketing program. They should be listed in a number format along
with a detailed description of how you wish to accomplish these
objectives.
If the plan were being created on
an individual product/service basis then the marketing objectives
would be what the company expects to gain from this product/service.
Once again, objectives should be listed in a number format with a
detailed description of how this products/services marketing will tie
in with the marketing of the program and how this will be
accomplished.
Target
Markets
This section will define in detail
the market in which you will be marketing your product. It should be
described in detail, and should outline how you come to the conclusion
that this is the right market for your product/service. You should
also state why this market is going to use your product and show what
research has been conducted to come to this conclusion.
Marketing Program
Product
Strategy
The product strategy should give a
detailed description of what your product(s) are and how they are
going to benefit your company. You describe which products you think
will be most popular and describe which ones you want to be the most
popular (The BCG Dot Matrix is very good in helping you determine
this). If you are doing an individual product marketing plan, then
this section would describe in detail what your product is and what
strategies you have to make it beat out your competitors.
Price
Strategy
The price strategy is where you
will describe your key pricing issues. It is a good idea to state
whether you are taking the high cost-low turnover method or the low
cost/high turnover method. If you think your key selling point is
going to be the price, then explain that here. If you are taking the
low cost/high turnover approach then explain how your company will
succeed with the low profit-margin on each product. Be sure to include
rough estimates of profit-margins, manufacturing costs and end
consumer prices.
Promotion
Strategy
The promotion strategy is one of the most important sections of the
marketing plan sample free. This is where it
can make or break a marketing program. This section should include
advertising strategies you plan to engage in, any marketing strategies
for your products such as attending trade shows, conferences etc. Also
you should explain what message you want to promote in all of the
items mentioned above. You should send the same message through all
channels of communication.
Just Do It
Now that you have your plan, go
out and make it real. There is no use spending months in analysis
paralysis trying to write a perfect plan. Rather, have a bias towards
action and go get started NOW.
