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What Is a Marketing Plan? And How to Create One

Learn what a marketing plan is, how they help businesses, and the steps for building yours.

[Featured image] A woman in a blue shirt shows a marketing plan on a whiteboard to a group.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a document that a business uses to execute a marketing strategy. It is tactical in nature, and, as later sections of this article explore, it typically includes campaign objectives, buyer personas, competitive analysis, key performance indicators, an action plan, and a method for analyzing campaign  results.  

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

In general, a marketing plan serves several purposes: 

Streamline and organize marketing efforts 

Guide businesses and their marketing teams through a sequence of marketing activities 

Determine how to measure a campaign’s success  

Effectively allocate the marketing campaign budget  

A business might develop a marketing plan for a specific need, campaign, or goal within its larger mission. Here are some examples: 

Launching a new product or service

Carrying out campaigns through different marketing channels, including social media , email marketing, print media, TV, or offline events  

Implementing paid advertising 

Measuring marketing efforts over specific periods of time, such as every quarter, six months, or year

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy vs. business plan

In researching what a marketing plan is, you may come across the related concepts of marketing strategy and business plan. Think of all three as written roadmaps for developing your business. You’ll find similarities among them, including your business objectives and information on your target market, but there are some important differences to know as you build these roadmaps, as we’ve laid out in the chart below. 

Review these roadmaps periodically to measure the success of your marketing and business efforts. 

How to create a marketing plan 

The following sections describe the components of a solid marketing plan and the steps to building each one. Develop each section in the order listed, and use insights from each section to guide your process in the ones that follow. Once you complete all of the sections, review your entire plan for areas that need refining. 

1. Executive summary

Here, you will write a short summary, usually no longer than a few paragraphs, to introduce the sections that follow. In a few paragraphs, orient readers to the following:

General information about the business, such as its mission, past accomplishments and setbacks, and brand identity

Information specific to the marketing campaign driving this plan and how it will advance or improve upon past marketing efforts 

You might choose to compose this section last, after you’ve written and refined the marketing plan as a whole. 

2. Marketing campaign goals 

Borrowing from your marketing strategy and business plan, state the marketing campaign's goals with specificity and data-driven metrics. For example:

 Specify “get more email subscribers” as “increase email subscribers by 50 percent by next quarter.” 

“Generate more online purchases” could be specified as “Drive traffic from paid Facebook ads to a sales page and increase the site’s conversion rate from 2 percent to 5 percent.”

3. Key performance indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are the specific metrics you’ll monitor to measure the success of your marketing efforts. It’s important to determine KPIs so that you can continually optimize your tactics, reduce inefficiencies, and steer your marketing campaign toward success.  

KPI examples include:

 The number of website visitors

The number of new email subscribers

The number of event registrants 

The rate of converting leads into customers

Sales revenue figures

4. Buyer personas 

Refer to your marketing strategy and business plan to crystalize target market insights into detailed buyer personas. You can think of a buyer persona as a fictional character that you create based on your existing customers and extensive market research. Building clear buyer personas helps to focus your marketing efforts and drive campaign results. 

Answer these questions to get started:

What is this persona’s demographic profile, including age, income, location, occupation, etc? 

Where do they go to find information? 

What keywords do they use to search?

How do they prefer to purchase products and services?

At what times of the day are they most likely active on social media or other marketing channels, online or offline?

What words, phrases, and questions do they use to describe their challenges and goals?

Use answers to tailor every detail of your marketing campaign to your buyer persona and guide potential customers toward an action, such as subscribing to your email list or making a purchase.

5. Competitor analysis 

Refer again to your marketing strategy and business plan to extract key information about how competing brands are reaching customers in your target market. Then, examine competitors’ marketing strategies in more detail.

Here are three ways to generate marketing-specific information about competitors:

Use SEO tools like SEMRush to discover how your competitors are leveraging popular keywords, content, and ad copy to attract an audience.

Study competitors’ social media accounts and note the content they post to engage followers. 

Subscribe to competitors’ email lists to learn how they market and sell to potential leads right in their inboxes. 

6. Action plan 

Your campaign’s action plan should include the specific tactics and methods you’ll use to market your products and services to potential customers. 

Include the following information in your action plan:  

The campaign budget and target date of completion

Key milestones you need to pass on your way to achieving the goals 

The marketing channels you will use, offline and online 

The kinds of content you will create and your schedule for delivering it

Organic and paid marketing activities

7. Method of analyzing results 

Your marketing plan should describe how you will monitor KPIs and analyze your campaign results at each milestone. That way, you can find out what’s working and what’s not and adjust your plan accordingly. 

Be sure to set up analytic tools for each of your marketing channels, including your social media accounts, email system, website and landing pages, and event registration pages. Set calendar alerts based on your action plan for reviewing KPIs.

Which channels see the most traffic?

Which channels are converting at the highest rates? 

How are individual pieces of content performing?

How efficiently is your budget performing?

Which metrics are improving, staying the same, or declining over time? 

Marketing plan key takeaways

Remember: Having a solid marketing plan can make it possible to allocate your marketing budget effectively and streamline your marketing activities. By following the seven steps above, you may be able to see improvements in your marketing efforts, from attracting more ideal customers to inspiring them to take action. 

Improve your marketing with Coursera

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Marketing Plan

Marketing plan

Quick Definition: A marketing plan documents an organization’s marketing objectives and what it will do to achieve those objectives.

Key Takeaways:

  • A marketing plan offers a consolidated view of everything from high-level business goals to marketing campaign frameworks, buyer personas, messaging, and content strategy.
  • A marketing plan clearly defines an organization’s marketing goals and focuses departments across the organization on the same business objectives and metrics.
  • Whether you’re part of a small business or large enterprise, developing a marketing plan follows the same process.
  • A marketing team that has researched their ideal customers and understands them can create thoughtful and relevant experiences
  • You’ll know your marketing efforts are successful when you are consistently achieving your business objectives.

The following information was provided during an interview with Jeff Siteman, director of global portfolio marketing, content strategy, and operations at Adobe.

What is a marketing plan? Why is a marketing plan important? How do you make a marketing plan? What are some examples of marketing planning tools? What are the benefits of making a marketing plan? What are common obstacles to making or following a marketing plan? What does building a marketing plan look like for small businesses vs. larger enterprises? How will marketing plans evolve in the future?

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan documents an organization’s marketing objectives and what it will do to achieve those objectives.

An organization’s marketing plan offers a consolidated view of everything from high-level business goals to marketing campaign frameworks, buyer personas, messaging, and content strategy.

Why is a marketing plan important?

A marketing plan clearly defines an organization’s marketing goals and focuses departments across the organization on the same business objectives and metrics. An organization’s marketing plan also presents the current situation in the market, identifying the challenges that the business is facing.

This part of the plan shows stakeholders how the organization plans to tackle those challenges.

How do you make a marketing plan?

To make an effective marketing plan, start by gathering customer insights. Marketers must understand their potential customers’ demographics and their affinities and goals. Marketing teams should define what their target customers’ pain points are and how their product will resolve those pain points and deliver value.

After defining your target customers and their pain points, craft your messaging. How will you tell the story of your product’s value in a way that new customers will understand, and that will make them want to interact more with your brand?

With those first two foundational elements in place, marketers can construct a framework or campaign model to target audiences and industries. Within this framework, you’ll determine what content you will use across your marketing channels to engage target customers.

