Marketing Planning Steps

By: Sean Milea


A critical component of any successful online or conventional business is a good marketing plan. A marketing strategy tailored to meet the unique needs of any particular business must be carefully designed. Significant thought and effort are required in the formulation of a good plan for either a product or a service.

A marketing plan gives a clear overview of the product or concept that is to be marketed, the demographics of the audience, and an action plan with goals and plans to achieve those goals. A good plan will also include ways to assess whether or not goals are being consistently met and allow for adjustments when needed. Marketing plans may be for a shorter period of time, such as a year or even less for a special campaign, or may even be for up to a decade.

First, your company needs a mission statement that states what it offers the world and gives the company a sense of identity. Such a mission statement can help focus your company's marketing strategy, as well as produce a sentence or phrase by which potential customers can remember you.

Afterwards, you have to identify who are your potential and current customers. Also you have to think about how to keep them and how to expand your base. This can include a targeted advertising or something to increase website traffic by reprinted articles or some extra promotion methods. Diversify your visibility by mutual links to similar businesses or products.

You should then set concrete goals for the time frame that you have chosen. A marketing plan that vaguely forecasts an increase in sales will be less effective than a plan that sets a goal of a 20% increase in sales within one year. It is much easier to evaluate your company's progress when it is being compared to a specific goal, allowing you to compare where you are now to where you want to be.

Once you've developed your market strategy and set your goals, you need to initiate techniques to reach your goals. You need to take steps to educate your workforce whether it be sales training, effective management techniques, or developing an in-house training program. You might also consider offering special incentives and discounts to attract new customers.

A business must also have a means to track how well goals are being met, and the flexibility to adapt and change when it is not working, and creativity to expand on successful strategies. This may mean hiring outside auditors and evaluators or using special software that analyzes performance and targets problem areas. Planning and execution are critical to success in nearly anything, but for a business, they can mean survival and success instead of failure and financial disaster. A marketing plan is not an option, it is a necessity.


You can get more information about Business Marketing Plan at www.BizRave.com . Sean Milea writes about Web Site Marketing Strategy and other topics.