The marketing plan includes the following key indicators. Marketing plan. Problems caused by not having a marketing plan

It is not enough to produce goods, deliver them to shops and wait for the moment when consumers themselves start buying and talking about the product. In modern conditions, when every sphere is overflowing with competitors, you literally have to fight for every client. The tools of this war are marketing knowledge and skillful planning.

Goals and development of a marketing plan

If a business is going to be successful, then it must move twice as fast as the rest. This is roughly what the experience of successful people in the business world says. Another rule is to think on paper: in diagrams, figures and, importantly, in terms.

Considering the fact that the main driving force of all company activities is the process of selling its goods or services, the marketing plan is perhaps the most important strategic document. It will clearly reflect current position company, goal and means of achieving it. After the document is approved by management, it should be submitted to the attention of other departments directly or indirectly related to strategic action companies.

The marketing plan is divided into two types in terms of terms: short-term - from 6 months to 1 year, and long-term - from 3 to 5 years. Depending on the external factors in the course of the implementation of the goal, small changes can be made, but without concessions and changes to the planned plan.

How to compose?

The marketing plan should give a detailed description of potential customers, details of where they can see the product and how they will make a decision to make a purchase. Before you start drawing up the plan, you should answer the following questions and clearly outline the boundaries in this moment, since this information forms the basis of the plan.

Strategy: What role will the plan play in the context of overall business processes?
Mission: what needs to be done and for what purpose?
Target audience: who are the marketing measures aimed at?
Competitor analysis: who are the competitors and who have what advantages?
Unique product offer: what are the differences over competitors?
Price factor: what does the consumer get for his money?
Promotion plan: how does the target audience know about the company?
Budget: how much do you need and how much is there?
List of actions: what should be done and in what sequence?
Analyzing the results: what can be improved, what can be dropped, and what can be left as is?

Answering these critical questions will help clarify the way forward. Now you should consider each item separately.

Strategy

The marketing strategy plan should reflect the main direction of the company's movement, and the rest of the parts will tell you how to do it. Suppose an entrepreneur is interested in expanding a network of retail stores selling building materials and wants to win over customers in new regions. Then the goals of the marketing plan will be to present your product in a new market segment. At the next stage, the strategy is divided into short-term and long-term measures.

It is also important to be able to distinguish between the two important concepts, often found as a description of one action: marketing plan and strategy. The difference is that the first term describes a list of actions, while the second describes how to implement them.

Mission

It is generally accepted that the formation of a mission and the spread of an idea is characteristic of large corporations that have achieved a certain level of fame in their field. This was the case until recently. New trends in the world of business encourage business with social dimensions: a company can simultaneously conduct commercial activities and carry an idea from the field of universal values. To this end, companies hold entire events to emphasize their own solidarity with the opinion of the majority: charity exhibitions and other public events.

But successful businessmen differ in that they find non-standard solutions. The mission can be applied as a marketing tool. Perhaps a marketing plan of this nature will require additional investments in organizing and holding events, but in the end it can serve as a good promotion tool.

The target audience

At this stage, you will have to answer the question: who are the people who will help the business achieve its goals? Target audience - a segment in the society to which advertising should be addressed and which can become real customers in the future.

The company's marketing plan starts with creating a psychological and social portrait target audience... They help a lot in this matter. marketing research... They can be found ready-made or ordered from specialized companies. You can also do it yourself. For this, it is necessary to objectively answer a number of questions:

Who are the potential customers?
Where can you find them?
What is important to them?
What problems do they have?
How will this product help them solve their problems?

It is necessary to create a sketch of the "ideal client" and build further stages with an eye on him. This will help you personalize your marketing messages as much as possible.

Competitors

When developing a marketing plan, you need to study in detail the competitors, their approach and product promotion systems. At the same time, we must not forget that there is business ethics, when rough copying of competitors' materials, open competition and belittling their product through their advertising materials is not allowed. In some countries, this aspect is controlled by special laws.

Information obtained from competitor analysis is subject to careful scrutiny, but not used in your campaigns. If you look at examples of the marketing plan of other companies, this stage they answer the following questions:

Competitor strengths: how do they attract customers?
What additional services do they provide?
How does the “ideal client” perceive them?
What can they improve in their work?
What does your plan look like against the background of their actions?

The purpose of this stage is to compare and objectively assess your own capabilities. After the conclusions are drawn, it is necessary to prepare a plan to get ahead of them according to certain criteria.

USP - a unique selling proposition

USP should be implemented in the form of a specific product or service, which is fundamentally different from competitors' proposals. If there is no such proposal, then the marketing plan of the enterprise has the right to propose the creation of such a product.

But professional marketers know how to separate USP from the most common product. As an information base, two points are used that have already become known at the previous stages: what problems the client has and how and how this product can help in this.

Examples of

How to create a USP successfully? Here it is appropriate to recall the ad for M & M's chocolates. She attracted attention by the fact that the inscription appeared on the wrappers: "It melts in the mouth, not in the hands!" It is obvious that in the process development of USP the experts noted the concern of buyers when chocolates can get their hands dirty and suggested a solution.

Another example is Domino's pizza, whose motto is: "Wait 30 minutes or get it for free!" Here the specialists simply put themselves in the customer's shoes: what is he experiencing at the moment? Hunger, of course. Every minute of waiting is very difficult for a hungry person. Marketers showed human understanding, and it had its effects.

Price factor

At this stage, competitors' prices and own prices are considered. In the process of pricing, the marketing part is taken into account only indirectly, since it is influenced by completely different factors: the cost of raw materials, technologies, labor, transportation and the expected profit.

Ultimately, however, the price factor can have a significant impact on sales. It all depends on the type of product. There are goods for which the price cannot be low under any circumstances. Usually they belong to the category of luxury: diamonds, cars, etc. In this area it makes no sense to rely on low prices.

On price factor you can place a bet when it comes to selling clothes, gadgets, appliances or furniture. It should be borne in mind here that the consumer evaluates the product in terms of price-quality ratio.

Events

Event management refers to short-term advertising campaigns. Excellent results can be expected if the idea of \u200b\u200ban event is combined with a socially significant event and the company's own mission. As a rule, you need to prepare for such events long in advance.

Examples: holding a tree planting campaign on Defense Day environment, flash mobs or entertainment activities on Children's Day, etc. Before the event, it will not be superfluous to send out a press release to the local media and get their attention. If the idea finds a general response, then the company will receive media coverage and advertising in its context.

A marketing research plan will help you identify successful ideas and ways to present such events.

Budget

How much money will it cost to implement a massive marketing campaign that can reach the entire target audience? The budget should be set several months in advance.

When planning a budget, you have two options: a solid budget that allows you to buy the best sites for advertising or a small budget from which you need to squeeze the maximum.