After you define your marketing mix — or your marketing objectives and marketing tactics — you’ll need to establish your measurement framework. How will your marketing system support what you’re trying to do? What metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) will you use to track your progress and your marketing efforts’ success? Answering these questions will help you create a successful marketing plan for your company.

What are some examples of marketing planning tools?

There are many types of tools that can help you create your marketing plan:

  • Work management tools keep teams on track and manage tasks and content.
  • Analytics tools gather and present valuable customer insights.
  • Adobe Experience Cloud is an innovative solution made up of tools that help marketers execute their marketing plans and includes both work management tools and analytics tools.

What are the benefits of making a marketing plan?

A marketing plan clearly documents the roadmap of what a business is going to do, how it will do it, and how it will measure success. It benefits both the organization and the customer. A marketing team that has researched its ideal customers and understands them can create thoughtful and relevant experiences much more easily with a thoughtful marketing plan.

What are common obstacles to making or following a marketing plan?

The most common obstacle to a great marketing plan is time. Primary customer research — which helps inform marketing decisions — is essential, but time-consuming. Not only do marketers have to explore data insights on personas and behavior, but they also need to spend time talking to sales teams to understand how customers are really feeling about their brand. And because marketing plans can only operate for a set time frame, they require periodic updates, which can also take time.

What does building a marketing plan look like for small businesses vs. larger enterprises?

Whether you’re part of a small business or a large enterprise, developing a marketing plan follows the same process. What may be different are the teams and specializations leading that effort. For instance, a small business may have a single person who heads up marketing, while an enterprise may have several different departments that all play a role.

How will marketing plans evolve in the future?

Customers are changing their behavior by the minute, so marketing plans need to evolve just as quickly. Organizations will move away from highly structured annual plans toward quarterly, monthly, and weekly planning. Optimization can then take place at scale, especially with the help of advancing automation technologies. Marketing planning tools will offer more flexibility and agility to meet these demands.

People also view

Other glossary terms

B2B Marketing B2C Marketing Customer Journey Lead Generation Supply Chain Data Science

Related Adobe products

Workfront Adobe Campaign Adobe Sensei Adobe Real-time CDP Marketo Engagement Platform Adobe Audience Manager

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Blog Marketing

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

By Sara McGuire , Oct 26, 2023

Marketing Plan Venngage

After employee salaries, marketing is typically the biggest expense for most businesses.

As a business owner or marketer, don’t you want to make sure your marketing dollars are being spent in the most productive way possible? Yeah, me too.

But what often ends up happening is most businesses try different marketing tactics without a clear plan, and walk away with little success.

Or they’ll get lucky and score a big marketing win but soon find themselves unable to  scale their marketing tactics, goals and strategies  to drive consistent growth.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to grow your business strategically and maximize ROI  generated from your marketing dollars with a well-defined marketing plan.

Don’t know how to create a marketing plan? Start with one of Venngage’s templates today. You don’t need any design skills to make a great plan that helps align your team and grow your business.

Click to jump ahead:

What is a marketing plan.

  • How to create a marketing plan
  • Marketing plan vs. Marketing strategy
  • Types of marketing plans
  • 9 marketing plan templates
  • Marketing plan design and writing tips

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for your products or services, which could be applicable for the coming year, quarter or month.  

Watch this quick, 13-minute video for more details on what a marketing plan is and how to make one yourself:

Typically, a marketing plan includes:

  • An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals
  • A description of your business’s current marketing position
  • A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed
  • Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking
  • A description of your business’s target market and customer needs
  • A description of how you will measure the performance of the strategy

For example, this marketing plan template provides a high-level overview of the business and competitors before diving deep into specific goals, KPIs and tactics:

Orange Content Marketing Plan Template

Learning how to write a marketing plan forces you to think through the important steps that lead to an effective marketing strategy . And a well-defined plan will help you stay focused on your high-level marketing goals.

With Venngage’s extensive catalog of marketing plan templates , creating your marketing plan isn’t going to be hard or tedious. In fact, Venngage has plenty of helpful communications and design resources for marketers. If you’re ready to get started, sign up for  Venngage for Marketers   now. It’s free to register and start designing.

Venngage for Marketers Page Header

Whether you’re a team trying to set smarter marketing goals, a consultant trying to set your client in the right direction, or a one-person team hustling it out, Venngage for Marketers helps you get things done. You’ll also get helpful webinars and presentations delivered right to your inbox, like this one:

Growth By Content Webinar Banner

How to write a marketing plan 

As mentioned above, the scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for.

For example, you could create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing strategy or simply focus on a specific channel like SEO, social media marketing, content marketing and more, like in this example:

content marketing plan template

Marketing plan outline

A typical outline of a marketing plan includes:

  • Executive summary
  • Goals and objectives
  • User personas
  • Competitor analysis/SWOT analysis
  • Baseline metrics
  • Marketing strategy
  • Tracking guidelines

Below you will see in details how to write each section as well as some examples of how you can design each section in a marketing plan.

Let’s look at how to create a successful marketing plan (click to jump ahead):

  • Write a simple executive summary
  • Set metric-driven marketing goals
  • Outline your user personas
  • Research all of your competitors
  • Set accurate key baselines & metrics
  • Create an actionable marketing strategy
  • Set tracking or reporting guidelines

1. Write a simple executive summary

Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.

Creative Marketing Plan Executive Summary

One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well-written executive summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future plans, and other important contextual facts.

Standard Business Proposal Executive Summary

Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.

Include things like:

  • Simple marketing goals
  • High-level metrics
  • Important company milestones
  • Facts about your brand
  • Employee anecdotes
  • Future goals & plans

Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to keep it under three to four paragraphs.

Take a look at the executive summary in the marketing plan example below:

Content Marketing Proposal Executive Summary

The executive summary is only two paragraphs long — short but effective.

The executive summary tells readers about the company’s growth, and how they are about to overtake one of their competitors. But there’s no mention of specific metrics or figures. That will be highlighted in the next section of the marketing plan.

An effective executive summary should have enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but not bog them down with specifics yet. That’s what the rest of your marketing plan is for!

The executive summary also sets the tone for your marketing plan. Think about what tone will fit your brand ? Friendly and humorous? Professional and reliable? Inspiring and visionary?

2. Set metric-driven marketing goals

After you perfect your executive summary, it’s time to outline your marketing goals.

(If you’ve never set data-driven goals like this before, it would be worth reading this growth strategy guide ).

This is one of the most important parts of the entire marketing plan, so be sure to take your time and be as clear as possible.

As a rule of thumb, be as specific as possible. The folks over at  VoyMedia  advise that you should set goals that impact website traffic, conversions, and customer success — and to use real numbers.

Avoid outlining vague goals like:

  • Get more Twitter followers
  • Write more articles
  • Create more YouTube videos (like educational or Explainer videos )
  • Increase retention rate
  • Decrease bounce rate

Instead, identify  key performance metrics  (KPI) you want to impact and the percentage you want to increase them by.

Take a look at the goals page in the marketing plan example below:

Creative Marketing Plan Goals

They not only identify a specific metric in each of their goals, but they also set a timeline for when they will be increased.

The same vague goals listed earlier become much clearer when specific numbers and timelines are applied to them:

  • Get 100 new Twitter followers per month
  • Write 5 more articles per week
  • Create 10 YouTube videos each year
  • Increase retention rate by 15% by 2020
  • Decrease bounce rate by 5% by Q1
  • Create an online course  and get 1,000 new leads

You can dive even deeper into your marketing goals if you want (generally, the more specific, the better). Here’s a marketing plan example that shows how to outline your growth goals:

Growth Goals Roadmap Template for a Marketing Plan

3. Outline your user personas

Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of value.

Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.

You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get the right visitors.

Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your business solve customer problems?

Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.

Some ways to conduct user research are:

  • Interviewing your users (either in person or on the phone)
  • Conducting focus groups
  • Researching other businesses in the same industry
  • Surveying your audience

Then, you will need to compile your user data into a user persona  guide.

Take a look at how detailed this user persona template is below:

Persona Marketing Report Template

Taking the time to identify specific demographic traits, habits and goals will make it easier for you to cater your marketing plan to them.

Here’s how you can create a user persona guide:

The first thing you should add is a profile picture or icon for each user persona. It can help to put a face to your personas, so they seem more real.

Marketing Persona

Next, list demographic information like:

  • Identifiers
  • Activities/Hobbies

The user persona example above uses sliding scales to identify personality traits like introversion vs. extroversion and thinking vs. feeling. Identifying what type of personality your target users tend to have an influence on the messaging you use in your marketing content.

Meanwhile, this user persona guide identifies specific challenges the user faces each day:

Content Marketing Proposal Audience Personas

But if you don’t want to go into such precise detail, you can stick to basic information, like in this marketing plan example:

Social Media Plan Proposal Template Ideal Customers

Most businesses will have a few different types of target users. That’s why it’s pertinent to identify and create several different user personas . That way, you can better segment your marketing campaigns and set separate goals, if necessary.

Here’s a marketing plan example with a segmented user persona guide:

Mobile App Market Report

The important thing is for your team or client to have a clear picture of who their target user is and how they can appeal to their specific problems.

Start creating robust user personas using Venngage’s user persona guide .

4. Conduct an extensive competitor analysis

Next, on the marketing plan checklist, we have the competitor research section. This section will help you identify who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how you could carve yourself a place alongside them in your niche — and ideally, surpass them. It’s something you can learn to do with rank tracking software .

Competitor research is also incredibly important if you are starting a blog .

Typically, your competitor research should include:

  • Who their marketing team is
  • Who their leadership team is
  • What their marketing strategy is (this will probably revolve some reverse-engineering)
  • What their sales strategy is (same deal)
  • Social Media strategy (are they using discounting strategies such as coupon marketing to get conversions)
  • Their market cap/financials
  • Their yearly growth (you will probably need to use a marketing tool like Ahrefs to do this)
  • The number of customers they have & their user personas

Also, take as deep a dive as you can into the strategies they use across their:

  • Blog/Content marketing
  • Social media marketing
  • SEO Marketing
  • Video marketing
  • And any other marketing tactics they use

Research their strengths and weaknesses in all parts of their company, and you will find some great opportunities. Bookmark has a great guide to different marketing strategies for small businesses  if you need some more information there.

You can use this simple SWOT analysis worksheet to quickly work through all parts of their strategy as well:

Competitive SWOT Analysis

Click the template above to create a SWOT chart . Customize the template to your liking — no design know-how needed.

Since you have already done all the research beforehand, adding this information to your marketing plan shouldn’t be that hard.

In this marketing plan example, some high-level research is outlined for 3 competing brands:

Content Marketing Proposal Competitive Research

But you could take a deeper dive into different facets of your competitors’ strategies. This marketing plan example analyses a competitor’s content marketing strategy:

Competitor-Analysis-Content-Marketing-Plan-Template

It can also be helpful to divide your competitors into Primary and Secondary groups. For example, Apple’s primary competitor may be Dell for computers, but its secondary competitor could be a company that makes tablets.

Your most dangerous competitors may not even be in the same industry as you. Like the CEO of Netflix said, “Sleep is our competition.”

5. Set accurate key baselines & metrics

It’s pretty hard to plan for the future if you don’t know where your business stands right now.

Before we do anything at Venngage, we find the baselines so we can compare future results to something. We do it so much it’s almost like second nature now!

Setting baselines will allow you to more accurately track your progress. You will also be able to better analyze what worked and what didn’t work, so you can build a stronger strategy. It will definitely help them clearly understand your goals and strategy as well.

Here’s a marketing plan example where the baselines are visualized:

Social Media Marketing Proposal Success Metrics

Another way to include baselines in your plan is with a simple chart, like in the marketing plan example below:

Simple-Blue-Social-Media-Marketing-Plan

Because data can be intimidating to a lot of people, visualizing your data using charts and infographics will help demystify the information.

6. Create an actionable marketing strategy

After pulling all the contextual information and relevant metrics into your marketing plan, it’s time to break down your marketing strategy.

Once again, it’s easier to communicate your information to your team or clients using visuals .

Mind maps are an effective way to show how a strategy with many moving parts ties together. For example, this mind map shows how the four main components of a marketing strategy interact together:

Marketing Plan Mind Map Template

You can also use a flow chart to map out your strategy by objectives:

Action Plan Mind Map

However you choose to visualize your strategy, your team should know exactly what they need to do. This is not the time to keep your cards close to your chest.

Your strategy section may need to take up a few pages to explain, like in the marketing plan example below:

Creative-Modern-Content-Marketing-Plan-Template

With all of this information, even someone from the development team will understand what the marketing team is working on.

This minimalistic marketing plan example uses color blocks to make the different parts of the strategy easy to scan:

Blue-Simple-Social-Media-Marketing-Plan-Template

Breaking your strategy down into tasks will make it easier to tackle.

Another important way to visualize your marketing strategy is to create a project roadmap. A project roadmap visualizes the timeline of your product with individual tasks. Our roadmap maker can help you with this.

For example, this project roadmap shows how tasks on both the marketing and web design side run parallel to each other:

Simple Product Roadmap Plan Template

A simple timeline can also be used in your marketing plan:

Strategy Timeline Infographic

Or a mind map, if you want to include a ton of information in a more organized way:

Business Strategy Mindmap Template

Even a simple “Next, Now, Later” chart can help visualize your strategy:

3 Step Product Roadmap Template

7. Set tracking or reporting guidelines

Close your marketing plan with a brief explanation of how you plan to track or measure your results. This will save you a lot of frustration down the line by standardizing how you track results across your team.

Like the other sections of your marketing plan, you can choose how in-depth you want to go. But there need to be some clear guidelines on how to measure the progress and results of your marketing plan.

At the bare minimum, your results tracking guidelines should specify:

  • What you plan to track
  • How you plan to track results
  • How often you plan to measure

But you can more add tracking guidelines to your marketing plan if you see the need to. You may also want to include a template that your team or client can follow,  for  client reporting ,  ensure that the right metrics are being tracked.

Marketing Checklist

The marketing plan example below dedicates a whole page to tracking criteria:

SEO Marketing Proposal Measuring Results

Use a task tracker to track tasks and marketing results, and a checklist maker to note down tasks, important life events, or tracking your daily life.

Similarly, the marketing plan example below talks about tracking content marketing instead:

Social Media Marketing Proposal

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy

Although often used interchangeably, the terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” do have some differences.

Simply speaking, a marketing strategy presents what the business will do in order to reach a certain goal. A marketing plan outlines the specific daily, weekly, monthly or yearly activities that the marketing strategy calls for. As a business, you can create a marketing proposal for the marketing strategies defined in your company’s marketing plan. There are various marketing proposal examples that you can look at to help with this.

