Developing a Marketing Plan: A Guide for Small Businesses, Slides of Marketing

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Develop a strategic marketing

plan to successfully grow your

business and increase profits

Developing a

Marketing Plan

 At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Understand the importance and need for a good marketing plan.
• List the key components of a marketing plan and its details.
• Develop your own strategic marketing plan.
• Track your marketing plan in tandem with your overall business plan.

Learning Objectives

 A marketing plan:

• Is part of a business plan and is the foundation for identifying your market, attracting prospects, converting them into customers, and retaining them as customers.
• Usually operates at two levels, strategic and tactical. Strategic to identify the overall market play and tactical to execute on the marketing plan.
• Does not need to be long or expensive to put together. If it is carefully researched, thoughtfully considered, and evaluated, it will help your firm set goals, implement strategies, and measure results.

 Leaving business decisions to chance or intuition can be far more costly

than taking the time to develop a marketing plan.

Executive Summary

 A good marketing plan details what you want to accomplish and helps you

meet your objectives. It should:

• Explain (from an internal perspective) the impact and results of past marketing decisions.
• Explain the target market in which your business is competing.
• Set goals and provide direction for future marketing efforts that are attainable.
• Set clear, realistic, and measurable targets.
• Include deadlines for meeting those targets.
• Provide a budget for all marketing activities.
• Specify accountability and measures for all activities.
• Be a fluid document that is used, maintained, and updated as your business grows and succeeds.

A Good Marketing Plan

• Competition: Conduct competitive analysis, including their marketing efforts. Determine what differentiates your product or service from competitors.
• Mission Statement: Define your corporate mission, vision, and objectives/priorities.
• Marketing Strategies and Methods:
  • Create your messaging, including taglines, product descriptions, and call to action plan, e.g. Direct the prospect to contact you or go to your web site).
  • Determine how you will promote your product: Networking, advertising, submitting responses to Request for Proposals (RFPs), social networking sites, web site, phone calls, email blasts, etc.
  • Consider creating brochures, flyers, press releases, or other printed material.
  • Decide if and how you will utilize sales people (internal or contract).
  • Create brand awareness by promoting your product and distinguishing it from competitors.

Overall Planning Process (Slide 2 of 3)

• Pricing:
  • Research competitor pricing.
  • Determine your cost of doing business and how much you should charge to break- even and be profitable (return on investment (ROI)).
• Budget:
  • Determine what your marketing strategies will cost (one-time or recurring charge).
  • Determine what you can do yourself to lower costs and what should be outsourced. Be careful not to decrease your product’s value by not utilizing professional services, e.g., graphic artists, web developers, etc.
• Marketing Goals:
  • Determine how many prospects you will contact daily, weekly, and monthly.
  • Commit to attending networking functions.
• Monitor Results:
  • Define measurements for your marketing strategies.
  • Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions, etc.

Overall Planning Process (Slide 3 of 3)

 A good marketing plan includes these 10 elements:

1. Business Description
2. Market Research and Analysis
3. Pricing Analysis
4. Customer Profiling
5. Competitive Analysis
6. Marketing Goals and Objectives
7. Marketing Strategies
8. Marketing Methods
9. Marketing Budget
10. Success Measurements

The 10 Elements of a

Good Marketing Plan

 Describe your business’:

• Mission statement, corporate vision, and strategic intent.
• Long-term goals and objectives, e.g., profit, ROI, market share, expanding reach into existing set of core customers, or expansion into new markets.
• Organization:
  • Key personnel.
  • Team overview.
  • Organizational chart.
• Products and/or services:
  • Value proposition, including the problem your product is solving for customers or the needs your product provides.
  • Key differentiators.
  • Sales trends and profitability (years, seasonality, share of major brands).
  • Pricing overview.
  • Branding.
  • Growth opportunities.
  • Target market.

