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Marketing
Plan Pro Software
The Essential Contents of a Marketing
Plan
Excerpt from On Target: The
Book on Marketing Plans by Tim Berry and Doug Wilson
Every marketing plan has to fit the needs and situation. Even
so, there are standard components you just can't do without. A
marketing plan should always have a situation analysis, marketing
strategy, sales forecast, and expense budget.
- Situation Analysis: Normally this will include a market
analysis, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats), and a competitive analysis. The market analysis will
include market forecast, segmentation, customer information, and
market needs analysis.
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- Marketing Strategy: This should include at least a
mission statement, objectives, and focused strategy including
market segment focus and product positioning.
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- Sales Forecast: This would include enough detail to
track sales month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual
analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales by
product, by region or market segment, by channels, by manager
responsibilities, and other elements. The forecast alone is a bare
minimum.
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- Expense Budget: This ought to include enough detail to
track expenses month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual
analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales tactics,
programs, management responsibilities, promotion, and other
elements. The expense budget is a bare minimum.
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Are They Enough?
These minimum requirements above are not the ideal, just the
minimum. In most cases you'll begin a marketing plan with an
Executive Summary, and you'll also follow those essentials just
described with a review of organizational impact, risks and
contingencies, and pending issues.
Include a Specific Action Plan
You should also remember that planning is about the results, not
the plan itself. A marketing plan must be measured by the results
it produces. The implementation of your plan is much more important
than its brilliant ideas or massive market research. You can
influence implementation by building a plan full of specific,
measurable and concrete plans that can be tracked and followed up.
Plan-vs.-actual analysis is critical to the eventual results, and
you should build it into your plan.
Contact us now for a no obligation discussion on your Marketing
and Business Planning requirements.
Please note: we do not provide support for the
software.
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Pty Ltd 2005 All rights reserved
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