A company’s extended marketing strategy can be like this:

marketing strategy mind map

Notice how it’s more general and doesn’t include the actual activities required to complete each strategy or the timeframe those marketing activities will take place. That kind of information is included in a marketing plan, like this marketing plan template which talks about the content strategy in detail:

Content Marketing Proposal

Types of marketing plans that can transform your business strategy

Let’s take a look at several types of marketing plans you can create, along with specific examples for each.

1. General marketing strategic plan / Annual marketing plan

This is a good example of a marketing plan that covers the overarching annual marketing strategy for a company:

marketing strategy template marketing plan

Another good example would be this Starbucks marketing plan:

Starbucks marketing plan example

This one-page marketing plan example from coffee chain Starbucks has everything at a glance. The bold headers and subheadings make it easier to segment the sections so readers can focus on the area most relevant to them.

What we like about this example is how much it covers. From the ideal buyer persona to actional activities, as well as positioning and metrics, this marketing plan has it all.

Another marketing plan example that caught our eye is this one from Cengage. Although a bit text-heavy and traditional, it explains the various sections well. The clean layout makes this plan easy to read and absorb.

Cengage marketing plan example

The last marketing plan example we would like to feature in this section is this one from Lush cosmetics.

It is a long one but it’s also very detailed. The plan outlines numerous areas, including the company mission, SWOT analysis , brand positioning, packaging, geographical criteria, and much more.

Lush marketing plan

2. Content marketing plan

A content marketing plan highlights different strategies , campaigns or tactics you can use for your content to help your business reach its goals.

This one-page marketing plan example from Contently outlines a content strategy and workflow using simple colors and blocks. The bullet points detail more information but this plan can easily be understood at a glance, which makes it so effective.

contently marketing plan

For a more detailed content marketing plan example, take a look at this template which features an editorial calendar you can share with the whole team:

nonprofit content marketing plan

3. SEO marketing plan

Your SEO marketing plan highlights what you plan to do for your SEO marketing strategy . This could include tactics for website on-page optimization , off-page optimization using AI SEO , and link building using an SEO PowerSuite backlink API for quick backlink profile checks.

This SEO marketing plan example discusses in detail the target audience of the business and the SEO plan laid out in different stages:

SEO marketing plan example

4. Social media marketing plan

Your social media marketing plan presents what you’ll do to reach your marketing goal through social media. This could include tactics specific to each social media channel that you own, recommendations on developing a new channel, specific campaigns you want to run, and so on, like how B2B channels use Linkedin to generate leads with automation tools and expand their customer base; or like making use of Twitter walls that could display live Twitter feeds from Twitter in real-time on digital screens.

Edit this social media marketing plan example easily with Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor:

social media marketing plan example

5. Demand generation marketing plan

This could cover your paid marketing strategy (which can include search ads, paid social media ads, traditional advertisements, etc.), email marketing strategy and more. Here’s an example:

promotional marketing plan

9 marketing plan examples to inspire your growth strategy

1. free marketing plan template.

Here’s a free nonprofit marketing plan example that is ideal for organizations with a comprehensive vision to share. It’s a simple plan that is incredibly effective. Not only does the plan outline the core values of the company, it also shares the ideal buyer persona.

business marketing plan definition

Note how the branding is consistent throughout this example so there is no doubt which company is presenting this plan. The content plan is an added incentive for anyone viewing the document to go ahead and give the team the green light.

2. Pastel social media marketing campaign template

Two-page marketing plan samples aren’t very common, but this free template proves how effective they are. There’s a dedicated section for business goals as well as for project planning .

Pastel Social Media Marketing Plan Template

The milestones for the marketing campaign are clearly laid out, which is a great way to show how organized this business strategy is.

3. Small business marketing strategy template

This marketing plan template is perfect for small businesses who set out to develop an overarching marketing strategy for the whole year:

Notice how this aligns pretty well with the marketing plan outline we discussed in previous sections.

In terms of specific tactics for the company’s marketing strategy, the template only discusses SEO strategy, but you can certainly expand on that section to discuss any other strategies — such as link building , that you would like to build out a complete marketing plan for.

4. Orange simple marketing proposal template

Marketing plans, like the sample below, are a great way to highlight what your business strategy and the proposal you wan to put forward to win potential customers.

Orange Simple Marketing Proposal Template

5. One-page marketing fact sheet template

This one-page marketing plan example is great for showcasing marketing efforts in a persuasive presentation or to print out for an in-person meeting.

Nonprofit Healthcare Company Fact Sheet Template

Note how the fact sheet breaks down the marketing budget as well as the key metrics for the organization. You can win over clients and partners with a plan like this.

6. Light company business fact sheet template

This one-page sample marketing plan clearly outlines the marketing objectives for the organization. It’s a simple but effective way to share a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

Light Company Business Fact Sheet Template

What really works with this example is that includes a mission statement, key contact information alongside all the key metrics.

7. Marketing media press kit template

This press kit marketing plan template is bright and unmistakable as belonging to the Cloud Nine marketing agency . The way the brand colors are used also helps diversify the layouts for each page, making the plan easier to read.

Marketing Media Press Kit Template

We like the way the marketing department has outlined the important facts about the organization. The bold and large numbers draw the eye and look impressive.

8. Professional marketing proposal template

Start your marketing campaign on a promising note with this marketing plan template. It’s short, sharp and to the point. The table of contents sets out the agenda, and there’s a page for the company overview and mission statement.

Professional Marketing Proposal Template

9. Social media marketing proposal template

A complete marketing plan example, like the one below, not only breaks down the business goals to be achieved but a whole lot more. Note how the terms and conditions and payment schedule are included, which makes this one of the most comprehensive marketing plans on our list.

Checkered Social Media Marketing Proposal Template

7 tips to keep in mind while you’re creating your marketing plan

While a marketing plan doesn’t necessarily have to be pretty, an impressive design certainly helps if you want your plan to be more convincing.

Presentation is especially important if you’re presenting your marketing plan to investors, or if you need to convince your boss to approve your requested marketing budget.

That’s where a marketing plan template can help. If you don’t have a designer available, or even if you want a framework to base your own design on, a template gives you a solid foundation to work with.

Start creating your marketing plan with a template and then customize the design to fit your information and to incorporate your own branding .

Here are seven marketing plan templates to get you started, along with some report design best practices you should follow when creating your plan.

1. Identify, describe and illustrate your target audience

Knowing your target audience is one of the most fundamental steps that every marketing team should take before making any marketing decisions. So by the time you begin writing your marketing plan, you should have your target audience identified.

In your marketing plan, you should dedicate a section to introducing your target audience.

To help keep your target audience top-of-mind when planning and executing your marketing strategies, it can be helpful to visualize your audience personas. Faux images of your personas, illustrations and icons are all great ways to put a face to your personas’ “names”.

Take this page from a marketing plan example that includes imagery and icons:

A photo of “Cassandra Vane”, their “head of marketing” persona, is provided to make the character seem more real. You can incorporate photos seamlessly into your page design by using image frames.

Icons are also used to visualize the different components that make up this persona (their identifies, their demographic information, their goals and their unique challenges).

2. Visualize important process flows and strategy roadmaps

To effectively outline new marketing strategies, processes, and timelines, it can be very helpful to visualize the flows.

You could opt for a classic flow chart or a more creative marketing plan infographic . Whatever type of visual you choose to create, the goal should be to make the information easier for people to follow.

The first step is to organize your flow into distinct steps. Remember to clearly label each step and to use symbols  like lines or arrows to indicate the direction in which the flow should be read.