In the second case, the selected sites and advertising channels should be reviewed. Expensive channels are eliminated and more accessible ones are left. Another option is to reduce the amount of advertising with the same amount.

It is also necessary to determine what is profitable: to have your own marketer on the staff with the skills of a designer, copywriter and video editor, or to order materials from advertising agencies... In general, the marketing plan budget in the business plan should be one of the top priorities.

Action List

At this stage, you need to paint an action plan. In particular, on which sites the advertisement will be placed. There are many options.

Print advertising: specialized catalogs and magazines.
TV advertising: commercials or banner ads.
Web sites.
Contextual advertising.
Targeted advertising in social networks.
Holding exhibitions and celebrations.
Distribution by mail or telephone.
PR materials and their distribution.

Not many companies can handle all channels at once. An example of a marketing plan should choose the most suitable options from this arsenal and proceed with placement. At the initial stage, it is enough to define 3-5 channels and work with them.

The role of the work done in the development of the business can only be assessed through continuous analysis. If you do not analyze the results, then we can assume that the resources are thrown to the wind.

After each event, the marketing department must compile statistics, which will reflect the basic information: the number of people involved, their opinion, the impact of the campaign on the level of sales and the company's image.

Not all campaigns will be equally effective: some will have to be discarded, others will have to be adjusted and included in the action plan for the next period. To assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, their specific tools are used, including research.

In any case, successful campaigns should be emphasized and their budget expanded, ineffective ones are postponed until better times or thrown out of the plan.

Conclusion

Business trends change frequently. Including in Russia. At the stage of formation of the private manufacturing and trade sector, the presence of demand was previously relevant. But today, almost all industries are in a highly competitive environment. A new player will have to make his own way into the hearts and wallets of consumers in order to win his place.

Starting a business, every entrepreneur must clearly understand the conditions in which he will have to work and what paths can lead to the growth of the company. An objectively written business plan, in which marketing strategies are carefully designed, will give a clear idea of \u200b\u200bwhere to go and how to do it. And already at the planning stage, you can see the prospects: are there chances in a particular industry, or there is no point in wasting time and money.

Considering the fact that marketing is a separate industry economic sciences and requires special knowledge, it is recommended to involve professional specialists in the process. They will help you see your strengths and weaknesses. If mistakes are made, then alternative ways will be suggested.

Sales Generator

Competition in the market today is very tough, and all business leaders should pay great attention to the development of their business. Managers should determine which direction to go, how to cut costs, how and where to attract customers, and finally, how to increase revenue.

In this regard, it is very important to develop a marketing plan - a document that allows you to clearly understand how to solve the above and other tasks.

In this article, you will learn:

The main stages of development
5 shortcomings in already developed plans

What is the purpose of developing a marketing plan

The marketing plan is an integral part of the company's development system for the year ahead (as well as financial, production and other plans). When developing a marketing plan, the organization reflects in this document its goals and offers options for achieving them.

In the annual plan, they prescribe common tasks (market, financial, production, innovation, management), determine the ways and methods of their solution.

The development of any company plan is carried out according to the following scheme:

Since there is a lot of competition in the market, it is on marketing activities that companies should focus on. In this regard, the development of a marketing plan is a top priority for enterprises. Accordingly, it is this document most important compared to others for a number of reasons:

In addition, the main function of any enterprise is to link the wishes of the buyer and business opportunities, which is the responsibility of marketing. Therefore, defining the company's mission, performing a SWOT analysis, setting common goals and developing a development strategy also turn into a marketing task.

Of course, before you start developing a marketing plan, you want to determine exactly what benefits the document will bring to your business.

It is appropriate to compare a marketing plan with a map - thanks to it, you can understand where the company is now, where it is going, how it plans to achieve its goals.

To clearly define the need for a marketing plan, we will briefly describe the difficulties that arise in a company where this document is missing. Here we will look at the results that the firm gets after the formation of the marketing plan.

Problems caused by not having a marketing plan	Marketing plan results
the company has several options for development, but it has not been decided which one is better to invest in	a list of attractive directions of development was determined, unattractive ones were discarded
it is not known which buyers should be targeted in the first place	defined a group of target consumers and received their description
it is not known which types of products need to be developed, which ones to improve, which ones to refuse	the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise are identified: it is clear which problems need to be solved first
the company is developing in leaps and bounds, there are no clear development prospects	a clear action plan has been established that should lead to the intended goals

That is, the marketing plan:

brings together and communicates to all employees of the company ideas that before the development of this document were carried in his head only by the head;
promotes clear setting of goals and control over their achievement;
is a document that organizes the activities of the entire company;
helps to avoid unnecessary actions that cannot lead to the desired results;
stimulates the personnel of the enterprise to work more productively.

Let's summarize all of the above and consider all the pros and cons of developing a marketing plan for the company.

Arguments against developing a marketing plan	Arguments for developing a marketing plan
No time to develop a marketing plan	The development of a shortened version of the marketing plan according to the algorithm proposed in this article will take several days. A developed marketing plan will save you time due to the fact that you will not take unnecessary actions that do not lead you to the goals set in the marketing plan
"We work successfully without him"	In this case, with a marketing plan, your business will work even more successfully.
It is unknown how to design it	This article will provide a detailed algorithm for developing a marketing plan, following which you can independently draw up this document for your enterprise.

What plan do you need to develop?

Marketing plans come in different types. They are classified into the following categories:

Validity. Development of strategic plan marketing is an important procedure for an enterprise. This type of plan is designed for a period of more than three years. There is also a tactical plan, which is valid for less than three years, as well as an operational one - up to one month.
Coverage. A distinction is made between a turnover plan, a sales plan, a promotional plan, market research, and an integrated (complex) plan.
Depth of study. The plan can be detailed or general.
Field of activity... Highlight marketing plans for goals, pricing, product policies, marketing communications, control and audit, finance, warehousing, formation of orders, supplies (logistics), etc.

What sections does the marketing plan consist of?

The marketing plan is divided into a number of sections.

Management resume (or introduction for guidance). This is an introductory section in the content of the marketing plan, where the goals, objectives, key problems are briefly listed, the mission of the enterprise is described. Here you also explain the terms used in the document.
Analysis of the market situation and assessment of the company's position. In the section you:

describe the segments and needs of your target audience;
analyze the market (legislation, suppliers, trends and forecasts, industry specifics);
summarize the results of marketing research carried out within the company (describe the identified gaps in the activities that prevent the business from developing successfully and increasing sales);
indicate the results of your SWOT analysis (describe the positive and negative factors that can affect the sales of the company and its further development);
give the perceived advantages over competitors (which can be used as selling points in the promotion process).

