Marketing Plan Creation Manual
Learn How to Write Your Own Professional marketing Plan - Step by Step
Section 1 of the Plan: Background
You will learn the six steps you need to address to provide the necessary backdrop to the plan – to put the plan into the context of your business. And how to you address these.
Section 2: Current Situation
This is the most important section of your marketing plan: you must know precisely where you are now, if you aim to go forward. In this section, you learn how to analyse your:
You'll learn how to look for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – based on the four growth principles model – which you can use in the rest of your Marketing Plan.
The manual will show you how to select those issues that matter to you. And how you set these out in order of their value and importance.
Section 3: Assumptions
This short section will show you how to identify assumptions that are critical to the success of your plan, and how to deal with them.
Section 4: Objectives
Here, you'll learn how to set realistic and attainable objectives for the 3 or 5 years of the strategic part of your plan. You'll also build sales forecasts – again following the four growth principles model.
Section 5: Strategies
This is where you set the strategies you need to achieve your objectives. The chapters in this section will explain and step you through the numerous strategy options open to you, covering:
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Branding & Positioning
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Competitive Strategy and the Competitive Advantages you intend to deploy
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The products and/or services you'll sell and the markets you'll sell them to
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How you'll go about determining your prices to maximize sales and profits
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Channel selection – the best routes to your customers, including help with “push” and “pull” strategies if you sell via the likes of stores
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Your people strategies
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Your processes – this only applies if yours is a service business
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Your selling strategies – how you'll sell your products and services, e.g., advertise, use direct mail, market on the Internet, and so on.
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How to get more sales from existing customers, e.g., key customer management, up-selling, cross-selling, packages, and so on.
You'll learn about the various strategy options and how to select those that will deliver for you.
Section 6: First-Year Operational Plan
Here, you will learn how to develop Tactical and Action Plans for the first year. These are the plans that you'll begin working with and implementing to achieve your growth objectives.
Section 7: Implementation & Control
It's a waste of time and resources developing a marketing plan – and then ignoring it. The manual will show you how to implement your plan and how to develop the right procedures to be able to monitor its progress. And how to take action to put things right if sales are not going to forecast.
