Marketing plan – what it is and how to make it step by step

Marketing plan - what it is and how to make it step by step

Today all companies and businesses, however small they may be, need to develop a good marketing plan to be successful. The reason is very simple: avoid taking aimless steps without clear objectives. Therefore, it is necessary to have a roadmap that serves as a reference when planning all marketing actions and strategies.

A well-prepared and structured marketing plan is the basis for any marketing department, but also for the entire company in general and its business plan, since the campaigns we carry out and the purpose of each of them have an impact on everyone. the other aspects.

Each company is different and, therefore, needs a certain marketing plan tailored to suit their needs. And, although there may be as many marketing plans as there are companies in the market, there are some sections that are common. That is why in this post we want to show you how to make a marketing plan and what steps to follow to develop it, with images of examples of a marketing plan.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a document or presentation that includes all the market studies carried out by the company, the marketing objectives to be achieved, the strategies to be implemented, and the planning to carry them out.

A marketing plan is, therefore, the guide that guides the company when determining the steps to follow at all times. In this document, with a developed investigation, the deployment of its economic viability, the delimitation of short and long-term objectives and the timing of actions to be carried out, etc.; the business will know how best to engage potential customers and what KPIs to measure.

This document is usually valid for one year. New year, new life, or so they say.

Therefore, it is convenient to review it annually and renew it to develop new objectives, re-study the market, evaluate the competition, our public, what we have achieved and propose a new action plan to adapt to a new reality.

Although it is a lot of work, it is important to verify that everything we have implemented has worked, as well as to evaluate the current situation and the position of the company in the market.

Why is it important to develop a marketing plan?

Why is it important to develop a marketing plan

Marketing is characterized by measuring everything that happens in and around the company to create a better customer experience, improving products and/or services, and optimizing the ways in which the company connects with its customers or potential customers.

For this, it is essential to start with a deep investigation so that the marketing strategies developed by the company are correctly directed and planned.

As we mentioned, the purpose of a marketing plan for a product or service is not only to develop a roadmap for the entire company, but also to justify the actions to be carried out and explain how to achieve the objectives set.

In this way, we will be able to continue growing and build the bases so that the flow of customers can gradually increase.

In other words, a marketing plan is important for several reasons:

Objectives in a marketing plan

Before delving into the different phases that your marketing plan must go through, it is essential that you set yourself some objectives as a goal at a professional level, both in the short and long term.

It is very important that these objectives of the marketing plan are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and defined in time. Otherwise, you will only generate frustration in your team. An example of formulating objectives could be increasing visits to the company’s website by 25% in 12 months.

Write down each and every one of your objectives in the marketing plan and add a deadline or term to each of them to start organizing your marketing actions.

Basic structure of a marketing plan

Any marketing plan must contain the following structure so that all its corresponding sections can be adequately developed:

How to develop a marketing plan: all its phases step by step

Below we detail the parts every marketing plan must develop to complete this structure.

How to develop a marketing plan - all its phases step by step

PART 1. Analytical marketing step by step

The points that we develop in this section are among the most important since they give you an objective vision of the situation of your business in the market in comparison with your competitors and with respect to the current socioeconomic situation. It will be very useful for you to know how to differentiate yourself from them and develop a SWOT analysis (weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities).

In a very summarized way, to complete this section of the  marketing plan it is recommended that you carry out a study of, at least, the following factors of your company:

Below we break down the analytical marketing sections of a complete marketing plan:

1. Internal analysis of a marketing plan

Define your business in detail. In developing these points, it is necessary to analyze all aspects of the internal structure that may affect the approach and development of the company plan. They are the following:

In addition, it is interesting to detail whether the company has R&D capacity or general pricing policies. All these points will help us to establish which are the strengths and weaknesses of the company to, later, develop the SWOT matrix.

2. Socioeconomic and legal analysis

It is about studying the macro environment that affects the company or that may affect the launch of the proposed product or service. It is essential to include these two points in this section:

This will help us determine the situation the company is starting from (economic crisis, local, regional, state, or European financial situation, etc.) and by what rules it must be governed.

3. Consumer analysis

As its name indicates, in this section, we must be clear about who our consumers are and analyze them.

This is one of the most important key points when carrying out our marketing plan. 

To have a clearer idea, establish who the buyer persona of your business is, that is, the ideal profile we are targeting.

4. Analysis of the competition

We also need to know our competitors, and to do so, we must analyze them one by one. To do this, it is convenient to prepare a structure of aspects that we will analyze in each company and prepare a map of competitors in which we distinguish different types of competitors based on which ones can have the greatest impact on us or who are most similar to our products/services. For example: direct/indirect competition, organic/PPC competitors, or online/offline competitors.

First, do a quick analysis by checking how your top competitors are performing on the SERPs and across social media and how their websites are doing.

Second, choose the competitors you want to dig deeper into to assess more details at this point. Among the aspects that we must analyze, we highlight: defining who their owners are, business philosophy, estimating annual sales figures and market shares, observing how their organization is, the positioning of their products, marketing strategies used, distribution channels, organization commercial, etc.

