The marketing plan includes the following main indicators. Marketing plan. Problems Caused by Not Having a Marketing Plan

It is not enough to produce goods, deliver them to stores and wait for the moment when consumers themselves begin to buy and talk about the product. In modern conditions, when every area is overflowing with competitors, you need to literally fight for each client. The tools of this war are marketing knowledge and skillful planning.

Goals and development of a marketing plan

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

Considering the fact that the main driving force The entire activity of the company 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, the purpose and means of achieving it. After the document is approved by management, it must be submitted to the attention of other departments that are directly or indirectly related to strategic activities companies.

The marketing plan is divided into two types by 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 achieving the goal, small changes can be made, but without concessions and changes in the planned plan.

How to compose?

The marketing plan should give detailed description potential consumers, information about where they can see the product and how they decide to make a purchase. Before you start drawing up a plan, you should answer the following questions and clearly define the boundaries in this moment, since this information is the basis of the plan.

Strategy: What role will the plan play in the context of overall business processes?
Mission: what is to be done and for what purpose?
Target Audience: Who are the marketing measures aimed at?
Competitor analysis: who are the competitors and who has what advantages?
Unique product offer: What are the differences between competitors?
Price factor: what does the consumer get for their money?
Advertising plan: how will the target audience find out about the company?
Budget: how much do you need and how much do you have?
List of actions: what should be done and in what order?
Analysis of the results: what can be improved, what should be discarded and what should be left as is?

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

Strategy

The marketing strategy plan should reflect the main vector of the company's movement, and the remaining parts will tell you how to do it. Suppose an entrepreneur is interested in expanding the network retail stores on sale building materials and wants to reach customers in new regions. Then the goals of the marketing plan will be to introduce your product to 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 two important concepts, often found as a description of one action: a marketing plan and a 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 the mission and the dissemination of the idea is characteristic of large corporations that have achieved a certain level of fame in their field. That was the case until recently. New trends in the business world encourage business with social components: a company can simultaneously conduct commercial activity and carry the idea from the field of universal values. To this end, companies hold whole events to emphasize their 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 used as a marketing tool. It is possible that 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? The target audience is the segment in society to which advertising should be addressed and which may become real customers in the future.

The marketing plan of the company begins with the creation of a psychological and social portrait target audience. Very helpful in this matter marketing research. They can be found in ready-made or order from specialized companies. You can also do it yourself. To do this, it is necessary to objectively answer a number of questions:

Who are potential clients?
Where can they be found?
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 it. 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 a business ethic when gross copying of competitors' materials, open competition and belittling of their product through their advertising materials are not allowed. In some countries, this aspect is controlled by special laws.

The information obtained during the analysis of competitors is subject to careful analysis, but not to use in your campaigns. Looking at other companies' marketing plan examples, this stage they answer the following questions:

Strengths of competitors: how do they attract customers?
What kind Additional services provide?
How does the “ideal client” perceive them?
What can they improve in their work?
How does your plan look against the backdrop of their actions?

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

USP - unique selling proposition

USP should be implemented in the form of a specific product or service that is fundamentally different from competitors' offers. 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 they know how to isolate the USP from the most ordinary product. Two points that have already become known at the previous stages are used as an information base: what problems the client has and how and how this product can help in this.

Examples

How to successfully write a USP? It is appropriate to recall an advertisement for M&M`s chocolates here. She attracted attention by the fact that the inscription appeared on the wrappers: “It melts in your mouth, not in your hands!” Obviously, in the process of developing a USP, specialists noted the concern of buyers when chocolate candies might get their hands dirty, and offered a solution.

Another example is Domino's pizza, whose motto is "Wait 30 minutes or get it free!" Here, the specialists simply put themselves in the place of the customer: what is he currently experiencing? Of course, hunger. Every minute of waiting is very hard for a hungry person. Marketers have shown human understanding, and this has had its effects.