Analysis of the work of competing companies. Here you should describe in accordance with what strategies your competitors are acting, how they form prices, in which direction they are moving, what marketing activities they conduct, how they work with customers.

Also here it is necessary to analyze their assortment, bring your conclusions and suggestions based on the results of a study using the "mystery shopper" method, etc.

Submit your application

Company strategy for product promotion... In the section, you describe the results of the analysis of the company's product portfolio, assessment of sales, market needs, recommendations for expanding / narrowing the product range, optimization production technologies (if required) and pricing.
Marketing strategy... Here you list the main points of your marketing strategy for solving the problems described in the marketing plan summary. More precisely, you reveal how the company plans to position its brand, enter new markets, work with the target audience, according to what scheme to sell goods.

You also designate proposals for the channels and tools for promoting the enterprise, activities for interaction with the partner's network, describe how the company can strengthen and consolidate its position in the market, how it should serve customers and conduct internal marketing activities.

Analytics.Here it will not be superfluous to indicate what analytical data you need for work and actual monitoring of the internal situation in the company and the external situation in the market, both on an ongoing and an occasional basis.

Here we can talk, for example, about activities for the collection of commercial information, preparation of analytical materials, analysis of the most promising market segments, monitoring of competitors.

Action plan.This chapter of the marketing plan reflects all the active actions and measures taken to solve the tasks and eliminate the existing problems.

In fact, an action plan is a table of your actions for a year, where the deadlines and responsible persons are clearly indicated. It is better to make this section as detailed as possible - it will make it easier for you to work.

8 . Financial marketing plan (the financial analysis, or marketing budget). This section should summarize your findings on the key parameters related to the sales forecast and marketing costs of the enterprise.

You can include the results of the analysis of the dynamics of sales in the chapter, breaking them down into several subsections - by customers, market segments, product categories, regions where your company operates. Briefly indicate the amount of expenses for marketing purposes, grouping them according to the same criteria as sales figures.

Controlling the marketing plan... This is the last chapter of the document, in which the mechanism and tools for monitoring the implementation of the plan provisions by the company divisions should be detailed.

You can specify that other structural units of the enterprise are required to provide reports at a certain time, that you need to track the KPIs of the enterprise and their measurement control points, and also adjust the indicators every quarter, taking into account changes in the market.

Applications... Tables and graphs are attached to the marketing plan, where the provisions of the document are disclosed in more detail. The applications can reflect the dynamics with which the main market indicators are developing, how competitors operate, how the company conducts production, commercial or marketing activities.

Developing a marketing strategy and plan allows you to systematize all the actions necessary to solve a particular problem. Each activity identified in the marketing plan is designed to achieve a specific goal related to both business development and problem resolution.

When you start developing a marketing plan, remember - it should not be just a document that contains facts about the company and its competitors. A marketing plan is a collection of analytical data, recommendations, options for the future work of a business in the market.

In total, the development of a marketing plan will take you about 3-4 months. Half of this time will be spent on collecting the necessary information, 40% - analysis and evaluation, 10% - the formation of the plan itself.

The main stages of developing a marketing plan

Developing a marketing plan is a difficult process. This is a complex and complex document, when creating which one should take into account a number of the most important details and nuances.

However, even a specialist with little knowledge of the marketing industry can solve the problem of drawing up a quality plan. Below we will reveal the sequence of developing a marketing plan. So what needs to be done to create such a highly effective policy?

Stage 1. Conducting a situational analysis

Determine the goals of the organization in its work

Situational analysis is conducted to better understand the current marketing situation in which your company is located. If you are clearly aware of your position at the moment and have a good understanding of the market, you can develop an effective plan to improve the situation.

Review your goals and mission (if they are missing, then be sure to set them), check if the current marketing plan is helping to achieve the desired results.

Suppose your company provides services for clearing snow from areas in winter. You have set a goal to increase revenue by 10% by concluding new contracts for this. Do you have a marketing plan that outlines options for attracting additional contracts? If there is a plan, does it have the desired effect?

Determine what marketing advantages and disadvantages your business has

What is currently attracting an audience in your company? How does the customer benefit from competing businesses? It is possible that consumers see your merits and therefore choose you. Knowing your strengths is a critical marketing advantage.

Determine what unconditional advantages over competitors you have, what attracts your customers ... This is about internal characteristics business and the satisfaction of your customers. Potential benefits include low cost, excellent service, friendly attitude towards customers, fast and quality service.
Identify your differences from competing companies. Differences may affect your strengths or the way you do business. If you want customers to choose you over your competitors, then you should understand in advance what should make them give preference to you.
Beyond the benefits, you need to be aware of the job gaps. , since this is also an important parameter in the analysis. Once you identify the flaws, you can begin to correct and eliminate them. If you don't work on the bugs, you will give your competitors the green light and they will easily bypass you.

Study your target audience

Developing a marketing plan involves carefully studying your audience. You must clearly understand who your product is for in order to direct your marketing strategy to a specific segment of customers.

If you know well who your target audience is and what they want, you will understand where and how to promote your product. If you do not have an idea of \u200b\u200bthe circle of your potential customers, you will not understand how to adapt products to the needs of customers.

Conduct demographic research when developing your plan. Find out who your customers are - what gender, age, where they live, how much they earn on average. For example, if you provide snow removal services and services to large organizations, find out which part of the services is most important to them.
Use official statistics for your market and industry. You can explore such economic indicators, such as price and cost indices, as well as employment statistics by country, region and city.
If you have sufficient funds, contact specialized companies, by ordering individual research and market analysis, as well as analysis of current trends in the industry.
Pay attention and study the activities of competitors. There is only one way to offer consumers what your competitors cannot provide - to find out exactly what attracts customers to your competitors. If you understand the advantages and disadvantages of similar enterprises in the industry, you will achieve success faster.

Collect data on opportunities and threats to your business

The development of a marketing plan also involves the collection of data - the external characteristics of the company that depend on competitors, changes in the market environment, consumers.

The main task here is to identify various kinds of factors that can influence the company's activities. If you know this information, it will become much easier to form and adjust your marketing plan.

Analyze market trends , for example, how the wishes and needs of customers, as well as expectations from businesses like yours, are changing.
Explore trends in the financial industry, for example, pay attention to the increased use of virtual payment instruments and current inflation rates.

Stage 2. Exploring the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise

At this stage, you need to perform a series of actions.

Send out questionnaires to consumers by mail

If you have a large enough base of regular customers, then you may well interview them. This will allow you to get information from consumers about the strengths and weaknesses of your business.

As a result, the generated marketing plan will focus on the benefits of your company (since you will know exactly what your customers prefer). Moreover, by identifying your weaknesses, you will correct the existing shortcomings and improve your activities.

The survey sheets you send to your clients should be characterized by brevity and simplicity. Often people want to take a survey, but do not want to spend a lot of time and effort on it. The questionnaire should be about half of an A4 page.

