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Marketing Plans - Sample Marketing Plan Outline

by Peter Geisheker, CEO, The Geisheker Group Marketing Company

Click here to download a FREE small business marketing plan e-book

Behind every successful product or service is a well-researched marketing plan. A marketing plan guides a company step-by-step how to market its product or service to a specific target market and it helps a company remain focused on its marketing objectives.

The Marketing Plan defines all of the components of your marketing strategy. You will address the details of your market analysis, sales, advertising, and public relations campaigns. The Plan should also integrate traditional (offline) programs with new media (online) strategies.

By not preparing a marketing plan, you are leading your company to certain failure. Attempting to market your product without first creating a marketing plan is like trying to build a house without a blueprint. Anyone with common sense knows that building a house without a blueprint is very foolish and will lead to disastrous results. The same holds true for preparing a marketing plan. A marketing plan is your company's blueprint for properly marketing your product to the audience who is most willing to buy it. By not preparing and following a marketing plan, you will be flying blind and you are going to make a lot of marketing mistakes and lose a lot of money.

Topics discussed in a Small Business Marketing Plan include:

Market Research
Collect, organize, and write down data about the market that is currently buying the product(s) or service(s) you will sell. (From now on we'll refer to your products or services as "product.") Some areas to consider:

Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality

Customers-demographics, market segment, target markets, needs, buying decisions

Product-what's out there now, what's the competition offering

Current sales in the industry

Benchmarks in the industry

Suppliers-vendors that you will need to rely on

Target Market-Find niche or target markets for your product and describe them

Product
Describe your product. How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use?
Competition
Describe your competition. Develop your "unique selling proposition." What makes you stand apart from your competition? What is your competition doing about branding and positioning?
Mission Statement
Write a few sentences that state:
- "Key market" - who you're selling to
- "Contribution" - what you're selling
- "Distinction" - your unique selling proposition
Marketing Strategies
Write down the marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider include:

Networking-Go where your market is, Chamber of Commerce, BNI, etc.

Direct marketing-Sales letters, brochures, postcards, flyers, etc.

Advertising-Print media, directories, billboards, yellow pages, radio, TV

Training programs-Seminars that you give to increase awareness

Write articles, give advice, become known as an expert

Direct/personal selling

Publicity/press releases

Trade shows

Web site marketing

Referral programs

Co-marketing with businesses that share your target market

Barter

Pricing, Positioning and Branding
From the information collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness.
Budget
Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? How much can you afford to spend per month?
Marketing Goals
Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goal might be to gain at least 10 new clients each month or to generate 100 leads per month.
Monitor Your Results
Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working.

Survey customers

Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions

Determine which marketing strategies are producing the most customers and which are producing the least customers

Measure Return on Investment per each marketing activity

If you need help preparing a small business marketing plan, call The Geisheker Group, Inc. We will prepare a marketing plan full of powerful marketing strategies to help your company attract new customers and increase sales fast! Call (920) 592-9595 for more information or email us.

Click here to download a FREE Small Business Marketing Plan e-book