Price factor

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

But in the end, the price factor can significantly affect sales. It all depends on the type of product. There are goods, the price of which cannot be low under any circumstances. They usually fall into the category of luxury: diamonds, cars, etc. In this area, it makes no sense to bet on low prices.

On the price factor you can bid when it comes to selling clothes, gadgets, appliances or furniture. Here it is necessary to take into account that the consumer regards the product in terms of value for money.

Events

Events are short-term advertising campaigns. Excellent results can be expected if the idea of the event is combined with a socially significant event and the company's own mission. As a rule, it is necessary to prepare for such events long in advance.

Examples: holding a tree planting campaign on Defense Day environment, flash mobs or recreational activities on Children's Day, etc. Before the event, it will not be superfluous to send out a press release to local media and attract 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 identify successful ideas and ways of presenting such events.

Budget

How much money will it take to implement an extensive marketing campaign that can reach the entire target audience? The budget must be laid down for several months in advance.

When planning a budget, there are two options: a solid budget that allows you to buy the best venues 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 volume of advertising with the same amount.

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

Action List

At this stage, you need to draw up a plan of action. In particular, on which sites the advertisement will be placed. Lots of options.

Printable advertisement: specialized catalogs and magazines.
Advertising on TV: commercials or banner advertising.
Web sites.
Contextual advertising.
Targeted advertising in in social networks.
Exhibitions and solemn events.
Distribution by mail or telephone.
PR-materials and their distribution.

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

The role of the work done in business development 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 that will reflect the main information: the number of people involved, their opinion, the impact of the campaign on sales and the company's image.

Not all campaigns will be equally effective: some will have to be discarded, others will need to be adjusted and included in the action plan for the next period. To evaluate 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 campaigns should be postponed until better times or thrown out of the plan.

Conclusion

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

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

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

Sales Generator

The 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 in which direction to move, how to reduce 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.

From this article you will learn:

Main stages of development
5 shortcomings in already developed plans

What is the purpose of developing a marketing plan

A 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 its goals in this document and offers options for achieving them.

The annual plan prescribes general tasks(market, financial, industrial, innovative, managerial), 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 quite 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, exactly this document more important than others for a number of reasons:

In addition, the main function of any enterprise is to connect the wishes of the buyer and business opportunities, which is the responsibility of marketing. Therefore, defining the mission of the company, 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 value 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 heading, how it plans to achieve its goals.

To clearly identify the need for a marketing plan, we will briefly describe the difficulties that arise in a company where this document is not available. Here we will consider the results that the company receives after the formation of a marketing plan.

Problems Caused by Not Having a Marketing Plan	Results of developing a marketing plan
the company has several development options, but it has not been decided which one is better to invest in	a list of attractive areas of development is defined, unattractive ones are discarded
it is not known which buyers to target in the first place	a group of target consumers is defined and their description is received
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 addressed first
the enterprise develops in fits and starts, there are no clear development prospects	installed clear plan actions to achieve the intended goals

That is the marketing plan:

connects together and brings to all employees of the company ideas that only the head had in his head before the development of this document;
contributes to a 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 more fruitful work.

To summarize all of the above and consider all the pros and cons of developing a marketing plan in a company.

Arguments against developing a marketing plan	Arguments for developing a marketing plan
No time to develop a marketing plan	The development of an abbreviated version of the marketing plan according to the algorithm proposed in this article will take several days A developed marketing plan will allow you to save 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 successfully work without it”	In this case, if you have a marketing plan, your company will work even more successfully.
It is not known how to develop it	This article will provide a detailed algorithm for developing a marketing plan, following which you can independently compile this document for your enterprise.

What kind of plan do you need?

Marketing plans come in many forms. They are classified into the following categories:

Validity. Development strategic plan marketing is an important procedure for a company. This type of plan is designed for a period of more than three years. There is also a tactical plan, the validity of which is less than three years, as well as an operational one - up to one month.
The degree of coverage. A distinction is made between a plan for turnover, sales, a plan for promotional activities, market research, and an integrated (comprehensive) plan.
Working depth. The plan can be detailed or general.
Field of activity. Allocate marketing plans for goals, pricing, product policy, marketing communications, control and revision, finance, warehousing, ordering, deliveries (logistics), etc.