It can also be helpful to visualize each step using different shapes, or attaching an icon to each step.

For example, this page visualizes an email campaign flow:

Marketing Business Proposal Email Campaign

Icons represent each email as an individual block, to make it easier for readers to visualize the process. Concise descriptions give readers context to understand the flow chart.

Take a look at how information flows visually throughout this promotional marketing plan template thanks to strategically placed visual cues:

Marketing Business Proposal

3. Emphasize important statistics, metrics, and numbers in your marketing plan

To make your plan both more convincing, and easier to scan, you should create a hierarchy of information in your page design.

For example, you can use charts and pictograms to visualize important stats or metrics. Or you could write important numbers in a bright-colored font so they stand out from the rest of the text.

This is an opportunity to get creative with your page design. Look at how speech bubble pictograms are used in this marketing plan example to show key statistics:

Content Strategy Plan

In that same marketing plan, important content-related data is emphasized using brightly colored shapes, illustrative icons and big fonts:

Content Strategy Plan Content Inventory

Color choice , icons and font styles all help bring key information forward in this content strategy plan template:

Content Strategy Marketing Plan Example

4. Use your main marketing goal to guide your design

One of the main goals of your marketing plan is to identify your high-level marketing goals. Your marketing plan design should be driven by this goal–in your page layouts and in the design elements you use.

You can do this by picking a design motif that reflects your goal and using that throughout your marketing plan. This could be a particular shape or item (for example, using images of plants in a work plan to represent growth) or a color scheme that reflects the mood of your mission.

This social media marketing plan example identifies their goal as being the go-to source of inspiration and information for runners:

Blue-Social-Media-Marketing-Plan-Template-

Take a look at how they use chat bubble icons and a bright, bold color scheme to give their marketing plan a friendly and energetic design:

Creative Social Media Marketing Proposal

Pro Tip: You don’t need to create a comprehensive marketing plan yourself. With our real-time collaboration feature , you can leverage your entire team to help you shape your marketing plan together anytime, anywhere. In real-time.

Real-time-Collaboration-Venngage-1

5. Vary your page designs to make your marketing plan engaging

Putting in the extra bit of effort to use visuals will not only make your marketing plan more engaging, it will also make it easier for readers to retain information.

That’s why while you could use the same page layout throughout your whole plan, it’s a good idea to vary your page design. Mixing up your design will prevent your plan from being too predictable. Plus, you will have more flexibility to visualize information creatively .

For example, this SEO plan template simply inverts the color scheme on each page. While the overall color scheme for the whole plan is cohesive, each individual page is varied:

SEO Marketing Proposal

6. Visualize your top channels using charts, icons, and pictograms

It’s important for your team to understand your highest-performing channels. That way, you can identify areas you may want to funnel more resources into, whether it be social media, paid ads , mobile app advertising , organic or referral traffic.

This is where visual communication can be highly effective. A simple but effective way to analyze your channels is to visualize the data. You can do this using charts , pictograms and infographics with Venngage’s infographic creator .

For example, a pie chart can put into perspective where the bulk of your traffic is coming from:

Green Business Marketing Plan Presentation Template

A stacked bar would also work well to visualize this information.

You can also use icons to emphasize and differentiate between channels, like in this marketing plan slide:

White Business Marketing Plan Presentation Template

Take a look at how charts, icons and color-coding make it easy to scan this marketing agenda presentation for information about specific channels:

Marketing Agenda Business Presentation

7. Use borders or color blocks to organize your pages into sections

Generally, it’s good practice to stick to one topic per page. This will help keep your marketing plan more organized and make it easier for readers to scan for information.

That being said, you may want to put more than one topic on the same page, like if both topics are directly related. In that case, you can organize the page into sections using borders or blocks of background color.

For example, look at how this page is clearly divided into two sections, thanks to the use of a color block background:

Promotional Marketing Plan Messaging

Blocks of color are also used to make the sections headers stand out. Take a look at the different pages in this promotional plan template:

Promotional Marketing Plan

A few more marketing plan design best practices:

Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind when start designing your marketing plan.

Keep your design elements like fonts, icons and colors consistent

While it’s good to switch up the layout of your pages to keep your marketing plan engaging, it’s important to keep your design consistent. That means:

  • Using the same font styles for your headers, body text, and accent text (generally, try to stick to only using 2-3 different font styles in one report)
  • Using the same color scheme throughout your plan, and using the same colors for specific types of information (ex. blue for “social media goals” and green for “SEO goals”)
  • Using the same style of icons throughout your report, like flat icons, line art icons, or illustrated icons

marketing plan example

Download your marketing plan as a PDF

It’s important that your team is on the same page. Sharing your marketing plan via Google Docs or a file-sharing service can be unreliable. In most cases, it’s easier to simply download your marketing plan as a PDF and share it with your team that way.

You can download your marketing plan in high-quality PDF digital flipbook or interactive PDF format with Venngage.

Include a table of contents to make it easy to find specific information

This tip is pretty self-explanatory. Even if you’re putting together your marketing plan as a presentation, a simple table of contents at the beginning will give your audience an idea of what they can expect.

Marketing Plan FAQs

What should marketing plans include.

Marketing plans should include:

  • A detailed analysis of the target market and customer segments.
  • Clear and achievable marketing objectives and goals.
  • Strategies and tactics for product promotion and distribution.
  • Budget allocation for various marketing activities.
  • Timelines and milestones for the implementation of marketing strategies.
  • Evaluation metrics and methods for tracking the success of the marketing plan.

What is an executive summary in a marketing plan and what is its main goal?

An executive summary in a marketing plan is a brief overview of the entire document, summarizing the key points, goals, and strategies. Its main goal is to provide readers with a quick understanding of the plan’s purpose and to entice them to read further.

What are the results when a marketing plan is effective?

When a marketing plan is effective, businesses can experience increased brand visibility, higher customer engagement, improved sales and revenue, and strengthened customer loyalty.

What is the first section of a marketing plan?

The first section of a marketing plan is typically the “Executive Summary,” which provides a concise overview of the entire plan, including the business’s goals and the strategies to achieve them.

Now that you have the basics for designing your own marketing plan, it’s time to get started:

More marketing design guides and templates:.

15 Marketing Infographic Templates and Tips to Boost Audience Engagement

12 Business Pitch Deck Templates and Design Best Practices to Impress Investors

10 Page-Turning White Paper Examples and Design Tips

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What Is a Marketing Plan and How Can You Create an Effective One?

If you want to get to a specific place, you need a map. For the business world, that map is the marketing plan .

Having a well-developed marketing plan as a part of your advertising strategy is imperative for every business regardless of sector or size. However, there are still many companies that start advertising without having a clear marketing strategy or a concrete plan.

In this article, we will go through everything you need in order to create an effective digital marketing pla n for your business.

* Do you want to know the top digital marketing trends for 2024? Download our  free ebook to discover our top tips and predictions!

Marketing Plan Definition

The definition of a marketing plan is a document that lays out the strategy (or strategies) you will implement in order to advertise, reach your target audience with your message, generate leads, and finally increase your sales. Your marketing plan will of course define your overall goals, but it should also include some of the smaller steps you will take in order to achieve those goals.

How to Create the Best Marketing Plan for Your Business

A marketing plan has to align with the overall  objectives you want to achieve, so be sure to create a detailed plan that reinforces the commitment of your team and defines a long term vision. This will also improve the efficiency of your team and can even help prevent mistakes (and solve them rapidly if they are made).

