importance of marketing in a business plan

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Blog Marketing What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

Written by: Sara McGuire Oct 26, 2023

A marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines your strategies to attract and convert your ideal customers as a part of your customer acquisition strategy . It’s a comprehensive document that details your:

• Target audience:  Who you’re trying to reach
• Marketing goals:  What you want to achieve
• Strategies and tactics:  How you’ll reach your goals
• Budget:  Resources you’ll allocate
• Metrics:  How you’ll measure success

In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about creating a marketing plan . If you need a little extra help, there are professionally designed marketing plan templates that’ll make the process much easier. So, let’s ditch the confusion and get started!

Click to jump ahead:

What is a marketing plan?

How to write a marketing plan .

• Marketing plan v.s. business plan
• Types of marketing plans

9 marketing plan examples to inspire your growth strategy

Marketing plan faqs.

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for your products or services, which could be applicable for the coming year, quarter or month.  

Watch this quick, 13-minute video for more details on what a marketing plan is and how to make one yourself:

Typically, a marketing plan includes:

• An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals
• A description of your business’s current marketing position
• A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking
• A description of your business’s target market and customer needs
• A description of how you will measure the performance of the strategy

For example, this marketing plan template provides a high-level overview of the business and competitors before diving deep into specific goals, KPIs and tactics:

Learning how to write a marketing plan forces you to think through the important steps that lead to an effective marketing strategy . And a well-defined plan will help you stay focused on your high-level marketing goals.

With Venngage’s extensive catalog of marketing plan templates , creating your marketing plan isn’t going to be hard or tedious. In fact, Venngage has plenty of helpful communications and design resources for marketers. If you’re ready to get started, sign up for  Venngage for Marketers   now. It’s free to register and start designing.

Whether you’re a team trying to set smarter marketing goals, a consultant trying to set your client in the right direction, or a one-person team hustling it out, Venngage for Marketers helps you get things done.

As mentioned above, the scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for.

For example, you could look for performance marketing agency to create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing strategy or simply focus on a specific channel like SEO, social media marketing, content marketing and more, like in this example:

A typical outline of a marketing plan includes:

• Executive summary
• Goals and objectives
• User personas
• Competitor analysis/SWOT analysis
• Baseline metrics
• Marketing strategy
• Tracking guidelines

Below you will see in details how to write each section as well as some examples of how you can design each section in a marketing plan.

Let’s look at how to create a successful marketing plan (click to jump ahead):

• Write a simple executive summary
• Set metric-driven marketing goals
• Outline your user personas
• Research all of your competitors
• Set accurate key baselines & metrics
• Create an actionable marketing strategy
• Set tracking or reporting guidelines

1. Write a simple executive summary

Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.

One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well-written executive summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future plans, and other important contextual facts.

Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.

Include things like:

• Simple marketing goals
• High-level metrics
• Important company milestones
• Facts about your brand
• Employee anecdotes
• Future goals & plans

Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to keep it under three to four paragraphs.

Take a look at the executive summary in the marketing plan example below:

The executive summary is only two paragraphs long — short but effective.

The executive summary tells readers about the company’s growth, and how they are about to overtake one of their competitors. But there’s no mention of specific metrics or figures. That will be highlighted in the next section of the marketing plan.

An effective executive summary should have enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but not bog them down with specifics yet. That’s what the rest of your marketing plan is for!

The executive summary also sets the tone for your marketing plan. Think about what tone will fit your brand ? Friendly and humorous? Professional and reliable? Inspiring and visionary?

2. Set metric-driven marketing goals

After you perfect your executive summary, it’s time to outline your marketing goals.

(If you’ve never set data-driven goals like this before, it would be worth reading this growth strategy guide ).

This is one of the most important parts of the entire marketing plan, so be sure to take your time and be as clear as possible. Moreover, optimizing your marketing funnel is key. Employing effective funnel software can simplify operations and provide valuable customer insights. It facilitates lead tracking, conversion rate analysis, and efficient marketing optimization .

As a rule of thumb, be as specific as possible. The folks over at  VoyMedia  advise that you should set goals that impact website traffic, conversions, and customer success — and to use real numbers.

Avoid outlining vague goals like:

• Get more Twitter followers
• Write more articles
• Create more YouTube videos (like educational or Explainer videos )
• Increase retention rate
• Decrease bounce rate

Instead, identify  key performance metrics  (KPI) you want to impact and the percentage you want to increase them by.

Take a look at the goals page in the marketing plan example below:

They not only identify a specific metric in each of their goals, but they also set a timeline for when they will be increased.

The same vague goals listed earlier become much clearer when specific numbers and timelines are applied to them:

• Get 100 new Twitter followers per month
• Write 5 more articles per week
• Create 10 YouTube videos each year
• Increase retention rate by 15% by 2020
• Decrease bounce rate by 5% by Q1
• Create an online course  and get 1,000 new leads
• Focus more on local SEO strategies
• Conduct a monthly social media report to track progress

You can dive even deeper into your marketing goals if you want (generally, the more specific, the better). Here’s a marketing plan example that shows how to outline your growth goals:

3. Outline your user personas

Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of value.

Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.

You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get the right visitors.

Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your business solve customer problems?

Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.

Some ways to conduct user research are:

• Interviewing your users (either in person or on the phone)
• Conducting focus groups
• Researching other businesses in the same industry
• Surveying your audience

Then, you will need to compile your user data into a user persona  guide.

Take a look at how detailed this user persona template is below:

Taking the time to identify specific demographic traits, habits and goals will make it easier for you to cater your marketing plan to them.

Here’s how you can create a user persona guide:

The first thing you should add is a profile picture or icon for each user persona. It can help to put a face to your personas, so they seem more real.

Next, list demographic information like:

• Identifiers
• Activities/Hobbies

The user persona example above uses sliding scales to identify personality traits like introversion vs. extroversion and thinking vs. feeling. Identifying what type of personality your target users tend to have an influence on the messaging you use in your marketing content.

Meanwhile, this user persona guide identifies specific challenges the user faces each day:

But if you don’t want to go into such precise detail, you can stick to basic information, like in this marketing plan example:

Most businesses will have a few different types of target users. That’s why it’s pertinent to identify and create several different user personas . That way, you can better segment your marketing campaigns and set separate goals, if necessary.

Here’s a marketing plan example with a segmented user persona guide:

The important thing is for your team or client to have a clear picture of who their target user is and how they can appeal to their specific problems.

Start creating robust user personas using Venngage’s user persona guide .

4. Conduct an extensive competitor analysis

Next, on the marketing plan checklist, we have the competitor research section. This section will help you identify who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how you could carve yourself a place alongside them in your niche — and ideally, surpass them. It’s something you can learn to do with rank tracking software .

Competitor research is also incredibly important if you are starting a blog .

Typically, your competitor research should include:

• Who their marketing team is
• Who their leadership team is
• What their marketing strategy and strategic marketing plan are (this will probably revolve some reverse-engineering)
• What their sales strategy is (same deal)
• Social Media strategy (are they using discounting strategies such as coupon marketing to get conversions)
• Their market cap/financials
• Their yearly growth (you will probably need to use a marketing tool like Ahrefs to do this)
• The number of customers they have & their user personas

Also, take as deep a dive as you can into the strategies they use across their:

• Blog/Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Video marketing
• And any other marketing tactics they use

Research their strengths and weaknesses in all parts of their company, and you will find some great opportunities. Bookmark has a great guide to different marketing strategies for small businesses  if you need some more information there.

You can use this simple SWOT analysis worksheet to quickly work through all parts of their strategy as well:

Click the template above to create a SWOT chart . Customize the template to your liking — no design know-how needed.

Since you have already done all the research beforehand, adding this information to your marketing plan shouldn’t be that hard.

In this marketing plan example, some high-level research is outlined for 3 competing brands:

But you could take a deeper dive into different facets of your competitors’ strategies. This marketing plan example analyses a competitor’s content marketing strategy:

It can also be helpful to divide your competitors into Primary and Secondary groups. For example, Apple’s primary competitor may be Dell for computers, but its secondary competitor could be a company that makes tablets.

Your most dangerous competitors may not even be in the same industry as you. Like the CEO of Netflix said, “Sleep is our competition.”

5. Set accurate key baselines & metrics

It’s pretty hard to plan for the future if you don’t know where your business stands right now.

Before we do anything at Venngage, we find the baselines so we can compare future results to something. We do it so much it’s almost like second nature now!

Setting baselines will allow you to more accurately track your progress. You will also be able to better analyze what worked and what didn’t work, so you can build a stronger strategy. It will definitely help them clearly understand your goals and strategy as well.

Here’s a marketing plan example where the baselines are visualized:

Another way to include baselines in your plan is with a simple chart, like in the marketing plan example below:

Because data can be intimidating to a lot of people, visualizing your data using charts and infographics will help demystify the information.

6. Create an actionable marketing strategy

After pulling all the contextual information and relevant metrics into your marketing plan, it’s time to break down your marketing strategy.

Once again, it’s easier to communicate your information to your team or clients using visuals .

Mind maps are an effective way to show how a strategy with many moving parts ties together. For example, this mind map shows how the four main components of a marketing strategy interact together:

You can also use a flow chart to map out your strategy by objectives:

However you choose to visualize your strategy, your team should know exactly what they need to do. This is not the time to keep your cards close to your chest.

Your strategy section may need to take up a few pages to explain, like in the marketing plan example below:

With all of this information, even someone from the development team will understand what the marketing team is working on.

This minimalistic marketing plan example uses color blocks to make the different parts of the strategy easy to scan:

Breaking your strategy down into tasks will make it easier to tackle.

Another important way to visualize your marketing strategy is to create a project roadmap. A project roadmap visualizes the timeline of your product with individual tasks. Our roadmap maker can help you with this.

For example, this project roadmap shows how tasks on both the marketing and web design side run parallel to each other:

A simple timeline can also be used in your marketing plan:

Or a mind map, if you want to include a ton of information in a more organized way:

Even a simple “Next, Now, Later” chart can help visualize your strategy:

7. Set tracking or reporting guidelines

Close your marketing plan with a brief explanation of how you plan to track or measure your results. This will save you a lot of frustration down the line by standardizing how you track results across your team.

Like the other sections of your marketing plan, you can choose how in-depth you want to go. But there need to be some clear guidelines on how to measure the progress and results of your marketing plan.

At the bare minimum, your results tracking guidelines should specify:

• What you plan to track
• How you plan to track results
• How often you plan to measure

But you can more add tracking guidelines to your marketing plan if you see the need to. You may also want to include a template that your team or client can follow,  for  client reporting ,  ensure that the right metrics are being tracked.

The marketing plan example below dedicates a whole page to tracking criteria:

Use a task tracker to track tasks and marketing results, and a checklist maker to note down tasks, important life events, or tracking your daily life.

Similarly, the marketing plan example below talks about tracking content marketing instead:

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy

Although often used interchangeably, the terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” do have some differences.

Simply speaking, a marketing strategy presents what the business will do in order to reach a certain goal. A marketing plan outlines the specific daily, weekly, monthly or yearly activities that the marketing strategy calls for. As a business, you can create a marketing proposal for the marketing strategies defined in your company’s marketing plan. There are various marketing proposal examples that you can look at to help with this.

A company’s extended marketing strategy can be like this:

Notice how it’s more general and doesn’t include the actual activities required to complete each strategy or the timeframe those marketing activities will take place. That kind of information is included in a marketing plan, like this marketing plan template which talks about the content strategy in detail:

Marketing plan v.s business plan

While both marketing plans and business plans are crucial documents for businesses, they serve distinct purposes and have different scopes. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

Business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines all aspects of your business, including:

• Mission and vision
• Products or services
• Target market
• Competition
• Management team
• Financial projections
• Marketing strategy (including a marketing plan)
• Operations plan

Marketing plan on the other hand, dives deep into the specific strategies and tactics related to your marketing efforts. It expands on the marketing section of a business plan by detailing:

• Specific marketing goals (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, sales)
• Target audience analysis (detailed understanding of their needs and behaviors)
• Product:  Features, benefits, positioning
• Price:  Pricing strategy, discounts
• Place:  Distribution channels (online, offline)
• Promotion:  Advertising, social media, content marketing, public relations
• Budget allocation for different marketing activities
• Metrics and measurement to track progress and success

In short, business plans paint the entire business picture, while marketing plans zoom in on the specific strategies used to reach your target audience and achieve marketing goals.

Types of marketing plans that can transform your business strategy

Let’s take a look at several types of marketing plans you can create, along with specific examples for each.

1. General marketing strategic plan / Annual marketing plan

This is a good example of a marketing plan that covers the overarching annual marketing strategy for a company:

Another good example would be this Starbucks marketing plan:

This one-page marketing plan example from coffee chain Starbucks has everything at a glance. The bold headers and subheadings make it easier to segment the sections so readers can focus on the area most relevant to them.

What we like about this example is how much it covers. From the ideal buyer persona to actional activities, as well as positioning and metrics, this marketing plan has it all.

Another marketing plan example that caught our eye is this one from Cengage. Although a bit text-heavy and traditional, it explains the various sections well. The clean layout makes this plan easy to read and absorb.

The last marketing plan example we would like to feature in this section is this one from Lush cosmetics.

It is a long one but it’s also very detailed. The plan outlines numerous areas, including the company mission, SWOT analysis , brand positioning, packaging, geographical criteria, and much more.

2. Content marketing plan

A content marketing plan highlights different strategies , campaigns or tactics you can use for your content to help your business reach its goals.

This one-page marketing plan example from Contently outlines a content strategy and workflow using simple colors and blocks. The bullet points detail more information but this plan can easily be understood at a glance, which makes it so effective.

For a more detailed content marketing plan example, take a look at this template which features an editorial calendar you can share with the whole team:

3. SEO marketing plan

Your SEO marketing plan highlights what you plan to do for your SEO marketing strategy . This could include tactics for website on-page optimization , off-page optimization using AI SEO , and link building using an SEO PowerSuite backlink API for quick backlink profile checks.

This SEO marketing plan example discusses in detail the target audience of the business and the SEO plan laid out in different stages:

4. Social media marketing plan

Your social media marketing plan presents what you’ll do to reach your marketing goal through social media. This could include tactics specific to each social media channel that you own, recommendations on developing a new channel, specific campaigns you want to run, and so on, like how B2B channels use Linkedin to generate leads with automation tools and expand their customer base; or like making use of Twitter walls that could display live Twitter feeds from Twitter in real-time on digital screens.

For B2C brands, you can target Facebook and Instagram. Gain Instagram likes to build trust for your brand’s profile and post engaging content on both platforms

Edit this social media marketing plan example easily with Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor:

5. Demand generation marketing plan

This could cover your paid marketing strategy (which can include search ads, paid social media ads, traditional advertisements, etc.), email marketing strategy and more. Here’s an example:

1. Free marketing plan template

Here’s a free nonprofit marketing plan example that is ideal for organizations with a comprehensive vision to share. It’s a simple plan that is incredibly effective. Not only does the plan outline the core values of the company, it also shares the ideal buyer persona.

Note how the branding is consistent throughout this example so there is no doubt which company is presenting this plan. The content plan is an added incentive for anyone viewing the document to go ahead and give the team the green light.

2. Pastel social media marketing campaign template

Two-page marketing plan samples aren’t very common, but this free template proves how effective they are. There’s a dedicated section for business goals as well as for project planning .

The milestones for the marketing campaign are clearly laid out, which is a great way to show how organized this business strategy is.

3. Small business marketing strategy template

This marketing plan template is perfect for small businesses who set out to develop an overarching marketing strategy for the whole year:

Notice how this aligns pretty well with the marketing plan outline we discussed in previous sections.

In terms of specific tactics for the company’s marketing strategy, the template only discusses SEO strategy, but you can certainly expand on that section to discuss any other strategies — such as link building , that you would like to build out a complete marketing plan for.

4. Orange simple marketing proposal template

Marketing plans, like the sample below, are a great way to highlight what your business strategy and the proposal you wan to put forward to win potential customers.

5. One-page marketing fact sheet template

This one-page marketing plan example is great for showcasing marketing efforts in a persuasive presentation or to print out for an in-person meeting.

Note how the fact sheet breaks down the marketing budget as well as the key metrics for the organization. You can win over clients and partners with a plan like this.

6. Light company business fact sheet template

This one-page sample marketing plan clearly outlines the marketing objectives for the organization. It’s a simple but effective way to share a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

What really works with this example is that includes a mission statement, key contact information alongside all the key metrics.

7. Marketing media press kit template

This press kit marketing plan template is bright and unmistakable as belonging to the Cloud Nine marketing agency . The way the brand colors are used also helps diversify the layouts for each page, making the plan easier to read.

We like the way the marketing department has outlined the important facts about the organization. The bold and large numbers draw the eye and look impressive.

8. Professional marketing proposal template

Start your marketing campaign on a promising note with this marketing plan template. It’s short, sharp and to the point. The table of contents sets out the agenda, and there’s a page for the company overview and mission statement.

9. Social media marketing proposal template

A complete marketing plan example, like the one below, not only breaks down the business goals to be achieved but a whole lot more. Note how the terms and conditions and payment schedule are included, which makes this one of the most comprehensive marketing plans on our list.

What should marketing plans include?

Marketing plans should include:

• A detailed analysis of the target market and customer segments.
• Clear and achievable marketing objectives and goals.
• Strategies and tactics for product promotion and distribution.
• Budget allocation for various marketing activities.
• Timelines and milestones for the implementation of marketing strategies.
• Evaluation metrics and methods for tracking the success of the marketing plan.

What is an executive summary in a marketing plan and what is its main goal?

An executive summary in a marketing plan is a brief overview of the entire document, summarizing the key points, goals, and strategies. Its main goal is to provide readers with a quick understanding of the plan’s purpose and to entice them to read further.

What are the results when a marketing plan is effective?

When a marketing plan is effective, businesses can experience increased brand visibility, higher customer engagement , improved sales and revenue, and strengthened customer loyalty.

What is the first section of a marketing plan?

The first section of a marketing plan is typically the “Executive Summary,” which provides a concise overview of the entire plan, including the business’s goals and the strategies to achieve them.

Now that you have the basics for designing your own marketing plan, it’s time to get started:

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Marketing & Branding

Why is a marketing plan so important for a business.

Although it may just be one segment of your wider business strategy, your marketing plan is perhaps the single most vital element of it. Not only does it enable you to establish clear marketing objectives, but it also provides you with the opportunity to develop a well-researched, intelligent marketing outlay.

Without one, you will be approaching your lead generation and conversion efforts blind, which means that you will see poor results, a reduced return on your investments, and, subsequently, a lack of new customers for your enterprise.