What are the sections of a marketing plan?

The marketing plan consists of a number of sections.

Executive Summary(or introduction for guidance). This is an introductory section in the content of the marketing plan, which briefly lists the goals, objectives, key problems, and describes the mission of the enterprise. This is also where you 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 features);
give the results of a marketing research carried out within the company (describe the identified gaps in activities that prevent the business from successfully developing and increasing sales);
indicate the results of your SWOT analysis (describe positive and negative factors that can affect the sales of the enterprise and its further development);
give the expected 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 operate, how they form prices, in what direction they are moving, what marketing activities they carry out, how they work with customers.

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

Submit your application

Company promotion strategy. 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. This is where you summarize the main points of your marketing strategy for solving the problems described in the summary of the marketing plan. To be more precise, you reveal how the company plans to position its brand, develop in new markets, work with the target audience, and according to what scheme to sell goods.

You also indicate proposals for channels and tools for promoting the enterprise, activities for interacting with the partner 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 would 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 on the market, both on a permanent and occasional basis.

Here we can talk, for example, about activities to collect commercial information, prepare analytical materials, analyze the most promising market segments, and monitor competitors.

action plan. This chapter of the marketing plan reflects all the active actions and activities carried out to solve the tasks and eliminate existing problems.

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

8 . Financial marketing plan (the financial analysis or marketing budget). In this section, conclusions should be drawn key parameters related to the sales forecast and marketing costs of the enterprise.

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

Marketing plan control. This is the last chapter of the document, which should describe in detail the mechanism and tools for monitoring the implementation of the provisions of the plan by the divisions of the companies.

You can specify that other structural units of the enterprise are required to provide reports at certain times, that you need to track the company's KPIs and control points for measuring them, 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. Applications can reflect the dynamics with which the main market indicators are developing, how competitors work, how the company conducts production, commercial or marketing activities.

The development of 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 specific purpose related to both business development and problem solving.

When starting to develop a marketing plan, remember that it should not just be a document that collects facts about the company and its competitors. A marketing plan is a collection of analytical data, recommendations, options for the further operation of a business in the market.

In total, developing a marketing plan will take you about 3-4 months. Half of this time will be spent on collecting the necessary information, 40% on analysis and evaluation, 10% on 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, the creation of which should take into account a number of 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 agenda?

Stage 1. Conducting a situational analysis

Determine what goals the organization sets in its work

A situational analysis is done to better understand the current marketing situation your company is in. If you have a clear understanding of your position at the moment and a good market orientation, 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 it helps current plan marketing to achieve the desired results.

Suppose your company provides services for clearing snow from territories in the winter. You set a goal to increase revenue by 10% by entering into new contracts for this. Have you developed a marketing plan that talks about options for attracting additional contracts? If there is a plan, does it bring the desired effect?

Determine what marketing advantages and disadvantages your company has

What attracts the audience in your company now? What disposes customers in favor of competing enterprises? It is possible that consumers see your advantages and therefore choose you. If you know your strengths, you gain a major marketing advantage.

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

Study the target audience

Developing a marketing plan involves carefully studying your audience. You must clearly understand who your products are intended 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, then you will understand where and how to promote your product. If you have no idea about the circle of your potential customers, you will not understand how to tailor products to the needs of buyers.

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 to large organizations, find out which part of the service is most important to them.
Use official statistics for your market and industry. You can explore these economic indicators, as price and cost indices, as well as employment statistics by country, region and city.
If you have enough funds, contact specialized companies, ordering an individual market research and analysis, as well as an analysis of current trends in the industry.
Pay attention to the study of the activities of competitors. There is only one way to offer consumers what competitors cannot provide - to know exactly what attracts customers in your competitors. If you understand the advantages and disadvantages of similar enterprises in the industry, you will achieve success faster.

