The Marketing Plan

A good marketing plan is like a game plan; it should act as a road map and a blueprint for the procedures you will follow to grow and make your enterprise successful. It should also have some flexibility because as you move to testing and measuring your tactics, you will be required to change strategies from time to time, to capture or gain a share in a specific market.

Jay Conrad Levinson (known for his Guerilla Marketing tactics) says you can create a great marketing plan in just seven sentences. This makes us think, “Can such a concise document be effective?” Remember that a good marketing plan does not have to be complicated.

Keep in mind that a prizewinning marketing plan has the right combination of good strategy and tactics, and you cannot do either one effectively without the other. Do not be tempted to wander from these fundamentals.There are some things, however, you should avoid when putting together your own marketing plan for your business.

1. Not doing the numbers.
If you don't know your numbers, you will not succeed in business. A good marketing plan is about math, and math is about figures. Taken a step further--business has a lot do with numbers. Creating some marketing plan without knowing how much it will cost to gain your customer, what your average sale needs to be, what your profit margins need to be and how many times your average customer needs to buy will set you up for failure If you plan to run on a $1,000 advertisement, how much leads and sales do you need to cover the cost of your advertisement and how much profit will you make?

2. Relying heavily on creativity
Creativity is okay, I do not find anything wrong with it. However, if you focus or rely too much on it at the expense of tactics it can hurt your business.

A great example of this is the difference between the once-famous and now-defunct brand Pets.com and the still famous and thriving brand eBay. Pets.com relied heavily on its famous sock puppet icon and television ads to drive its brand, eBay on the other hand used a tactical approach to business. eBay moved from its original model of being known as a collectibles auction site to something more upscale. This is why knowing the right figures are important because that will ultimately drive your business.

3. Thinking marketing is JUST advertising
Advertising is an integral part of any marketing plan that is true. Your marketing plan is not limited to how you sell your products or services, but it is also how your receptionist answers the phone and how you set up your company culture. Marketing is also the strategic and tactical aspects of identifying and segmenting your customer base, figuring out your competitive edge and USP (Unique Selling Proposition), setting your pricing strategy, sales strategy , etc. All of these things come into play if you want to maximize your ROI.

4. Forgetting to market to existing customers and prospects.
For businesses that have moved beyond the start phase, there is no better or quicker way to massive growth than your underway customers and prospects. In truth, it costs more to acquire new customers than to sell something to an existing customer. Your marketing plan should always include your current customers; they are your business’s biggest resource.

Your existing customers are your goldmine, which is something that many marketers tend to forget because they are so busy chasing after new markets or customers. A good marketing plan should include strategies to tap into what could be your business’s most valuable resource.