Ideally, the buyer should answer your questions briefly on their own, and not just choose one of the options you proposed.

Of course, if you want, you can also include questions in the questionnaire where a person will choose one of the options. However, most of the questions should be open-ended, for example: "How do you like our product / service?", "What improvements would you like to see?" etc.

You can also ask buyers if they are ready to recommend you to their friends and why. So you will not only collect information about the advantages and disadvantages of your organization, but also understand how satisfied customers are with the service, the quality of goods and services.

Conduct a survey by email

Such a survey can only be carried out if you know the email address of your customers, that is, you have received the contact information of your customers in advance for the monthly mailing.

The content of an email survey is not much different from that of a standard survey. But when you collect information in this way e-mail, there is a serious risk that your message will end up in the Spam folder. You will never be able to find out which part of the sent letters will reach the addressees and which will not. There is also no guarantee that people who receive emails will want to take the survey.

Organize a survey by phone

Telephone surveys are a complex and controversial topic, since many people have a very negative attitude towards calls from unknown persons and conversations with them. However, if your business is based on personal communication with customers, then telephone surveys are no big deal.

Questions for them can be the same as for a written questionnaire - about the pros and cons of the company, about the likelihood of recommending you to friends.

If you are planning to conduct telephone surveys, then it might make sense to use the services of a person with high typing speed who can compile a summary table or catalog of reviews from your target audience.

Conduct an individual customer survey

Don't do a very detailed individual survey. Limit yourself to a couple of related questions during a telephone conversation with a client on a case, when you process his order or provide assistance.

Remember, the most optimal way to conduct a survey is direct personal communication with the buyer, from which you will directly learn exactly what gaps are in your business.

As with a telephone survey, you will need to record customer responses and feedback during your personal interview. From this, a personal survey does not lose its effectiveness at all or becomes difficult to perform. You just need to think through every detail in advance with this method of interaction.

Stage 3. Selection of ideas for developing a marketing plan

There are several steps you need to follow at this stage.

Collect all the information you have

Review the results of all the research you've done before and chart ways to expand your business. Then match your ideas to the current reality and complexities.

Don't forget about expected costs, current and predicted market trends that may appear in the near future. Consider in which regions your business would be most successful, which demographic groups to target, and pay attention to competitors operating in the same territories.

Appoint responsible persons

The development of a marketing plan also involves the appointment of persons responsible for certain areas of activity and development of your enterprise. Determine which specialists of the company will be better able to cope with solving marketing problems, and establish their terms of reference.

You should also think about which evaluation system of the performance of these specialists should be applied in the enterprise.

Outline marketing goals

Think about what the development of a marketing plan will give you, what goals this document will allow you to achieve. Perhaps you are interested in expanding your client base, delivering information about new services and quality improvements to the current target audience, developing other regions, or in any other marketing result.

It is these points that will form the basis for developing a plan:

There should be no contradictions between marketing objectives and the main goals of the enterprise.
When setting your marketing goals, remember to be tangible and measurable. Otherwise, the results of their achievement will be difficult to interpret, and you will not be able to understand which of the applied strategies and approaches were effective.
Focus primarily on indicators such as increased sales / production in physical terms, increased revenue, increased awareness of your company, and expansion of the new customer base.
For example, you can set a goal to increase the number of contracts awarded by 20% or increase awareness of your business on social media.

Define a plan for achieving goals

Developing a strategic marketing plan is a process in which you need to touch three groups of consumers: cold customers (which you will have to reach with the help of advertising tools), warm (who have already seen ads or took part in some promotion), and hot ( familiar with the range of your products and services).

You need to come up with a clear and effective plan to win and build the trust of all types of customers. This will ultimately affect the chosen marketing strategy.

To inform a cold group of customers, you can use social media, broadcast advertisements on the radio, post them on billboards or flyers.

Specialists can work with a warm category. Based on the information obtained as a result of marketing research, they will competently convince consumers that your product or service most effectively solves their problem.

Develop marketing strategies that will help you achieve your goals

Developing a marketing strategy and plan is unthinkable without a clear formulation and setting of goals and prospects. Once you have defined your goals, you will need to develop clear actions aimed at achieving them. Today there are different types marketing strategies. Let's dwell on the most popular ones.

Organization and holding of corporate events or special events right in retail outlets.

This allows you to attract the attention of the target audience to the brand. Such an event can be a banquet or something else that will form a favorable impression of the company among consumers, stimulate your employees to work even more productively and unite them, and most importantly, increase the circle of your customers.

Application of social promotion methods - they bring a positive effect almost always.

These methods work to promote your business and make customers admire your products or services. You can hold on the territory of the store or in social networks any competition with a symbolic prize for the attention shown to your brand or for subscribing to your group in social networks.

Short-term support for your business by a leader or opinion leaders already using your products and services.

That is, you pay the chosen authority figure or group of people for support, and the partner provides it, for example, through social networks. A marketing effort like this may require a significant financial investment from you, but the results usually justify the cost.

Don't forget that high-quality advertising gives great results.

Approve the budget

You can make big plans to grow your business and grow your customer base, but don't forget about your budget. Consider this when developing your marketing plan.

If you are on a budget, you may have to partially change your strategy. You should have a realistic budget that reflects the state of the business for the current period and its possible development in the future.

Take a hard look at the budget that you can use for advertising and marketing purposes at the moment. It is not worth increasing its size, hoping for excellent results after the implementation of the marketing plan in the form of large earnings. After all, if the developed activities fail, you will simply lose money.
Start by distributing funds allocated for marketing purposes, and proceed from this. Choose effective advertising methodstime-tested and use them.
No need to be afraid to go against the plan somewhere... If promotional activities do not go as you planned (for example, advertising in a newspaper will not work on potential customers), choose a different, more effective way and direct all previously allocated funds to its implementation.

Stage 4. Preparation of a marketing plan

This is directly the development of a marketing plan, within which you need to perform a number of actions.

Prepare an explanatory note

This chapter of your marketing plan should provide basic information about your product or service and provide a short summary of the entire document. Typically, a resume takes 1-2 paragraphs.

If you write a good explanatory note, then it will be easier in the future to cover in more detail certain provisions in the main text of the marketing plan.

Remember that the marketing plan should be introduced to both your employees and submitted to consultants for study.

Describe target audience

When developing a marketing plan, include in its second chapter the research results and describe the target audience of the enterprise. Don't write complex, long text. Indicate the main provisions of the document, and that will be enough.

First, describe the demographic parameters of your audience (age, gender, location, area of \u200b\u200bactivity of your customers), and then outline the main consumer preferences regarding your products or services.

