Contents
- What is a marketing plan?
- Differences between strategy and plan
- Why is a marketing plan needed?
- Types of marketing plans
- What does a marketing plan include?
- Simplified version for small companies
- Examples of marketing plans
- How to work with a marketing plan?
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a document that contains a step-by-step program for implementing a marketing strategy. It details advertising and PR campaigns, timelines for their execution, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow for measuring results. For example, a marketing plan for a clothing store can be presented in the form of a simple Excel table listing planned activities, specifying deadlines, responsible parties, and budget.
Differences between strategy and plan
Before creating a marketing plan, a marketing strategy is developed. The strategy defines the overall direction for the product and brand development, including pricing policy, approach to competitors, positioning, and promotion specifics. The goals of the marketing strategy align with the organization's global objectives. Unlike the strategy, the marketing plan is a more tactical document that focuses on specific actions needed to achieve the set goals and methods for assessing the effectiveness of activities.
Why is a marketing plan needed?
A marketing plan addresses numerous tasks:
- It allows for planning activities to achieve marketing goals.
- It helps choose promotion channels to establish reliable contact with the target audience.
- It enables the assessment of achieved results and adjustments of actions if necessary.
- It improves team effectiveness by providing a unified understanding of the overall picture and work direction.
Types of marketing plans
Marketing plans can be classified based on various criteria. By implementation timelines, they are divided into:
- Long-term plans: cover several years and relate to business scaling, entering new markets, or launching new products.
- Short-term plans: operate within one year and are aimed at solving current business tasks.
By objectives, plans can be:
- General, describing the promotion order for the company and all its products.
- Specific for launching a new product with detailed marketing support.
- Targeted at promotion in specific channels, such as social media.
What does a marketing plan include?
The content of marketing plans varies. Key elements to consider include:
- Objectives: specific metrics to achieve, such as increasing visitor numbers by 30% over a quarter.
- Value proposition: a clear description of the product's benefits and uniqueness.
- Description of the target audience: segmentation and key messages for different groups.
- Promotion channels: platforms for interacting with customers (social media, blogs, media, etc.).
- Action plan: a list of planned marketing activities with deadlines and frequency.
- KPI: key performance indicators that allow for assessing the success of actions.
- Areas of responsibility: defining those responsible for executing each element of the plan.
- Timeline: schedule for developing creatives and conducting activities.
- Budget: preliminary assessment of financial costs for marketing.
Simplified version for small companies
For small companies or individual specialists without a marketing department, a simpler approach can be used. You just need to answer five key questions to start formulating your marketing plan:
- Who are your actions aimed at?
- What are your customer's objections?
- How can you address them?
- What resources will you be working with?
- What result do you want to achieve?
This scheme is quite simplified but provides a good foundation for further development and detailing.
Examples of marketing plans
A marketing plan can be formatted in various ways: Excel tables, Word documents, mind maps, or presentations. Examples may include:
- A marketing plan for a kettle manufacturer, clearly showing goals for each market segment.
- A marketing plan for Starbucks, including key elements of the plan.
- A template for Kelly Odell's marketing plan, based on answers to 24 questions.
How to work with a marketing plan?
It is important to remember that a marketing plan is not a static document. It needs to be constantly adjusted based on the results obtained. For example, if you notice that one communication channel works better than another, it is worth focusing on that and possibly changing the approach in less effective channels. It is important to consider the peculiarities of each channel and adapt your actions according to the data received.