Writing a Marketing Plan

Step by Step Instructions

There are six basic steps for writing a marketing plan for your company. Each step will clarify your marketing objectives and provide you with guidance. These steps include: (1) creating a market position for your product or services, (2) identifying your target market, (3) creating a product or service description, (4) selecting your marketing methodologies, (5) establishing a budget and (6) editing your marketing plan.

Market Position

The first step that you need to take when writing a marketing plan for your company is to establish your market position. Your market position is basically just defining what makes your product or services unique or better than your competition. A great way to create your market position is to write out a pitch statement for your company, such as Bounty's slogan, "the quicker picker upper." This statement highlights the extra absorbency that makes Bounty paper towels better than their competition.

Target Market

The second step in writing a marketing plan for your company is to identify your target market. These are the People that you will be designing your marketing campaign around. To find your target market, or demographic, you generally will need to conduct Market Research or hire a market research firm to help you.

Write Product/Service Descriptions

Before you can market your products and services you first need to define what they are. Your product descriptions will need to include physical descriptions of the products, such as size, weight, color and shape, as well as what the product is used for and how much it will cost retail. Your service descriptions will need to include information about what the service is, who provides the services, how much the service charges and what guarantees are offered.

Marketing Methodologies

Step four is to select the marketing methodologies that you want to use for your marketing plan. You have a lot of options to choose from including Direct Marketing, media marketing and online marketing. You will also want to include non-tangible marketing methodologies like charitable contributions and sponsorships and community outreach projects.

Budget

The fifth step is to create a budget for your marketing plan and campaign. Your budget will need to lay out expenses for all phases of the marketing process including research, campaign Design and residual expenses. You may also want to work in a budget cushion to cover yourself incase your Advertising campaign goes over budget for one reason or another.

Editing

The final phase of writing a marketing plan for your company is to edit it and revise it as needed. Editing is very important no matter if you are a seasoned marketing Professional or a novice. The editing process will allow you to make last minute adjustments to meet the changing demands of your demographic and market.

Need Help?

If you need assistance developing a good, solid business plan we encourage you to seek out a local SCORE office. SCORE (www.score.org) is focused on helping small businesses through mentoring, training, planning, and advice. To learn more about the valuable services offered through SCORE, please visit their website. SCORE is a great resource for businesses large and small.