1. Business Description

 A situation analysis considers internal and external factors that could

influence your marketing strategy. Analyzing your strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) is simple, yet powerful, and will

help you develop your goals and marketing strategies.

• Strengths (Internal): Positive attributes, tangible and intangible, internal to your business that are within your control. What do you do well? What advantages do you have over your competition?
• Weaknesses (Internal): Factors within your control that detract from your ability to obtain or maintain a competitive edge, such as lack of expertise, limited resources, inferior service offerings, or the poor business location.
• Opportunities (External): Reasons your business exists and prospers and reflect the potential you can realize through implementing your marketing strategies.
• Threats (External): Factors beyond your control that could place business at risk and may lead to deteriorating revenues or profits, such as competition, price increases by suppliers, economic downturns, or a shift in consumer behavior.

2. Market Research

and Analysis (Slide 2 of 2)

 Determining the price you want for your product or service can be

challenging if you don’t have some historical price and demand data. Ways

to determine your price include:

• What is your cost of doing business?
• What is the cost to manufacture your product?
• What is your break-even point?
• What amount do you need to charge to be profitable?
• What amount are customers willing to pay?
• What are competitors charging?

3. Pricing Analysis

 It’s not difficult to identify your competitors. However, it may be

challenging to compile complete data. You may be successful by:

• Visiting their location (if possible).
• Browsing their website.
• Talking to their customers.

 Competitive analysis should include:

• Who are your major competitors and what are their products, pricing, and strengths and weaknesses?
• How much do they spend on brand positioning, advertising, and promotional sales? How else do they reach customers?
• Do they have new or improved products?
• Have they entered new markets or territories?
• What benefits or value do competitor products offer their customers?
• How do your products differ from competitors?

5. Competitive Analysis

 The terms “goals” and “objectives” are typically used interchangeable, but

there is a distinct difference:

• Goals: Statements that provide marketing direction and are in-line with the company’s overall direction. If goals are too broad, they may be less effective.
• Objectives: Specific and measurable actions or methods of achieving the company’s goals. These are usually described in quantitative terms: Sales dollars, units sold, market share, etc.

 Use “SMART” to develop well-defined goals and measurable objectives:

• Specific: Well-defined, actionable goals.
• Measurable: Turns a goal into an objective with measurable results.
• Attainable: Set goals that are within reach.
• Relevant: Consider current market/economic conditions when developing goals.
• Time-Based: Set a timeframe for achieving your goals.

6. Marketing Goals and

Objectives

 Part of the challenge of marketing is determining which distribution method

and placement strategy to use for your business.

• Retail: Stores selling directly to customer.
• Wholesale: Selling to a distributor that sells to retail stores or the customer.
• Direct or Print Mail: Generally catalog merchants that sell directly to customer.
• Telemarketing: Merchants sell directly to customers at retail via phones.
• Internet Marketing: Merchants sell directly to buyers at retail prices, or business- to-business products and services at wholesale prices via the Internet. This also includes social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
• Sales Force: Salaried employees or independent commissioned representatives sell products directly to the customer.
• Advertising: Internet ads, magazines, sponsorships.
• Networking: This includes tradeshows, joining industry organizations, attending industry breakfasts/luncheons.

8. Marketing Methods

 Small and mid-sized businesses often arbitrarily set marketing budgets as

either “x” percent of revenue or “y” percent over the prior year's budget.

 The SMART goals you developed will help you create a targeted budget.

 Each marketing line item you plan to use should have a budget.

 Your budget should be defined, but flexible. If a particular strategy is

extremely successful, temporarily increase the budget. Temporary success

may be seasonal and may not warrant an extensive or long-term increase.

 If a particular strategy is not successful, consider documenting your

findings in an appendix for lessons-learned. Refer to this information when

you update your marketing plan and budget in the future.

 Your income and expenses should be calculated to help determine how

much you can be spend on marketing.

 Research costs associated with your strategies, e.g., printing, postage, etc.

9. Marketing Budget (Slide 1 of 3)