Start collecting data on opportunities and threats for your business

The development of a marketing plan also involves the collection of data - the external characteristics of the company, depending 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, then it will become much easier to form and adjust a marketing plan.

Analyze market trends , for example, how the desires and needs of customers are changing, as well as the expectations of businesses like yours.
Study trends in the financial industry, for example, pay attention to the increasing use of virtual means of payment and current inflation rates.

Stage 2. Study the strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise

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

Mail out questionnaires to consumers

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

As a result, in the marketing plan being formed, the emphasis will be on the advantages of your enterprise (since you will know exactly what your customers specifically prefer). Moreover, by identifying your weaknesses, you will correct existing shortcomings and improve your activities.

The survey sheets you send to clients should be short and simple. Often people want to take a survey, but do not want to spend a lot of time and effort on it. The questionnaire should take up approximately half an A4 page.

Ideally, the buyer should answer your questions briefly, and not just choose one of the options you suggested.

Of course, if you want, you can include questions in the questionnaire, where a person chooses one of the options. However, most questions should be open-ended, such as: “What do you like about our product/service?”, “What improvements would you like to see?” etc.

You can also ask buyers if they are willing 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 an email survey

Such a survey can only be conducted if you know the email of your customers, that is, you have received the contact details of your customers in advance for conducting a monthly newsletter.

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 email will end up in the Spam folder. You will not be able to find out in any way which part of the sent letters will reach the addressees and which part will not. There is also no guarantee that the people who receive the letters will want to take the survey.

Organize a phone survey

Telephone surveys are a complex and controversial topic, as many have a very negative attitude towards calls and conversations with unknown persons. However, if your business is based on personal communication with customers, then there is nothing to worry about in telephone surveys.

Questions for them can be the same as for a written survey - 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 may make sense to use the services of a person with high speed print that could compile a pivot table or catalog of reviews from your target audience.

Conduct individual customer surveys

Do not do a very detailed individual survey. Limit yourself to a couple of related questions in the course of telephone conversation with a client on a case when you process their order or provide assistance.

Remember, the best way to conduct a survey is direct personal communication with the buyer, from which you will directly find out exactly what gaps there are in your business.

As with a telephone survey, in a face-to-face interview, you will need to capture customer responses and feedback. From this, a personal survey does not at all lose its effectiveness or become difficult to complete. 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

At this point, you need to follow a few steps.

Gather all the information you have

Review all the research you've done so far and map out ways to expand your business. Then match your ideas to current reality and challenges.

Don't forget about expected costs, current and projected market trends that may appear in the near future. Consider which regions your business could be most successful in, which demographics to target, and also 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 best cope with the solution of marketing tasks, and establish the scope of their responsibilities.

You should also think about what kind of evaluation system for the results of the activities of these specialists should be applied at the enterprise.

Define 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 customer base, informing your current target audience about new services and quality improvements, expanding into other regions, or some other marketing result.

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

There should be no contradictions between marketing tasks and the main goals of the enterprise.
When setting marketing goals, remember that they must 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 increasing the level of sales / production in physical terms, increasing revenue, increasing the degree of awareness of your enterprise, expanding the base of new customers.
For example, you can set a goal to increase the number of contracts signed by 20% or increase awareness of your company in social networks.

Define a plan to achieve your goals

Developing a strategic marketing plan is a process in which you need to touch three groups of consumers: cold customers (who you have to reach with the help of advertising tools), warm customers (who have already seen an advertisement or participated in some kind of promotion), and hot ones ( 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 categories of customers. This will ultimately influence the chosen marketing strategy.

To inform the cold customer group, you can use social media, broadcast promotional messages on the radio, place them on billboards or flyers.

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

Develop marketing strategies that will help you achieve your goals

The development of a marketing strategy and plan is inconceivable without a clear formulation and setting of goals and prospects. Once you have defined your goals, you will need to develop clear actions to achieve them. Today there are different types marketing strategies. Let's take a look at the most popular ones.

