Statistics show that companies that develop a marketing plan for their campaigns and promotional projects increase the chances of success of their marketing efforts by more than three times and half of other companies that do not develop a plan.
According to Philip Kotter, who is considered one of the fathers of modern marketing, the “marketing plan” is a documentation of how to achieve the company’s strategic goals through specific strategies and tactics, in which the customer is the starting point, and is linked to the plans of other departments within the company.
The absence of a marketing plan exposes your e-marketing activities to chaos, and it becomes impossible to determine a number for your marketing budget in order to employ the required skills and implement marketing campaigns on the ground.
Although there are differences in the marketing plan that one company needs compared to another, according to the company’s field of work and its marketing objectives; However, there are a set of basic steps that must be taken to develop any successful marketing plan, which we will learn about in detail in this article with the use of applied examples. In conclusion, we will present a marketing plan template that serves as a ready-made marketing plan template that allows the required modifications to be made in accordance with your company and its objectives.
table of contents:
- Company identification
- Describe your marketing strategies
- Market research
- Marketing mix
- budget
- marketing channels
How to make a successful marketing plan in detail
1. Identification of the company
It is your preliminary step for writing a successful marketing plan. In this step, you must write a brief description of your company, which includes the name of the company, its headquarters, its mission, and the members of the marketing team involved in implementing the marketing plan and the nature of the role that each of them will play. It also includes a four-way SWOT analysis that briefly displays points Weakness and strength of the company as well as the opportunities and risks that the future may hold.
The importance of this “introductory” step lies in the fact that it ensures that the marketing team is committed to the mission that the company is keen to present to customers, for example, if you have an online store and your company’s mission is to “provide an easy online shopping experience at the best prices”, permanent discounts and making sure to facilitate the purchase process are Part of the marketing team’s mission that should not be overlooked.
The SWOT analysis also helps to form a general framework for the company’s competitive position that benefits the marketing team. For example, the SWOT analysis carries; Which you can see in detail in the “Marketing Plan Template” attached below; Answers to the following questions:
- To what extent does the company have a strong presence on social media ?
- Are there competitive advantages that we offer to our customers, such as discounts, various options for payment, and shipping products?
- What are the weaknesses of the store that need improvement?
2. Describe your marketing strategies
During this step, divide your different marketing goals into separate marketing strategies to achieve each goal. Provide a description of the strategy and the goal you seek to achieve behind it. It must be a specific, measurable, achievable and relevant objective; Then add KPIs to this strategy, so you can track its progress.
To take an example, let’s say one of your marketing strategies is to create a blog for the website , which would be written in the marketing plan as follows:
- Description: Over the next 6 months, we will be launching the Store Blog, to be a resource to answer customer questions and educate them about online shopping, and to generate leads from search engine results.
- The goal of the strategy: using keywords efficiently to improve visibility in search results, and writing weekly articles with creative content that is shared on social media accounts in order to encourage potential customers to interact.
- KPIs: organic traffic from search engine results, referrals from social media accounts.
3. Marketing research
This step in creating a successful marketing plan is an abbreviated form of your market research , and it should include three basic elements:
- Describe the industries in which you operate
In our online store example, one of the industries it operates under is retail stores.
- Analyze your competitors
Research the main competitors in your field, and clearly define the features of competition with each of them. Example: It is expected that the competition will focus in the field of home shopping via the Internet with the (Q) store: the products in which we compete: groceries and personal needs, and (Q) is distinguished by the great diversity of its products and the multiplicity of payment methods available. Other areas of competition: (S) site leads the search results in the keywords in which we compete.
- buyer persona
The buyer persona is a semi-fictional description of your ideal customer, focusing on information such as age, place of residence, and personal desires. You can target more than one segment in a single marketing plan and arrange them in order of importance.
Example: The main segment of the buyer’s personality is housewives, the age ranges between 25 to 65 years, lives in the cities where we have branches of the store, may or may not be employed, belongs to the middle social class, and spends some of her free time browsing social networking sites, She is interested in providing healthy food for her family, and seeks to save time and facilitate the shopping process using the Internet, and is willing to save and diversify products to meet as many of her needs as possible.
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4. Marketing mix
This step of making a successful marketing plan includes a description of how the company will be able to enter the market and compete with it, and provides an answer to the question: What will the company offer to the public in order to distinguish it from what competitors offer?
The marketing mix section mainly contains 4 elements:
- Product: Describe the products or services with which the company will enter the target market, and how will this product solve the challenges described in the buyer persona description? What makes this product different (or at least competitive) from competitors’ products?
- Price: How much is the product priced? Is it a competitive price? Is it a realistic price for your customers’ budget? Do you run seasonal promotions?
- Promotion: How do you promote this product? You can think more deeply than traditional methods such as advertising campaigns and social media, think about the value that your product can provide to buyers, such as education and improving lives?
- Distribution: How will the product be delivered to your customer? What will you do to ensure the success of the after-sales service?
5. Budget
The budget describes the amount of money you have allocated to the marketing team to pursue the implementation of the strategies and goals outlined above, whether it be the wages of marketers , SEO specialists , content writers , and designers . Put a number on each item that you will spend on, whether it is managing social media accounts , improving the site, posting on the blog, paid ads , developing a mobile application or other various marketing items.
6. Marketing channels
Finally, your marketing plan should include a list of the marketing channels that you will use, which are the places where you will publish marketing content to advertise your products and services, to spread awareness of your brand, to generate leads and win new customers, and fortunately, marketing channels are increasing time after time, for example of the channels available today; Email Campaigns , Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , YouTube , Paid Ads, Website, Blog, Mobile App and many more.
Choose wisely the channels on which you will focus your marketing efforts, determine the purpose for which you will use this channel, and then set a specific number for the performance indicator through which you will measure the success that will be achieved in its use.
Example : The channel used is social networking sites (Facebook – Instagram – YouTube)
- Purpose of this channel: to increase brand awareness and generate leads.
- Indicators to measure success: 20% conversion rate
Now that you know the detailed steps that explain how to prepare a successful marketing plan, and you know all the elements that should be included in your e-marketing plan, it’s time to look at a hypothetical marketing plan template for an online shopping store, in order to learn the best way to organize these elements .
The marketing plan template opens using Microsoft Word, and you can use it as a ready-to-edit marketing plan template, so that you edit each section as you see fit for your company and your marketing goals. Download your marketing plan template here .
In this ready-made marketing plan, you will fill in the following contents as appropriate for your company:
- Introducing the company
- Company Name
- the mission
- Marketing team
- SWOT analysis
- Marketing strategies
- strategies
- Description, objective and performance indicators
- Market research
- target industries
- buyer persona
- Competitor analysis
- Marketing mix
- the service
- the price
- promotion
- distribution
- budget
- Marketing channels
If you are about to launch a new product or seek to promote your products using a successful marketing plan, seek the help of professional marketers to help you develop and implement the marketing plan, and you can search for the appropriate marketing team from SEO service providers, writing content , programming websites and applications , and graphic design through the Five Services platform thumbnail.