When creating your marketing plan , organization is key. There are a series of elements that every plan should include and a logical order in which they should be carried out in order for the final result to be coherent and successful.

Below we will explain in detail the five basic sections of a marketing plan and what should be included in each of them. If you want to make the process even easier, you can download our marketing plan template here . This checklist contains 20 basic points that we recommend covering before setting anything in motion.

1. Analysis of the Current Situation

The first step is to analyze the current situation of your business. This step is necessary because, without it, you cannot define where you want to go.

With this analysis, you will be able to see the influence of external and internal factors. The external factors can include things like the overall social and economic situation in your industry or country or the particulars of the sector and market you work in. The internal ones refer to the business itself. For example, your team and resources.

To systemize the analysis and guarantee that you are not missing anything, you can always use the classic SWOT scheme: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

  • Strengths are the positive internal aspects of the company, those that make it stand out from the competition and that make the team proud. In the strengths we find the key competitive advantage like having a highly qualified team, or being considered the best for X product.
  • Weaknesses are the internal aspects of the company that are lacking, areas where the company is positioned below its competitors or which can be improved. To find them, pose questions such as, in which aspects are our competitors better or what things are we least satisfied with? Some examples of weaknesses could be lack of finances or a limited range of products.  
  • Opportunities represent the external factors that are in your favor and that can be used to the company's advantage. You can find opportunities by researching the current trends and changes within your target market . For example, there can be a legislative change that favors your brand or a product that you sell becoming a trend.
  • Threats are external negative elements that can potentially affect you. They are the factors that can put your business in danger or reduce your market share. Identifying them quickly can help you neutralize them. To find them, pay attention to current changes and market trends. For example, new competitors could present a threat.

Besides SWOT, do a deep buyer persona analysis. Your buyer persona represents your ideal customer. It gives a name and face to your target market by creating a semi fictional representation of it. At minimum it should include the following sections:

  • Who is your buyer? Here you'll need to pick up all the general information about your buyer profile, like demographic information and personal identifiers.
  • How can your buyer persona help your business? Define the goals and the primary and secondary challenges of your buyer persona and explain how your business and brand can help him/her obtain them.
  • Look at the challenges and needs of your customers and the most common complaints they have. Here, you can get some inspiration from the real comments you received during your research.
  • Define the marketing and sales messages that will be communicated in order to reach this potential customer.

2. Benchmark Against Your Competitors' Products and Services

This is another aspect in the overall analysis of external factors, but it deserves its own section within the marketing plan due to the important role it plays in the future of your business.

After assessing who your main competitors are, you'll need to answer the following questions:

  • What is their budget and their business volume? Big companies publish their annual or quarterly results, so the information is easily accessible. For smaller companies, you can try to ask for reports on databases such as einforma or asexor. Y ou can also extrapolate based on data such as the number of employees on staff (LinkedIn is very useful in these cases) or the breadth of their catalog.
  • What are the prices of their products or services? For B2C companies, this information is easy to find, while for B2B companies, you will have to do a little more research. Once you have this information, develop a price range and think of where you want to position your business.
  • What is their sales process? From the first contact until conversion, the customer journey of your competitors can provide a lot of clues for your business. The most common way to find out about this is by playing the “client” role and asking for the information yourself.
  • How do they get their clients? This refers to their marketing strategies. It is easy to find that out about their digital marketing strategies by checking their website, social networks, and any other digital channels. You can also use tools such as SEMrush and Google Alerts.

3. Objectives

Now that the starting points are clear, you have to define where you want to go and how to get there. It's time to set your marketing objectives.

This is one of the most important steps in any marketing plan, and perhaps the most neglected. Many times the management team sets unrealistic objectives based more on their "wishful thinking" than on the real and current standing of the company. To avoid this, always base the objectives on the SMART acronym:

  • S or "specific": the objectives must be specific. The "increase brand awareness" kind of goals are too broad because they could mean almost anything and be justified in many different ways. Instead, something like "increase brand mentions on social networks by 20%" would be more adequate.
  • M or "measurable": to know if a goal has been achieved, you have to be able to measure it. Therefore, in addition to defining the objectives with precision, you also need to clarify how you are going to measure them. Using the previous example, you could decide to measure the amount of brand mentions on a monthly basis through the Social Mention tool.
  • A or "achievable": Trying to become the next Amazon in two days only serves as a discouragement for your team. When you set objectives, you have to take into account the effort, time required, and other costs derived, always starting from your current situation. Then, you can establish whether the goal is realistic or not.
  • R or "relevant": for example, many digital marketers aim to increase their website visits. But if those visits are not "high quality" and do not lead to any conversions, in reality, they don't mean anything. The marketing objectives have to respond to the business objectives and be relevant.
  • T or "time-bound": every objective needs a time frame to make sense, so do not forget to define your deadlines.

4. Action Plan: Marketing Strategies

With all this work done, you have arrived to the heart of the marketing plan: what are the actions that will lead you to achieve your goals?

In this section, we will define the marketing strategies, always going from the broad to the specific. In the end, the steps to follow and the order in which they will be carried out need to be extremely clear.

To organize and classify the strategies, it is very common to use the famous "4 P of marketing" :

  • Product strategy. Even if you have a very well defined and positioned product line, changes always occur. For example, you can launch new products, change the positioning of existing ones or update packaging.
  • Price strategy. Here it is very useful to analyze the information that you have about the competition. You need to define the launch prices of new products, consider whether you should make changes to those already on the market and, perhaps most importantly, decide the strategy around discounts, promotions and offers. Do not forget to take into account seasonal campaigns, like for summer, Black Friday, Christmas, etc.
  • Sales and distribution strategy: if you have detected any weaknesses in the customer experience or simply want to optimize it, you can make changes in this area. For example, search for new suppliers, include new distribution channels such as online sales, improve delivery times, and reduce shipping costs.
  • Promotion and communication strategy: here all the actions come into play to make your brand known through both online and offline media. Given the rapid evolution of the online marketing environment and the digital habits of consumers, this is one of the sections that you will have to review the most over time.

5. Real Time Review of the Plan

Last but not least, you have to keep in mind that your marketing plan is not a one time thing. You must constantly modify it so that it always responds to the changing needs of the company.

For this to happen, it's best to organize regular meetings to evaluate the progress of the plan. The following five points can serve as guides for this:

  • Objectives: are the objectives set being met? Looking back, were they realistic, too ambitious, or did they fall short?
  • Compliance : are you following the actions planned? If you have strayed, why is that? If this is the case, it does not always make sense to correct these deviations; sometimes it's better to modify the plan and adapt if it is working.
  • Strategies : what are the most appropriate actions according to performance?
  • Budget : does the plan fit the current budget of your business? How is the plan affecting the income and expenses? Is it necessary to make modifications?
  • Review : refers to any modifications and extensions of the plan. For example, you can decide to complete the first version by adding a schedule of actions, assignments and tasks.

Marketing Plan Template

Once you have considered and analyzed the points above, you are ready to begin creating your own marketing plan. To get you started with this, we have a useful marketing plan template that you can access here . This will help you formulate your marketing plan and make sure that you are not missing any key steps or points.

All of the above will help set you on the path to success, as a great marketing plan will improve your ROI and results!

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How to Write a Marketing Plan That Works

August 27, 2018

by Jordan Wahl

business marketing plan definition

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Well, at least that’s what Benjamin Franklin thought. But frank ly (appreciate the pun here), I don’t disagree with him.