The Importance of a Marketing Plan

To illustrate the benefits of having and implementing such a plan , we've taken a closer look at how it directly impacts the central goals and targets of your organisation. Here are the four most significant advantages of strategic marketing:

1. It's a Declaration of What Makes Your Business Unique

First and foremost, you want to expose your business to potential customers and clients alike, as well as nurture ongoing relationships with existing patrons. After all, this is what will keep your company flourishing and continually growing.

Setting out a marketing plan means contemplating the qualities and characteristics of your specific business, as well as what sets it apart from every other company in your niche. It also forces you to consider all the positive aspects of your business that you can use as a selling point, such as the high quality of your products or services, your focus on customer service, or your commitment to social responsibility .

By making yourself impossible to forget, you remain in the conscience of customers – not only those who have already interacted with you in person, but those who have had the opportunity to view or listen to your publicised marketing campaigns, too. Even this latter group will have a desire to try your products or services if you appeal to them in the correct manner. It's impossible to achieve any of this without a well thought through marketing plan.

2. It Enables a Greater Sense of Focus

In addition to formalising your ideas, a marketing plan also identifies a set of clear marketing objectives that will define your success and ensure that you are not adopting a scattergun approach to your company's advertising and promotion . Of course, this involves a great deal of  market research ; before you outline your goals, you first need to identify who your target audience is, what they want , and the trends and patterns that surround their consumer behaviour. Once you have laid out your ideal customer profile , a marketing plan ensures that you can identify and understand how to reach them.

Companies who have created a clear sense of what they need to focus on are also able to implement a timeframe in which these goals must be accomplished. Typically, your plan should be segmented into short and long-term goals that enable review and reflection as you go; for example, have you been too ambitious with your targets, or, conversely, have you not been ambitious enough? By outlining such metrics in a marketing plan, you get a much clearer sense of whether or not your approach is actually working, while allowing you to tweak certain objectives and methods along the way.

Within this context, your marketing plan can also enable better time management and organisation, as well as a more accurate financial approach (both spending and earnings). After all, marketing campaigns can be notoriously expensive – especially if they spiral out of control; within the parameters of a plan, you will be more goal-driven and less inclined to just "see what works".

3. It's Robust

In business, things will not always go to plan. Whether it's the result of external factors , such as legislation changes, political upheaval or economic disruption, or even internal complications, such as a key member of staff leaving, your marketing plan will always remain as a blueprint for how to react.

In this sense, your plan is a form of proactive business management, ensuring that, should any future dilemmas arise, you will be able to react calmly and effectively. A robust and thorough plan offers contingency solutions for external factors, while if one of your marketing personnel decides to go elsewhere, a replacement can come in and seamlessly adapt to the existing strategy. Essentially, you are ensuring that short-term issues do not affect the long-term mission, and that you – and everyone within your company – are all on the same page moving forward.

4. It Gives You an Edge Over Your Competitors

All of these reasons ultimately add up to one thing: it increases the chances of success for your business. In turn, this means that you are attracting customers and, by definition, taking them away from your competitors. As a result, you strengthen your position while simultaneously weakening theirs, which is a healthy place to be in.

It also gives you an advantage during the early stages of your venture, where most small businesses are likely to adopt the cheapest marketing option without sufficiently understanding the bigger picture. For example, whereas you might have clear definitions of your budget and the clarity of a purposeful, multi-platform approach, your rivals may simply be throwing money at Google or Facebook Ads in the hope that something will stick. Inexperienced entrepreneurs are often guilty of short-sightedness, whereas a marketing plan ensures that you are always aware of how your actions impact your longer-term goals.

When you create your marketing strategy, you also ensure that you don't get tunnel vision or fall into the trap of putting all your eggs in one basket. Aside from adopting conventional strategies that are in line with the trends of your target segment, a plan also forces you to think outside of the box; this could mean combining your existing efforts with other tactics, such as guerrilla marketing , magazine advertisements and any other form of creative promotion that can help you to stand out from the crowd. 

Overall, the benefits of having a marketing plan are evident. By establishing clear marketing objectives, you are less likely to see financial wastage and can instead expect to cultivate better value on your returns and higher levels of exposure. It also ensures continuity and robustness as your business evolves and changes, as well as a definitive advantage over your competitors.

Do you agree? Is a marketing plan a vital component of a company's strategy, or has the fast-moving world of digital advertising made it a redundant feature? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below!

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What is a marketing plan and why is it important?

Before you spend a cent on marketing, you first have to understand the market and your customers.

Companies of all sizes have one thing in common: They all began as small businesses.  Starting small  is the corner for those just getting off the ground. Learn about how to make that first hire, deal with all things administrative, and set yourself up for success.

A marketing plan is a blueprint for launching new products, understanding the intricacies of your market, growing your audience, and promoting your company to customers who want what you’re selling. 

With a well-designed marketing plan, you can design more effective promotions and impactful campaigns, reach your customers with targeted advertising, and track your business success with analytics. Without one, you might as well throw your marketing budget down a well and hope for the best. 

If you’ve been tasked with creating a marketing plan for your company, there are some basic elements to keep in mind. Though every marketing plan will reflect the specific business and industry it’s been created for, most share a few common features and can be boiled down to just one or two simple objectives. In this article, we’ll outline some of the basic elements of a marketing plan and how to write one.

When you’re ready to put the plan into action, WeWork All Access and WeWork On Demand are there to support you with hundreds of dedicated workspaces around the world, so you can seamlessly collaborate on marketing strategy in a professional and stylish office space.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a document outlining a company’s future marketing efforts and goals. It can be as short as a single page or made up of many smaller campaign plans from different marketing teams. 

However large and complex those plans are, the idea remains the same: A marketing plan is created to organize, execute, and eventually measure the success of a business’s marketing strategy .

Types of marketing plans

Marketing plans come in as many different shapes and sizes as there are different kinds of business, but they can be broadly placed into one (or more) of a few different categories. Here are some of the most common you’ll encounter.

• Annual marketing plans. These types of marketing plans arrange campaigns according to when they’re expected to launch, rather than the content of the campaigns themselves. It’s a useful way to get an overview of a marketing strategy for the upcoming year, and to measure success continuously as time passes.
• Content marketing plans. This is a more content-focused way of approaching a marketing strategy, and highlights the specific channels and audiences you want to reach. Content marketing plans can look very similar to annual marketing plans, but are less concerned with the “when” and more with the “what” and the “how.”
• Product launch plans. Launching a new product or service requires a specific kind of marketing plan. The main goal is to successfully introduce the new product to the market. But these plans also include the strategies, tactics, and content needed in the buildup to the launch itself.
• Social media marketing plans. Social media channels are such a vital part of a company’s marketing goals that it’s often wise to create a separate social media marketing plan dedicated to creating advertising and promotional content on these platforms.

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

A marketing plan lays out your business strategy for acquiring new customers and selling more products and services. But it also serves as a way of analyzing exactly how successful your marketing efforts have been so far. Knowing this information helps steer ongoing campaigns in the right direction, aligns your marketing with your company’s values, and ensures that future campaigns are better targeted and more effective.

To understand why a marketing plan is important, just consider what would happen without one. Your advertising budget would be spent based entirely on guesswork about where your potential customers can be found and what they’re looking for. You’d have no idea which of your campaigns contributed to increased sales figures. And you’d have no baselines from which to build more effective campaigns in the future.

How to create a marketing plan

Elements of a marketing plan.

The basic building blocks of any good marketing plan are focused on objectives, research, competitors, and content. These objectives should be clearly defined and easily measurable goals —ideally no more than two or three—and informed by as much consumer research as you can reasonably gather.

Whether your goal is increasing your Instagram followers, driving traffic to your site, or attracting more cheese fans to your cheese store, set a specific target by which to monitor the performance of any campaign. As you develop your marketing plan and learn what’s effective and what’s not, you can set more accurate targets and begin to hone in on the strategies that really work for your company.

A marketing plan should also describe your brand’s biggest competitors and the campaigns they’re running, as well as identify any openings in the market that would allow your company to grab market share. This is where SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis comes into its own, enabling a company to shape its marketing plan around its own strengths and weaknesses.

Lastly, a marketing plan should outline the content of each campaign. Will your pre-roll video content use animation or live actors? Can you offer discounts and voucher codes to new customers? Will you leverage your mailing list to notify existing customers of a new product launch?

Define a marketing plan strategy

If your marketing plan is a roadmap, then your marketing strategy is the road. The strategy describes which tools you’ll use to hit the targets laid out by the main marketing plan document, and how they’ll be applied.

Here’s where you get down to the fundamentals of selling. Depending on who you ask, there are as many as seven P’s of marketing, though most agree on four core elements: price, product, place, and promotion.

What are you selling? How much are you charging? Where will your customers see it? And how will you promote it to them? Marketing gurus will promise you that if you can answer all of these questions correctly, you’ll be guaranteed boundless success.

Of course, in the real world it’s not quite so straightforward. But the four main P’s are an ideal starting point for anyone creating a market plan from scratch.

How to measure the success of a marketing plan

An enormous amount of effort and investment is poured into monitoring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, but at some level, consumer behavior becomes what’s known as a black box. You can measure what goes into it and what comes out the other end, but what happens inside the mind of a consumer can ultimately only be guessed at based on outcomes. Even the shoppers themselves can’t reliably report on why they choose certain products over others.

That’s why tracking a marketing plan’s performance alongside more specific KPIs (key performance indicators) is crucial. Advertising spend and sales figures aren’t linked in a simple or obvious way, so measuring success on a more granular level—such as increasing conversions or returning customers—helps create a much clearer picture of how well your marketing plan is doing.

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Final thoughts on creating a marketing plan

Marketing plans need to be squarely outlined and adhered to, but they shouldn’t be set in stone. You need to be able to course-correct when something isn’t landing, or lean more into campaigns when they’re working well. 

Quick aside: This is particularly true when it comes to the content of social media marketing plans, which are truly effective only when they’re timely and topical. Memes are a perfect example of this: How often have you seen a promoted tweet deploy some forgotten joke from months ago, presumably because it had been left in somebody’s annual marketing plan?

But while it’s useful to have a flexible approach , it’s important that your marketing plan is resilient and doesn’t flip-flop or bounce wildly between ideas. Move the goalposts too much and your plan will quickly fall apart, leaving your campaign in chaos. Allow your strategies some time to settle in, and even if you don’t reach success, you will gain invaluable performance data for future projects.

Steve Hogarty is a writer and journalist based in London. He is the travel editor of City AM newspaper and the deputy editor of City AM Magazine , where his work focuses on technology, travel, and entertainment.

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What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

Published: December 27, 2023

For a while now, you've been spearheading your organization's content marketing efforts, and your team's performance has convinced management to adopt the content marketing strategies you’ve suggested.

Now, your boss wants you to write and present a content marketing plan, but you‘ve never done something like that before. You don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, we've curated the best content marketing plans to help you write a concrete plan that's rooted in data and produces results. But first, we'll discuss what a marketing plan is and how some of the best marketing plans include strategies that serve their respective businesses.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. Marketing plans can include different marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, all working toward the same business goals.

The purpose of a marketing plan is to write down strategies in an organized manner. This will help keep you on track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Writing a marketing plan will help you think of each campaign‘s mission, buyer personas, budget, tactics, and deliverables. With all this information in one place, you’ll have an easier time staying on track with a campaign. You'll also discover what works and what doesn't. Thus, measuring the success of your strategy.

Featured Resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

Looking to develop a marketing plan for your business? Click here to download HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template to get started .

To learn more about how to create your marketing plan, keep reading or jump to the section you’re looking for:

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Types of marketing plans, marketing plan examples, marketing plan faqs, sample marketing plan.

If you're pressed for time or resources, you might not be thinking about a marketing plan. However, a marketing plan is an important part of your business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute resources and make decisions as your business grows.

I like to think of a marketing plan as a subset of a business plan; it shows how marketing strategies and objectives can support overall business goals.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.

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Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy describes how a business will accomplish a particular goal or mission. This includes which campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software they'll use to execute that mission and track its success.

For example, while a greater plan or department might handle social media marketing, you might consider your work on Facebook as an individual marketing strategy.

A marketing plan contains one or more marketing strategies. It's the framework from which all of your marketing strategies are created and helps you connect each strategy back to a larger marketing operation and business goal.

For example, suppose your company is launching a new software product, and it wants customers to sign up. The marketing department needs to develop a marketing plan that'll help introduce this product to the industry and drive the desired signups.

The department decides to launch a blog dedicated to this industry, a new YouTube video series to establish expertise, and an account on Twitter to join the conversation around this subject. All this serves to attract an audience and convert this audience into software users.

To summarize, the business's marketing plan is dedicated to introducing a new software product to the marketplace and driving signups for that product. The business will execute that plan with three marketing strategies : a new industry blog, a YouTube video series, and a Twitter account.

Of course, the business might consider these three things as one giant marketing strategy, each with its specific content strategies. How granular you want your marketing plan to get is up to you. Nonetheless, every marketing plan goes through a particular set of steps in its creation.

Learn what they are below.

• State your business's mission.
• Determine the KPIs for this mission.
• Identify your buyer personas.
• Describe your content initiatives and strategies.
• Clearly define your plan's omissions.
• Define your marketing budget.
• Identify your competition.
• Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

1. State your business's mission.

Your first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to your marketing department, it should serve your business‘s main mission statement.

From my experience, you want to be specific, but not too specific. You have plenty of space left in this marketing plan to elaborate on how you'll acquire new customers and accomplish this mission.

Need help building your mission statement? Download this guide for examples and templates and write the ideal mission statement.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

Every good marketing plan describes how the department will track its mission‘s progress. To do so, you need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs) .

KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.

Let's take our example of a marketing mission from the above step. If part of our mission is “to attract an audience of travelers,” we might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, “organic page views” is one KPI, and we can see our number of page views grow over time.

Also, make sure to check whether your current reporting software facilitates the KPIs you need. Some reporting tools can only measure a set of pre-defined metrics, which can cause massive headaches in particular marketing campaigns.

However, other tools, like HubSpot’s analytics software , can offer full flexibility over the KPIs you wish to track. You can generate custom reports that reveal anything from average website engagement rates to page visits via organic, email, social media traffic, and more.   

These KPIs will come into the conversation again in step 4.

3. Identify your buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title. Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business's current and potential customers. So, all business leaders must agree on your buyer personas.

Create your buyer personas with this free guide and set of buyer persona templates.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Here's where you'll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy. Because there's a laundry list of content types and channels available to you today, you must choose wisely and explain how you'll use your content and channels in this section of your marketing plan.

When I write this section , I like to stipulate:

• Which types of content I'll create. These might include blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, and ebooks.
• How much of it I'll create. I typically describe content volume in daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly intervals. It all depends on my workflow and the short-term goals for my content.
• The goals (and KPIs) I'll use to track each type. KPIs can include organic traffic, social media traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic. Your goals should also include which pages you want to drive that traffic to, such as product pages, blog pages, or landing pages.
• The channels on which I'll distribute my content. Popular channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.
• Any paid advertising that will take place on these channels.

Build out your marketing plan with this free template.

Fill out this form to access the template., 5. clearly define your plan's omissions..

A marketing plan explains the marketing team's focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not focus on.

If there are other aspects of your business that you aren't serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content. You can’t please everyone in a single marketing campaign, and if your team isn't on the hook for something, you need to make it known.

In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made.

6. Define your marketing budget.

Whether it's freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.

You can establish your marketing budget with this kit of 8 free marketing budget templates .

7. Identify your competition.

Part of marketing is knowing whom you're marketing against. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.

Keep in mind not every competitor will pose the same challenges to your business. For example, while one competitor might be ranking highly on search engines for keywords you want your website to rank for, another competitor might have a heavy footprint on a social network where you plan to launch an account.

Easily track and analyze your competitors with this collection of ten free competitive analysis templates .

8. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it's time to explain who’s doing what. I don't like to delve too deeply into my employees’ day-to-day projects, but I know which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and more.

Now that you know why you need to build an effective marketing plan, it’s time to get to work. Starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming if you haven't done it before. That’s why there are many helpful resources that can support your first steps. We’ll share some of the best guides and templates that can help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.

Ready to make your own marketing plan? Get started using this free template.

Depending on the company you work with, you might want to create various marketing plans. We compiled different samples to suit your needs:

1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans

These plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you'll take on in a certain period.

Forbes published a marketing plan template that has amassed almost 4 million views. To help you sculpt a marketing roadmap with true vision, their template will teach you how to fill out the 15 key sections of a marketing plan, which are:

• Executive Summary
• Target Customers
• Unique Selling Proposition
• Pricing & Positioning Strategy
• Distribution Plan
• Your Offers
• Marketing Materials
• Promotions Strategy
• Online Marketing Strategy
• Conversion Strategy
• Joint Ventures & Partnerships
• Referral Strategy
• Strategy for Increasing Transaction Prices
• Retention Strategy
• Financial Projections

If you're truly lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I highly recommend using this guide to help you define your target audience, figure out how to reach them, and ensure that audience becomes loyal customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan

This type of plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish specifically on social media. A specific subtype is a paid marketing plan, which highlights paid strategies, such as native advertising, PPC, or paid social media promotions.

Shane Snow's Marketing Plan for His Book Dream Team is a great example of a social media marketing plan:

When Shane Snow started promoting his new book, "Dream Team," he knew he had to leverage a data-driven content strategy framework. So, he chose his favorite one: the content strategy waterfall. The content strategy waterfall is defined by Economic Times as a model used to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

Snow wrote a blog post about how the waterfall‘s content strategy helped him launch his new book successfully. After reading it, you can use his tactics to inform your own marketing plan. More specifically, you’ll learn how he:

• Applied his business objectives to decide which marketing metrics to track.
• Used his ultimate business goal of earning $200,000 in sales or 10,000 purchases to estimate the conversion rate of each stage of his funnel.
• Created buyer personas to figure out which channels his audience would prefer to consume his content.
• Used his average post view on each of his marketing channels to estimate how much content he had to create and how often he had to post on social media.
• Calculated how much earned and paid media could cut down the amount of content he had to create and post.
• Designed his process and workflow, built his team, and assigned members to tasks.
• Analyzed content performance metrics to refine his overall content strategy.

I use Snow's marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it's linear and builds on the step before it, creating an air-tight strategy that doesn't leave any details out.

3. Content Marketing Plan

This plan could highlight different strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you'll use content to promote your business or product.

HubSpot's Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy is a strong example of a content marketing plan:

At HubSpot, we‘ve built our marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of hundreds of employees. Along the way, we’ve learned countless lessons that shaped our current content marketing strategy. So, we decided to illustrate our insights in a blog post to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy, regardless of their team's size.

