Write a marketing plan

Your marketing objectives

Your marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy.

For example, suppose your business objectives include increasing sales by 10 per cent over the next year. Your marketing objectives might include targeting a promising new market segment to help achieve this growth.

For more information on how to identify the best opportunities, see the page in this guide on external and internal analysis for your marketing plan.

Objectives should always be SMART:

• Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers.
• Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan.
• Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money.
• Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable and seem to be out of reach.
• Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Plan your marketing tactics

  Once you have decided what your marketing objectives are, and your strategy for meeting them, you need to plan how you will make the strategy a reality.

  Many businesses find it helpful to think in terms of the four Ps:

  • Product - what your product offers that your customers value, and whether/how you should change your product to meet customer needs.
  • Pricing - for example, you might aim simply to match the competition, or charge a premium price for a quality product and service. You might have to choose either to make relatively few high margin sales, or sell more but with lower unit profits. Remember that some customers may seek a low price to meet their budgets, while others may view a low price as an indication of quality levels.
  • Place - how and where you sell. This may include using different distribution channels. For example, you might sell over the internet or sell through retailers.
  • Promotion - how you reach your customers and potential customers. For example, you might use advertising, PR, direct mail and personal selling.

  For a more comprehensive approach, you can extend this to seven Ps:

  • People - for example, you need to ensure that your employees have the right training.
  • Processes - the right processes will ensure that you offer a consistent service that suits your customers.
  • Physical evidence - the appearance of your employees and premises can affect how customers see your business. Even the quality of
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Implementing your marketing plan

    Your marketing plan must do more than just say what you want to happen. It must describe each step required to make sure that it happens.

    The plan should therefore include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.

    Resources

    It should also assess what resources you need. For example, you might need to think about what brochures you need, and whether they need to be available for digital distribution (by email or from your website). You might also need to look at how much time it takes to sell to customers and whether you have enough salespeople.

    Cost

    The cost of everything in the plan needs to be included in a budget. If your finances are limited, your plan will need to take that into account. Don't spread your marketing activities too thinly - it is better to concentrate your resources to make the most of your budget. You may also want to link your marketing budget to your sales forecast. See our guide on how to forecast and plan your sales.

    Control

    As well as setting out the schedule, the plan needs to say how it will be controlled. You need an individual who takes responsibility for pushing things along. A good schedule and budget should make it easy to monitor progress. When things fall behind schedule, or costs overrun, you need to be ready to do something about it and to adapt your plan accordingly.

    From time to time, you need to stand back and ask whether the plan is working. What can you learn from your mistakes? How can you use what you know to make a better plan for the future?

Researching your potential customer base

Once you know your groups of customers, you can look to conduct further research to see if there are any types of customer with more specific needs than others. For example, older customer groups may buy different types of products to younger groups.

'Market segmentation' can be an effective tool for this. It involves splitting your customer groups into smaller segments to find the sections of your customer base that will be most profitable to your business. You can segment customers by:

• lifestyle
• social class
• opinion
• activities and interests
• attitudes and beliefs

You should also consider the factors such as the following when deciding which marketing segments to target:

• Is the segment large enough to support your marketing goals?
• Does your business have the skills and expertise to deal with the chosen segment?
• Is there growth in the segment?