List goals

A chapter should not span more than one page. Indicate in it the marketing objectives of the enterprise for the coming year. Remember, your goals must have five characteristics - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

For example, a realistic and achievable goal might be something like: "Increase by the end of 2018 the total revenue from state-owned enterprises by 10%."

Describe your marketing strategy

This chapter talks about the implementation of the marketing plan, that is, it describes the overall marketing strategy. The main thing here is to focus on the USP (Unique Selling Proposition). It is USP that is the main advantage of your business.

If you identify and plan the key strategic ideas, you can write quality text for this chapter. Don't forget that your marketing strategy should help you sell your USP.

The section should include information on how to interact with customers (through trade shows, radio ads, phone calls, through online advertising).

It should be clear from the chapter how to stimulate consumers to buy, to convince them that your product will be useful. That is, you need to communicate to customers exactly how your unique selling proposition can meet their needs.

Note that it is in this chapter that it is most important to give specific information.

Specify budget

Here it is necessary to indicate the total amount of funds that must be directed to the promotion of products, and also clearly indicate for what purposes it will be spent. You need to divide all the estimated costs into groups and summarize the costs for each of the areas.

For example, you plan to spend half a million rubles on participation in trade shows, another half a million on advertising on the radio, 20 thousand rubles on flyers, 100 thousand rubles on the use of new promotion methods, 150 thousand rubles on optimizing the company's website ...

Update your marketing plan every year (at least)

Either way, developing a marketing plan is not the end point. In any case, the plan will need to be adjusted. According to marketers, the optimal frequency for updating marketing plans is once a year.

Revision of the developed plan for promotion allows you to assess the degree of achievement of goals, taking into account current indicators, how to work and develop in the future, and in which elements of the existing scheme of actions need to be adjusted.

When reviewing your marketing plan, assess the situation objectively. If you find that any of the employees who are assigned certain responsibilities are causing damage to the enterprise by their actions, have an open conversation and discuss current problems.

If the situation is completely unsatisfactory, it is possible that a new marketing plan will need to be developed. In such cases, it is advisable to turn to a third-party consultant - this will allow you to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the old marketing plan and correct any mistakes when drawing up a new one.

An example of developing a marketing plan

As an example, here's a simplified marketing plan for a company that sells fresh juices at five specialized outlets in different parts of the city.

Stage 1. Analysis of market trends

Consumers want to buy juices from fresh fruits and vegetables. Drinks are received in their presence, after which they are sold in paper cups or plastic bottles - convenient containers for drinking.
Juices are sold near large offices and in recreational areas.
These drinks can cost more than coffee and sodas. But at the same time, their price is lower than the cost of fresh juices offered by city cafes and restaurants.

Stage 2. Analysis of the product

The company produces fruit juices in plastic bottles and on tap.
All five points of sale are located in high traffic areas, including recreational areas.
The cost of juices is the same as the price of fresh juices in city cafes and restaurants.

Stage 3. Choosing the target audience

Taking into account the cost and properties of the goods, it is designed for working representatives of the middle class who strive to maintain their health in good condition.

Stage 4. Positioning and competitive advantages

The firm will be able to offer the consumer a high quality product at a significant price.
Its main competitive advantages will be: the presence of only natural ingredients in the drink, ease of use and a good location of outlets.

Stage 5. Strategy development

The company is targeting the array regular customers.
Seeks to keep customers in the cold season.

Stage 6. Plan of tactical actions

Here the company intends to:

to form a cumulative points system for buyers and a system of seasonal discounts;
offer delivery of juices around the city in plastic containers;
expand the assortment by selling dietary cookies and bars.

Based on the above example, you can create your marketing plan based on the specifics of your business.

5 flaws in developing a marketing plan

Many marketers have a logical question - why the development of a marketing plan, carried out in accordance with all the requirements, does not give the desired result? For what reason this document turns out to be ineffective, because it was drawn up in accordance with all the rules?

It's simple. The problem is that there are often the following shortcomings in well-designed and informative plans:

Note! After the development of the marketing plan has come to an end, you need to double-check the finished document for the shortcomings indicated above.

A competent marketing plan - 50% of the company's success in the market. Developing a marketing plan provides an insight into how a company must act to achieve desired positions in its industry.

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In this article, you will learn:

What is it for
How long should it be
How to develop a marketing plan for your company
How to do it quickly in half an hour
What mistakes should be avoided

Modern enterprises are constantly in a state of competitive struggle together. The one that is weaker due to an illiterately developed marketing plan loses. A company's marketing plan is important as it helps take sales to the next level. Let's figure out together how to draw it up and what strategy is better to use.

What is a company's marketing plan

The leaders of modern enterprises in a competitive environment face questions that often determine the future of the company. How to develop further, what mechanisms to use to reduce costs, where to find and attract potential customers, what marketing techniques to use to increase profits?

With the correct, competent and effective construction of the plan, you can easily find answers to these and other questions.

A company's marketing plan is short description algorithm that allows you to quickly find solutions to important production problems... Moreover, this document clearly indicates the timing and strategies. It can take one year, two or three.

The marketing plan of the company is drawn up as a separate document. Together with financial as well as production plans, it forms part of the company's strategic business plan. With their help, it is easy to build a general line of enterprise development.

For the development of the document, the results of previous studies, data on the study of economic niches in which the enterprise operates are used. Additionally, resources and consumers are analyzed to determine the main goals and objectives. The period during which the desired results indicated earlier are achieved must be indicated.

Why a company marketing plan is needed

We think this is understandable. The main purposes of this document include those described below.

A company's marketing plan will help determine its profitability.

Therefore, it is necessary to use terms that will be understood by everyone - from the manager to junior service personnel. This must be taken into account so that the work of all employees is as productive as possible.

To be more productive, you need to consider how the system works.

It will be clear from the document which department of the company needs to be strengthened and which one should be closed. It is important to describe each item in detail and accurately.

The marketing plan clearly sets goals and defines the methods to achieve them.

It is important to have an additional document if the first does not justify itself.

The main purpose of the document is to coordinate the actions of personnel (workers, employees) and management (management) of the company.

Thanks to this, the actions of the company's employees will be clear, each of the employees will know their job responsibilities well and fulfill them.

For how long to draw up a marketing plan for the company

If the company is large, then the document is developed every year. In order to have a result, specific terms must be indicated, which depend on the size of the company, the scope of its activities.

Typically, the document is drawn up for a period of three to six years and is annually revised, data adjusted, changed taking into account new market conditions. After revision, a company's marketing plan is often rewritten.

If the firm is small, then according to research from 2017, effective search engine or SEO marketing is used. It is usually used to promote goods and services on the Internet along with contextual advertising and SMM.

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Large companies work according to a different scheme, they prefer to use advertising in the media (newspapers, magazines), on television, radio.