In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, you'll learn:

• What exactly content marketing is.
• Why your business needs a content marketing strategy.
• Who should lead your content marketing efforts?
• How to structure your content marketing team based on your company's size.
• How to hire the right people for each role on your team.
• What marketing tools and technology you'll need to succeed.
• What type of content your team should create, and which employees should be responsible for creating them.
• The importance of distributing your content through search engines, social media, email, and paid ads.
• And finally, the recommended metrics each of your teams should measure and report to optimize your content marketing program.

This is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size — whether you're a team of one or 100. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you'll need, what type of content you should create, and even recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns. If you're aiming to establish or boost your online presence, leveraging tools like HubSpot's drag-and-drop website builder can be extremely beneficial. It helps you create a captivating digital footprint that sets the foundation for your content marketing endeavors.

4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan

This will be a roadmap for the strategies and tactics you‘ll implement to promote a new product. And if you’re searching for an example, look no further than Chief Outsiders' Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product :

After reading this plan, you'll learn how to:

• Validate a product
• Write strategic objectives
• Identify your market
• Compile a competitive landscape
• Create a value proposition for a new product
• Consider sales and service in your marketing plan

If you're looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target one product versus its entire marketing strategy.

5. Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like we see in Venture Harbour’s Growth Marketing Plan Template :

Venture Harbour's growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. Their template has five steps intended for refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle. The five steps are:

• Experiments

I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation always feels risky and unfamiliar, but this plan creates a framework for accountability and strategy.

• Louisville Tourism
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Visit Oxnard
• Safe Haven Family Shelter
• Wright County Economic Development
• The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County
• Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Visit Billings

1. Louisville Tourism

It also divides its target market into growth and seed categories to allow for more focused strategies. For example, the plan recognizes Millennials in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville as the core of it's growth market, whereas people in Boston, Austin, and New York represent seed markets where potential growth opportunities exist. Then, the plan outlines objectives and tactics for reaching each market.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

• The plan starts with a letter from the President & CEO of the company, who sets the stage for the plan by providing a high-level preview of the incoming developments for Louisville's tourism industry
• The focus on Louisville as "Bourbon City" effectively leverages its unique cultural and culinary attributes to present a strong brand
• Incorporates a variety of data points from Google Analytics, Arrivalist, and visitor profiles to to define their target audience with a data-informed approach

2. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

For example, students who become prospects as freshman and sophomore will receive emails that focus on getting the most out of high school and college prep classes. Once these students become juniors and seniors — thus entering the consideration stage — the emails will focus more on the college application process and other exploratory content.

• The plan incorporates competitive analysis, evaluation surveys, and other research to determine the makeup of its target audience
• The plan lists each marketing program (e.g., direct mail, social media, email etc.) and supplements it with examples on the next page
• Each marketing program has its own objectives, tactics, and KPIs for measuring success

3. Visit Oxnard

This marketing plan by Visit Oxnard, a convention and visitors bureau, is packed with all the information one needs in a marketing plan: target markets, key performance indicators, selling points, personas, marketing tactics by channel, and much more.

It also articulates the organization’s strategic plans for the upcoming fiscal year, especially as it grapples with the aftereffects of the pandemic. Lastly, it has impeccable visual appeal, with color-coded sections and strong branding elements.

• States clear and actionable goals for the coming year
• Includes data and other research that shows how their team made their decisions
• Outlines how the team will measure the success of their plan

4. Safe Haven Family Shelter

This marketing plan by a nonprofit organization is an excellent example to follow if your plan will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization. It includes SMART marketing goals , deadlines, action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages , and metrics.

The plan is detailed, yet scannable. By the end of it, one can walk away with a strong understanding of the organization’s strategic direction for its upcoming marketing efforts.

• Confirms ongoing marketing strategies and objectives while introducing new initiatives
• Uses colors, fonts, and formatting to emphasize key parts of the plan
• Closes with long-term goals, key themes, and other overarching topics to set the stage for the future

5. Wright County Economic Development

Wright County Economic Development’s plan drew our attention because of its simplicity, making it good inspiration for those who’d like to outline their plan in broad strokes without frills or filler.

It includes key information such as marketing partners, goals, initiatives, and costs. The sections are easy to scan and contain plenty of information for those who’d like to dig into the details. Most important, it includes a detailed breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative — which is critical information to include for upper-level managers and other stakeholders.

• Begins with a quick paragraph stating why the recommended changes are important
• Uses clear graphics and bullet points to emphasize key points
• Includes specific budget data to support decision-making

6. The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

This marketing plan presentation by a cultural council is a great example of how to effectively use data in your plan, address audiences who are new to the industry, and offer extensive detail into specific marketing strategies.

For instance, an entire slide is dedicated to the county’s cultural tourism trends, and at the beginning of the presentation, the organization explains what an arts and culture agency is in the first place.

That’s a critical piece of information to include for those who might not know. If you’re addressing audiences outside your industry, consider defining terms at the beginning, like this organization did.

• Uses quality design and images to support the goals and priorities in the text
• Separate pages for each big idea or new strategy
• Includes sections for awards and accomplishments to show how the marketing plan supports wider business goals
• Defines strategies and tactics for each channel for easy skimming

7. Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau

Cabarrus County’s convention and visitors bureau takes a slightly different approach with its marketing plan, formatting it like a magazine for stakeholders to flip through. It offers information on the county’s target audience, channels, goals, KPIs, and public relations strategies and initiatives.

We especially love that the plan includes contact information for the bureau’s staff members, so that it’s easy for stakeholders to contact the appropriate person for a specific query.

• Uses infographics to expand on specific concepts, like how visitors benefit a community
• Highlights the team members responsible for each initiative with a photo to emphasize accountability and community
• Closes with an event calendar for transparency into key dates for events

8. Visit Billings

Visit Billing’s comprehensive marketing plan is like Cabarrus County’s in that it follows a magazine format. With sections for each planned strategy, it offers a wealth of information and depth for internal stakeholders and potential investors.

We especially love its content strategy section, where it details the organization’s prior efforts and current objectives for each content platform.

At the end, it includes strategic goals and budgets — a good move to imitate if your primary audience would not need this information highlighted at the forefront.

• Includes a section on the buyer journey, which offers clarity on the reasoning for marketing plan decisions
• Design includes call-outs for special topics that could impact the marketing audience, such as safety concerns or "staycations"
• Clear headings make it easy to scan this comprehensive report and make note of sections a reader may want to return to for more detail

What is a typical marketing plan?

In my experience, most marketing plans outline the following aspects of a business's marketing:

• Target audience

Each marketing plan should include one or more goals, the path your team will take to meet those goals, and how you plan to measure success.

For example, if I were a tech startup that's launching a new mobile app, my marketing plan would include:

• Target audience or buyer personas for the app
• Outline of how app features meet audience needs
• Competitive analysis
• Goals for conversion funnel and user acquisition
• Marketing strategies and tactics for user acquisition

Featured resource : Free Marketing Plan Template

What should a good marketing plan include?

A good marketing plan will create a clear roadmap for your unique marketing team. This means that the best marketing plan for your business will be distinct to your team and business needs.

That said, most marketing plans will include sections for one or more of the following:

• Clear analysis of the target market
• A detailed description of the product or service
• Strategic marketing mix details (such as product, price, place, promotion)
• Measurable goals with defined timelines

This can help you build the best marketing plan for your business.

A good marketing plan should also include a product or service's unique value proposition, a comprehensive marketing strategy including online and offline channels, and a defined budget.

Featured resource : Value Proposition Templates

What are the most important parts of a marketing plan?

When you‘re planning a road trip, you need a map to help define your route, step-by-step directions, and an estimate of the time it will take to get to your destination. It’s literally how you get there that matters.

Like a road map, a marketing plan is only useful if it helps you get to where you want to go. So, no one part is more than the other.

That said, you can use the list below to make sure that you've added or at least considered each of the following in your marketing plan:

• Marketing goals
• Executive summary
• Target market analysis
• Marketing strategies

What questions should I ask when making a marketing plan?

Questions are a useful tool for when you‘re stuck or want to make sure you’ve included important details.

Try using one or more of these questions as a starting point when you create your marketing plan:

• Who is my target audience?
• What are their needs, motivations, and pain points?
• How does our product or service solve their problems?
• How will I reach and engage them?
• Who are my competitors? Are they direct or indirect competitors?
• What are the unique selling points of my product or service?
• What marketing channels are best for the brand?
• What is our budget and timeline?
• How will I measure the success of marketing efforts?

How much does a marketing plan cost?

Creating a marketing plan is mostly free. But the cost of executing a marketing plan will depend on your specific plan.

Marketing plan costs vary by business, industry, and plan scope. Whether your team handles marketing in-house or hires external consultants can also make a difference. Total costs can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. This is why most marketing plans will include a budget.

Featured resource : Free Marketing Budget Templates

What is a marketing plan template?

A marketing plan template is a pre-designed structure or framework that helps you outline your marketing plan.

It offers a starting point that you can customize for your specific business needs and goals. For example, our template includes easy-to-edit sections for:

• Business summary
• Business initiatives
• Target market
• Market strategy
• Marketing channels
• Marketing technology

Let’s create a sample plan together, step by step.

Follow along with HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template .

1. Create an overview or primary objective.

Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience’s valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.

For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:

We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform].

The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.

Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.

• Profession:
• Background:
• Pain points:
• Social media platforms that they use:
• Streaming platforms that they prefer:

For more useful strategies, consider creating a buyer persona in our Make My Persona tool .

Our content pillars will be: [X, Y, Z].

Content pillars should be based on topics your audience needs to know. If your ideal clients are female entrepreneurs, then your content pillars can be: marketing, being a woman in business, remote working, and productivity hacks for entrepreneurs.

Then, determine any omissions.

This marketing plan won’t be focusing on the following areas of improvement: [A, B, C].

5. Define your marketing budget.

Our marketing strategy will use a total of [Y] monthly. This will include anything from freelance collaborations to advertising.

6. Identify your competitors.

I like to work through the following questions to clearly indicate who my competitors are:

• Which platforms do they use the most?
• How does their branding differentiate?
• How do they talk to their audiences?
• What valuable assets do customers talk about? And if they are receiving any negative feedback, what is it about?

7. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

Create responsible parties for each portion of the plan.

Marketing will manage the content plan, implementation, and community interaction to reach the KPIs.

• Social media manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Content strategist: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Community manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Sales will follow the line of the marketing work while creating and implementing an outreach strategy.

• Sales strategists: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Sales executives: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Customer Service will nurture clients’ relationships to ensure that they have what they want. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Project Managers will track the progress and team communication during the project. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Get started on your marketing plan.

These marketing plans serve as initial resources to get your content marketing plan started. But, to truly deliver what your audience wants and needs, you'll likely need to test some different ideas out, measure their success, and then refine your goals as you go.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure t o learn more about how we use AI.

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How to create a winning marketing plan, with 3 examples from world-class teams

A marketing plan helps leaders clearly visualize marketing strategies across channels, so they can ensure every campaign drives pipeline and revenue. In this article you’ll learn eight steps to create a winning marketing plan that brings business-critical goals to life, with examples from word-class teams.

To be successful as a marketer, you have to deliver the pipeline and the revenue.”

In other words—they need a well-crafted marketing plan.

Level up your marketing plan to drive revenue in 2024

Learn how to create the right marketing plan to hit your revenue targets in 2024. Hear best practices from marketing experts, including how to confidently set and hit business goals, socialize marketing plans, and move faster with clearer resourcing.

7 steps to build a comprehensive marketing plan

How do you build the right marketing plan to hit your revenue goals? Follow these eight steps for success:

1. Define your plan

First you need to define each specific component of your plan to ensure stakeholders are aligned on goals, deliverables, resources, and more. Ironing out these details early on ensures your plan supports the right business objectives, and that you have sufficient resources and time to get the job done. 

Get started by asking yourself the following questions: 

What resources do I need? 

What is the vision?

What is the value?

What is the goal?

Who is my audience?

What are my channels?

What is the timeline?

For example, imagine you’re creating an annual marketing plan to improve customer adoption and retention in the next fiscal year. Here’s how you could go through the questions above to ensure you’re ready to move forward with your plan: 

I will need support from the content team, web team, and email team to create targeted content for existing customers. One person on each team will need to be dedicated full-time to this initiative. To achieve this, the marketing team will need an additional $100K in budget and one new headcount. 

What is the vision?  

To create a positive experience for existing customers, address new customer needs, and encourage them to upgrade. We’ll do this by serving them how-to content, new feature updates, information about deals and pricing, and troubleshooting guides. 

According to the Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) , CEOs and go-to-market leaders report that more than 60% of their net-new revenue will come from existing customers in 2023. By retaining and building on the customers we have, we can maintain revenue growth over time. 

To decrease the customer churn rate from 30% to 10%, and increase upgrades from 20% to 30% in the next fiscal year. 

All existing customers. 

The main channel will be email. Supporting marketing channels include the website, blog, YouTube, and social media. 

The first half of the next fiscal year. 

One of the most important things to do as you create your marketing strategy is to identify your target audience . As with all marketing, you need to know who you’re marketing to. If you’re having a hard time determining who exactly your target audience is, try the bullseye targeting framework . The bullseye makes it easy for you to determine who your target audience is by industry, geography, company size, psychographics, demographics, and more.

2. Identify key metrics for success 

Now it’s time to define what key marketing metrics you’ll use to measure success. Your key metrics will help you measure and track the performance of your marketing activities. They’ll also help you understand how your efforts tie back to larger business goals. 

Once you establish key metrics, use a goal-setting framework—like objectives and key results (OKRs) or SMART goals —to fully flush out your marketing objectives. This ensures your targets are as specific as possible, with no ambiguity about what should be accomplished by when. 

Example: If a goal of your marketing plan is to increase email subscriptions and you follow the SMART goal framework (ensuring your objective is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) your goal might look like this: Increase email subscription rate from 10% to 20% in H1 . 

3. Research your competition 

It’s easy to get caught up in your company’s world, but there’s a lot of value in understanding your competitors . Knowing how they market themselves will help you find opportunities to make your company stand out and capture more market share.

Make sure you’re not duplicating your competitors’ efforts. If you discover a competitor has already executed your idea, then it might be time to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm new ways to differentiate yourself.  By looking at your competitors, you might be surprised at the type of inspiration and opportunities you’ll find.

To stay ahead of market trends, conduct a SWOT analysis for your marketing plan. A SWOT analysis helps you improve your plan by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Example: If your competitor launches a social media campaign identical to what you had planned, go back to the drawing board and see how you can build off their campaign. Ask yourself: How can we differentiate our campaign while still getting our message across? What are the weaknesses of their campaign that we can capitalize on? What angles did they not approach?

4. Integrate your marketing efforts

Here’s where the fun comes in. Let’s dive into the different components that go into building a successful marketing plan. You’ll want to make sure your marketing plan includes multiple supporting activities that all add up into a powerful marketing machine. Some marketing plan components include: 

Lead generation

Social media

Product marketing

Public relations

Analyst relations

Customer marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Conversational marketing

Knowing where your consumer base spends the most time is significant for nailing this step. You need to have a solid understanding of your target audience before integrating your marketing efforts. 

Example: If your target audience is executives that spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, focus your social media strategy around placing branded content on LinkedIn. 

5. Differentiate with creative content

Forty-nine percent of marketers say visual images are hugely important to their content strategy. In other words, a clear brand and creative strategy is an essential component to every marketing plan. As you craft your own creative strategy, here are some tips to keep in mind: 

Speak to your audience: When defining your creative strategy, think about your audience—what you want them to feel, think, and do when they see your marketing. Will your audience find your creative work relevant? If your audience can’t relate to your creative work, they won’t feel connected to the story you’re trying to tell. 

Think outside the box: Find innovative ways to engage your audience, whether through video, animations, or interactive graphics. Know what screens your creative work will live on, whether desktop, mobile, or tablet, and make sure they display beautifully and load quickly across every type of device. 

Tie everything back to CTAs: It’s easy to get caught up in the creative process, so it’s important to never lose sight of your ultimate goal: Get your audience to take action. Always find the best way to display strong Calls to Action (CTAs) in your creative work. We live in a visual world—make sure your creative content counts.

Streamline creative production:   Once you’ve established a strong creative strategy, the next step is to bring your strategy to life in the production stage. It’s vital to set up a strong framework for your creative production process to eliminate any unnecessary back and forth and potential bottlenecks. Consider establishing creative request forms , streamlining feedback and approval processes, and taking advantage of integrations that might make your designers’ lives easier.

Example: If your brand is fun and approachable, make sure that shows in your creative efforts. Create designs and CTAs that spark joy, offer entertainment, and alleviate the pressure in choosing a partner.

6. Operationalize your marketing plan

Turn your plan into action by making goals, deliverables, and timelines clear for every stakeholder—so teams stay accountable for getting work done. The best way to do this is by centralizing all the details of your marketing plan in one platform , so teams can access the information they need and connect campaign work back to company goals.  

With the right work management tool , you can: 

Set goals for every marketing activity, and connect campaign work to overarching marketing and business objectives so teams focus on revenue-driving projects. 

Centralize deliverables for your entire marketing plan in one project or portfolio .

Mark major milestones and visualize your plan as a timeline, Gantt chart, calendar, list, or Kanban board—without doing any extra work. 

Quickly loop in stakeholders with status updates so they’re always up to date on progress. This is extremely important if you have a global team to ensure efforts aren’t being duplicated. 

Use automations to seamlessly hand off work between teams, streamlining processes like content creation and reviews. 

Create dashboards to report on work and make sure projects are properly staffed , so campaigns stay on track. 

With everything housed in one spot, you can easily visualize the status of your entire marketing plan and keep work on track. Building an effective marketing plan is one thing, but how you operationalize it can be your secret to standout marketing.

Example: If your strategy focuses on increasing page views, connect all campaign work to an overarching OKR—like “we will double page views as measured by the amount of organic traffic on our blog.” By making that goal visible to all stakeholders, you help teams prioritize the right work. 

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7. Measure performance

Nearly three in four CMOs use revenue growth to measure success, so it’s no surprise that measuring performance is necessary. You established your key metrics in step two, and now it’s time to track and report on them in step eight.

Periodically measure your marketing efforts to find areas of improvement so you can optimize in real-time. There are always lessons to be learned when looking at data. You can discover trends, detect which marketing initiatives performed well, and course-correct what isn’t performing well. And when your plan is complete, you can apply these learnings to your next initiative for improved results. 

Example: Say you discover that long-form content is consistently bringing in 400% more page views than short-form content. As a result, you’ll want to focus on producing more long-form content in your next marketing plan.

Marketing plan examples from world-class teams

The best brands in the world bring their marketing plans to life every day. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these examples from successful marketing teams.