Organization and holding of corporate events or special events directly at 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 fruitfully and unite them, and most importantly, increase the circle of your customers.

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

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

Short-term support for your business by a leader or influencers who already use your products and services.

That is, you pay a selected authoritative person or group of people for support, and the partner provides it, for example, through social networks. Similar marketing event may require a significant financial investment from you, but the results usually justify the costs.

Do not forget that high-quality advertising gives excellent results.

Approve the budget

You can make grandiose plans to grow your business and increase the number of customers, but do not forget about the budget. Consider it when developing your marketing plan.

If you are on a tight budget, then it is likely that you will have to partially change your strategy. You must have a realistic budget that reflects the state of the business for the current period and its possible development further.

Take a hard look at the budget you can currently allocate for advertising and marketing purposes. It is not worth increasing its size, hoping for excellent results after the implementation of the marketing plan in the form of a large income. After all, if the developed measures fail, you will simply lose money.
Start by allocating funds allocated for marketing purposes, and start from there. Choose effective advertising methods time-tested and use them.
No need to be afraid to act contrary to the plan somewhere. If promotional activities do not go as planned (for example, advertising in a newspaper does not affect 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 series of actions.

Prepare an explanatory note

This chapter of your marketing plan should cover the basic information about your products or services, as well as a brief summary of the entire document. A summary usually takes 1-2 paragraphs.

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

Remember that the marketing plan should be shared with both your employees and provided to consultants for review.

Describe the target audience

When developing a marketing plan, give the results of research in its second chapter and describe the target audience of the enterprise. Do not compose a complex long text. Specify the main provisions of the document, and this is quite enough.

First, describe the demographics of your audience (age, gender, location, area of activity of your buyers), and then indicate the main preferences of consumers regarding your products or services.

List goals

The chapter should not take more than one page. Designate in it marketing tasks enterprises for the next year. Remember, your goals should 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 total revenue received from state enterprises, on 10 %".

Describe marketing strategy

This chapter deals with the implementation of the marketing plan, that is, the overall marketing strategy is described. The main thing here is to focus on the USP (Unique Selling Proposition). USP is the main advantage of your business.

If you identify and plan the main strategic ideas, you will be able to write a quality text for this chapter. Don't forget that your marketing strategy should help sell your USP.

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

It should be clear from the chapter how to encourage consumers to buy, to convince them that your product will be useful. That is, you need to convey to customers exactly how your unique trade offer can meet their requirements.

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

Specify budget

Here you should indicate the total amount of funds that must be directed to the promotion of products, as well as 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 exhibitions, another half a million on radio advertising, 20 thousand rubles on flyers, 100 thousand rubles on the use of new promotion methods, 150 thousand rubles on work to optimize the company's website .

Update the marketing plan every year (at least)

One way or another, developing a marketing plan is not the end point. In any case, adjustments will need to be made to the plan. According to marketers, the optimal frequency of updating marketing plans is once a year.

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

When reviewing your marketing plan, evaluate the situation objectively. If you find that any of the employees who have been given some responsibility are causing damage to the enterprise through 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 be required. In such cases, it is advisable to contact an outside consultant - this will allow you to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the old marketing plan and correct any errors when drawing up a new one.

An example of developing a marketing plan

As an example, let's take a simplified diagram of creating a marketing plan for a company that sells fresh juices at five specialized points in different parts of the city.

Stage 1. Analysis of market trends

Consumers want to buy juices from fresh vegetables and fruits. Drinks are received in their presence, after which they are sold in paper cups or plastic bottles- containers convenient for drinking.
Juices are sold near large offices and in recreation areas.
Such 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. Product analysis

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

Stage 3. Selecting the target audience

Given the cost and properties of the product, it is designed for working members of the middle class, seeking to maintain their health in good condition.