Thus, the following points are also relevant:

5. Market study

To carry out the market study, we will need to analyze the evolution of market sales in the last five years. Therefore, it will be necessary to have business figures from the main companies in the sector and their market shares, something to which we do not always have access.

This will help us to calculate the market shares by product categories, carry out a study of sales based on the geographical area and establish the seasonality of sales.

At the same time, to prepare a good market study we can develop the following:

6. Commercial study on the product

This section tries to study the company’s product at a generic level to specify its notoriety, attributes and life cycles. In this way, we will talk about substitute products, about which are their complements or the levels of the product range.

7. Commercial study on prices

As in the previous section, it is about analyzing the prices of the generic product. In it we will see:

8. Commercial study on the purchasing process

Understanding how the purchasing process for a generic product currently works in the company is of vital importance when determining factors such as the existence of purchase brakes or their accelerators, the annual rate of purchases per customer, purchase frequency, customer volume, degree of fidelity, captive purchase, etc.

From a customer’s first contact to final conversion and services per sale, the buying process a customer goes through can give you many clues about your business.

9. Analysis of distribution channels

For its part, to assess the current state of distribution channels, all possible channels will have to be studied one by one, with all that this entails. Therefore, also in this section there are various factors to take into account, such as the type of geographic distribution and the respective market share or the level of geographic penetration of the channels.

10. SWOT Summary

The SWOT matrix, also known as SWOT, can be exposed as follows.

PART 2. Strategic marketing step by step

Once all the initial analysis is done, we can continue with the strategic marketing plan section. This strategic plan is the part of the document that helps us to gain alignment before thinking about the execution of the actions.

1. Marketing strategy

This section can vary greatly depending on the type of business you have in hand and what your business and marketing objectives are in the short and long term.

To define the marketing strategies that you will implement, you must take into account the objectives that you have set for yourself and ask yourself how you can achieve them. 

To begin, define your greatest competitive advantage and what strategic growth option you want to choose (for example, differentiation, market penetration, product launch, etc.).

2. Segmentation in a marketing plan

How to segment the target audience chosen for your marketing plan?

As with competitor analysis, there are many ways to segment your audience. You can do it based on demographic, quantitative, or psychographic identification or the needs to be covered. It all depends on the point of focus, the sector you are targeting, and the business objectives set.

After all, segmenting implies identifying the different profiles of consumer groups, so that we can direct different marketing strategies to each of them. At the same time, it would also be necessary to understand the behavior of each of these profiles.

From our point of view, the ideal is to define your buyer persona or ideal client, in order to focus your action plan on that consumer profile for whom you satisfy a latent need with your product or service. It is possible that you not only have one buyer persona but several, but it is important to try to focus your actions on impacting one of them (the one with the most volume, the one that is most profitable…).

3. Positioning

What is your positioning strategy?

You must proceed to a conversion of the competitive advantage in the current positioning of the market in which you are. The diagram we attach below can give you a clue on how to do it. 

In general, you must:

PART 3. Operational marketing step by step

Third, the bulk of the marketing plan should focus on the sections that we break down below. 

To organize the strategies and sections that we are going to list, it is common to start by resorting to the 4Ps of the marketing mix: product, price, distribution (point of sale) and communication (promotion). However, to carry out a marketing plan you need even more than that, so we include the following points:

1. Product Policy

How is the brand’s generic product physically? It explains what your production and supply systems are like, identifies whether you need complementary products or services and describes the choice of packaging and packaging systems. Likewise, it will be necessary to talk about the elaboration of the level of costs.

If it is a service, you have to define specifically what you offer.

2. Pricing policy

What to include regarding prices?

The price is an important positioning factor in the market with respect to the competition, and this should be the main factor from which you stipulate this retail price, but it is also very important to make sure that with that price you are covering all your costs and you have a margin.

3. Distribution policy

Explain in the distribution policy of your marketing plan the reasons for choosing the distribution channels and the strategy used for it. It is necessary to establish a weighted assessment of what the product (or the company) needs or expects from the distribution channels compared to what they offer.

In turn, it determines the levels, location and costs of the stocks, as well as the supply systems of the channels.

4. Sales policy and commercial organization

In this section you can address:

5. Communication policy

In this section we will set the basic communication objectives, on the one hand, and the global communication strategy, on the other.

In it we will divide the different proposals and marketing actions to be developed in the following points.

5.1 COPY STRATEGY Y REASON WHY

Prepare the Copy Strategy and its Reason Why to capture the strategic planning that the company must follow. In it, the benefit promised by the brand must be very clear, since it will constitute the main basis for arguing the reasons for purchase and exposing the characteristics of the product. This way you can provide basic advertising and creative continuity for the brand in the long term.

5.2. TRADITIONAL MARKETING STRATEGIES AND ACTIONS
5.3 DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES 

It is increasingly important to have an online presence, so it is also essential to be clear about what strategies and marketing action plan we will carry out in this section. The main points to assess in a digital marketing plan are:

All the actions carried out in this communication section must have their forecast in the corresponding time.