Autodesk grows site traffic 30% three years in a row

When the Autodesk team launched Redshift, it was initially a small business blog. The editorial team executed a successful marketing plan to expand it into a premier owned-media site, making it a destination for stories and videos about the future of making. 

The team scaled content production to support seven additional languages. By standardizing their content production workflow and centralizing all content conversations in one place, the editorial team now publishes 2X more content monthly. Read the case study to learn more about how Autodesk runs a well-oiled content machine. Trinny London perfects new customer acquisition 

In consumer industries, social media is crucial for building a community of people who feel an affinity with the brand—and Trinny London is no exception. As such, it was imperative that Trinny London’s ad spend was targeted to the correct audience. Using a work management tool, Trinny London was able to nail the process of creating, testing, and implementing ads on multiple social channels.

With the help of a centralized tool, Trinny London improved its ad spend and drove more likes and subscriptions on its YouTube page. Read the case study to learn more about how Trinny London capitalized on paid advertising and social media. 

Turn your marketing plan into marketing success 

A great marketing plan promotes clarity and accountability across teams—so every stakeholder knows what they’re responsible for, by when. Reading this article is the first step to achieving better team alignment, so you can ensure every marketing campaign contributes to your company’s bottom line. 

Use a free marketing plan template to get started

Once you’ve created your marketing strategy and are ready to operationalize your marketing plan, get started with one of our marketing templates . 

Our marketing templates can help you manage and track every aspect of your marketing plan, from creative requests to approval workflows. Centralize your entire marketing plan in one place, customize the roadmap, assign tasks, and build a timeline or calendar. 

Once you’ve operationalized your entire marketing plan with one of our templates, share it with your stakeholders so everyone can work together in the same tool. Your entire team will feel connected to the marketing plan, know what to prioritize, and see how their work contributes to your project objectives . Choose the best marketing template for your team:

Marketing project plan template

Marketing campaign plan template

Product marketing launch template

Editorial calendar template

Agency collaboration template

Creative requests template

Event planning template

GTM strategy template

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that outlines the different strategies your team will use to achieve organizational objectives. Rather than focusing solely on the end goal, a marketing plan maps every step you need to reach your destination—whether that’s driving pipeline for sales, nurturing your existing customer base, or something in-between. 

As a marketing leader, you know there’s never a shortage of great campaign and project ideas. A marketing plan gives you a framework to effectively prioritize work that aligns to overarching business goals—and then get that work done. Some elements of marketing plans include:

Current business plan

Mission statement  

Business goals

Target customers  

Competitive analysis 

Current marketing mix

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Marketing budget  

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

The purpose of a marketing plan is to grow your company’s consumer base and strengthen your brand, while aligning with your organization’s mission and vision . The plan should analyze the competitive landscape and industry trends, offer actionable insights to help you gain a competitive advantage, and document each step of your strategy—so you can see how your campaigns work together to drive overarching business goals. 

What is the difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy? 

A marketing plan contains many marketing strategies across different channels. In that way, marketing strategies contribute to your overall marketing plan, working together to reach your company’s overarching business goals.

For example, imagine you’re about to launch a new software product and the goal of your marketing plan is to drive downloads. Your marketing plan could include marketing strategies like creating top-of-funnel blog content and launching a social media campaign. 

What are different types of marketing plans? 

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, what your timeline is, or which facet of marketing you’re driving, you’ll need to create a different type of marketing plan. Some different types of marketing plans include, but aren’t limited to:

General marketing plan: A general marketing plan is typically an annual or quarterly marketing plan that details the overarching marketing strategies for the period. This type of marketing plan outlines marketing goals, the company’s mission, buyer personas, unique selling propositions, and more. A general marketing plan lays the foundation for other, more specific marketing plans that an organization may employ. 

Product launch marketing plan: A product launch marketing plan is a step-by-step plan for marketing a new product or expanding into a new market. It helps you build awareness and interest by targeting the right audience, with the right messaging, in the right timeframe—so potential customers are ready to buy your new offering right away. Nailing your product launch marketing plan can reinforce your overall brand and fast-track sales. For a step-by-step framework to organize all the moving pieces of a launch, check out our product marketing launch template .

Paid marketing plan: This plan includes all the paid strategies in your marketing plan, like pay-per-click, paid social media advertising, native advertising, and display advertising. It’s especially important to do audience research prior to launching your paid marketing plan to ensure you’re maximizing ROI. Consult with content strategists to ensure your ads align with your buyer personas so you know you’re showing ads to the right people. 

Content marketing plan: A content marketing plan outlines the different content strategies and campaigns you’ll use to promote your product or service. When putting together a content marketing plan, start by identifying your audience. Then use market research tools to get the best insights into what topics your target audience is most interested in.

SEO marketing plan: Your SEO marketing plan should work directly alongside your content marketing plan as you chart content that’s designed to rank in search results. While your content marketing plan should include all types of content, your SEO marketing plan will cover the top-of-funnel content that drives new users to your site. Planning search engine-friendly content is only one step in your SEO marketing plan. You’ll also need to include link-building and technical aspects in order to ensure your site and content are as optimized as possible.

Social media marketing plan: This plan will highlight the marketing strategies you plan to accomplish on social media. Like in any general or digital marketing plan , your social media strategy should identify your ideal customer base and determine how they engage on different social media platforms. From there, you can cater your social media content to your target audience.  

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Understanding marketing plans, how to write a marketing plan, marketing plan vs. business plan.

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What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One

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A marketing plan is an operational document that outlines an advertising strategy that an organization will implement to generate leads and reach its target market . It details the outreach and PR campaigns to be undertaken and for how long, as well as the ways in which the company will measure the effect of these initiatives. It reflects a company’s overall marketing strategy.

Key Takeaways

• The marketing plan details the strategy that a company will use to market its products to customers.
• The plan identifies the target market, value proposition of the brand or product, campaigns to be initiated, and metrics to be used to assess the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.
• The marketing plan should be adjusted on an ongoing basis based on which efforts are having an impact and which are not.
• Digital marketing shows results almost in real time, whereas TV ads require rotation to realize any level of market penetration.
• A marketing plan is part of a business plan, which describes all of the important aspects of a business, such as its goals, values, mission statement, budget, and strategies.

The terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” are often used interchangeably because the former is developed based on an overarching strategic framework. In some cases the strategy and the plan may be incorporated into one document, particularly for smaller companies that may only run one or two major campaigns in a year. The plan outlines marketing activities on a monthly, a quarterly, or an annual basis, while the strategy delineates the overall  value proposition .

The components of a marketing plan include:

• Market research – This provides information to support pricing decisions and new market entries.
• Tailored messaging – This involves targeting certain demographics and geographic areas and can include the use of affiliate marketing with third-party publishers who bring customers to the table.
• Platform selection – This looks at the best vehicles for disseminating product information for each advertising campaign: traditional venues such as radio, TV, newspapers, and commercial and trade magazines; digital methods such as websites, online ads, search engine results, informational videos, social media groups (Facebook, YouTube, etc.), email, and text messages; or any mix of these platforms.
• Performance metrics – Metrics accurately assess the results of marketing efforts and their reporting timelines and are crucial to the success of the plan.

The four most important social media networks in 2023 for global marketers were, in descending order, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Types of Marketing Plans

There are a variety of marketing plans that suit different businesses and their needs. These include:

• Product Launch – A product-launch marketing plan outlines how a new product will enter the market, the audience it will target, and the advertising methods used.
• Social Media – A social media marketing plan focuses on the advertising strategies on different social media platforms and how to engage with their users.
• Time Based – Time-based marketing plans, such as those that are executed quarterly or annually, focus on the time of the year, the current condition of the business, and the best strategies in that period.
• Content Based – A content-based marketing plan looks in detail at what kinds of content (blogs, videos, graphics, etc.) will reach the target audience.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An SEO marketing plan is all about getting the most hits online. It involves keyword research, content optimization, link building, and more, all with the goal of drawing customers to your website.

Mission and Value Proposition

The mission and value proposition is a statement that articulates the value that a product or brand will deliver to a customer. It should appear front and center on the company website and any branding materials.

The value proposition should delineate how a product or brand solves the customer’s problem, the benefits of the product or brand, and why the customer should buy from this company and not another. The marketing plan is based on it.

Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Establishing your key performance indicators (KPIs) will allow you to measure the success of your marketing plan in relation to your company’s value proposition. In other words, they track the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. For example, if your goal is to engage with a certain demographic in a certain region, you can track social media impressions and website visits.

There are a number of KPIs that help you measure success including the search engine ranking, click-through rate, cost per click, return on investment (ROI), and conversion rates, which tracks the percentages of visitors to your website that make a specific action such as buying a product or becoming a newsletter subscriber.

In 2023, Facebook and Instagram were tied for having the highest ROI across social media platforms for global marketers, while YouTube fell next in line.

Identify Your Target Market

The marketing plan identifies the target market for a product or brand. Market research is often the basis for a target market and marketing channel decisions. For example, whether the company will advertise via social media, online ads, or regional TV. 

Knowing to whom you want to sell and why is an extremely critical component of any business plan. It allows you to focus your business and measure its success. Different demographics have different tastes and needs; knowing your target market will help you market to them.

Strategy and Execution

The marketing plan includes the rationale for these decisions. The plan should focus on the creation, timing, scheduling, and placement of specific campaigns and include the metrics that will measure the outcomes of your marketing efforts. For example, will you advertise on social media or TV? What time will you schedule your marketing if they are through email newsletters? The strategy may include flighting scheduling , which includes the times when you can make the most of your advertising dollars.

Set Your Budget

A marketing plan costs money. Setting a budget will allow you to create a workable plan, prevent runaway costs, and properly allocate your funds.

Adjust Your Plan

A marketing plan can be adjusted at any point based on the results from its metrics. If digital ads are performing better than expected, for example, the budget for a campaign can be adjusted to fund a higher-performing platform, or the company can initiate a new budget. The challenge for marketing leaders is to ensure that every platform has sufficient time to show results.

Without the correct metrics to assess the impact of outreach and marketing efforts, an organization will not know which campaigns to repeat and which to drop. In short, maintaining ineffective initiatives wastes money.

Digital marketing shows results almost immediately, whereas TV ads require rotation to realize any level of market penetration. In the traditional marketing mix model, a marketing plan would fall under the category of “promotion,” which is one of the “ four Ps ,” a term coined by Neil Borden to describe the marketing mix of product, price, promotion, and place.

A business plan is a roadmap that details how a business will operate and function in its entirety. It should cover the goals, missions , values, financials, and strategies that the business will use in day-to-day operations and the achievement of its objectives. Among its many elements are an executive summary, the products and services sold, a marketing analysis, a marketing strategy, financial planning, and a budget .

As mentioned, a business plan should include a marketing plan, which focuses on creating a strategy for creating awareness of the company’s product or service, reaching the target market, and generating sales.

Example of a Marketing Plan

Consider the following marketing plan framework that is designed to help direct marketing objectives:

• Executive Summary: Describes company mission, key executives, and where it is headquartered.
• SWOT Analysis: Describes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the company. This helps you define how to build on your strengths and how to find ways to improve on your weaknesses. It also helps a company analyze their competitors and how they may achieve an advantage based on their unique value proposition.
• Business Initiatives: Outlines the goals of the marketing plan, such as the number of impressions, Google rankings, or email subscribers.
• Customer Analysis: Describes your target market and audience characteristics based on market research. These may include age, pain points, and location, among other variables.
• Competitor Analysis: Outlines the companies providing similar goods or services to your target audience. In addition, it describes their strengths, market share, pricing structure, and most importantly where your company can fill an important gap.

What Is a Marketing Plan Template?

A marketing plan template is a guide for writing a marketing plan. It contains all the important elements needed to create one, including its goals and KPIs, marketing channels, budget, content type, teams involved, and design.

What Is an Executive Summary in a Marketing Plan?

The executive summary is a nutshell description of the marketing plan. It should contain the key findings of the market research, the company’s objectives and marketing goals, an overview of the marketing trends, the description of the product or service being marketed, information on the target market, and the plan budget.

What Is a Top-Down Marketing Strategy?

A top-down marketing strategy is a traditional one, in which a business decides how best to sell its product or brand, and customers are then spurred to take action through advertisements, generally found on radio and/or television. It is usually determined by company executives, which is then communicated with management to delegate to employees. These employees then develop tactics to meet the strategy's objectives.

What Is a Bottom-Up Marketing Strategy?

In comparison to a traditional top-down marketing strategy, a bottom-up strategy begins with employees who formulate marketing tactics based on their analysis of customer preferences and needs. This then may lead to collaboration with other employees to develop a concrete marketing plan, which is sent to executives for review.

Today’s consumer wants to relate to a product or service in a meaningful way, and a bottom-up marketing strategy seeks to achieve this through customer-centric tactics.

How Much Does a Marketing Plan Cost?

The cost of a marketing plan will vary based on the company, the plan’s complexity, and the length of the overall strategy. In 2023, marketing costs made up 10.1% of corporate revenues on average. The consumer packaged goods sector spent the most, at 18.5% of revenues while the mining and construction sector spent the least, at 1% of revenues.

A separate analysis shows that the cost can range anywhere from $10,000 to over $40,000 for a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is the advertising strategy that a business implements to sell its product or service. It determines the target market, how best to reach it, at what price point the product or service should be sold, and how the company will measure its efforts.

Constantly monitoring and adjusting a market plan is an important part of running a business, as it shows the most effective ways to generate sales. As the consumer landscape evolves, it is important for businesses to adapt in order to meet customer needs and better achieve their marketing objectives.

Statista. " Marketing Worldwide – Statistics and Facts ."

American Marketing Association. " What Is a Marketing Plan and How to Write One? [Easy Guide] ."

HubSpot. " The 2024 State of Marketing & Trends Report: Data from 1400+ Global Marketers ."

Deloitte. " The CMO Survey: Managing Marketing Technology, Growth and Sustainability ." Page 16.

Laire. " How Much Does a Marketing Plan Cost? "

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How to structure an effective marketing plan in 15 sections

Using the RACE OSA process to structure a marketing plan

A marketing plan is an essential tool to compete and grow your business since it gives focus to your marketing activities by setting realistic, achievable priorities within your budget.

It simply defines what you want to gain from your investment in marketing and how you will achieve these goals through selecting the best marketing strategies and channels to acquire and retain customers.

A typical definition of a marketing plan used by traditional marketers is:

" A marketing plan is a strategic document that specifies your organization’s target markets, marketing objectives, programs, and activities to achieve them, expected timescales, resources to be utilized, according to defined budgets, and how success will be measured ".

This is logical and simple and that's what we need to achieve through the structure of an effective marketing plan. However, for today's marketing where digital marketing channels are so important we need a marketing plan and template structure that are fit for purpose. That's why we developed the RACE Growth System since it details the communications activities that need to be used for success.

In this post, I will explain RACE OSA, a practical three-part marketing plan structure particularly suitable for small and medium businesses to rapidly develop comprehensive marketing plans. OSA stands for:

Opportunity > Structure > Action. 

For each of these 3 parts, I will summarize what you need to include and why. There are 5 steps in each part giving 15 sections in all. This is simple enough to make it quick and easy, but detailed enough to work in the real world.

You can download our Free marketing plan template based on this 15-step OSA structure!

Free marketing plan template

Our popular marketing planning template is structured across the Smart Insights RACE OSA Framework. Join Smart Insights as a Free Member to download our marketing plan template today

Access the Free marketing plan template

Many marketing plan templates were created long ago for larger businesses and aren’t so relevant to small and startup businesses competing in today’s marketplace where effective digital marketing is essential. Long plans with sections labelled ‘mission and vision statement’ and ‘corporate strategies’ are irrelevant for smaller businesses.

Our recommended format is far more practical since it relates to the real-world challenges and opportunities of a smaller business. The template shares the key features of our RACE Growth system since it is designed to be:

• Quick to create and implement an actionable plan with simple steps
• Data-driven, defining SMART objectives based on forecasts
• Practical to implement using a 90-day planning approach to give you focus
• Designed for smaller businesses, but relevant for larger businesses too

But first, we need to remind ourselves of the goals for our marketing plan and how it fits within the business as a whole. We will also introduce the Smart Insights RACE Growth System.

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

The purpose of a marketing plan is to define strategies to engage audiences in order to achieve business objectives.

The goal of a marketing plan is to ensure marketing activities are structured, relevant, and timely to achieve an organization’s objectives.

It’s a plan defining your company's sustainable competitive position, structuring and setting marketing goals, and defining the resources necessary to achieve your business vision.

A marketing plan should include:

• The current performance , priorities , and direction of your organization
• Its marketplace position in relation to external environmental factors including competitors and PESTLE macro-factors
• A critical analysis of your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We recommend using the powerful TOWs marketing plan analysis summary .
• Clearly defined SMART marketing objectives and a way to benchmark their success
• The means by which to achieve those objectives through strategies for STP: Segmentation, Targeting and Brand Positioning
• Relevant and timely actions and responsibilities by function, product or service, and market segment
• Investment in communications activities to reach your audience and convince them to convert including, all important always-on marketing activities .
• Investment in sales and customer service activities to encourage them to buy for the first time and repeat purchases.
• The finances and resources required and forecasted revenues
• Regular measurement of progress and outcomes against benchmarks

So, to summarize, a solid marketing plan outline has:

• Clear, realistic goals that you can be confident of hitting
• The best strategy  to achieve these goals against your competition
• Sufficient details of the tactics and actions  needed to translate the strategy into action
• A method to check  you are on track with your plans

The business context of a marketing plan

Where does the marketing plan fit within the business? Here’s another way of understanding the context of a marketing plan, to put it into context with other types of plans, as shown in this table:

When to use a marketing plan?

The process of marketing planning within an organization will differ, depending on whether a strategic marketing plan or an operational marketing plan is utilized. Here are the differences between the two:

• A  strategic marketing plan outlines the overall strategy within a market, connecting customers, competitors, and what the organization is capable of achieving.  It is typically created at divisional or company level.
• An  operational marketing plan outlines the marketing mix strategy that will be used to gain an advantage in the market.  It typically focuses on products; market segments and how marketing communications and campaigns achieve targets defined in the strategic marketing plan. It usually has separate sections covering tactics for customer acquisition and retention which will sometimes be covered in separate plans in larger organizations.

In an organization’s planning process, marketing links:

• Customers’ needs and wants
• Competitor value proposition and actions
• Strategic direction
• Organizational objectives

What should your plan include? Our recommended marketing plan structure

Before we get into the details, let's look at the big picture which defines the process you will follow to develop and implement your marketing plan.

3-step marketing plan outline

Within the RACE system, we call this process OSA to keep it simple - marketing plans don't have to be complex.  OSA stands for Opportunity, Strategy, Action. The visual outline shows some of the activities that are needed to plan for success under each stage of OSA.

