Take Advantage of This Free Marketing Plan
Template
By:
Kim T. Gordon
Question: I’m the owner of a computer software design company and need
to update our marketing plan. Where can I get examples of some good
marketing plans and/or programs?
Answer: It's a great idea to update your marketing plan annually,
then review and adjust it quarterly. And if you don’t have a written
plan, use our free marketing plan template. It’s vital to put your
ideas and programs on paper, or they may fall through the cracks in
your busy schedule.
A solid
plan should consolidate all the required information within an
easy-to-follow structure. If the plan is for your in-house use, you
can be quite brief and rely on bulleted sections, but if it’s for
review by a bank or investors, you should include as much detail as
possible to make your case. Over the years, I've developed an
effective free marketing plan template with five concise sections.
1.
Situation Analysis
Begin
your plan with a realistic overview of your competition and how you'll
position against them. Outline the challenges you face, then describe
the benefits that set your company apart.
2.
Target Audience
List
each primary and secondary target audience followed by a description
of each. If you're marketing to consumers, include a target audience
profile based on their demographics such as age, gender, household
income and where they live. For a b2b plan, describe your targeted
business categories and the qualifying criteria for prospects in each.
3.
Goals
Make a
list of your marketing goals and assign a completion deadline to each
one. It's vital to make them quantifiable. For example, it will be
easier to measure your success if your goal is to, "Gain three retail
accounts by September 30th," instead of to "win new retail accounts."
4.
Strategies and Tactics
This is
the heart of your plan. Define each of your marketing strategies and
outline precisely which activities you plan to undertake and the tools
you'll produce to achieve your goals. How will you use advertising,
direct mail, public relations or the Web to reach your target
audiences? What types of brochures and sales tools will you create and
in what quantities? Describe your tactics and attach media and
production schedules with completion dates.
5.
Budget
With
your tactics fully outlined, you can now determine the costs to
execute each one. This is a very important section in me free
marketing plan template. If the tactics you've selected are too
costly, you can easily re-evaluate them and look for more affordable
ways to reach your goals.
You’ll
find a complete chapter on creating your own marketing plan in
Bringing Home the Business. To see other marketing plan formats,
visit the site of Palo Alto Software (www.palo--alto.com) to view
sample plans created with their program Marketing Plan Pro.