The frequency of revising the marketing plan for small businesses depends on demand, the activity of needs, which can be independently determined using a SWOT analysis.

Other tactics, goals and methods of promotion can also be chosen. As soon as there are global changes in the market, then most often the company adjusts the positioning of goods and services, which means that the entire marketing plan is revised.

Let's look at an example. Company N produces premium baby food. In the early years, it was known only to a narrow circle of consumers. This means that the main task marketing department - to increase brand awareness. This will definitely be highlighted in the business marketing plan.

In a year, when the recognition grows, the assortment expands, the document will indicate specific dates for holding promotions, a section will appear in which you need to clearly describe the advertising campaigns.

What goals to reflect in the company's marketing plan

The ultimate goal of a marketing plan is to continually increase the company's bottom line.

Many business people often forget that marketers cannot solve all the issues themselves. They do not produce or sell goods and do not provide services, do not work with clients, partners. Therefore, it is important to consider all departments of the company and strengthen the interaction within it in order to constantly increase profits.

All members of the workforce should be involved in the implementation of the marketing plan. If this does not happen, all your endeavors will remain on paper, time and effort will be wasted.

All goals must be fixed, fixed with specific dates, by which you can then check the exact deadlines. It might look like this:

expansion, optimization of the customer base by (date) by (%);
development of a strategy for increasing sales by (date) in (times);
increase in brand awareness among consumers, target audience by (date) by (%);
expansion or formation of a new partner and dealer network by (date) by (number).

What is the structure of the company's marketing plan

A company's marketing plan is divided into several sections.

1. Management resume (introduction for leadership) - this is the first, introductory, section of the document. It contains a list of tasks, main goals of the company, its mission and problems that the business solves at the time of writing the marketing plan.

2. Assessment of the company's activities at the moment... The following points are clearly highlighted in this section:

Described main segments of the target audience.
market analysis including legislative framework, suppliers, forecasts and prospects, features of the industry in which the company operates;
internal audit, during which moments that hinder the development of the enterprise, as well as mechanisms that can improve the situation, are identified;
results of a previously conducted SWOT analysis ... At the same time, positive and negative factorsthat will affect your business;
competitive advantages ... This is what you are able to offer your business partners, potential consumers. Based on the results obtained, you will be able to effectively promote a product or service.

3. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the activities of your company's competitors... Here you need to describe the development strategy of your competitors, analyze the assortment, prices, their promotion methods, and the specifics of working with clients.

You can use the services " mystery shopper". This will allow you to draw conclusions to improve the future development of your business.

4. Development of a product strategy for your company. You analyze the product portfolio, sales, consumption volumes and draw conclusions, form recommendations for business expansion. If necessary, evaluate the product line and basic production technologies.

5. Strategy development... You need to describe the main directions of marketing of your company, how the brand and the company as a whole are positioned.

Indicate measures for working with clients, events that are held to attract new business partners, to strengthen the company's position in the market for goods and services. Analyze internal marketing and how you will serve your customers.

6. Analytics. Using special data, conduct an analysis and describe external and internal situations (in the market and in the company), possible risks that need to be taken into account in further activities.

You plan and collect information, prepare analytical materials, think over measures that can be used in specific situations... Monitor competitors, publicity, market research and describe how this is all implemented in practice.

7. Action plan... Analysis and inclusion in the company's work plan of the activities necessary to achieve the goals that you set for yourself and the company's employees. It is better if it will be a table in which you enter the actions taken to promote a product or service, as well as fix the terms, indicate the responsible, etc.

8. Finance. Analyze the main indicators, draw conclusions. They can help you predict sales, see and estimate additional costs. Include the dynamics of sales in the document, break it down by customers, market segments, groups of goods (services), regions.

Be sure to analyze the main indicators of expenses, group them so that later they can be used to draw conclusions on improving sales and the marketing plan as a whole.

9. Exercise control. This is the last section of your plan. It sets out in detail the main mechanisms and control tools with an exact indication of which divisions of your company will perform a specific item.

This section may contain reports, key indicators and milestones to help draw conclusions.

10. Applications. In this part of the document there will be graphs, tables, analysis of individual provisions of the marketing plan. This way you can track the dynamics of your business development.

As you can see, all elements of the marketing plan are systematized into a list corresponding to certain areas of activity. This helps to solve specific problems, eliminate problem points, etc.

Step by step development of the company's marketing plan

The development of a marketing plan for a company consists of several stages. Almost all of them are required.

Planning phase	Description
Analysis of the market for goods or services	No matter how hard we try, we will still not be aware of everything that happens on the market for goods and services. Study trends. Perhaps those of them that operate in the market today will create competition for you tomorrow. You need to be on your guard. Study the habits of future and current customers, what has changed in them, their attitude to the quality of goods and services, their cost.
Product analysis	Be as honest as possible. Remember that consumers will be comparing your products to the competition. Highlight disadvantages and advantages. Rate the product, whether it is expensive or, conversely, cheap, simple or complex, high-quality or not very good. Try to understand what customers like about the product and what needs to be done to get them to buy it.
The target audience	It will be great if you get to know your target audience better. If not, analyze regular customers and draw conclusions about how they are attuned to your products or services. Knowing your target audience is the first step to successful product positioning.
Positioning features and main advantages of your product	This point is similar to the second step, but by using your imagination, you can bring your product or service to perfection. Think about how to make the product more attractive in appearance, improve the composition, if possible.
Strategic planning	Having dealt with competitors, start positioning the product (product). So you will begin to understand how you should proceed and develop an effective promotion strategy. Consider the assortment and how it can be improved, expanded, promoted. Decide which ad is best for you and predict possible results.
Drawing up a plan for 1-5 years (depending on the scope)	After receiving all the necessary information, you can paint the strategy by month. Be sure to include the date, month.

Development of a marketing plan according to the SOSTAC model

The SOSTAC structure was established in the 1990s. She is quite authoritative and has an excellent reputation. Aspiring businessmen and international companies use it as a starting point to create a marketing plan.

The SOSTAC marketing plan consists of a number of stages.

Stage 1. Analysis of a specific situation

Analyzing the current situation, it is necessary to show the overall picture of the project. For this, the following questions are being worked out:

What are your current customers? Create a detailed portrait of your target audience.
Based on the SWOT analysis, draw conclusions about your strengths and weaknesses, possible threats to the company.
Analyze your competitors. Who are they? On what basis do they compete with you? It can be a product, its price, better customer service, a different reputation than yours. How exactly are you different from each other?
Make a detailed list of the channels you can use to attract customers. Check the ones that will be most successful for you. Separate the good from the bad.

Only after that you will be able to see your potential customers, assess their motivation to buy. Alternatively, you can create a portrait of the client. This will help you get to know your audience better. For this, you can use the data obtained by the current CRM system after analyzing the order history.

