The Ingredients of a Marketing Plan

• Posted by GAFM AFRICA January 26, 2018 - Filed in Business - #  ##marketing  - 1,049 views

  Every how-to book on the market has a different take on the essential elements of a marketing plan. Those geared toward the big corporate crowd communicate in a language few human beings understand. However, the words you use are much less important than how seriously you approach the task.

  This section outlines the key elements you need to include in your marketing plan. No matter how it's ultimately organized, your marketing plan should be a straightforward, easily understood company document. It should provide you with a clear direction for your marketing efforts for the coming year, and it should give an incisive look into your company for all readers.

  Preparing to Write
  Before you begin to write, pull together some information you'll need. Getting the information first avoids interruptions in the thinking and writing process. Have on hand:

   

  • Your company's latest financial reports (profit and loss, operating budgets and so on) and latest sales figures by product and region for the current and the past three years or, if less, for however long you've been in business.

  Market Situation
  The "market situation" section should contain your best and most clear-headed description of the current state of the marketplace (this is no place for hunches).

  • What are your products/services or product/service lines?
  • What is the dollar size of your markets?
  • What is your sales and distribution setup?
  • What geographic area do you sell to?
  • Describe your audience in terms of population, demographics, income levels and so on.

  Threats and Opportunities
  This section is an extension of the "market situation" section, and it should focus on the bad and good implications of the current market:

  • What trends in the marketplace are against you?
  • Are there competitive trends that are ominous?
  • Are your current products poised to succeed in the market as it now exists?
  • What trends in the marketplace favor you?

  Marketing Objectives

  In the "marketing objectives" section, you paint your picture of the future: What marketing objectives do you want to achieve over the course of the plan? Each of your marketing objectives should include both a narrative description of what you intend to accomplish along with numbers to give you something concrete to aim for. Just to say you want to make a first entry into the Swiss screw machine marketplace isn't providing much guidance. Saying you want to go from 0 percent to 8 percent of the local market in two years is easier to understand--and verifiable. If you're not sure of the size of the local market, then aim at a dollar figure in sales. Your accountant will let you know whether you've succeeded or not.

  Goal for It
  If you're new to the marketing plan racket, how do you set a quantifiable goal? Start with your past. Review your past sales numbers, your growth over the years in different markets, the size of typical new customers, and how new product introductions have fared

  Marketing Goals: Where the Details Start
  Here's where you come down out of the clouds and spell out how you're going to make things happen. While your spreadsheet has shown increasingly stunning profits each time you bump up the market gains, now you're in the real world. Gains must be made by brains and brawn.

  Budgets and Controls

  Whether done well or poorly, business activity always costs money. Your marketing plan needs to have a section in which you allocate budgets for each activity planned