You Have Your Business Plan, But What About Your Marketing Plan?

The marketing plan that is sound and well formed will ensure that it plays a key role in the success of a business

. The ideal marketing plan should consist of plenty of market research work, identify the location of the business, target a customer group, know all about the competition and market positioning as well know the product or service that is being sold by the business. In addition, the pricing of the product, its advertising campaigns and strategies as well as promotion need to be defined at the outset.

The primary goal of a good marketing plan should be to identify and know who the customer is, since the business needs to be geared to meet the customers' demands and needs. The business also needs to know how to access the customer base and, most importantly, know how to sell them the product or service. To begin devising the marketing plan the business would need to effectively market, plan as well as promote the product and for this it should have the latest and most up-to-date information regarding the marketplace. This information may be obtained by visiting the local library or talking to customers or by studying the advertising of other similar businesses in the local neighborhood and community. If need be, the business may also need to consult with the concerned industry associations.

A business needs to define the nature of business to be conducted and this involves knowing the product or service, identifying the geographic area for marketing the product and this may be the immediate neighborhood or it could be spread over regional and national areas. The business also needs to specify how it differs from the competing companies and businesses and this means charting out the areas in which the business itself stands out from the pack. A second important factor that needs to be defined is the customer. This means that the business needs information regarding its current customer base including age, sex, income and neighborhood of the customers. It needs to know how customers get to know about the business's product or service. Is it through advertising, direct mail, word of mouth or through the Yellow Pages? Also, the customer patterns as well as habits should be identified and these include knowing where do customers shop, what are they reading, watching and listening to?

Once the above two points have been fully explored, the business needs to identify its plan and budget. This means knowing all about the previous marketing methods that have been used for communicating to customers as well as defining which methods have been most successful and what are the costs as compared with sales?

Finally, the marketing plan should deal with the overall promotional objectives which include communicating the business's message, creating awareness about the product or service as well as motivating the customer to buy and increase the sales of the business.

So, when thinking about marketing plan for a business why not avail of the many pre-defined marketing plans that are available on the market? They are sure to meet all the needs of a good marketing plan as they have had intensive study and research on the topic of marketing and since they do not cost too much nor do they entail any heavy expenses they could prove to be the ideal solution for businesses and companies who desire a quick turnaround. They can be altered to suit individual situations and needs and there are plenty of options available.

by: Wade Anderson

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