I’m sure you’ve learned this the hard way at some point in your life. You’ve failed miserably at something due to your lack of planning. The upside? We usually take away a valuable lesson from failure.

But let’s face it, no one likes to fail. So, when we can avoid it, we do at all costs.

Take, for example, marketing . Sometimes you only get one chance to get it right. This isn’t always the case, but for good measure, detailed planning becomes very important. And that’s where your marketing plan comes in.

If you’re here, I’m sure you know what marketing is. To most, it seems simple, but marketing isn’t all promoting and selling. It’s strategic; you need a plan. And in order to make that plan, you’ll not only need to understand your business, but also the customers you serve.

Marketing plan definition

A marketing plan is a document that gives guidelines for an organization’s marketing programs and allocations. In this plan the organization lays out its marketing strategy giving a detailed description of what their marketing efforts are and how they’ll carry them out. 

In this article, I’ll cover the details behind an effective marketing plan and share tips for how to start building yours.

How to write a marketing plan

Marketing plans are always prepared for a specific time frame; this is typically for a year’s length. But understand that these documents can change along the course of the year. Marketing plans are living guides that should both develop and shift as the business grows and changes. Considering the bulk of your marketing plan is your marketing strategy, let’s cover why you need a strategy behind your marketing plan in the first place.

And, be sure to download your free marketing plan template at the end of this article.  

Marketing strategy

In my mind, marketing plans are essential . Why? Because without them, you’re basically winging it. And if you think about it, not many lucrative, notable businesses are just “winging” their marketing efforts to get where they are. They have a strategy behind their success, and that strategy is reflected in their marketing plan.

While there are countless benefits to building out a marketing plan, I want to touch on some of the most important reasons your organization should add this to your marketing program and the benefits you will reap if it is done correctly.

Find weak points in your sales funnel

A major part of your marketing plan is the ability to better understand your customer’s journey through your sales funnel. Breaking down your customer’s journey allows you can find the weak points in each stage of your sales funnel. Identify spots where a customer may fall off . Consider sending an email or set up an SMS marketing campaign around this spot.

Once you’ve identified the areas that need improvement, you’ll have a better understanding of where you should focus your marketing efforts, where to implement changes, and what tactics to use.

Identify past failures and new opportunities

Unlike some business documents, marketing plans are useful from year to year. Instead of shoving the document in a folder never to be seen again, save marketing plans to see what worked in the past and what didn’t. If you can tweak past failures and identify new opportunities, you’ll be able to more aptly avoid mistakes you’ve made in the past.

Better end results

Marketing plans ensure that everyone on your team is on the same page when it comes to acknowledging goals, milestones and benchmarks. When you plan out the year and put that plan on paper, both old and new employees will be able to see the overall picture. This yields simpler, more cohesive processes and better results in the long run.

Marketing plans also help the organization to understand the budget and resources they need to achieve the goals that are in the plan, which is an important piece of executing the plan and achieving the desired end results.

Finally, marketing plans can help bridge the gap between marketers in an organization and other vendors they may be managing who need to be brought into the process as well, such as designers, public relations teams and freelancers. A solid marketing plan can improve communication across the board.

Creating a marketing plan

It’s time to get your plan on paper. When it comes to developing a marketing plan for your business, you’ll need to first, conduct market research (either formal or informal) and second, build your marketing strategy. In order to do that, there are some essential steps you need to take to start putting your plan together.

Your marketing plan will be broken into two major sections: your current business situation and your marketing strategy moving forward. Below you’ll find an outline to help you start writing your marketing plan. Although marketing plans will vary depending on your organization and its goals, your marketing plan should hit these main points.

Marketing plan outline

I. Executive summary

II. Company overview

A. Company description and mission

III. Situation analysis

A. Industry analysis

B. Competitive analysis

C. Customer pains and opportunities

D. SWOT analysis

IV. Marketing strategy

A. Segmentation and target market

B. Objectives and goals

C. Brand positioning

D. Marketing mix (4Ps)

E. Budget and financial projections

F. Implementation and evaluation  

Let’s elaborate on some of the more complex components of your marketing plan.  Below are the key steps you’ll need to take to start writing your marketing plan.

Understand your business and industry

The first step in your marketing research: being an expert on your business and your industry. You’re writing a marketing plan for your business, so it’s no surprise that you have to know your business and how it fits into the market. But this part shouldn’t be too hard, because let’s be honest, no one knows your business like you do.

I like to call this part a situation analysis; a deep look at your current situation both as a business, but also the current state of the industry you’re in.

Here are a few things you should take look at:

In your business analysis

  • Mission statement – What is your business about? What drives your top performers? What are your core values?
  • A SWOT ( S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities, T hreats) Analysis – Take a look at your company’s strengths and weaknesses as an organization, as well as opportunities for growth and any threats your company could potentially experience, and create a SWOT analysis with amazing SWOT analysis templates .

marketing plan SWOT

In your industry analysis

  • Industry growth – What does the annual growth of the industry look like? Is it expected to continue to grow? If so, at what rate?
  • External drivers – Have factors are contributing to the state of the industry now? What factors could contribute in the future?
  • Barriers to entry – What are the barriers to entry like? Are they high? Low? What is the market concentration like?

During this step, you’ll be gathering and classifying data about the market. You want to examine the market dynamics, patterns, and sales volume for the industry as a whole so you have a clear understanding of where you’re positioned within the industry.

Identify and analyze market competitors

Chances are you’re not the only company offering a service or product similar to yours. With that being said, it’s important to establish an edge over your competitors in order to be continue to sell and grow.

How do you do this? By knowing who your customers are and what they’re doing, so you can do it better. Understanding this starts with an analysis of your competition. Researching your competitors is an essential step in understanding what you’re up against.Here’s how to start your competitive analysis:

Identify top competitors

In order to analyze your competitors, you’ll have to know who they are. Whether you’re in a niche market or competing against hundreds of other companies, it’s important to identify who you’re up against. If you don’t know who your top competitors are, start by researching the type of service or product you are offering as if you’re the consumer, and you’ll find most of your top competitors right there.

Compare competitor content

Once you’ve identified your competitors, check out their content. You’ll not only want to analyze their content strategy, but also the quality of their content and how frequently they’re distributing it. But don’t only analyze it; recognize how it compares to yours.

Start by looking at different types of content that your competitors are distributing, see what they’re doing that works, and identify opportunities where you can outperform them.

Some types of content to analyze include:

  • Newsletter examples
  • Press release
  • Case study examples
  • Infographics
  • Buyer guides
  • Website content

If you can analyze this content and understand what your competitors are doing better than you, you can pinpoint the areas that your team should focus on to ensure you’re keeping up with, or better yet, outperforming, your competitors.

Look at competitors' SEO structure

So you’ve taken a look at their content strategy, quality, and frequency, but frankly, it doesn’t appear to be much different than yours. But there might still something they could be mastering that you’re not: search engine optimization (SEO) structure.

If you have any sort of website or blog, you know how important your SEO structure is to your website business success. So be sure to look at how your competitors are using keywords in:

  • Page titles
  • Header 1 (H1) tags
  • Internal links
  • Image alt text
  • meta descriptions

Many companies will attempt to outrank their competitors in keywords with high search volumes. While this might be an achievable goal, you should also focus on targeting additional keywords that you can try to rank for that your competitors might not be.