Within OSA for a marketing plan format, these are the sections we recommend that are included in our template with more details on each.

Opportunity

• Audit performance
• Review marketplace
• Key issues summary
• Set objectives
• Review marketing and digital strategy options
• Assess budget / business case
• Prioritize and select strategic initiatives
• Plan 90-day activities
• Implement plans
• Review results

Use our free planning templates to get started with using RACE to grow your business. These will help you create a 90-day prioritized plan to improve your results from digital marketing. We recommend 25+ key marketing activities across RACE that are essential for businesses to compete by improving their digital marketing maturity.

Which types of businesses use marketing plans?

Marketing planning will assist in the day-to-day running of any size, type or age of business. The targets and milestones set will help organizations, from small start-ups to large corporates, to effectively:

• Allocate resources and budget
• Motivate teams
• Manage the performance of staff members and marketing efforts

Marketing plans for small businesses

In smaller businesses, the scope of a plan is typically annual and for the whole business. Typically, SMEs are working with smaller budgets and tighter turnaround times.

A marketing plan for a small business typically looks to identify where to prioritize the investment of time and available budget to generate results.

Smaller organizations typically have:

• Small market shares
• Owners involved in all aspects of strategic and operational management
• Independence
• A high degree of uncertainty
• Difficulty innovating owing to limited resources

Such differences between large and smaller organizations tend to be reflected in the development of marketing plans.

When establishing a small start-up, marketing planning is an essential element.  A small number of these businesses launch and grow, but for those that are successful, a strategic marketing approach will ensure continued development.

Marketing plans for large organizations

In large organizations, its focus will change, depending on the type of organization.  A separate marketing plan might be:

• Geographically-based
• Product-based
• Business unit based
• Focused on segmentation

A marketing plan in a large organization may integrate a number of plans, specific to individual parts of the business. It is practical planning that takes place at a divisional, business unit, or individual company level.

Larger organizations with clearly defined management structures and a wealth of resources will make use of marketing principles very differently from smaller organizations.

Structure an effective marketing plan with RACE

Did you know - nearly half of companies don't have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy ? These companies are missing opportunities for better integration and risk losing customers due to out-of-date processes.

Savvy marketers and Smart Insights members already recognize that a practical, integrated marketing plan is essential for business growth in 2024 and beyond.

If you're looking for a quick marketing plan structure to hone your performance and strategize your approach to marketing, why not download our free marketing plan template ?

How to format your marketing funnel

Although the techniques for marketing planning may vary between different sizes and types of organizations, the outcome is always the same: to implement the objectives, strategies, and activities in order to gain an advantage.

That's why our RACE Framework is structured across a simple 5-step marketing and sales funnel which can be applied to every size of business from startups to multinational corporations:

How does a marketing plan relate to other plans?

The plan should not be formulated or used in isolation; it should be informed by the corporate objectives identified in your organization’s business plan .

Integrated with a marketing plan may also be a digital plan, multi-channel plan and campaign plan, for example.  The marketing plan informs these plans and vice-versa.

An effective marketing plan will ensure the integration of activities, the scheduling of requirements, distinguishing responsibilities and the provision of benchmarks for measuring success.

Different organizations will utilize differing plans, covering different areas and timeframes. What is crucial in a business is that the plans being utilized, the timeframes allocated, and how they integrate with each other are collectively established.

Structure your marketing plan around a funnel proven to boost performance. Join Smart Insights as a Free Member for instant access to our Free marketing plan template to hone your skills and drive the results you need.

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here . Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice . In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary . Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question .

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Marketing Plan

A document that lays out the marketing efforts of a business in an upcoming period

What is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a document that lays out the marketing efforts of a business in an upcoming period, which is usually a year. It outlines the marketing strategy, promotional, and advertising activities planned for the period.

Elements of a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan will typically include the following elements:

Marketing objectives of the business : The objectives should be attainable and measurable – two goals associated with SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Current business marketing positioning : An analysis of the current state of the organization concerning its marketing positioning.

Market research : Detailed research about current market trends, customer needs, industry sales volumes, and expected direction.

Outline of the business target market : Business target market demographics.

Marketing activities : A list of any actions concerning marketing goals that are scheduled for the period and the indicated timelines.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) to be tracked

Marketing mix : A combination of factors that may influence customers to purchase products. It should be appropriate for the organization and will largely be centered on the 4Ps of marketing – i.e., product, price, promotion, and place.

Competition : Identify the organization’s competitors and their strategies, along with ways to counter competition and gain market share .

Marketing strategies : The development of marketing strategies to be employed in the coming period. These strategies will include promotional strategies, advertising, and other marketing tools at the disposal of the organization.

Marketing budget : A detailed outline of the organization’s allocation of financial resources to marketing activities. The activities will need to be carried out within the marketing budget .

Monitoring and performance mechanism : A plan should be in place to identify if the marketing tools in place are bearing fruit or need to be revised based on the past, current, and expected future state of the organization, industry, and the overall business environment.

A marketing plan should observe the 80:20 rule – i.e., for maximum impact, it should focus on the 20% of products and services that account for 80% of volumes and the 20% of customers that bring in 80% of revenue.

Purpose of a Marketing Plan

The purpose of a marketing plan includes the following:

• To clearly define the marketing objectives of the business that align with the corporate mission and vision of the organization. The marketing objectives indicate where the organization wishes to be at any specific period in the future.
• The marketing plan usually assists in the growth of the business by stating appropriate marketing strategies, such as plans for increasing the customer base.
• State and review the marketing mix in terms of the 8Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence, and Performance.
• Strategies to increase market share, enter new niche markets, and increase brand awareness are also encompassed within the marketing plan.
• The marketing plan will contain a detailed budget for the funds and resources required to carry out activities indicated in the marketing plan.
• The assignment of tasks and responsibilities of marketing activities is well enunciated in the marketing plan.
• The identification of business opportunities and any strategies crafted to exploit them is important.
• A marketing plan fosters the review and analysis of the marketing environment, which entails market research, customer needs assessment, competitor analysis, PEST analysis , studying new business trends, and continuous environmental scanning.
• A marketing plan integrates business functions to operate with consistency – notably sales, production, finance, human resources, and marketing.

Structure of a Marketing Plan

The structure of a marketing plan can include the following sections:

Marketing Plan Objectives

This section outlines the expected outcome of the marketing plan with clear, concise, realistic, and attainable objectives. It contains specific targets and time frames.

Metrics, such as target market share, the target number of customers to be attained, penetration rate, usage rate, sales volumes targeted, etc. should be used.

Market Research – Market Analysis/Consumer Analysis

Market analysis includes topics such as market definition, market size, industry structure, market share and trends, and competitor analysis. Consumer analysis includes the target market demographics and what influences their buying decisions – e.g., loyalty, motivation, and expectations.

Target Market

This defines the target customers by their demographic profile, such as gender, race, age, and psychographic profile, such as their interests. This will assist in the correct marketing mix for the target market segments.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis will look at the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis includes the following:

• Strengths are the organization’s competitive advantages that are not easily duplicated. They represent the skills, expertise, and efficiencies that an organization possesses over its competitors.
• Weaknesses are impediments found in the operations of an organization, and they stifle growth. These can include outdated machinery, inadequate working capital, and inefficient production methods.
• Opportunities are prospects for growth in the business through the adoption of ways to take advantage of the chances. They could include entry into new markets, adopting digital marketing strategies, or following new trends.
• Threats are external factors that can affect the business negatively, such as a new powerful competitor, legislative changes, natural disasters, or political situations.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy section covers actual strategies to be included according to the marketing mix. The strategy centers on the 8Ps of marketing. However, firms are also at liberty to use the traditional 4 P’s of marketing – product, price, place, and promotion. The 8 P’s are illustrated below.

The correct marketing mix is determined by the target market. The most expensive options are advertising, sales promotions, and PR campaigns. Networking and referrals are less costly.

Marketers also need to pay attention to digital marketing strategies that make use of technology to reach a wider market and have also proven to be cost-effective.

Digital marketing channels, which became popular in the early 21 st century, may eventually overtake traditional marketing methods. Digital marketing encompasses trending methods, such as the use of social media for business.

Other strategies within the marketing strategy include pricing and positioning strategy, distribution strategy, conversion strategy, and retention strategy.

Marketing Budget

The marketing budget or projection outlines the budgeted expenditure for the marketing activities documented in the marketing plan. The marketing budget consists of revenues and costs stated in the marketing plan in one document.

It balances expenditures on marketing activities and what the organization can afford. It’s a financial plan of marketing activities to be carried out – e.g., promotional activities, cost of marketing materials and advertising, and so on. Other considerations include expected product volume and price, production and delivery costs, and operating and financing costs.

The effectiveness of the marketing plan depends on the budget allocated for marketing expenditure. The cost of marketing should be able to make the company break even and make profits.

Performance Analysis

Performance analysis aims to look at the variances of metrics or components documented in the marketing plan.  These include:

Revenue variance analysis : An analysis of positive or negative variance of revenue. A negative variance is worrisome, and reasons should be available to explain the cause of deviations.

Market share analysis : An analysis of whether the organization attained its target market share. Sales may be increasing whilst the organization’s share of the market is decreasing; hence, it is paramount to track this metric.

Expense analysis : An analysis of marketing expense to sales ratio . This ratio needs to be compared to industry standards to make informed comparisons.

The ratio enables the organization to track actual expenditures versus the budget. It is also compared to other metrics, such as revenue analysis and market share analysis. It can be dissected into individual expenditures to sales to get a clearer picture.

Administration of a Marketing Plan

The marketing plan should be revised and adapted to changes in the environment periodically. The use of metrics, budgets, and schedules to measure progress towards the goals set in the marketing plan is a continuous process by marketing personnel.

There should be a continuous assessment to verify that the goals of the marketing plan are being achieved. The marketing manager should be able to review if the strategies documented are being effective, given the operating environment.

It is irrational for the marketing manager to notice anomalies and wait to review at year-end when the situation might have already deteriorated.

Changes in the environment may necessitate a review of plans, projections, strategies, and targets. Therefore, a formal periodical review – such as monthly or quarterly – may need to be in place. This may mean preparing an annual marketing plan but reviewing the plan quarterly to keep targets and plans aligned closely to environmental changes. It goes without saying that plans are as good as their feasibility to succeed in the given environment.

More Resources

Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Marketing Plan. To keep learning and advancing your career, the additional CFI resources below will be useful:

• 4 P’s of Marketing
• Market Research
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
• Competitive Advantage
• See all management & strategy resources
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The Importance of a Marketing Strategy for Businesses Today

June 14, 2022 ~

Last updated: October 4, 2022

As the year flies by, have you taken the time to consider the importance of a marketing strategy this year?

If not, it’s not too late.

In this post, we’ll show you the key reasons that highlight the importance of a marketing strategy for your business now and in the years to come. 

But before we dive into the specifics of an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Let’s discuss the basics of why marketing is even important, to begin with.

• Marketing helps you reach and connect with your target audience and ultimately is how you will grow your business in the long run.

A well-planned digital marketing strategy will help your brand highlight your strengths and how better you are than your competitors.

• When presenting your brand online, it’s important that you don’t do something that doesn’t resonate with your target audience.

Why Is Marketing Important?

Marketing is essential to any good business.

It helps you reach and connect with your target audience and ultimately is how you will grow your business in the long run.

Marketing is important because, without it, your business simply will not go anywhere because it won’t be seen. 

But it’s one thing to market your business without any direction, and it’s another thing to market your business with a clear plan.

The results are quite different.

That’s where a marketing strategy comes into play.

The Importance Of A Marketing Strategy For Business

Many business owners haven’t discovered the importance of a marketing strategy.

In fact, having a marketing strategy is so useful that you can think of it as having a road map (or a cheat sheet).

It will guide you in just about every business decision that you make.

Let Us  Grow Your Revenue ... 

But what exactly does a marketing strategy entail?

In short, your marketing strategy will highlight the path you’re taking to achieve your specific objectives and goals.

This may sound simple, and it is. But it’s not always easy to ask the hard questions that come with creating a marketing strategy.

And this is the main reason why many businesses don’t recognize the importance of a marketing strategy.

Consequences Of Not Having A Marketing Strategy

Why do most small businesses fail? Why do 50% of companies fail after 5 years?

Remember that common saying? Failing to plan is planning to fail.

If you fail to recognize the importance of a marketing strategy and don’t fully integrate digital marketing into your marketing plan.

Then these will be the consequences:

• losing out to competitors
• losing market share to existing and start-up competitors
• gaining and retaining fewer customers
• missing out on opportunities for better targeting and optimization
• Lack of planning often leads to suboptimal execution. This means that competitors will pose more of a threat, filling in the gaps of the lackluster service you offer.

And finally, given the effectiveness of digital marketing, many businesses don’t allocate enough resources towards it.

This presents an opportunity for the wise business owner.

Knowledge is power, and after you finish reading this post, your business will have a leg up over the competition.

You’ll also be ready to overcome the initial hurdles that are common when trying to come up with a marketing strategy.

Challenges Of Creating A Marketing Strategy

The most common challenge that business owners face when creating a marketing plan is “where do I start?”.

In fact, this is the most common obstacle for just about any goal in life really.

And like with many other things in life, the key is to make this large task manageable by dividing it into smaller pieces. We’ll talk more about that later.

The scope and scale of digital marketing are quite large.

In order to break it down, you’ll need to plan out a do-able number of digital marketing activities that will fully cover the Customer Journey.

Along the way, you’ll discover tools for beating the competition and increasing sales and profits at the same time.

We all know how tough it is now that so many businesses are competing for the same products and services.

And how you stand out from the rest will depend heavily on how effective your marketing strategy is.

It will help you build your brand and eventually, be the “big” one in your niche.

Sound good?

Below you’ll learn more about how your business can benefit when you embrace the importance of a marketing strategy.

So let’s get right to it.

5 Reasons Why A Marketing Strategy For Businesses Is Important

1. find your target demographic.

It’s common marketing knowledge that you should create a marketing strategy focused on specific audiences and serving their needs.

In order to do this, you have to identify your target audiences’ interests as well as their pain points.

Your target demographics will also dictate what social media marketing strategy you use.

For example, if you’re targeting seniors, then boisterous Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts likely won’t work very well.

If you aren’t sure who your customers really are, then try the following:

• review all your product orders
• do an assessment of your followers on social media
• “eavesdrop” on social media to build up an accurate Buyer’s Persona

And if you think that Google Analytics is sufficient for learning who your target demographic is, then think again.

GA is good for getting raw numbers, but not raw emotions (i.e. customer sentiments). To do this you’ll need to use website feedback tools.

Finding your target demographic is a key part of creating your marketing strategy.

This is because when creating your marketing strategy, you must be as specific as possible.

You should be asking specific questions such as:

• If you want more sales, how many?
• And from what demographics?
• And by what time?
• And why do you want to market to those demographics?

If you don’t intimately know who your target demographics are, you won’t know who your online audience is.

And you also won’t know what your share of the market is.

Remember that online communications based around your competitors and customers will be different compared to your traditional marketing channels.

If you don’t know who your online audience is, you won’t have an optimal digital marketing plan .

A suboptimal plan might lead to you underestimating online demand for your online product or services. As well as missing marketing opportunities.

But the great thing with digital marketing is that each digital marketing platform has its own tools that will help you figure out customer demand.

A couple of examples are:

2. Utilize The Proven SMART Strategy

SMART is a useful acronym to know and it has taken on many different but similar meanings over the years.

This is particularly so with marketing (just try doing a Google image search of SMART marketing).

In this case, we’re referring to the traditional meaning of SMART:

Without a SMART marketing strategy, you’ll be directionless.

You’ll have no actionable path to follow for gaining new customers or maintaining relationships with existing ones.

Your goals must also be SMART-ly translated into marketing initiatives.

Otherwise, you likely won’t put enough resources into reaching your goals, or you’ll put your resources into the wrong things.

That’s what happens when you don’t set goals and measure your success through analytics.

Benchmark where you are now and compare this with where you want to be in the future.

Now set clear objectives for each goal so that you can measure your progress against the attainment of these goals.

Use the SMART approach with each goal!

• Involve your business’s key players (or just yourself) and ask the following questions: -what are your revenue goals for this year? -what percent of revenue will be from existing customers compared to new customers? -what percent of leads will come from your marketing? -what is your average sale size and deal closing ratio? -how many leads do you require to reach your goals?  

3. Keep Everyone On The Same Page

One of the key parts of the importance of a marketing strategy is keeping everyone in the organization on the same page.

This means that everyone should understand the marketing strategy.

That way no matter who’s in charge of the social media posts for the day, they will all have the same consistent message.

When everyone is on the same page, your organization will also be able to effectively utilize the skills of all employees and stakeholders.

But what happens when everyone isn’t on the same page? One word: duplication.

What is duplication? In the worst sense, duplication means inefficiently doing the daily tasks that need to be done.  

Duplication will waste your time and money.

If everyone in the organization purchases/uses different tools and different agencies, but are performing similar online marketing tasks.

Then, duplication is probably happening.

Staying on the same page also means keeping everything integrated.

This includes your digital marketing activities and your traditional marketing activities.

You want your traditional media marketing and response channels to remain consistent along with your digital marketing channels.

This requires integration and embracing the importance of a marketing strategy for your business.

4. Keep Everything Timely

Following the train of thought with keeping everyone on the same page, you also want to keep everyone on the same timeline.

And you must create a timeline in order for this to work.

The importance of a marketing strategy is highlighted by the timeliness of its plans. As we all know, timing is critical when it comes to business.

But before you can create a timely marketing strategy, you have to fully commit to digital marketing.

You must accept that it will require consistent and constant attention.

If you think that don’t have the time or patience, then hiring a digital marketing agency  is always an option.

Consistent and constant attention implies the following:

• Being responsive to questions and messages.
• Being responsive to likes and tweets.
• Putting yourself out there with your own likes and tweets. In other words, being social on social media!
• Always responding to feedback, whether good or bad.
• Responding in a professional manner.

You must also be adaptable enough to keep up or catch up with the newest trends.

See how the top companies do this? They keep up with the newest methods to increase or maintain their target audience.

When you’re committed to staying adaptable, then you’ll be all set on the path to optimization.

And with the right marketing strategy you’ll get the basics right.

Then you can continue to improve upon the key aspects of your digital marketing strategy. For example, search marketing, social media marketing, etc.

Now, to tie all this together, it’s of course essential to write down dates/deadlines and your objectives.

It’s best to do this on a marketing calendar.

It will detail your timelines to achieve your objectives. You should check this calendar on a weekly basis at least.

There are many different marketing calendar templates that you can find for free via Google search.

For example, here’s an annual marketing calendar template.

There are also weekly ones, monthly ones, calendars for social media marketing, content marketing calendar , you name it.

