Why do I need a marketing plan?
2 years ago
Well first of all we should explore what a marketing plan is. A marketing plan is effectively a document that lays out what you plan to do in terms of marketing and advertising your business over the coming year. The marketing plan helps you to implement the elements of your marketing strategy and at the same time uses additional resources such as the business plan, which helps to lay down the foundations.
What a marketing plan includes:
The marketing plan generally holds information such as what you are currently doing and what you would like to be doing going forward, in addition the marketing plan includes:
- Introduction, aims and objectives
- Your key messages including mission statement
- Who your target market is.
- What they need from you.
- SWOT
- Who your competitors are
- Promotional Activities
- Actions and Deadlines
- Control and measurements
- Budget
The difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy
The marketing plan is generally much shorter than a marketing strategy, which goes into far more detail in order to decide the best long-term strategy to follow for a business. The marketing strategy enables a business to work out its positioning in order to gain long-term competitive advantage and sustained growth by understanding its customer’s needs and wants.
Implementing the marketing plan
It is really important to not file away your marketing plan as done once you have written it! This is an important document that a lot of hard work goes into creating. It needs to be used in order to be effective.
Create an implementation plan that has actions, who is responsible for them and put measurements in place to make sure you are keeping on top of everything. Review regularly and if something is not working as you expect it to, then tweak it.
Above all else, be consistent with your branding, marketing timings and enjoy telling others about the wonderful things your business can do for them. Oh, and keep in budget!
If you would like to discuss your marketing plan with Prime Mix please contact us.