The Top Elements of a Marketing Plan

You can pick up any marketing book at your local bookstore and it will have a different list of the top elements of a marketing plan than the book next to it on the shelf. Here is a compilation of the top list-makers for your quick perusal.

What You'll Need before You Write
You'll need to gather a few documents so that you can write efficiently without interruptions. Here are the items you'll need:

• The company's most recent financial reports and sales figures by region for the last three years
• A list of all of your products or services
• A detailed explanation of your target market
• An organizational chart, if applicable
• An in-depth examination of the marketplace: your customers, your competitors, your distribution channels, trend info and anything else that will help you understand your market in marketing terms
• A list of suggestions from employees about what should be included in next year's marketing plan

Market Conditions
You'll need a ""market conditions"" section somewhere near the beginning of your plan. This section should include your best and most clear description of the current conditions of your marketplace:

• Write down all of your products and services, and your top competitors' products and services.
• Find out the dollar size of your marketplace(s).
• What is your sales and distribution setup?
• Note the geographic area you currently sell to.
• Describe your audience in terms of population, income levels, demographics and so on.
• List all of your competitors in each marketplace
• Historically, how well have your products sold?

A marketing plan gives the company a chance to pull all relevant information together in one place, to prompt new ideas and validate actions.

It also gives you a chance to compare your products and services to your competition - is there an opportunity somewhere that neither you nor your competitors are taking advantage of?

Threats and Opportunities
This section extends the thinking of your ""market conditions"" section, and it should focus on the good and bad repercussions of the current market. This section should answer the following questions:

• What trends in the marketplace are against you?
• Are there competitive trends that are threatening?
• Are your current products in the position to succeed in the current market?
• What marketplace trends favor you?
• Are there competitive trends working to your benefit?
• Are the demographics of your market in your favor? Against you?

You can get trend info from city and state publications and local chambers of commerce.

Marketing Objectives
In the ""marketing objectives"" section, you decide what you want your marketing plan to achieve in the coming year. Each marketing objective should include a description of what you what to accomplish along with numbers to give you something concrete to aim for. For instance, you can say you want to become one of the top selling all-electric car companies in the American marketplace by the end of the year. That's a somewhat measureable goal and it will be easier to measure if you add some numbers. Let's say you want over 35% of the American all-electric marketplace to belong to you. This is a much better measurable goal.

Tracking Methods
You need a way to track how well your marketing plan is working. Establish a schedule of meetings and spell out in writing what your definition of marketing success is. Is a goal to lower marketing costs? Separate out your business card printing budget you're your brochure printing budget, and separate that from all of your other marketing costs. This way you can be more detailed and figure out where you can cut costs or add more to the budget.

Also write down how you intend to track sales and costs, and at what point will your marketing plan change? If you lose 10% of customers in the first quarter? Marketing isn't science - you can use whatever metrics you'd like to measure success. Just make sure you measure consistently.

Executive Summary
Lastly, you need a summary of all the key points in your marketing plan. This should be no longer than one page. Use bullet points and headlines so it's easy for people to skim through and see what's important in your marketing plan.

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