Your list of tasks should address these 3 key aspects:

Leadership roles for producers and reviewers in your objectives

Basic details of the campaign:

A working title, main elements, target demographics, etc (you can flesh out the rest of the details during the planning stage of the campaign)

What are the key dates: for example, conference dates, when campaigns are launched, etc.

Finally, you’ll want to integrate real-world events that relate to your business into your marketing strategy.

For example, you could run a promotion off of Valentine’s Day or National Donut Day.  

Even though Edible Arrangements doesn’t sell donuts, they capitalized on National Donut Day…

…by offering cored out granny smith apple slices dipped in chocolate.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure it’s right for what your business offers to your target customer.

You can play off of the popularity of the holiday, or against it – use your imagination!

5. You Can Make Your Brand More Authentic

Benefits of making your brand more authentic online:

• attract the right employees to your business
• find the right marketing initiatives
• distinguish your unique selling point (USP) better
• Improve the effectiveness of your brand’s marketing message to your customers and your business partners

It goes without saying that the online marketplace is extremely competitive.

Only by accepting the importance of a marketing strategy will you be able to come up with a plan that will help your business stand out in the crowd.

This means creating a unique and powerful value proposition.

So how do you do this?

Great question – here’s how.

Clearly define your customer value proposition (or in other words, why a consumer would benefit from purchasing your product or service).

Do this for all of your target customers’ buyer personas. This is the key to differentiating your online services.

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Doing this will also encourage existing and new customers to engage with your business and stay loyal.

Now in order to cater to your different buyer personas.

Wrapping Up

You’ll need a very competitive content marketing strategy to stand out in the competitive online world.

That’s because content is the best way to engage audiences on most digital marketing channel.

But when presenting your brand online, it’s important that you don’t do something that doesn’t resonate with your target audience.

That’s why, once again, it’s a good idea to delegate such tasks to a company that offers content marketing services a nd blog writing services . 

Only a company that specializes in content marketing will be able to present your brand personality with consistency.

And, authenticity across different digital marketing channels.

Our company specializes in social media marketing and content marketing.

Give us a call or contact us online and we will help you reach success today and beyond!

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11 Main Components of Successful Marketing Plans

Posted by Hailey Jennato | September 27, 2021

Marketing is often an overlooked business function. Entrepreneurs push it to the side so they can focus their full efforts on starting a business and creating a great product or service. However, if you can’t find the right audience, satisfy their needs, and sell enough of your product in a cost-effective way, you won’t have a sustainable business. Marketing is all about creating, communicating, and delivering value to your target audience. In order to do so successfully, you need a comprehensive plan to guide your vision. Your marketing plan is a roadmap, detailing where you want to be and the exact steps you need to take to accomplish your goals. Backed by data and research, marketing plans help you make informed business decisions. Instead of scrambling at the last minute, they force you to think about the future and identify strategies with the highest chance of success. Marketing plans give you the confidence to be proactive, instead of reactive. They reduce confusion, unite your marketing team around a set of shared goals, and ensure everyone knows exactly what tasks they need to complete on any given day.

Why are marketing plans important?

Sometimes startups and new founders approach marketing with a “ throw everything at the wall and see what sticks ” approach. While experimentation is great, this type of strategy can be detrimental in the long run if your marketing decisions aren’t backed by research and data. Without a strategic plan, it’s easy to waste resources on tactics with low returns, missed opportunities, fall behind your competition, and respond too slowly to market changes. Although marketing plans are time-consuming and can be challenging to create, there are many benefits you should consider:

Anticipate trends and industry changes - constantly analyzing your industry helps you capitalize on trends and pivot your business plan if necessary. For example, consider that Blockbuster and Netflix used to mail rented DVDs to customers. While Netflix anticipated the popularity of online streaming services and pivoted accordingly, Blockbuster failed to shift fast enough , filed for bankruptcy, and now basically ceases to exist.

Beat your competitors at their own strategies - you likely won’t be able to outbid a major corporate competitor, but you can stand out by sending personalized videos to every new customer. Before you make your own marketing strategy, you should consider what your competitors are doing. What channels do your competitors use, and which are they missing? What type of content and keywords are they focused on, and can you outrank them? Can you take inspiration from their past successful campaigns?

Understand your business’ weaknesses and shortcomings - no business is perfect, but great businesses focus on turning their weaknesses into strengths. This self-awareness helps you focus on issues customers are upset about (poor customer service, broken products, late shipping, slow website, etc.) rather than improving something that doesn’t actually need to be fixed.

Improve employee onboarding - a solid marketing plan and good documentation reduces confusion and makes employee onboarding much easier. New employees get an overview of the marketing vision, see what tasks they need to work on, and immediately help the team achieve their objectives.

Track success and determine what strategies are underperforming - marketing plans require you to compare your actual results against your goal or expected results. This way, you can see if you’re making progress. Tracking metrics and collecting data also helps you abandon unsuccessful strategies and extend more resources to campaigns with high returns.

Get everyone on the same page - regardless of the size of your business or marketing team, you need collaboration and efficiency for success. With a detailed marketing plan, everyone knows their role and works towards the same goals. It also reduces idle time, simplifies processes, and prevents employees from (accidentally) working on the wrong task.

You can create an overall marketing plan for your entire business, but you should also make plans for smaller campaigns, like product launches, events, new partnerships, limited time discounts, and major company updates. In other words, you should create a marketing plan whenever you want to communicate something important with your target audience or persuade them to take a certain action, like sign up for an event, make a purchase, or refer a friend.

11 Key components of a marketing plan

The size, granularity, and elements of a marketing plan differ for every business, depending on its industry, goals, and available resources. However, there are some elements that are common in most marketing plans :

1. Executive summary

The executive summary explains the overall purpose of your marketing plan and briefly describes all the relevant components. It includes an overview of your marketing and advertising goals, a description of your current marketing position, an overview of your campaign’s timeline, and a description of your product/service and target market.

2. Mission statement

A mission statement is a short statement reflecting the purpose of your business at that point in time. It can talk about what you do, the types of products and services you offer, your target market, or your competitive advantage. Here are some mission statement examples:

• “ To become the number 1 fashion destination for 20-somethings globally. ” - ASOS
• “ To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. ” - LinkedIn
• “ Offering all women and men worldwide the best of cosmetics innovation in terms of quality, efficacy and safety. ” - L'Oréal
• “ To make unique sports cars that represent the finest Italian design and craftsmanship, both on the track and on the road. ” - Ferrari

3. Market analysis

A market analysis asks you to look deeply at your business and industry. For this section, you will reflect on where your business and your marketing strategy stand right now. You should include what you’re selling, your unique selling proposition (what separates you from competitors), your best performing marketing channels and campaigns so far, and your current marketing objectives.

4. SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis looks at the internal and external environment your business operates in.

Strengths refer to what your business does well, your tangible assets and internal resources, and what sets you apart from the competition.

Weaknesses include areas where your business needs to improve, resource limitations, and places where your competitors are excelling.

Opportunities refer to your industry as a whole, including underserved markets, lack of competitors, growing popularity for the products/services you provide, and positive media coverage of your industry.

Threats include parts of the external environment that could potentially harm your business, like new laws and regulations, negative media coverage, decline of your industry, and emerging competitors.

5. Competitor analysis

If you offer a similar product or service to other companies, you need to communicate why your offering is more valuable. To do so, you must understand what your competitors are selling, who their audience is, and how they’re communicating with that audience. The best place to start is your competitors’ website and social media accounts. Buy their products, sign up for their newsletter, or attend one of their events. Read their customer reviews and media coverage to learn more about their successes and failures.

6. Target market and buyer personas

Create your buyer personas with Growth Channel’s free template or customize a pre-populated template in the Persona Builder .

Your target market represents the ideal customers of your product or service. You may have one ideal customer, or you may market to a few different personas. When thinking about your target market, consider these attributes:

Demographics - age, gender, income, education, occupation, marital status

Geographics - location (country, region, state, city, town), climate, culture

Psychographics - lifestyle, attitudes, risk tolerance, aspirations, personality, values, struggles, pain points, goals

Behavioral attributes - preferred channels and content types, loyalty, frequency of purchases, affiliations

7. Marketing objectives and KPIs

Your objectives are the goals of your campaign, or what you hope to accomplish. Your KPIs, or key performance indicators, are the metrics you will track to determine if you met your objectives. It’s also important to track how your KPIs change over time. Here are some example KPIs to track based on your campaign:

Social media - followers, engagement rate, mentions, reach, ROAS

Content - comments, shares, downloads, conversion rate, leads, search ranking

Website - organic traffic, paid traffic, keyword rankings, session duration, bounce rate, conversion rate, CPA

App - weekly active users, activation rate, conversion rate, churn rate, CLTV

8. Pricing strategy

You need to consider how you will price your products and services. There are many types of pricing strategies , but these are the main three:

Price skimming - price above competitors to recapture your margins, and lower the price as time passes. With this strategy, you will likely sell fewer products at a higher price point.

Competitive pricing - base your pricing off of what competitors are charging

Penetration pricing - price below competitors to increase market share, gain customers, and sell more units. With this strategy, you try to sell a large volume at a lower price point and then raise prices as time passes.

9. Marketing channels

Consider the best channels to promote your business on. You may even decide to create a separate social media and/or content marketing strategy within your overall marketing plan, including your editorial calendar, content types and topics, and the channels you’ll be posting on. When choosing marketing channels, think about where your target audience spends their time and what type of information they engage with. You also need to decide whether to use free channels, paid channels, or a combination of both. Here are some examples of popular channels:

Social media - Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, Pinterest, TikTok, Clubhouse

Content marketing - blogs, infographics, tutorials, guides, case studies, newsletters, webinars, demos, events, presentations, guest blogs, whitepapers, podcasts

Communities - Industry specific websites, forums, and social media groups

Media coverage - press, features in other websites and publications, partnerships, tags or mentions on social media

Partnerships - Referral or affiliate programs, integration partners

• Company website - live chat, SEO, FAQs, resources, landing pages

Not sure what channels you should be focusing on? Growth Channel’s free customer journey template can help you decide where to focus your resources.

10. Growth strategy

Growth strategy refers to your long term plans and goals. Think about where you want your business to be in six months, a year, or even five years. How does this individual campaign or plan fit in with your overall marketing or business strategy? If your plan is successful, what project will you take on next? If your plan is unsuccessful, will you move on or try a different approach?

11. Budgeting

In order to actually execute your marketing plan, you will need a realistic budget. Your goal is to execute your plan in an affordable and cost-effective way. In other words, you should be seeing more returns, sales, or benefits than what you’re spending. There are many free budgeting templates online you can use to track your expenses. However you decide to create a budget, it’s important to build in a little flexibility for unexpected changes in your plan.

Tools to help you create your marketing plan

Want to build your own marketing plan? Growth Channel has a free marketing template resource that walks you through every step of the process!

Organizing your marketing plan and tracking success can be challenging. Luckily, there are a lot of great tools out there specifically designed to help marketers and businesses create robust marketing plans. At Growth Channel, we’ve built a Growth Library of hundreds of marketing tools and resources. You can even filter by customer journey stage, marketing objective, and industry. Here’s a snapshot of some of our favorite marketing planning tools:

For organization and visualization

Trello is a visual project management platform that breaks down complex tasks into customizable boards, lists, and cards.

With CoSchedule’s simple drag and drop marketing management software, you can schedule projects, track progress, and see everything your marketing team is working on.

Source: CoSchedule

Visualize your customers’ journey with Funnelytics . Map funnels, calculate stats that make them profitable, and identify bottlenecks that prevent conversions.

For launching and managing campaigns

SocialBu is the ultimate social media management and automation platform, letting you run all your social media accounts in one location.

Trumpia offers the easiest platform to create a variety of targeted and automated text messaging marketing campaigns.

Get instant access to brand mentions across social, news, blogs, videos, forums, podcasts, reviews and more with Brand24 .

Source: Brand24

Unstack's content marketing platform is designed to help you rapidly build, measure, and scale your digital presence without code or developers.

Attract more leads, manage contacts, deliver personalized experiences at scale, and automate your marketing campaigns with Freshmarketer .

For branding

Design like a professional with Canva . You can use Canva’s customizable templates to organize, create, export, and share your marketing plan and other promotional assets.

1Brand creates shareable brand guidelines within minutes from your business’ website, so all your campaigns and promotional materials remain consistent.

Source: 1Brand

For competitor analysis

Monitor your competitors’ keyword and SEO strategies with SEMrush .

Competitors App automatically monitors your competitors and alerts you of any major changes to their marketing strategy. Competitors App tracks their keyword rankings, website changes, newsletters, social posts, reviews, and more.

Use Visto AI to get a top view of the latest marketing trends and direct access to your competitors' top ad campaigns. Easily filter thousands of new ads or millions of archived ones, and access key performance metrics.

Source: Visto

For tracking progress and measuring ROI

With Apteo , you can segment customers, monitor lifetime values, identify cross-sell opportunities, and track product journeys.

Get real-time visibility into your data, understand the full story behind every customer journey, and automatically uncover how each marketing activity impacts your KPIs with InfiniGrow .

Plannuh , an AI-driven marketing management software, lets you create agile marketing plans, budgets, and accurate ROI reports. You can even automate budget import, invoice entry, and expense reconciliation.

Source: Plannuh

For automating the entire marketing planning process

Growth Channel collects your market research from over 500 data sources and simulates thousands of campaigns, presenting the strategy with the highest chance of success for your business. Generate a plan today .

Source: Growth Channel

Listnr helps you to convert text into High Quality Speech. You can then use your synthesized Speech to add voice overs to videos, distribute blog posts as podcasts, or convert an ebook to an audiobook.

Convert, retain, and grow your customers with delightful personal video emails with Bonjoro . By connecting Bonjoro to your existing tools, you can send personalized video emails at key moments in your customer’s journey.

Source: Bonjoro

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Why a marketing plan is important for growing your business

• Marketing Planning
• Marketing Strategy
• business growth

I often get asked, why is a marketing plan important?

And I respond by saying that it will help you to grow your business in a much faster and more cost-effective way than if you didn’t have one.

• It will ensure that you aren’t wasting time and money on activities that don’t align with your goals.
• It will provide a more strategic approach to the way you implement your marketing activities.
• And, it will help you to get unstuck, build momentum, and move your business forward to the next level.

Now those are just a few reasons to start. There are many other important reasons, as well.

So, why is a marketing plan important for growing your business?

Well, here’s a list of 7 reasons why you need to develop a marketing plan for your service-based small business:

1. provides clarity and direction.

A marketing plan is a brilliant tool for providing clarity and direction, which is why it’s so important when it comes to growing your service business.

You may know where you want to go and what you want to achieve…

However, without that clarity and direction for how you’re going to get there, it just won’t happen in the fastest and most efficient way.

When you have clarity and direction, you’ll also find that all your marketing decisions become so much easier to make.

2. Aligns your goals and activities

There are so many different marketing strategies and tactics that you can implement to grow your business.

So many in fact that it can become overwhelming and confusing to know which ones to choose.

However, with a marketing plan, you’ll have set the marketing objectives or goals that you want to achieve first.

And be able to align these goals with the specific activities that will help you achieve them.

With aligned goals and activities, you’re likely to achieve that growth much sooner than you would have without a marketing plan.

RELATED: 7 Steps to setting marketing goals you’ll actually achieve

3. Improves your marketing performance

One of the main reasons why a marketing plan is important is because it will help you to improve your marketing performance.

And an improvement in your performance means more leads and growth for your business.

A key feature of your marketing plan is your sales targets and marketing metrics, which will provide the numbers for you to track against and measure your performance.

It will also help you to determine where you have some gaps and could focus more energy to improve the marketing results.

Not sure where to start when it comes to marketing your service-based small business?  That’s where I can help. Get started by downloading my free Ultimate Marketing Checklist by clicking the button below: 

4. Supports your strategy and sustainability

Why is a marketing plan important for sustainability?

Well, to write a marketing plan, you’ll need to take the time out to ‘work on your business’ and not ‘in your business’.

You’ll also have to take a more strategic view of your business and identify the steps you’ll need to take to achieve sustainability.

One of the main benefits is that you’ll be putting together a marketing budget that is appropriate for your business and will ensure you have a solid return on your marketing investment.

This budgeting will also ensure you aren’t wasting money in areas that won’t deliver business growth.

RELATED: 5 Ways I invested my marketing budget when starting my small business

5. Creates efficiency and saves time

It’s quite easy to get distracted by the latest marketing tool or the new feature that’s just launched on your favourite social media platform.

However, when you do, it’s taking you away from working on the strategic steps that you need to follow to achieve business growth.

It’s also quite easy to spin around in circles when you haven’t spent the time to consider what you should be doing, and in what order.

But, when you have a marketing plan, you’ll know the exact steps to take to achieve your goals.

And, you’ll build that critical marketing momentum that will push your business forward to the next level much sooner.

RELATED: How to write a marketing plan for a service-based business

6. Communicates your goals

It’s incredible how something becomes so much more ‘real’ when it’s written down or shared aloud.

Which is why it’s important to write down your marketing plan and communicate it with your team if you have one.

A written document also removes any potential confusion and communicates the steps you’re going to take to attract more clients and grow.

7. Holds you accountable

By sharing your goals and documenting your marketing plan, you’re also committing to achieving the goals and results contained within.

It provides a reference document that you can come back and review at specific intervals.

And it provides a reminder for what steps you need to follow and the actions you need to take to achieve your business goals.

RELATED: How to develop a marketing strategy and plan for a service business

So, there you have seven reasons why it’s important to write a marketing plan for your service business.

Tired of trying to figure out what you’re missing when it comes to finding clients and making sales in your service business?

Break through the barriers that are holding you back with the support of an MBA-qualified Marketing Coach and Business Mentor who will tailor a 1:1 program specifically for you.

BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH   is a 3 or 6-month 1:1 Coaching Program for service-based business owners who want to develop the strategy, systems, and structure they need to find clients and make sales, so they can stop feeling stuck and start gaining massive momentum in their business.

Did you find this post helpful? Please don’t forget to PIN to Pinterest or share on Facebook.

Hayley Robertson

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The importance of a marketing plan for your business.

• April 14, 2021
• Posted by: Funmilola Sanya
• Category: Sales & Marketing

Marketing is highly regarded as one of the most important activities of a business. It is not just a business function; it is the bridge that connects the producer to potential consumers and it is what sustains your business for a very long time. The success stories of major corporations hinge on good marketing strategies. So whether you’re a one-man business, a co-founder of a big corporation or you’re just starting, everyone should have a marketing plan.

In today’s article, we cover the definition of a marketing plan, purpose, types, and reasons you need one for your business.

