Developing a marketing plan is a crucial component of business success – after all, if you have no clear sales strategy for your product or service, how are you going to identify your market and its drivers, let alone tailor your marketing activities to achieve long-term financial viability?
While a well thought out marketing plan is an invaluable sales tool, as with a business plan, much of its intrinsic value lies in the need for a business owner to think strategically about their business and products/services while writing it.
Marketing plans can form part of an organisation’s business plan or exist as standalone documents. In either case, they should include at least the following components:
- The Product/ServiceDescribe your product or service, consider its stage in the product lifecycle and determine its unique selling point – the competitive advantage that makes it stand out from the crowd.
- Situational AnalysisConsider the environment in which you are planning to sell your product or service – think of the possible impact on your business’ success of issues such as legal, government, technological, ecological and socio-cultural influences.
- Market AnalysisThis is a crucial part of the plan, and involves defining your product or service’s market, its size and market segmentation, the industry structure that applies to your product and your industry’s strategic groupings. You could undertake a Porter 5 forces analysis at this stage to analyse market influences, as well as considering competition and market share, your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and market trends.
- Customer AnalysisThe next step is to analyse your customers/clients. Consider the nature of their buying decision, their demographics, their psychographics (what makes them “tick”), their motivation and their expectations of your product/service.
- Organisational AnalysisBefore devising your marketing and sales strategies, it would be advisable to take a long, hard look at your resources, so you can make sure that you have the means to implement your ideas. This section of your plan could describe your financial resources, your people, the skills you have to draw on, your organisational objectives and your basic business philosophy.
- Situational AnalysisAfter undertaking the first five marketing planning steps, it’s time to carry out your SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and SWOT analyses have been adopted internationally as an essential strategic planning tool.
To undertake a SWOT analysis, you need to consider the following aspects of your product/service:- Internal STRENGTHS
- Internal WEAKNESSES
- External THREATS and
- External OPPORTUNITIES
The point of a SWOT analysis is that once you have identified the aspects above, you can then develop strategies to build on your strengths, overcome your weaknesses, exploit opportunities and mitigate threats, in the processes improving your product/service’s likelihood of being a viable and financially successful entry into the market.
- Marketing Strategy
It’s now time to develop your marketing strategy. There are four crucial aspects to be considered at this stage – product, price, promotion and place.
Product:
Firstly, analyse your potential market by product/service, customer segment, geographical market and distribution channel. Think of the mix of products/services you are bringing to the market, their strengths and weaknesses and, importantly, your brand name and image. For further information on branding, refer to this edition’s article by Cheryl Hayman, of Hayman Strategy, “Dare to be Different”
Price:
In determining an appropriate price for your product/service, consider your pricing objectives, pricing method, pricing strategy, discounts and allowances, price elasticity and customer sensitivity, price zoning and work out your break even analysis at various prices.
Promotion:
When determining the best way to promote your product consider your promotional goals, your promotional mix, your required advertising reach, frequency, theme, and media, your sales team’s requirements, techniques, and management (where relevant), sales promotion strategies, publicity and public relations, electronic promotion (internet site, international network) and word of mouth marketing.
Place:
Where are you going to market your service/product? Consider geographical coverage and distribution channels including physical distribution and logistics, electronic distribution.
Finally, prepare a tactical marketing cost breakdown and a marketing plan implementation schedule to keep you on track and give you a baseline against which you can measure your marketing progress and achievements.