Stage 4. Positioning and competitive advantages

The company 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 composition of the drink, ease of use and good location of retail outlets.

Stage 5. Strategy development

The company focuses on the array regular customers.
Strives to keep customers in the cold season.

Stage 6. Tactical action plan

Here the company intends to:

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

Based on the example above, you will be able to draw up your marketing plan taking into account the specifics of the activity.

5 mistakes in developing a marketing plan

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

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

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

A competent marketing plan is 50% of the company's success in the market. The development of a marketing plan provides an opportunity to understand how a company should act in order to occupy the desired position in its industry.

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From this article you will learn:

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

Modern enterprises are constantly in a state of competition 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 compose it and what strategy is better to apply.

What is a company marketing plan

Before the leaders modern enterprises in a competitive environment, questions arise on which the future of a company often depends. How to develop further, what mechanisms to use to reduce costs, where to look for and attract potential consumers, 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.

The 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 timeframes and strategies. It could be one year, two or three.

A plan is being drawn up marketing activities companies separate document. Along with financial as well as production plans it is part of the company's strategic business plan. With their help, it is easy to build a general line for the development of the enterprise.

To develop 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. Be sure to indicate the period during which the desired results, indicated earlier, are achieved.

Why is a company marketing plan necessary?

We think this is understandable. The main objectives of this document include the following.

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

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

For greater productivity, you need to consider how the system works.

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

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

Important to have additional document, if the first one does not justify itself.

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

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

How long does it take to write a marketing plan for a 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 adjusted, the data is adjusted, and changed taking into account new market conditions. After revision, a company's marketing plan is often rewritten.

If the company is small, then according to research conducted in 2017, effective search 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), television, radio.

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

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

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- increase brand awareness. This will definitely be highlighted in the marketing plan of the enterprise.

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

What goals should be reflected in the marketing plan of the company

The ultimate goal of a marketing plan is to continuously increase the company's profits.

Many businessmen often forget that marketers cannot decide everything themselves. They do not produce and sell goods and do not provide services, do not work with customers, 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 must participate in the implementation of the marketing plan. labor collective. If this does not happen, all your undertakings 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 to increase 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 (quantity).

What is the structure of the company's marketing plan

The company's marketing plan consists of several sections.

1. Executive summary (introduction for management) is the first, introductory, section of the document. It indicates a list of tasks, the main goals of the company, its mission and the problems that the business is solving at the time of writing the marketing plan.

2. Evaluation of the company's activities at the current moment. This section clearly highlights the following points:

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 the moments hindering the development of the enterprise, as well as mechanisms that can improve the situation, are identified;
results of a previous SWOT analysis . At the same time, positive and negative factors that will affect your business;
competitive advantages . This is what you are able to offer your business partners, potential customers. Based on the results obtained, you will be able to effectively promote a product or service.

3. Quantitative and qualitative analysis 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 features of working with clients.

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

4. Development commodity strategy your enterprise. You analyze the product portfolio, sales, consumption volumes and draw conclusions, form recommendations for expanding the business. If necessary, evaluate the product line and the main production technologies.

5. Strategy development. It is necessary to describe the main directions of marketing of your company, how the trademark and the company as a whole are positioned.

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

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

Plan and conduct the collection of information, prepare analytical materials, think over measures that can be used in specific situations. Monitor competitors, publicity, market research and describe how it all is 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 employees of the company. It is better if this is a table in which you enter the actions taken to promote a product or service, as well as fix the deadlines, indicate those responsible, etc.

8. Finance. Analyze the main indicators, draw conclusions. They will help you predict sales, see and evaluate incremental costs. Include sales dynamics 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. Implementation of control. This is the last section of your plan. It spells out in detail the main mechanisms and control tools with an exact indication of which divisions of your company will carry out a particular item.

This section can include reports, key metrics, and milestones to help draw conclusions.

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

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

Step-by-step development of a marketing plan for a company

The development of a company's marketing plan consists of several stages. Almost all of them are mandatory.

