I) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Primary marketing goals

• Key strategies to achieve goals

This is a high-level summary of the entire marketing plan.  Do not underestimate its importance, since it is frequently the only section read by company executives outside the marketing department.  Therefore, it is best to develop the entire plan prior to writing the Executive Summary.

II) KEY MARKETING NEEDS

• Marketing history

• Sales and marketing challenges

Identify the broad objectives that can be supported by marketing. Examples are the need to acquire new customers or a lack of awareness for a particular product.  It’s important to understand that these ARE NOT your marketing goals.  This is just the first step in defining the role (and subsequent goals) of your marketing strategy.

III) INTERNAL ANALYSIS

• Core capabilities

• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis; Describe implication to company for each

• Revenue model review and analysis

• Sales and distribution model review and analysis

• Performance benchmarks review and analysis

• Product development timetable and analysis

This is where you have to work hard to step back and examine your company critically.  Following this situational analysis, you want to come away with a good understanding of your company’s foundation…where you are and where you can go.

IV) EXTERNAL ANALYSIS

• Market and industry trends review and analysis

• Political, Economic, Sociological, and Technological (PEST) analysis; Describe implication to company for each

• Competitive analysis

Here’s another area that requires you to objectively review where your company fits into the big picture.  Identify the trends in your industry, locally and globally. Try to anticipate your customers’ behavior around the bend.   What are potential threats that could make your current company obsolete?  What is happening with your nearest competitor…with the new players entering your industry? Utilize both primary and secondary research tactics.

V) PRIMARY MARKETING GOALS

• One to three main objectives of marketing campaigns

Okay, now its time to develop marketing goals. These need to be well aligned to the Key Marketing Needs and your results of the Internal and External Analysis.  If those prior sections are not yet complete, then take a breath and wait.

Ideally, these should be quantifiable so you can measure campaign impacts.  Examples include ‘increase email newsletter subscribers to 5,000’ or ‘generate 100 new prospective customer leads for sales representatives each month’. 

VI) TARGET MARKET SEGMENTATION

• Divide your entire potential audience (i.e. prospective customers) into categories by demographics, buying behavior, product use, etc.

• Select 1-3 primary target market segments and potentially 1-3 secondary segments to prioritize your marketing activities

• Develop a comprehensive profile of these target segments

This is where you carefully select segments of your prospective customers to focus your energy and your marketing message.  Hopefully, your work in prior sections has identified a particular niche in the industry that you can effectively target…start there.

By profiling your target segments, you will gather important information for the positioning and messaging section.  Which product features are most important to them?  How do they buy your type of products? What magazines do they read?  How do they spend their time outside of work?  What type of personality or relevant traits do they possess?

VII) POSITIONING & MESSAGING

A) Positioning values

• Identify 2-4 values that define the company/product’s differentiation

• Everybody in the company needs to know these, and integrate them in all aspects of the company

B) Marketing Messaging

• Work with your graphic design, web developer, copywriter, and other partners to development the language, colors, and layout styles for marketing materials that are aligned with the positioning values

• Ensure every ‘point of customer contact’ is communicating a consistent message

Now that you understand your primary target audience you can identify how best to present your company.  How do you want to be perceived by this target group?  How are your products differentiated from competitors?  These are your positioning values.

The messaging defines how your positioning values will be expressed and communicated within your advertising, collateral, and other marketing activities.  The marketing messaging may include your logo, colors, layout style, language and keywords, photos, and other visual cues in marketing collateral. 

Remember your “message” to customers is not limited to marketing brochures.  It’s delivered in every ‘point of customer contact,’ including sales representatives’ attire, a service invoice, the  call center’s hold message, or the billing department’s phone demeanor when talking to a customer.  Think through all these points of contact and make sure your “message” is consistent and well-aligned to your goals.

VIII) MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

A) Marketing Channel Uses

• Select and define campaigns for print advertising, online/website, direct mail, events/tradeshows, PR/awareness, etc.

B) Cooperative Marketing

• Define how partners, dealers, or affiliates will be used

C) Support Collateral Development

• Define the roles of key brochures, signage, white papers, promotional items, and other collateral

D) Marketing Budgets

• Project annual or quarterly budget allocations by campaign

E) Campaign Timetable

• Develop a marketing calendar that includes preparatory, launch, and measurement deadlines/benchmarks for each campaign

F) Internal Communication of Campaigns

• Create a plan to ensure operations, sales, customer service, and other relevant facets of the company understand and feel some investment in the marketing strategy

• Internal communication should take place prior to public launch

This will be the “meat and potatoes” of your marketing plan.  It depends heavily on what you have discovered in the previous sections and exercises.

First, think through all the possible channels that could be used to reach your target audiences.  Then, prioritize those that will be most effective and fit your available marketing budgets and manpower.  Next, go through each channel and develop a tactical plan.  The tactical plan may include budget estimates, timing, frequency, required support collateral, necessary vendors, etc.  The tactical plan should also identify the operational impacts of launching a campaign.  For example, field sales reps need to be trained on the details of a new promotion prior to communicating it in a direct mail campaign. 

Next, discuss the promotional opportunities to team with other companies to reach your target audience.  There are often other complementary businesses that are trying to reach the same target segments.  Don’t be shy, you could save a lot of money and create a bigger buzz by teaming up. 

IX) MEASUREMENT AND NEXT STEPS

• Identify how the success or failure of a campaign will be measured.  What data will be tracked?

• Make sure your measurement data is directly impacted by your marketing.

• Pre-determine when and how the measurement data will be analyzed.

• Create a plan and timetable to react to the measurement reports.  How long will you wait to adjust the language in a failing print ad or expand the content on a booming website? 

This is where all your planning pays off, right.  You figure out how much return you earned on your investment.  Again, don’t assume you are just going to track sales.  Sales alone may be dependent on too many variables, such as sales representatives, competitor behavior, or the general economy.  Identify some measurement criteria that is directly influenced by a specific marketing campaign, such as a tracking phone number or website published only on a particular direct mail postcard. 

It is important to set a performance benchmark prior to launching a campaign.  For example, in a campaign to boost or change the perception of a company, it may be effective to conduct a marketplace survey before and after the campaign.  This will allow you to gauge the impact of the campaign.

X) APPENDICES

• This is where you will put research tables, financial spreadsheets, and other reference materials that do not belong in the main body of your plan

• Make sure to reference the location of these materials where relevant in the main body.

Your marketing plan should be a quick read, full of short paragraphs, bulleted text, and colorful charts.  Therefore, simply reference long tables, spreadsheets, or other lists that are longer than one page, and include them as an appendix.