Creating Your Marketing Plan- Part 2

Creating Your Marketing Plan- Part 2

A marketing plan is a plan used by a business to guide its marketing process to a desired conclusion.

For the purpose of your business plan project your marketing plan should include:

• Marketing objective(s)
• Promotional mix (combination of promotional elements to include personal selling, advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion and public relations)
• Marketing Implementation –timeline for activities/responsibilities
• Marketing budget

We are going to begin the challenge of writing this section of the business plan by tackling one piece at a time… let’s start by creating the marketing objective(s).

Step 1:
Read the following articles and take some brief notes.

Marketing Strategies
Marketing Message & Objective
Number & title this assignment and retain for a future notebook check.

Step 2:
Read the following information and add to the notes taken (above). Using your notes as a guide, you should begin to write your company marketing objectives.

Marketing objectives are what a business wants to accomplish through its marketing efforts. Objectives are defined as agreed intentions within a defined and agreed period to accomplish the company goals. Within your objectives you should look to state where you need to get to and in what timeframe; as well as having specific indicators to measure whether you are being successful or not.

Objectives should always be SMART:
SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed
Specific – Describe exactly what needs to be achieved
Measurable – Show how you will know that it has been achieved
Achievable – Confirm that the commitment and resources necessary to meet the objective are available
Realistic – Ensure that it is practical that the objective can be reached
Timed – Set out the timeframe by when the objective should be achieved

Example of a SMART objective:
Increase net profitable revenue for the professional services division by 15% between January 1st and December 31st, 2007

Every objective should help you achieve one or more of the following:

• Retain existing profitable customer
• Encourage customers to purchase more products or services from you
• Encourage customers to make larger purchases than before
• Capture a new market segment (win new customers)