Planning phase	Description
Analysis of the market for goods or services	No matter how hard we try, we still will not be aware of everything that happens on the market for goods and services. Study the trends. Perhaps those of them that operate on the market today will create competition for you tomorrow. You need to be alert. 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 compare your products with competitors. Highlight the disadvantages and advantages. Evaluate the product, whether it is expensive or, conversely, cheap, simple or complex, high-quality or not. Try to understand why customers like the product and what needs to be done to make them buy it.
The target audience	It will be great if you get to know the target audience better. If not, analyze regular customers and draw conclusions about how they are configured for your products or services. Knowing the 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 stage, but by turning on the imagination, you can bring your product or service to the ideal. Think about how to make the product more attractive in appearance, improve the composition, if possible.
Strategic planning	Having dealt with competitors, take care of the positioning of the product (product). So you will begin to understand how to act and develop an effective promotion strategy. Consider the assortment and how it can be improved, expanded, promoted. Decide which ad is better to choose and predict the possible results.
Drawing up a plan for 1-5 years (depending on the scale)	After receiving all the necessary information, you can paint the strategy for months. Be sure to include the date and month.

Development of a marketing plan according to the SOSTAC model

The SOSTAC structure was established in the 1990s. She is quite reputable and has an excellent reputation. business start-ups and international companies take it as a basis to draw up a marketing plan.

The SOSTAC marketing plan consists of a number of steps.

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:

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

Only after that you will be able to see your potential customers, evaluate their motivation for purchases. Alternatively, you can make a portrait of the client. This will help you get to know your audience better. To do this, you can use the data obtained by the current CRM system after analyzing the history of orders.

From the information collected by your CRM system, you will be able to:

understand your ratio of male to female clients;
evaluate profiles based on age, average age and see if it is possible to create categories;
find out data about the location of your customers, their addresses, what percentage lives in your region;
study the history of successful purchases and create an overall picture, evaluate the average order, figure out 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 this information, you can proceed to the next step where we will collect information related to your company.

Consider on specific example. We have data about the target audience. Now let's take two avatars for a virtual online store that sells 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 income level, as for the capital. The guy is passionate about football and often supports his sports club. Every year he buys a new colored T-shirt with the logo of his team fan. He does it over the Internet.

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

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? It could be the following diagram.

Maxim gets acquainted with the latest news about the World Cup in a fashion blog. He notices that the company is offering to take part in a promotion - order a T-shirt with a logo dedicated to the championship at 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 site 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 of 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 young man, a fan of the football team and the local club, also likes to keep up with sports fashion. He buys jerseys from his team's fans every year.

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

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 newsletter contains an online advertisement of a company that offers to order a T-shirt with the symbols of the championship using a promo 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 the support service and places an order over the phone.

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

Stage 2. Goal setting

This part of the marketing plan should focus on your goals, which should be as specific as possible. Goals should be in line with the following:

concreteness. Select the indicators that 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 what marketing tools you will use.
Time limitation. See if the time is clearly indicated.

Continuing with the example of an online store selling t-shirts, 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 mailing of letters is increasing systematically: previously 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 indicate 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 the presence of your brand (product or service) in fan-oriented places online:

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

You can achieve your goal only when you study competitive companies, so 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 emails is steadily increasing. Previously, they sent a 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 does the company currently interact with subscribers?
Who are your competitors and how do they send mailings?

Stage 4. Tactics for achieving goals

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

Suppose you have chosen methods such as SEO optimization, contextual advertising, and email marketing. Let's consider them in detail.

During the analysis, key shortcomings were identified - a small budget for marketing and 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 clicks made. Having determined the keywords, you will understand how much budget you need to allocate for contextual advertising.

The third tactic is email marketing.

You must 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. Active actions

At this stage, you embody what you have worked out into reality. It is important to re-examine the goals carefully in order to follow them.

Plan of exemplary active actions.

SEO.