From the information collected by your CRM system, you can:

understand your male to female customer ratio;
evaluate profiles based on age, average age and understand whether it is possible to create categories;
find out data about the location of your customers, their addresses, what percentage live in your region;
study the history of successful purchases and create an overall picture, evaluate the average order, understand how products differ in volume, color, size from the competition;
figure out how your customers prefer to pay upon receipt - by cards or cash; how often orders are placed and purchases are made.

With such data, you can proceed to the next stage, where we will collect information related to your company.

Consider at specific example... We have data about the target audience. Now let's take two avatars for a virtual online store selling t-shirts.

Avatar A - Maxim

Maxim is a master of his craft, he is 26 years old, he lives alone, rents a one-room apartment in the center of Moscow, is not married, has a high level of income for the capital. The guy is passionate about football and often supports his sports club. Every year he buys a new colored shirt with his team's fan logo. He does it over the Internet.

It is convenient and comfortable for Maxim to place orders through the Web. He often communicates via social networks with friends and acquaintances, regularly follows the news from the world of domestic and world football, does not mind getting acquainted with new attributes.

The World Cup is coming soon, and this will provide an opportunity to present a new collection of T-shirts for football fans. Therefore, XXX Company can contact Maxim and offer not only a T-shirt of an admirer of his favorite team, but also a unique international T-shirt of an active fan.

How will Maxim interact with your online store? This could be the following scheme.

Maxim reads the latest news about the World Cup in a fashion blog. He notes that the company is offering to participate in the promotion - ordering a T-shirt with a logo dedicated to the championship is 10% cheaper. To do this, he needs to follow the link to the website of the online store.

Maxim makes a transition and gets to the website of the XXX online store. Here he is offered a large selection of quality T-shirts, which he can order with a 10% discount. Maxim chooses a T-shirt in the color, pattern, size he needs, and then completes the purchase by paying for it with a credit / debit card.

Avatar B - Margarita

Margarita is a professional in her field, she is 33 years old, the girl is in a relationship. Margarita follows the fashion world and tries to place orders through the online store.

And her boyfriend, a fan of the football team and the local club, also loves to keep up with sports fashion. He buys the jerseys of his team's fans every year.

The World Championship is coming soon, and Margarita knows about it. She, too, can become a customer of the XXX online store. A girl can buy a jersey both for herself and for her boyfriend - they are going to support the football team in the championship together.

An example scenario of Margarita's interaction with an online store: a potential client received an email with an offer from an online store. This mailing list contains an online advertisement for a company that offers to order a T-shirt with the championship symbols using a promotional code.

Margarita understands that this is a chance to give her beloved boyfriend a T-shirt, buy the same one for herself and save money. The girl goes to the website of the online store. To get information, she calls support and places an order by phone.

To successfully promote an online store, you need to create two or three customer avatars for a separate group of products with similar properties.

Stage 2. Setting goals

This part of your marketing plan should focus on your goals, which should be as specific as possible. Objectives should correspond to the following points:

Concreteness... Highlight the metrics you will focus on.
Measurability... Decide how you will evaluate the effectiveness, exercise control.
Reachability... How and when can you reach your goal?
Realism or valence... It takes into account which marketing tools you will use.
Limited time. See if the time is clearly indicated.

Continuing the example of an online T-shirt retailer, the goals might be:

Interaction: it is necessary to increase the number (flow) of customers by 50% by March 2018.
Attraction... The goal is to increase your brand awareness. Tracking with Google Analytics. Date: March - July 2018.
Interaction... The distribution of letters is increasing systematically: before, they sent one letter per quarter, now one letter per week, starting from April 2018 to July 2018.

Stage 3. Strategy for achieving goals

Your strategy should show that you are ready to achieve your goals.

Goal 1. Increase your brand awareness. Tracking with Google Analytics. Date: March - August 2018.

You should maximize your brand (product or service) presence in fan-focused online locations:

Determine a cost effective way to market.
Are there any clients on these online platforms?
Where exactly can you get the attention of potential customers?

You can only achieve your goal when you study competing companies so that you understand what basic tools they prefer.

Goal 2. Engagement: Need to increase existing customer flow by 50% by April 2019.

Here you should carefully analyze the existing customer base and identify what each of its representatives prefers.

Goal 3. The frequency of letters is increasing systematically. Previously, they were sent by letter in 3-4 months, now in 7-10 days, starting from April to July 2018.

By answering the questions below, you will determine the frequency of sending emails:

How is the company currently interacting with subscribers?
Who are your competitors and how are they running mailings?

Stage 4. Tactics of achieving goals

Here you need to consider the basic tools that will help you achieve the goals of your marketing plan. There can be several tactics.

Let's say you've chosen techniques like SEO, PPC advertising, and email marketing. Let's consider them in detail.

During the analysis, key shortcomings were identified - a small budget for marketing and conducting research within its framework. To determine the direction of marketing forces, it is necessary to analyze the requests for a specific product, in our case, T-shirts with the logos of football clubs.

The second tactic focuses on contextual advertising, that is, to pay for the clicks made. Having identified the keywords, you will understand how you need to allocate a budget for contextual advertising.

The third tactic is email marketing.

You should develop a mailing strategy so that your customers receive emails regularly. The main purpose of the message is to make potential customers go to your site and order a product or use a service.

Stage 5. Action

At this stage, you bring what you have developed into life. It is important to re-examine the goals carefully in order to follow them.

A plan of exemplary active actions.

SEO.

We analyze key queries. We optimize the main pages for keywords for better ranking of site pages search engines Yandex and Google. We publish content regularly (once every 2-3 days). We create a link mass. We post information on other sites.

Contextual advertising.

Based on the analysis and processing of requests, we analyze the approximate traffic. We decide on the budget and the main pages of the site (target), to which people will come for key queries.

Email marketing.

First, we create a script of letters that your subscribers will receive. We analyze the involvement of addressees in the mailing list, profitability.

Stage 6. Control of the obtained results

This is the last step to help you evaluate your previously voiced goals. This analysis will allow you to draw conclusions - whether you are acting correctly.

The shortest company marketing plan

The shortest but most useful marketing plan for the company was created by Kelly Odell. It is suitable for any, even the newest idea, product or service. It is enough to fill in the table, and you will immediately see the general picture, including the future one, which will help you to draw a conclusion about the prospects for business development.

3 common mistakes in developing a company marketing plan

Inconsistent promotion

If you don't have a clear strategy, your marketing plan for your company can fail right away. Here, not only the presence of bright and memorable symbols and logo plays an important role, but the entire marketing program in general.

Save justifiably

Advertising costs should be effective. What determines the effectiveness of the tools used to promote a product or service? There are many factors, including: product features, knowledge of potential consumers, goals set for the business.