What a marketing plan is

It is a detailed operational document that outlines your marketing or advertising strategy to generate leads for the coming month, quarter, or year. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as the “activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” It is a guideline for delivering your products and services to your potential customers.

A marketing plan should include :

• An executive summary and description of your business
• An analysis of your business’s current marketing position
• Your marketing goals and business objectives
• A timeline of when marketing strategies will be implemented and tasks within the strategy will be completed
• A description of your business’s target market, customer needs, and delivery plan
• Your business’s unique selling proposition and tactics
• Tracking and evaluation of key performance indicators (KPIs)

The purpose of marketing

Marketing is primarily responsible for making sales easier and more profitable for a business owner. It shouldn’t be considered as a business function that consumes revenue, rather a function that creates revenue for the business. In the article ‘ Marketing is Everything ‘, Regis McKenna stated that “marketing today is not a function, it is a way of doing business”. He stated further that “marketing is not a new ad campaign or this month’s promotion. Marketing has to be all-pervasive, part of everyone’s job description, from the receptionists to the board of directors. Its job is neither to fool the customer nor to falsify the company’s image. It is to integrate the customer into the design of the product and to design a systematic process for interaction that will create substance in the relationship.”

The purpose is to own the market, thereby becoming a dominant force in the market. This can be achieved when the company is able to make the customer aware of its willingness to ensure that its product or services fit into the customer’s requirements and needs. This is the only way to create substance in the relationship between the producer and the consumer as Regis McKenna stated.

The importance of marketing

Marketing is important for the success of your business, both now and in the future. If you’ve tried to scale your business through different functions and have failed, you have a clear signal that you need a proper marketing plan. A good marketing plan helps you target your ideal customers in a smarter way, connect to them through the right mediums at the right time, and increase your chances of converting leads to sales. It is the glue that connects everything together and it is what helps you keep pace with the ever-changing tastes of your customers.

Types of marketing plans

There are different forms through which your product or services can catch the attention of your potential customers:

• Social media marketing : Using different social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat
• Paid/digital marketing : Pay-per-click (PPC), banner ads, influencer, sponsorships, social media ads, and ad retargeting
• Content marketing : Using original content to showcase a product or service
• Time period marketing : Campaigns used over a specific period
• New product/service : Plan to showcase a product or service launch

Reasons why you must have a marketing plan for your business :

• It allows you to make decisions based on fact, analysis, and experience.
• It enables you to plan and manage your resources effectively
• It helps you to organise your time and priorities 
• You’ll be able to create a set of measurable and achievable goals
• It will help you establish your position in the market
• It provides transparency and ensures consistency
• It puts everybody in the team on the same page
• It will help you provide better customer service
• It provides clarity of what you are doing and what’s expected of your business
• It will help you ensure your marketing is proactive and organised

Featured image: pexels

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The Importance of An Effective Marketing Strategy in Reaching Your Business Goals Establishing an online presence, engaging with consumers, and building trust with your audience will place your brand at the top of mind. A powerful marketing strategy results in these five benefits to drive ROI.

By Grace Kim Edited by Joseph Shults Apr 22, 2022

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business yet is often underestimated, especially within the startup world. Most startups are tight on resources and often want to get straight to selling. Although an understandably standard action, it can waste significant amounts of time and money.

Most sales staff face the burdens of bringing in leads and converting them. However, having the right tools and support can significantly increase their chances of closing a deal. As important as a sales team is to an organization, a well-versed marketing expert can effectively impact a business in several ways.

Although marketing may not close deals directly, when done right, it is the most powerful tool a brand can use to present its image and engage with consumers. This leads to supporting the sales team by bringing in qualified leads and helping close deals.

Five benefits of a strong marketing strategy:

Research consistently shows that familiarity breeds liking in human-to-human interactions. There's something about seeing someone several times that makes them likable and trustworthy. The same can be applied to brands and companies today.

Brand Familiarity

Brand familiarity is a goal that nearly every business wants to achieve. After all, Edelman's survey results show that 81 percent of consumers need to be able to trust a brand before they buy from them. So how can brands build familiarity and trust with their audience to ensure their sales teams are equipped with the right tools to convert potential buyers?

An effective marketing strategy can take your brand from unknown to familiar and, ultimately, well-known. But that's certainly not the only benefits marketing has.

A marketing strategy has a domino effect. Once a brand begins to market to its target audience, the foundation of your business forms. Your sales team will then lean on a solid foundation and have the right tools to help convert leads across the sales funnel.

Consumer Engagement

With around 4.66 billion active global Internet users, there is no doubt the web is a valuable tool that can open your business to the world of consumers. The greatest thing about it is that it's free, and you have unlimited access to the digital world.

By marketing through various online distribution channels, you have the power of communicating with your audience and having them engage. Through content such as blog and social media posts, new website pages, email campaigns, newsletters, chats, videos on various platforms and more, you'll be able to reach your target audience at numerous touchpoints.

Additionally, the digital world is a platform that encourages participation from all. Consumers are most likely to engage with topics, images and videos that resonate with them, giving your brand a powerful way to interact with consumers, continuously engage them and build trust with them.

Related: How Businesses Can Rethink Customer Engagement

Authenticity and Trust

All businesses start with at least one person having a passionate vision and idea of how their product or service will make an impact. How will your customers know that you have the best solution for them? Furthermore, how can you convince your audience that your brand is unique?

Consumers distrust brands and advertising more than ever before. Nearly 70% of consumers don't trust ads and 71% distrust brands . It's no wonder that more than 81 percent of consumers stated that brand trust is the driving decision of whether they would buy from a company.

Marketing allows you to establish authenticity and trust with your consumers. By appearing on several communication channels, consistently portraying your brand's vision and goals, engaging with your audience, being present and responsive and showing empathy for your customer's pain points, you'll be seen as authentic and build trust with your audience. The result? When your sales rep reaches out to a potential consumer who has engaged with your brand, they're more likely to close a deal.

Related: Skip to content user profile picture The Great Reidentification: 5 Ways Businesses Can Lead Authentically in Our New Working World

Earned Media

One of the oldest and cheapest forms of marketing is word-of-mouth. Still, nearly half (48%) of businesses worldwide rely on the power of loyal customers to spread the word about their products or services.

Word-of-mouth is an effective form of marketing because it spreads quickly and easily, it's free, and it's backed by trust. Ninety percent of people, even strangers, are more likely to trust a brand recommended by someone else. In comparison, over 26 percent of people will ultimately avoid a brand if they hear a negative story.

In today's digitized world, word-of-mouth can translate into earned media. Earned media is when another person, company, establishment, social presence, etc., promotes a brand.

Earned media includes:

• Promoting a brand's website.
• Reposting a social image.
• Sharing a social post (whether publicly or privately).
• Tagging the brand in a post.

Establishing an online presence, engaging with consumers, and building trust with your audience will place your brand at top of mind and where others are "talking" about your business. A powerful marketing strategy can bring all of these benefits together so that each point will lead to the next.

Related: 6 Strategies to Maximize Earned Media for Your Brand

Sales Support

Customers keep your business running and growing, which is why your sales team is critical to your business's success. Your sales staff will bring in new customers, but it can be draining to carry the burden of prospecting potential buyers and converting them.

Marketing can support and empower your sales staff by attracting qualified leads. Strategies that speak to a customer's pain points will help engage consumers, relay the brand message and build trust, taking leads down the sales funnel.

Additionally, marketing efforts can reveal specific pain points by seeing how the consumer interacted with the brand. The valuable insights that marketing can bring can help sales staff develop a personalized strategy to approach each lead.

Digital Marketing Manager

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How to Write a Business Plan: Your Step-by-Step Guide

So, you’ve got an idea and you want to start a business —great! Before you do anything else, like seek funding or build out a team, you'll need to know how to write a business plan. This plan will serve as the foundation of your company while also giving investors and future employees a clear idea of your purpose.

Below, Lauren Cobello, Founder and CEO of Leverage with Media PR , gives her best advice on how to make a business plan for your company.

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What is a business plan, and when do you need one?

According to Cobello, a business plan is a document that contains the mission of the business and a brief overview of it, as well as the objectives, strategies, and financial plans of the founder. A business plan comes into play very early on in the process of starting a company—more or less before you do anything else.

“You should start a company with a business plan in mind—especially if you plan to get funding for the company,” Cobello says. “You’re going to need it.”

Whether that funding comes from a loan, an investor, or crowdsourcing, a business plan is imperative to secure the capital, says the U.S. Small Business Administration . Anyone who’s considering giving you money is going to want to review your business plan before doing so. That means before you head into any meeting, make sure you have physical copies of your business plan to share.

Different types of business plans

The four main types of business plans are:

Startup Business Plans

Internal business plans, strategic business plans, one-page business plans.

Let's break down each one:

If you're wondering how to write a business plan for a startup, Cobello has advice for you. Startup business plans are the most common type, she says, and they are a critical tool for new business ventures that want funding. A startup is defined as a company that’s in its first stages of operations, founded by an entrepreneur who has a product or service idea.

Most startups begin with very little money, so they need a strong business plan to convince family, friends, banks, and/or venture capitalists to invest in the new company.

Internal business plans “are for internal use only,” says Cobello. This kind of document is not public-facing, only company-facing, and it contains an outline of the company’s business strategy, financial goals and budgets, and performance data.

Internal business plans aren’t used to secure funding, but rather to set goals and get everyone working there tracking towards them.

As the name implies, strategic business plans are geared more towards strategy and they include an assessment of the current business landscape, notes Jérôme Côté, a Business Advisor at BDC Advisory Services .

Unlike a traditional business plan, Cobello adds, strategic plans include a SWOT analysis (which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and an in-depth action plan for the next six to 12 months. Strategic plans are action-based and take into account the state of the company and the industry in which it exists.

Although a typical business plan falls between 15 to 30 pages, some companies opt for the much shorter One-Page Business Plan. A one-page business plan is a simplified version of the larger business plan, and it focuses on the problem your product or service is solving, the solution (your product), and your business model (how you’ll make money).

A one-page plan is hyper-direct and easy to read, making it an effective tool for businesses of all sizes, at any stage.

How to create a business plan in 7 steps

Every business plan is different, and the steps you take to complete yours will depend on what type and format you choose. That said, if you need a place to start and appreciate a roadmap, here’s what Cobello recommends:

1. Conduct your research

Before writing your business plan, you’ll want to do a thorough investigation of what’s out there. Who will be the competitors for your product or service? Who is included in the target market? What industry trends are you capitalizing on, or rebuking? You want to figure out where you sit in the market and what your company’s value propositions are. What makes you different—and better?

2. Define your purpose for the business plan

The purpose of your business plan will determine which kind of plan you choose to create. Are you trying to drum up funding, or get the company employees focused on specific goals? (For the former, you’d want a startup business plan, while an internal plan would satisfy the latter.) Also, consider your audience. An investment firm that sees hundreds of potential business plans a day may prefer to see a one-pager upfront and, if they’re interested, a longer plan later.

3. Write your company description

Every business plan needs a company description—aka a summary of the company’s purpose, what they do/offer, and what makes it unique. Company descriptions should be clear and concise, avoiding the use of jargon, Cobello says. Ideally, descriptions should be a few paragraphs at most.

4. Explain and show how the company will make money

A business plan should be centered around the company’s goals, and it should clearly explain how the company will generate revenue. To do this, Cobello recommends using actual numbers and details, as opposed to just projections.

For instance, if the company is already making money, show how much and at what cost (e.g. what was the net profit). If it hasn’t generated revenue yet, outline the plan for how it will—including what the product/service will cost to produce and how much it will cost the consumer.

5. Outline your marketing strategy

How will you promote the business? Through what channels will you be promoting it? How are you going to reach and appeal to your target market? The more specific and thorough you can be with your plans here, the better, Cobello says.

6. Explain how you’ll spend your funding

What will you do with the money you raise? What are the first steps you plan to take? As a founder, you want to instill confidence in your investors and show them that the instant you receive their money, you’ll be taking smart actions that grow the company.

7. Include supporting documents

Creating a business plan is in some ways akin to building a legal case, but for your business. “You want to tell a story, and to be as thorough as possible, while keeping your plan succinct, clear, interesting, and visually appealing,” Cobello says. “Supporting documents could include financial projects, a competitive analysis of the market you’re entering into, and even any licenses, patents, or permits you’ve secured.”

A business plan is an individualized document—it’s ultimately up to you what information to include and what story you tell. But above all, Cobello says, your business plan should have a clear focus and goal in mind, because everything else will build off this cornerstone.

“Many people don’t realize how important business plans are for the health of their company,” she says. “Set aside time to make this a priority for your business, and make sure to keep it updated as you grow.”

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10 Reasons to Set up a Marketing Strategy for Your Business

What is the purpose of a marketing plan? Do you design a marketing strategy just for the sake of having one? How many times a year do you revisit your business plan, marketing strategy, timeline, and budget to make the necessary adjustments? Just as your daily job and even personal life rely on planning, so does your company. Besides a solid and actionable business plan, a marketing strategy is vital for any organization to achieve its goals and evolve. Today, we will discuss the importance of a marketing strategy and the top reasons you need a marketing plan to accomplish your strategic objectives efficiently.

What is a Marketing Strategy and Why is It Important?

According to its  definition , a marketing strategy is a long-term, forward-looking approach to planning with the fundamental goal of attaining sustainable competitive advantage. The marketing plan contains your business's unique value proposition, customer data, branding elements, and other crucial vital factors. In general, when we discuss the design of a marketing plan, we consider the four pillars on which all companies build their marketing strategies:

If you wonder why marketing is important, the answer is simple. Without it, your business can suffer tremendous consequences:

Losing of leads and clients to competitors

Losing market share

Missing out on opportunities for development and growth

Low rates of customer retention and engagement

Suboptimal execution of processes, etc.

1. A Marketing Strategy Helps You Set Clear Business Guidelines

The first and the most crucial role of a sustainable marketing strategy is to set precise tasks and objectives. It coordinates employees towards a goal that your business aims to achieve at that particular time.

What do you do to boost the traffic to your website?

How do you sell a particular product or service? 

What methods and tasks should you include in your workflow to achieve the desired result?

How do you leverage your existing branding elements to attract new customers, and what other  branding fundamentals  does your organization need to remain visible and gain a loyal following?

How do you define and promote your unique selling proposition to stay ahead of your competitors?

To answer all these questions, you need a focused approach regarding your goal. It is necessary to have step-by-step instructions on what to do, when to do it, for what target audience, with what budget.

Here, your marketing strategy is the primary tool to answer these questions. It will help you set the necessary guidelines to accomplish both short and long-term tasks.

2. Your Marketing Plan is Your Best Weapon against Competitors

What is a marketing strategy if not your secret weapon to use in your efforts to dominate the competition?

If your company doesn't have a marketing strategy, your competitors already have one significant advantage over you.  Despite the rapid technological growth and development, it’s challenging to come up with something that hasn’t been done before. Thus, if you introduce something new or unique, you have to fight for your so-called "author's right" no matter if it is a piece of clothing, a brand new website building tool, a revolutionary piece of technology, or an amazing service.

According to researchers at Harvard Business Review, companies have a harder time reaching their goals for marketing innovation. The  research  they conducted focused on a new sales strategy but eventually turned into a case pleading for the importance of marketing in all aspects, phases, and business processes.

Suppose you plan to open an eCommerce store selling unique trending products that customers cannot find anywhere but in your online shop.

According to  Harvard experts , having a new product to spark peoples' interest is not enough. Innovators in all sectors need the proper marketing approaches to connect the right customers to the right product and offer sales teams better value in customer-centric ways. Unleashing the full power of marketing helps companies go through all the transformations necessary, especially when presenting new products.

3. Marketing Helps You Clearly Define Your Products

Entrepreneurs understand the importance of digital marketing when they come across an obvious yet often neglected issue: product definition and prices. Many business owners have difficulties with proper product segmentation, price definitions, sales channels, prices, etc.

This problem is common for both beginner and seasoned companies. Beginners will have a lack of experience when it comes to product definition and segmentation, while seasoned companies might take these aspects for granted (especially if they are used to selling a wide range of products/services). 

The purpose of a marketing plan's questions is to help you build an offering, pricing, and marketing segment for every product you sell. You may be successful with kids' toys in general, but what about hand-operated drones for kids or digital drawing boards?

Moreover, a marketing plan helps you find new products relevant to your niche, thus building future opportunities, discovering new market slots, and targeting new audiences. If you are already selling kids' toys, you could also consider drop shipping niche educational toys to reach a new audience.

4. Marketing Strategies Allow You to Better Understand Your Target Audience

We cannot discuss the importance of a marketing strategy without focusing on target audiences and customers.

A marketing strategy helps you determine your target market. Market segmentation is crucial to establish a relevant audience for your business and products precisely. After all, to satisfy your customers' needs, you have to understand what they want.

Analytical tools depict only the technical part of the issue and not the emotional one. For example, Google Analytics or any other similar instrument gives you strict and straightforward information about your website traffic. However, they do not convey customers' emotions and attitudes towards your products/services.

To avoid your company deflating like a balloon in the eyes of your customers, you need to dive deeper. It would be best to determine a particular framework of customer relationships to get insight into your company and business's attitudes, moods, and behaviors.

One of the main reasons to have a marketing strategy is to understand people's pain points and, once you get a clear view of them, you need to strengthen your marketing plan even more. Call it a loop, if you want, but a marketing strategy helps you achieve the following goals:

Define the target demographics – it will also help you manage your social media marketing plan, content marketing strategy, online and offline communication channels, and type of influencers to collaborate with for your digital marketing campaigns;

Keep all your marketing experts on the same page – say your social media specialists promote specific products' features on Instagram Stories or use TikTok to attract a younger audience. Meanwhile, your customer support representatives say that clients want details about a whole different set of product details/specs. This duality can make it challenging to uphold your marketing strategy. A marketing plan’s importance is that it offers you the foundation for building the entire advertising and selling strategy.

Segment the market – Market segmentation divides a heterogeneous market into smaller audience segments: geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioral, etc.

Keep your marketing tasks timely – having a marketing plan without a rigorous timeline and a set of deliverables is like creating a business plan without setting up goals. Marketing calendars are your best tools to keep track of everything that is going on in the marketing and sales departments. Timeliness is crucial for every marketing task, from posting engaging Facebook posts for your audiences at suitable hours to defining buyer persona before launching a new service.

Build brand authenticity – as you know, brand authenticity and business storytelling are crucial components of your marketing plan. They are the "secret ingredients" of customer engagement and loyalty. On the other hand, a coherent marketing strategy is of utmost importance when communicating your brand's story and unique selling proposition.

Knowing your audience to a T and tailoring your marketing strategy to cater to that audience's needs, wishes, pain points, pleasures, and behaviors is what makes marketing a quintessential component of any business plan.