We analyze keywords. We optimize the main pages for keywords for better ranking of site pages by Yandex and Google search engines. Regularly (once every 2-3 days) we publish content. We create a reference mass. We place information on other sites.

Contextual advertising.

Based on the analysis and processing of requests, we analyze the approximate traffic. We determine 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 for letters that your subscribers will receive. We analyze the involvement of recipients in the mailing list, profitability.

Stage 6. Control of the received results

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

Shortest company marketing plan

The shortest but most useful marketing plan for a company was created by Kelly Odel. 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 big picture, including the future, which will help you 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 in place, your company marketing plan can fail right away. Here, not only the presence of bright and memorable symbols, logo, but also the entire marketing program in general plays an important role.

Save justifiably

Advertising spending should pay off. 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 what more company and the wider the goals that it sets, the more expensive the business.

Don't have high expectations

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

Defining a marketing plan

A marketing plan is a document that sets out the main goals for marketing a company's goods and services and ways to achieve them. The marketing plan has formal structure, but can also be used as an informal, fairly flexible tool:

* to prepare arguments for the introduction of 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 for one product in a separate trading area can also be prepared, 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 employees of the head office. Each affiliate marketing plan is developed on the basis of separate, smaller individual plans.

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

A marketing plan cannot be considered complete if it does not include past data, future projections, goals and methods or strategies to achieve these goals. If the plan is for a new product for which no historical data is available, perhaps using information about the product it replaces or estimates for similar products from a competitor.

In his simplest form the marketing plan begins with the collection and evaluation of historical data. It usually contains detailed information about competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages. Naturally, it should consider the strengths and weaknesses of your company, your successes and failures. But this is not yet a plan, but only the first step in its development. It is then complemented by future projections, which include a detailed description of the strategies that will be used to achieve the goals.

The full form of the plan provides an estimate of the resources needed to execute it, examines in detail its impact on profit and loss, or includes a forecast of the company's financial statement.

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

Monitoring the execution 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:

* execution control annual plans. Marketing specialists compare current indicators with the target figures of the annual plan and, if necessary, take corrective measures;

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

* strategic control. Regularly reviewing the firm's initial strategic orientations against available market opportunities.

The purpose of monitoring the implementation of annual plans is to make sure that the company has really reached the planned target parameters. This type of control includes four steps. 1) Management should include monthly or quarterly targets in the annual plan (what needs to be achieved). 2) Management measures performance market activity firms (what is happening). 3) Management identifies the causes of any major failures (why this happens). 4) Management takes action to correct the situation and close the gaps between the goals set and the 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 costs and sales; d) monitoring the attitude of customers.

A company's marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines its overall marketing strategy for the coming year. It must indicate who you are positioning your products for, 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 market your products and services to your target market.

Steps

Part 1

Conducting a situational analysis

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

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

Examine your current marketing strengths and weaknesses. How is your company currently attractive to customers? What makes competing companies attractive to customers? It is very likely that it is your strengths that attract buyers to you. Knowing your strengths gives you an important marketing advantage.

Gather information about external opportunities and threats to your company. They will be external characteristics companies that depend 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 assign individuals responsible for specific aspects of your company's market promotion. Think about which employees will best be able to perform specific functions of the marketing policy, and determine their responsibilities. You will also need to consider a system for assessing the success of these official duties.

Announce your marketing goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing plan? Do you see ultimate goal expanding your customer base, informing existing customers about new services and quality improvements, tapping into other regions or demographics, or something entirely different? 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 perspectives, you will need to consider 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 to promote your business and expand 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 growth in the future.

Part 4

Marketing plan preparation

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

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

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

Be sure to include in your marketing plan the needs and ideas for each department in your company (and even an employee, if appropriate). 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, etc. that you need to create in the process of collecting important information. In addition, it will be useful to include tables explaining its key provisions in the plan.

Warnings

Revise the marketing plan at least once a year 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 plan are dynamic. If they change over time, the marketing plan needs to be revised.

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