Many people include their marketing plan as a section in their business plan. Really, though, marketing is important enough that it deserves a plan of its own, separate from the technical details of the business. Here’s what your marketing plan should include.
Your Marketing Strategy.
It might sound silly, but it’s good to get the core of your marketing plan written down, just so people can see what the rest of your plan is aiming at. Keeping your strategy in mind can also be good when you receive offers to place ads here, there and everywhere – you can ask yourself whether it really fits in with your overall strategy.
Your Competitors.
Advertising.
Your marketing plan should contain a comprehensive list of all the advertising you plan to undertake. This includes a website, advertising in newspapers, leaflets, and so on. For each method of advertising you should list an estimated cost, and the number of customers you expect the advertising to bring in. This allows you to work out your ‘cost of acquisition’, which is how much you need to spend on advertising to bring in a customer. The market works out so that this will be more for higher-end customers, and less for lower-end ones.
Pricing.
Your marketing plan should also list all of the pricing policies you plan to have, as well as any special offers that you think will be good. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make up new offers later, but it’s still good to have some on the plan for the long-term.