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    Does Your Business Have a Marketing Plan? It Should.

    Does Your Business Have a Marketing Plan? It Should.

    The success of your business is dependent in large part on how well you  it. That is why it is vitally important to develop a solid, workable marketing plan for your business. An overview of your marketing plan should be included in your business plan, so potential investors and lenders can review your marketing strategy.

    To get started, you must first answer the following questions:

    • Who are your customers? Define your target markets.
    • Are your markets growing, steady, or declining?
    • Is your business' market share growing, steady, or declining?
    • If your business is a franchise, how is your market segmented?
    • Is there room to expand within your target markets?
    • How will you attract, retain, and increase your market share? If the business is a franchise, will the franchisor provide assistance in this area? Based on the franchisor’s strategy, how will you promote your sales?
    • What is your pricing strategy? How competitive are your prices?

    Marketing Plan Outline

    There are a variety of styles and formats used for marketing plans. The following section headings will help you organize your plan, however, remember that the content of the marketing plan is much more important than rigid adherence to a specific format.

    1. Executive Summary

    The Executive Summary highlights the main goals and recommendations of the marketing plan. It should also briefly address your budget requirements and how you will measure the success of the plan.

    2. Business Overview (aka the "Situation Analysis")

    This section contains background information on the general marketplace for the industry, and an overview of current product, pricing, and distribution conditions as well as information about your main competitors. If the planning process takes place at the end of a fiscal year, this section can also serve as a recap of the business for the past 12 months. Some marketing plan templates include the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis in this segment. Others insert a separate segment devoted to the SWOT Analysis. In the light of the business situation just described, you need to set down the strengths and weaknesses of your operation, as well as opportunities and threats to be dealt with in the coming year.

    Product / Service Analysis: Describe your products and services and their applications. Outline their advantages over those of the competition (such as unique features or qualities, patents, expertise, etc)., as well as the disadvantages. How do they compare on price, features, availability, ease of use?

    Pricing Strategy: Your pricing strategy is another marketing technique you can use to improve your overall competitiveness. Determine the pricing strategy your competitors are using, and from that information evaluate whether your prices are in line with the competitors in your market area and with industry averages. Ask yourself if your prices are in line with the image you want the business to have in the public’s mind, and whether your prices cover costs and leave a reasonable profit margin. Some pricing strategies to consider are:

    • markup on cost
    • competitive position
    • pricing below competition
    • pricing above competition
    • price lining
    • multiple pricing.

    The key to success is to have a well-planned strategy, to establish your policies and to constantly monitor prices and operating costs to ensure profits. Even in the case of a franchise where operational procedures and materials are provided by the franchisor, it is a good policy to keep abreast of the changes in the marketplace because these changes can affect your competitiveness and profit margins.

    Competitors Analysis: In any business, it is important to know your competitors. Answer the following questions to help you determine who your most important competition is:

    1. Who are your five nearest direct competitors?
    2. Who are your indirect competitors?
    3. Are their market shares holding steady, increasing, or decreasing?
    4. What have you learned from their operations and their advertising?
    5. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
    6. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
    7. How do their products or services differ from yours?
    8. How competitive is the market? Can it bear competition from another entry into the field?

    Study your competitors' advertising, promotional campaigns and pricing and sales strategies. Review this information regularly, keeping track of when and how often they advertise, run promotions and offer sales. Using this technique can give you an understanding of how they operate their businesses.

    Environmental Factors: Describe the environmental factors (economic, governmental, legal and other factors over which you have no control) which may impact your business, either positively or negatively. Economic factors include such things as trade area growth (or lack thereof), the overall health of the industry, economic trends, rising costs, taxes, etc. Include factors which apply to your industry, such as availability of materials, supplies and labor, seasonal or climatic trends, and laws and government regulations.

    3. Analysis of Your Target Market(s)

    business conceptThe key element of a successful marketing plan is to know your target market. How well do you know yours? How well do you understand the needs of that market? Can you articulate what your customers and potential customers need, and how that need is met by what you offer? Are there groups to whom you should be “selling” who are not now “buying” your services? Are there ways to segment your market so that you can offer highly specialized products and services to certain market sectors which reflect their business priorities? What kind of products should be offered to a broader user base? Answering these questions will help you define your target markets.

    1. Identify your customers by demographics, such as age, sex, income, educational level, geographic area, marital status, number of children, etc. To begin with, target only those customers who are most likely to purchase your product or service. As your customer base expands, you may need to consider modifying the marketing plan to include customers outside the current demographic.

    2. Outline how you will be targeting customers (e.g. by product line, by geographic area, by industry, by sales volume, etc), and estimate how much your selected market(s) will spend on your product or service in the coming year.

    3. Determine what percentage of your total business comes from the private sector, wholesalers, retailers, government contracts, and other areas.

    4. Goals Statement

    Identify what your goals are, and the time frame in which you can reasonably expect to reach each of the goals that you have identified. The goals should be challenging but attainable.

    5. Marketing Strategies

    This section should outline the strategies and programs which will help you reach the goals you have set in the previous section. How you market and promote your goods and services may make or break your business. You may have a great product or service but if you don’t market it appropriately, you won’t reach the people who will buy it. It is vital to devise a marketing plan that uses advertising and networking as a means to promote your business. The more care and attention you devote to your marketing program, the more successful your business will be.

    You need to decide what kind of image your business wants to project to the public, and what features of your product and/or service you want to emphasize. What do you want to say about your business? What qualities do you want consumers to equate with your name and brand? Evaluate your customer service and support resources, and your sales and credit terms, both of which are valuable commodities to the average consumer. If you have a clear advantage over your competitors in these areas, emphasize that in your promotional materials. Do a comparison of the available advertising media (based on which media are best suited to advertising your product / service and to reaching your target markets) and set out which media you will advertise in, together with the reasons for those decisions.

    6. Implementation Plan

    Use this section to set out how you will implement and monitor each of the strategies outlined in the previous section, including who is responsible for completing each task and a target date for completion of each task.

    7. Budget

    How much will the activities defined above cost? Can you provide a revenue forecast? Explain the assumptions on which the forecast is based and consider various “best case, worst case” scenarios.

    8. Evaluation of Results

    How will you measure the success of the plan? What are your criteria for defining success? By monitoring the progress of your various strategies, you can judge the success of the marketing plan. If some of the strategies are not working out, try to determine why. Is the strategy flawed? Is there a problem with implementation or timing? How can you refocus and move on? Once you have the answers to these questions, you can restructure your marketing plan accordingly.

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