6. Commissioning schedule

Organize all the proposed actions throughout this marketing plan and plan them to know how long it would take to carry them out, from the moment the plan is designed to the completion date. In this way, you will know how to structure all the campaigns and make a safe start-up with an agenda ahead.

7. Economic plan

At this point, it’s crunch time. The economic plan of a marketing plan demonstrates the feasibility of drawing up said plan through the breakdown of:

Review of the work done for the marketing plan 

Finally, it is important to review the marketing action plan you have developed and its results as you execute it.

To do this, you must carry out a Marketing Audit, that is, create systems for monitoring and controlling results, as well as a Contingency Plan. In this second, you will be able to analyze the foreseeable contingencies and their affectation in terms of results.

Thanks to this, you will be able to take stock of the situation and check if you have defined realistic objectives. If necessary, you will have to rethink your marketing strategies.

You should review this point of your marketing plan regularly so as not to deviate from your goals and not make critical mistakes. Remember it!

It is also vital to review the accounting to see what income and what expenses you are having, if the progression is positive and if the business is really profitable.

The more information you have, the more control you will have over your marketing actions and the better your objectives will be. Do you dare to try it? Tell me about your experience in the comments section!

Main mistakes to avoid when creating a marketing plan

Main mistakes to avoid when creating a marketing plan

Finally, when developing a marketing plan, taking into account everything we have discussed, there are a number of common mistakes that we must avoid.

1. Not doing market research

The first section of analytical marketing may be the heaviest, but it is undoubtedly one of the most important. Specifically, doing market research is a fairly complex action due to the number of variables with which you have to work. 

For people who do not know us, the perception of the product or brand is different from what current consumers already have, and this is different depending on the geographical point in which they are. In other words, you cannot carry out the same market studies in China as in South America: the cultures that come into contact with your brand are totally different.

When doing a market study, it is necessary to take into account that your brand and your communication are irreversible. Building this framework requires many years of work, which is why it must be done with perspective. It is also advisable to save some budget for studies and research. This will allow you to work with surveys, talk to employees and, most importantly, understand each and every one of your movements in the geographical points where you want to move.

2. Ineffective communication strategies within the team

Oddly enough, there are still companies that do not adequately communicate their objectives. Something that cannot be denied is that we live in a highly connected world, and therefore, the most effective solution is the use of tools designed to promote clear and effective communication.

While there is an abundance of cloud-based tools (like Trello or ClickMeeting) that are designed to make sure you don’t miss any important messages within your team, deciding which one is best suited to your organizational needs and preferences isn’t a matter of simple.

3. Not quantifying objectives

As we have already commented in the second section, writing the objectives in general terms is one of the most common mistakes, and we can say that it is almost unforgivable. In any marketing plan, it is essential to have quantifiable and qualifiable objectives, but all with a minimum of restraint, since success is only reflected by achieving measurable terms or figures. And everything that can be qualified must be taken into account through satisfaction surveys, reputation reports, etc.

Terms like ‘market share’, ‘improve customer satisfaction’, or ‘expand abroad’, although they go one way or another, do not specify specific objectives. Remember that this is what the SMART acronym is for , to define the characteristics that the objectives must have.

4. Keep “dog” products

They are part of the BCG matrix. Dog products are the products in which growth is zero and market share is low. They are usually products that are in the last stage of life, and it is rarely advisable to keep them. If the company fills up with dog products, it can mean more expenses than benefits. Identify them and plan their withdrawal!

5. Not acting coherently

It is the first thing that must be taken into account when preparing a plan, knowing your limits, your opportunities, advantages and risks. Consistency must be between the product, the marketing plan, and the consumer of said product. In marketing, coherence would come as an answer to several questions that the company must ask itself regarding communication and business performance.

6. Not choosing a person in charge to implement the plan

Without a leader who is responsible for the plan, having a document is useless. The person responsible for the implementation of the plan will be able to guide and monitor the marketing plan.

It is a mistake to think that a marketing plan is something easy and can be done by yourself. Not so: you need accountability and marketing experts who can make the plan and review the results.

7. Do not take false steps

It is advisable not always to follow impulses. It is true that on many occasions we want to act, and perhaps haste is not the best ally. Remember that we are talking about a plan and not immediate actions.

For example, in a business crisis situation or when someone impulsively decides that something must be done. The figure of the person in charge also enters there, who has to guide the guidelines and the steps to follow for the correct development of the marketing plan. It is important to follow a course of action in order to position yourself before the desired audience. Remember that if it is called a ‘marketing plan’ it is for a reason.

Take note of all these mistakes and always keep in mind that it is a process that requires qualities such as patience and depends on how you move your chips. These types of errors can occur in large, medium, and small companies.

The strategy that you develop when implementing the plan will be decisive and, although you can rectify, it is recommended to locate the errors so that the company does not fall precipitously.

And up to here, all the essential information that I consider you should know when developing your marketing plan. Tell me about your experience in the comments section!

# Marketing plan – what it is and how to make it step by step