As
the Cheshire Cat said to Alice in Lewis Carol's
Alice in Wonderland, "If you don't know
where you are going, any road will take you
there." Your business' marketing plan is
your roadmap for success; without one you're
just wandering blindly through the forest.
Your
marketing plan can be a simple 1- or 2-page
document or a detailed 60-page booklet, complete
with charts and graphs. Either way, the exercise
of creating a formal marketing plan can help
you determine exactly what it is that you want
your marketing program to accomplish, how you
intend to reach these goals and what yardstick
you will use to measure the results.
A
basic short-form marketing plan should include
the following elements:
Business/financial
objectives -
What are your business' overall goals? Be as specific
as possible.
Market
overview -
Description
of your market, product and competition
Marketing
objectives -
What
are the goals of your marketing program? For
example, you may want to increase sales, introduce
a product to a new market and/or increase product
awareness among a particular group of people.
Target
audience definition -
Who
are you marketing to? In addition to all of the
people who may want to purchase your product,
you may also plan to market to those who can influence
their purchasing decision, members of the media,
current or past customers and more.
Key
creative, media and promotional strategies and
tactics -
This
is the "guts" of your marketing plan, the details
of how you plan to accomplish your objectives.
Infrastructure
issues -
Are
there any known issues which may impact your ability
to reach your goals, such as personnel, supplier
or cash flow problems? If so, how do you intend
to address them?
Do
you have a marketing plan? If not, now's the time
to create this critical document.