At the same time, it is important to understand that the larger the company and the broader the goals it sets, the more costly the business.

No need to focus on high expectations

Don't assume there will be results immediately after implementing your marketing plan. Not always well thought out stages of promotion will give an instant effect. Be careful to maintain a balance between what you promise in reality and advertising.

Defining a marketing plan

A marketing plan is a document that formulates the main goals of marketing the company's goods and services and how to achieve them. The marketing plan has formal structure, but it can also be used as an informal, rather flexible tool:

* to prepare arguments when introducing a new product;

* when changing approaches to marketing the company's products;

* when developing complete marketing plans for a department, division or firm for inclusion in a corporate or business plan.

In principle, a marketing plan can be prepared for one product in a separate trading area, but large-scale plans have become more common.

When it comes to companies with subsidiaries, marketing plans for each of them are developed either by their employees or by employees of the head office. Each subsidiary marketing plan is developed from separate, smaller individual plans.

The main condition for the development of plans for departments and subsidiaries is that they should be linked to the company's master plan. This does not mean that you have to prepare a plan for each product or trade area. But if they are developed, then they must be aligned with the general marketing plan.

A marketing plan cannot be considered complete if it does not include historical data, forecasts for the future, goals and methods or strategies for achieving these goals. If the plan is for a new product for which historical data are not available, it may be using information about the product it is replacing, or estimates for a similar product from a competitor.

In its simplest form, a marketing plan begins by collecting and evaluating historical data. It usually contains detailed information about competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, strengths and weaknesses. Naturally, it should consider the strengths and weaknesses of your company, your successes and failures. But this is not a plan yet, but only the first step in its development. It is then supplemented with forecasts for the future, which suggests a detailed description of the strategies that will be used to achieve the set goals.

In the full form of the plan, an assessment of the resources required for its implementation is given, its impact on profit and loss indicators is investigated in detail, or a forecast of the company's financial statement is included in the plan.

Marketing planning means analyzing the use of marketing resources to achieve its goals. It requires segmenting the market, determining the market position, predicting the size of the market, and planning a viable market share within each market segment.

Monitoring the implementation of the marketing plan

When implementing marketing plans, there are many surprises, so you have to constantly monitor the progress of their implementation. There are three types of marketing control:

* control over implementation annual plans... Marketers compare current performance against annual targets and take corrective action if necessary;

* control of profitability. Determination of the actual profitability of various products, market segments, territories and trade channels;

* strategic control. Regularly reviewing the firm's initial strategic alignment with available market opportunities.

The purpose of monitoring the implementation of annual plans is to make sure whether the company has really reached the planned target parameters. This type of control includes four stages. 1) Management should establish monthly or quarterly targets in the annual plan (what needs to be achieved). 2) Management measures indicators market activities firms (what's going on). 3) Management identifies the causes of any major failures (why this is happening). 4) Management takes action to correct the situation and close the gaps between goals and results achieved (corrective action).

When monitoring the implementation of plans, the following basic tools are used: a) analysis of sales opportunities; b) market share analysis; c) analysis of the relationship between marketing and sales costs; d) monitoring the attitude of customers.

A company's marketing plan is a plan that reflects its overall marketing strategy for the coming year. It must indicate for whom you are positioning your products, how you will sell it to the target category of buyers, what techniques you will use to attract new customers and increase sales. The purpose of a marketing plan is to outline in detail how to promote your products and services in your target market.

Steps

Part 1

Situational analysis

Think over the goals of your company. The purpose of a situational analysis is to understand the current marketing situation in which your company is located. Based on this understanding, you can think through and implement the necessary changes in your business. Start by looking at the company's mission and goals (if your company doesn't already have them, then they need to be defined first) and check if your current marketing plan is helping you achieve those goals.

For example, your company performs snow removal and other related winter work. You have set yourself a goal to increase your revenue by 10% through new contracts. Do you have a marketing plan that outlines how you can attract additional contracts? If a plan exists, is it effective?

Explore your current marketing advantages and disadvantages. How is your company currently attractive to customers? How are competing companies attractive to customers? It is very likely that your strengths are what attracts customers to you. Knowing your strengths gives you an important marketing advantage.

Gather information about external opportunities and threats for your company. They will be external characteristics of the company, depending on competition, fluctuations in market factors, as well as on customers and buyers. The goal is to identify the various factors that can affect the business. This will then allow you to adjust your marketing plan accordingly.

Designate responsible persons. When preparing your marketing plan, you will need to designate individuals responsible for specific aspects of promoting your company in the market. Consider which employees will be best able to fulfill specific functions of the marketing policy and define their responsibilities. You will also need to consider a system for evaluating the success of these job responsibilities.

Announce your marketing goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing plan? Do you see the ultimate goal of expanding your customer base, informing existing customers of new services and quality improvements, expanding into other regions or demographic groups, or something else entirely? It is your goals that will form the basis for preparing the plan.

Develop marketing strategies to achieve your goals. Once you have clearly defined your marketing goals and prospects, you need to think about specific actions to achieve them. There are many different types marketing strategies, but the most common ones are listed below.

Approve the budget. You may have great ideas for promoting your business and expanding your customer base, but with a limited budget, you may need to partially rethink your strategy. The budget should be realistic and reflect both the current state of the business and its potential future growth.

Part 4

Preparation of a marketing plan

Start with an explanatory note. This section of the marketing plan should include basic information about your product or service, and also briefly describe the overall content of the entire document in one or two paragraphs of text. The priority preparation of the explanatory note will allow you to subsequently expand and describe in more detail certain points in the main text of the document.

Be aware that the prepared marketing plan is extremely useful to give for review both to direct employees of your company and to its consultants.

Describe your target market. The second section of your marketing plan will refer to the results of your research and describe the company's target market. The text should not be written in a complex language, instructions are simple key provisions will be sufficient. You can start by describing the demographics of your market (including age, gender, location, and customer profile, if applicable), and then move on to identifying the main customer preferences for your products or services.
List your goals. This section should not span more than one page of text. It should indicate the company's marketing goals for the coming year. Remember that the goals you set must satisfy five qualities: be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

Remember to include in your marketing plan the needs and ideas for each department in your company (and even the employee, if applicable). It is also very important that the marketing plan is linked and well integrated with the business plan and mission of the company, its public image and core values.
Include in your marketing plan any tables, graphs, and the like that you need to draw up in the process of gathering important information. In addition, it will be helpful to include tables in the plan that explain the key points.

Warnings

It is necessary to review the marketing plan at least once a year in order to check the success of the strategies used and to redo those parts of the plan that were unsuccessful.
Many are critical important factors marketing plans are dynamic. If they change over time, the marketing plan needs to be revised.

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