5. A Marketing Plan is a Roadmap to Various Markets and Targets

Why is a marketing plan essential? Because it helps you reach your target market and discover new ones along the way. Consider it a map or a GPS guide. You have a clear definition of your products/services, the needs they serve, and the prices you can practice to stay competitive. Where do you take those products? Who are the people most likely to be interested in your offers, and where do you find them?

The routes you choose to reach your audiences are integral to your business plan, human resources management, budget, advertising, etc. You can sell certain products more effectively if you do so directly from your online shop. Other products would benefit greatly from omnichannel retail and even affiliate marketing.

On your road to marketing products/services on social media channels, you might encounter influencers along the way and consider influencer marketing. Some products can be as easy to sell as lemonade on a hot summer day; others need your company's efforts to convince customers to buy them. For this, you might need a company-dedicated blog to gain traffic to your website, engage leads, and turn them into loyal, returning shoppers.

All these highways, secondary roads, and unbeaten paths lead to your entrepreneurial success. However, it is challenging to organize and pinpoint them without a clear marketing strategy.

6. A Marketing Plan Allows a Better Division of Roles

Say your marketing team is doing a tremendous amount of work, yet the results do not seem to correspond to the effort put in.  If your organization reaches this point, you need to revisit your marketing strategy and decide on several revisions. 

With a good marketing plan, you will be able to divide the entire workload into small manageable tasks. More importantly, you will have specific duties attached to each employee. This way, every specialist in your team will have a unique role in accomplishing the tasks. Since marketing is a constellation of interconnected elements, having the right people for the right jobs working together in harmony is the first step towards success.

A marketing plan consists of plenty of elements, sub-strategies, and plans. Break them down correctly and allocate tasks to competent teams. At a minimum, your business should have an  online marketing strategy  and an offline one. Ask yourself these questions:

Who are the people capable of implementing a sustainable SEO strategy for your service website,  online store , tech magazine, etc.?

Do you have a team versed in social media marketing? What do they do, with what budget, and what results do they provide?

Who is responsible for your content marketing plan, and how does your audience respond to the content you create and promote?

Do you have a team focused on  promoting your website or business for free  or engaged in paid marketing campaigns?

Are all your departments communicating a coherent message across the board that leverages your branding and UVP?

Such a strategy will double the output's effect, as employees will have an enhanced sense of responsibility and will be more willing to perform at their best. Moreover, you will have a clear and detailed image of your company's development at any given moment.

7. Having a Marketing Plan Allows You to Allocate Resources

A marketing strategy is a business plan in and out of itself. It's a step-by-step blueprint gathering all the information you need regarding budget, human resources, available equipment, and actions necessary to implement to reach your strategic goals. Without a clear plan, you will not be able to use your resources efficiently.

Hence, if we discuss the importance of a marketing strategy, we cannot skip a quick talk about sufficient resource allocation. Of course, the purpose of marketing is to help companies make more money. But can you yield profits without investments?

When considering a long-term strategic plan, you can determine to a T how many resources you need to allocate to all your business tasks, marketing objectives, processes, etc. It will give you answers and solutions to more subtle questions and challenges regarding staff recruiting, investments in software and tech solutions, paid ads, hiring an SEO agency, paying for printed/digital design, investing in influencers, etc.

Of course, you should consider implementing cost-effective marketing methods, which will reduce your expenditures and yield higher profits.

8. All Professional Businesses Implement Marketing Plans

The ability to let your customers find your products and services is essential because it conveys a clear message: you are there to satisfy their needs. For your clients to always stay up to date with your news, products, services, etc., you need to have a good marketing channel. To successfully deliver your products/services to the customers and convince them to come back for more, you need a long-term, adaptable marketing plan.

Do not forget that even if you focus primarily on digital media marketing, you need to have a 360° view of all marketing possibilities you can use to turn customers into loyal brand ambassadors since this is the ultimate purpose of marketing.

The best way to grasp the complexities of marketing as a beginner is to analyze the competition. What do your competitors do? Have they upgraded their websites lately? Are they participating in industry roundups and events? Are they promoting their products/services on social media channels you haven’t reached yet? Are they collaborating with other brands for cross-promotion? Do they employ user-generated content marketing?

Having an effective promotional strategy that consistently reminds your customers of your presence is crucial to your overall success. Personalized approaches towards every customer will build a strong loyalty towards your company and turn your customers into brand evangelists who will actively promote your products or services to others.

9.  Marketing and Business Storytelling Go Hand-in-Hand

Business storytelling is probably the most crucial marketing strategy available to businesses these days. The purpose of a marketing plan is to help you achieve two goals at the same time:

Define the parameters of your business storytelling tactics;

Communicate your business story across the right channels to the right people.

Suppose you want to learn more about building a compelling brand story and marketing it correctly. In that case, we recommend this interview with Juan Scott, the brain and heart behind Artefacto – a social enterprise selling authentic Mexican arts & crafts through their branded online shop. There is an unmistakable relationship between branding, marketing, and storytelling, and we will let Juan tell you how it works for their beautiful business:

Storytelling is crucial to provide context and meaning to crafts, which otherwise would seem unimportant. What makes our business different is that we value crafts as works of art and view them as an indispensable part of our culture. We have strong advocacy for authentic crafts that we know empower indigenous artisans while making them accessible. We strive to offer good design, an extensive range, and a strong narrative for every craft we offer. Furthermore, we offer online exhibitions to raise awareness about Mexico's craft traditions and history, providing links to the products we sell.

Incorporating storytelling in your marketing plan is what differentiates your company from the competition. However, once drafted, the same marketing plan helps you identify various opportunities to make your story known to larger audiences.

10. Your Marketing Plan is Your Reality Check

Many companies fail because they either don't have a marketing plan or create one and forget about it. A marketing strategy is a living, breathing organism. It changes and evolves with the times. Did you have a marketing strategy in place before the global health crisis? Did things work as you planned? If your business relied on a combination of online marketing and offline promotion tactics, you had to adapt and learn as you went to stay ahead.

The purpose of a marketing plan and its importance is to offer you a regular reality check. Let's say your marketing plan included five major markets, ten audience segments, and fifteen marketing channels/tactics. Ask yourself these questions:

Are all the marketing plan's elements working together in perfect harmony?

Have the parameters changed?

Can your team handle the current economic and marketing landscape?

Do you need to adapt and adjust to meet your goals?

Have your customers' expectations, needs, and behaviors changed?

Do you employ outdated marketing methods that need an upgrade to embrace the new realities?

Can you handle social media, content marketing, and SEO, or do you have to hire an agency?

You can go as deep as you need with this reality check. The idea is that even maps change, so we don't see why you wouldn't check out your marketing plan regularly to revamp and improve it. After all, keeping your eye on the ball (and on the court) helps you win the game.

Why is a Marketing Plan Important? 

To make a long story short, to have a fine-tuned business with renowned brand identity and recognition, you must have a clear roadmap on how you go about organizing it. The purpose of a marketing plan is to help you manage things better and cover all the important steps to achieve your business's goals. Companies need marketing strategies to keep their focus and clearly distinguish among roles and duties assigned to their teams and employees. Don't forget that a solid marketing strategy is also your ticket to success against the competition.

Having an outstanding and updated marketing strategy is also imperative for knowing and segmenting your customers. It helps you better allocate your resources, build a budget and tell your story.

Last but not least, a marketing strategy adds more professionalism to your enterprise! Your customers will be able to tell if you are just winging your marketing activities or if you are there to answer their needs and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with them. With that being said, good luck!

Have a business idea but no website to back it up?  Get started now !

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Marketing matters now more than ever.

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As 2019 begins, it’s time to reclaim marketing as a key driver of business. Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “ Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two -- and only these two -- basic functions: marketing and innovation.” Clearly most business leaders embrace innovation as the lifeblood of their companies today, but lately marketing has been relegated to a staff-driven, cost center by many.  And that has caused waste, missed opportunities, and failure for many businesses.

Marketing as it was originally intended, in its fullest, truest, and greatest form, is more important today than ever before.  The world is awash in innovative products, services, technologies, solutions, business models, etc. today.  These new offerings must be brought to market and commercialized in order to generate revenue and profit.   I nnovation alone cannot sustain a company; it must be paired with marketing.

Marketing as it was originally intended, in its fullest, truest, and greatest form, is more ... [+] important today than ever before.

The Decline of Marketing

Instead of being led and valued as a driver of business viability and growth, marketing has stagnated in recent years.  Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey shows that marketing budgets have leveled off to an average of 11% of company revenue, packaged goods companies including Unilever and P&G have scaled back their marketing spending, and companies from media groups such as Warner Bros. to retailers like Walmart and Starbucks have been cutting marketing staff.

Pundits have been declaring “marketing is dead” for nearly a decade now but p redictions of marketing’s demise have increased with recent developments including the growth of artificial intelligence.  AI assistants are expected to use algorithms and predictive analytics to offer up information, goods, and services to customers – which suggests that marketing will have increasingly less impact on their decisions. The growth in number and market share of Amazon’s private label brands is another development that also seems to challenge the effectiveness of other companies’ marketing.  And those who worship at the temple of innovation believe that m arketing is the cost you have to pay when your product is inferior.

So it’s not surprising that companies are cutting back on marketing.  Marketing as we’ve known it in recent years has lost its power and will likely continue to decline.  But if business leaders want to thrive in today’s cluttered, competitive, commoditizing marketplace, they need to unleash the powerful potential of marketing.

Innovation Needs Marketing

In a recent Harvard Business Review issue, two separate articles explained the importance of marketing in today’s innovation-fueled marketplace.  Although the first article intended to promote a new sales approach, it ultimately made the case for marketing.  Business school professors Thomas Steenburgh and Michael Ahearne observed, “Senior leaders have great confidence in their ability to develop innovations but not in their ability to commercialize them.”

The writers explained that breakthrough new products, unlike existing or incrementally better ones, require more intense and extensive engagement with customers.  Whereas curiosity might fuel customers’ interest in a groundbreaking innovation early on, they are much more likely to be uncertain and raise doubts later in the sales cycle as they consider how their business and they themselves might need to change to adopt it.

As a result, the professors suggested sales teams develop a psychological profile of the ideal customer – those who are more adaptable, those whose organizational culture supports learning and change, etc.  And they said the training salespeople receive about a new offering should be less about its bells and whistles and more about the evaluation criteria that customers are likely to apply to it.  The marketing function enables both of these.

Marketing is about connecting the right customers to the right product.  Marketing helps sales teams, and people throughout the company, think from the outside-in about what is being offered, convey its value in customer-centric ways, and persist through barriers that can only be addressed through deep customer knowledge and insight.  The article’s authors concluded that new-to-the-world products require transformation in the organization that offers the innovation as much as the one that buys it.  Unleashing the full power of marketing is critical to achieving that transformation.

The IMD professors who wrote the second article also support the need for inventiveness in establishing and deploying novel offerings.  “Executives recognize that to devise ingenious innovations, they must break paradigms and shift mindsets,” they observed.  “But when it comes to delivery, they often lapse into standard ways of thinking.”

They contrasted the failure of the Sony Reader to the “technically inferior but hugely successful” Amazon Kindle to explain the importance of go-to-market strategies to the success of new product launches.  All the creativity that went into the development of the Reader “was undone by a lack of originality in execution,” they explained.  The new product depended upon content but Sony didn’t enlist the book publishing industry as an ally.  “Sony engineered an elegant device,” they authors concluded, “ but Amazon designed an original solution.” And t hey went on to discuss how the way an idea is framed affects how people perceive its value. “Filmless photography” was a limiting way to introduce to customers Kodak’s first digital camera and a threatening way to describe it in the Kodak organization itself.

The marketing function can and should overcome such challenges.  Marketing involves considering and addressing the entire customer experience, it provides the right context for people to understand the innovation, and it helps identify new partners and channels necessary to engage with customers at the right place, time, and manner.

Both articles make clear marketing’s essential role in the innovation process.

Marketing Is Misunderstood

If marketing is so critical to business today, why is it overlooked or undervalued by so many?  The way marketing has come to be defined and executed is to blame.  Marketing has been reduced to customer acquisition and retention.  These days, what most people consider marketing is really simply advertising.  Search, email, content, and other common forms of marketing today are primarily methods for generating or maintaining awareness or repeat purchase.  They are the “announcements and persuasive messages” referred to in the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) definition of advertising , and their intent is to “inform and/or persuade” people.

But marketing is supposed to be so much more than this.  Marketing didn’t get its start in the “Mad Men” era with creative directors dreaming up catchy jingles and persuasive copy to induce purchases.  It was born out of the Industrial Revolution, when manufacturers needed to develop products that would appeal to customers and to find ways to engage customers with them.  The AMA’s definition of marketing reflects the function’s foundational role to business:  Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large .

Marketing, therefore, needs to be less about what happens after an innovation is ready to launch, and more about getting it to be ready in the first place -- by creating a new market or expanding an existing one; developing or understanding how it will fit into customers’ needs, wants, values, and lives; and building a customer experience that turns the offering into a complete customer solution.  And marketing needs to be less defined by a budget and managed by a department, and more embraced as a business discipline throughout the organization.

As business continues to be driven by innovation in 2019 and beyond, marketing must be embraced, developed and valued more than ever.

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Marketing planning: importance, benefits and characteristics.

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Marketing Planning: Importance, Benefits and Characteristics!

A business firm has to make various marketing decisions. These decisions actually emerge from the complex interaction of a large number of persons carrying out diverse responsibilities in the marketing organisation. Being part and parcel of the over-all management, the marketing executives are deeply involved in the process of planning. Marketing planning defines the role and responsibilities of marketing executives in such a way as to achieve the goals of the firm.

It lays emphasis on the allocation of marketing resources in the best and most economical way. It gives an intelligent direction of marketing operations. Marketing planning involves the preparation of policies, programmes, budgets etc., in advance for carrying out the various activities and functions of marketing to attain the marketing goals.

According to American Marketing Association, “marketing planning is the work of setting up objectives for marketing activity and of determining and scheduling the steps necessary to achieve such objectives.” Planning is the first management function to be performed in the process of management. It governs survival, growth and prosperity of any enterprise in a competitive and ever-changing environment.

The connecting link of markets to marketing is the process and the function of marketing management. Marketing management is the blending factor of markets and marketing. Today the consumer is a complicated, emotional and confused individual. His buying is based on subjectivity and not often backed by objectivity. The introduction of innumerable brands of toilet soaps, talcum powders is examples.

Planning precedes activity in any purposeful endeavour. Business firms naturally undertake a good deal of planning. Business firms have to master the environment and score over their competitors. Thus in the case of a business firm, planning is always strategic in character. A firm cannot afford to travel in a haphazard manner, it has to travel with the support of a route map.

Every company must look ahead and determine where it wants to go and how to get there. Its future should not be left to chance. To meet this need, companies use two systems a strategic planning system and marketing planning system. Strategic planning provides the route-map for the firm. Strategic planning serves as the hedge against risk and uncertainty.

Strategic planning is a stream of decisions and actions which lead to effective strategies and which in turn help the firm to achieve its objectives. Strategy is not something that can be taken out of one’s pocket and pushed into the market all of a sudden. “No magic formula exists to prepare for the future. The requirements are excellent insight to understand changing consumer needs, clear planning to focus our efforts on meeting those needs, and flexibility, because change is the only constant. Most important, we must always offer consumers-products of quality and value, for this is the one need that will not change.”

Marketing has been described as the railway engine which pulls all the other departmental carriages along. Marketing planning is the interface between the enterprise and its market. We had explained that marketing places the consumer at both the beginning and the end of the business process.

Any firm practising marketing in the proper sense has to identify correctly the needs of the consumer, translate the needs into suitable products and services, deliver those products and services to the total satisfaction of the consumer and through the process generate profits for the firm.

Importance of Marketing Planning :

Marketing planning is a systematic and disciplined exercise to formulate marketing strategies. Marketing planning can be related to the organisation as a whole or to strategic business units (SBU). Marketing planning is a forward looking exercise, which determines the future strategies of an organisation with special reference to its product development, market development, channel design, sales promotion and profitability.

We may now summaries the importance of marketing planning in the following points:

1. It helps in avoiding future uncertainties.

2. It helps in management by objectives.

3. It helps in achieving objectives.

4. It helps in coordination and communication among the departments.

5. It helps in control.

6. It helps the customers in getting full satisfaction.

Benefits of Marketing Planning :

1. Marketing planning promotes successful marketing operations.

2. Planning helps to co-ordinate activities which can facilitate the attainment of objectives over time.

3. It forces management to reflect upon the future in a systematic way.

4. Resources can be better balanced in relation to identified market opportunities.

5. A plan provides a frame work for a continuing review of operations. It will make the firm to give more attention to market enlargement rather than market maintenance.

6. Marketing planning helps to appraise performance, capitalize on strength, minimize weaknesses and threats and finally open up new opportunities.

7. Planning can be advocated to minimize the risk of failure.

8. Marketing planning reduces the adverse consequences of unfavourable circumstances beyond the influence of management.

9. A marketing plan promotes a comprehensive view of the business firm and acts as a process of communication and co-ordination between marketing department and other departments.

10. A greater preparedness to accommodate change can be stimulated.

Marketing Strategy = The marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives.

Characteristics of Marketing Planning:

Marketing planning has the following characteristic features:

1. The success depends to a large extent upon human behaviour and response.

2. They are complicated in nature.

3. Marketing decisions have long term effects on efficiency, profitability and market standing of the firm.

4. Marketing planning is a formal and systematic approach towards planning of all marketing activities-product positioning, price setting, distribution channels etc.

5. Marketing planning, as a rational activity, requires thinking; imagination and foresight. Market analysis, market projection, consumer behaviour analysis and marketing-guided conclusions are based on data and measurements drawn from internal and external environments.

6. Marketing planning is a forward-looking and dynamic process designed to promote market- oriented or consumer-oriented business actions.

7. Planning is concerned with two things:

(i) Avoiding incorrect actions and

(ii) Reducing frequency of failure to exploit opportunities.

Thus, marketing planning has both an optimistic and a pessimistic component.

8. Marketing planning is done by the marketing department. Various sub-divisions and sections under the department give their proposals based on which the overall company marketing plans are developed and designed.

9. Planning is a process of deciding in advance what to do and how to do it. If the marketing planner desires to achieve a target market at some future date and if he needs some time to decide what to do and how to do it, he must make the necessary marketing decisions before taking action.

10. Planning is basically a decision-making process. Marketing planning is a programme of marketing-based actions regarding the future with the object of minimizing risk and uncertainty and producing a set of interrelated decisions.

Related Articles:

• Marketing Planning: Meaning and Types of Marketing Plans
• 5 Characteristics of Marketing Concept | Marketing Management

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