To help you generate a list of specific keywords to try to rank for, use the keyword explorer feature on SEO software sites such as  Ahrefs or Moz .

marketing plan keywords explorer

Analyze the competition's social media marketing strategy

Social media marketing is becoming increasingly important in maintaining a competitive edge. Companies are using social media to both share their content and interact with users. An essential step of your competitive analysis is to determine how your competitors are using social media to market themselves.

What type of information are they posting? How are they engaging with their users? What do their social media profiles look like? These are all questions to consider when looking at competitors’ social media. If you can identify what’s working and not working for them, you can adjust your own social media strategy to fit the needs of your consumers.

Rare is the case where companies don’t have a social media profile these days. But just because they have a profile, doesn’t mean they’re using it right. So, make sure you’re taking full advantage of social media, its marketing benefits, and its reach of a wider audience.

Define your target market

Next, you’ll want to take a look at your ideal customers - your target market. Because let’s face it, you can’t build a marketing strategy if you don’t know who you’re marketing to.

To define your target market, you’ll want to not only look at demographic information such as age, gender, etc., but you’ll want to take a deeper look at how your ideal customers behave and make decisions.

A great way to do this? Market segmentation. Market segmentation is the first step in determining who your marketing efforts should target because it creates subsets of a market based on characteristics like:

  • Demographics
  • Psychographics
  • Geographics

marketing plan market segmentation

Once you’ve segmented these groups, you can determine who you want to target and how you can reach them best.

After you’ve defined your target group, you should create a customer profile . By creating these buyer personas, you’re creating a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data of your current customers. The more you can learn about your target market, the easier it’ll be to reach them. Consider these elements when creating your customer profiles:

  • Location – Where do they live? Where do they not live?
  • Age – What is the age range?
  • Gender – What is their gender?
  • Interests – What are their interests?
  • Education Level – What is their education level?
  • Job Title – What field of work do your customers work in? What types of job titles do they have?
  • Income Level – What is their income range?
  • Relationship Status – What is their relationship status?
  • Language – What languages do people in this persona speak?
  • Favorite Websites – Why type of websites do they visit frequently?
  • Buying Motivation – What are their reasons for buying your product?
  • Buying Concerns – What are their concerns when buying your product?

Below is an example of a buyer persona profile, answering many of the questions above, to create a representation of a target customer.

marketing plan customer profile

Don’t skimp on mastering your buyer personas. If you don’t take the time to clearly define who you’re looking to target, you could miss getting your message across to those who you need to hear it most.

Set SMART goals

When you’re setting goals for your business, you need to be smart about them. No, really, they need to be SMART. As in, s pecific, m easurable, a chievable, r elevant, and t imely. But let’s talk a little bit about what they are and how you can write your own.

You want your goals to be clear and specific. Begin with answering the what, why, who, where, and which:

  • What are you trying to accomplish?
  • Why is this goal important?
  • Who needs to be involved?
  • Where is it located?
  • Which resources or limits are involved?

The only way to know if you have met, and are meeting, your goals is to make them measurable. What metrics are you going to use to determine if you meet the goal? Defining these makes the goal tangible by giving you a way to measure your progress along the way. These should also align with the implementation and evaluation plans in the end.

Your goals also need to be realistic and achievable. To make sure that they are, consider what makes these goals attainable. Understand what skills and resources you’ll need to accomplish the goal. If you don’t have the skills and resources you need, is it realistic that you can attain them? Your goals should challenge you, but they need to remain possible.

The goals you’re setting should relate to your broader business goals. So, this is to ensure your goal not only matters to you, but also aligns with other relevant goals.

Every goal needs a time frame. This is where you’re answering the “when” of the goal. This gives you a deadline and helps you remain focused on the long-term goal. Set yourself a realistic target date, and understand what you need to accomplish before this date.

Brand positioning

Brand positioning is the process of positioning your brand in the mind of your customers. It’s not a promotional tactic, but rather the core of your brand’s competitive strategy. Brand marketing is an important element of your marketing plan because you have to determine how to differentiate your brand in the eyes of your target customers.

Why are you unique? What makes you better than your competitors? What do you offer that your competitors do not?

When positioning your brand, be sure you have both a positioning statement and a value proposition.

Although commonly used interchangeably, they are different.

Your value proposition should represent the “big picture.” It reflects what your brand is promising to deliver, as well as reflects the range of benefits your company has to offer. It’s arguably the most important element of your marketing messaging.

Your positioning statement , on the other hand, is a subset of your value proposition. Unlike your value proposition, it focuses more on the specifics of your competitive differentiation.

By having both, you are you positioning yourself for long-term success.

Develop your marketing strategy

Now that you’ve defined your target customers, analyzed your competitors, and started to set goals, it’s time to create a marketing strategy that sets you up to reach those customers and those goals. This is your marketing mix .

What’s a marketing mix, you ask? It’s the foundation model of marketing. Often called the 4P’s of marketing, your marketing mix is the right combination of p roduct (or service), p rice, p lace, and p romotion.

Let’s take a quick look at these four elements:

Product (or service)

You need to make sure that you have the right product for your target market. If the product isn’t in demand, marketing it will be nearly impossible. As a marketer, your job is to figure out how you can offer a better product than your competitors.

Price is not only what your customers are seeing, and paying, for your product, but it’s directly related to your organization’s profits. There’s a fine line between a price that’s “just right” and “too much,” and it’s up to you to find that sweet spot.

Remember, pricing can play a part in shaping the perception of your product in consumers’ eyes. Pricing too low might make your product look inferior to competitors, but pricing too high might mean the cost outweighs the benefits for some consumers.

You’ll need to position and distribute your product in a place that’s convenient and accessible to your target market. This means you’ll need to understand your target market inside and out to determine the best placement and distribution strategy to reach them.

Your promotion strategy will vary depending on your product and budget. But realistically, this “P” gives you the most leeway. It all comes down to where and when you can get your marketing message to reach your target market. For example, you may consider various tactics such as:

  • Public relations
  • Advertising
  • Direct mail promotions
  • Social media

Marketing plan budget

Budgeting can be difficult, but it’s not something you want to overlook. Some companies are given an annual marketing budget, but if you’re not, plan to at least give an estimate based on previous years’ spend.

While an estimate is better than nothing, the more details you have when creating your marketing plan budget, the better. Once you’ve planned your marketing strategy and have an idea of the campaigns and tactics you’ll be executing throughout the year, you can develop a more specific budget.

A great way to set your marketing budget is to consider your return on investment (ROI) goal. If you have an ROI goal, you can use an ROI formula to calculate the amount of money you should be spending on your marketing efforts.

Marketing plan implementation and evaluation

The fun part: actually putting your plan into action. When it comes to implementing your marketing plan, you’ll want to recall your SMART goals. Each part of the marketing mix will most likely have separate implementation dates (depending on your timeline) and might require different amounts of attention and/or efforts.

You should have clearly planned who is in charge of what and when they are responsible for that portion of the plan. So, when actually implementing the plan, stick to this, and adjust accordingly if need be.

Post-implementation, you’ll need to measure the success of your marketing plan. Here you should be looking at the “measurable” details of your SMART goals. Recall the metrics you’re using to measure your efforts and use them to determine if your plan is actually succeeding or not.

You should also plan to measure progress along the way, not just at the end of the year. Depending on the specifics of your marketing plan, assess your progress quarterly, or even monthly.

Free marketing plan template

So, I’ve walked you through the steps of creating a marketing plan, now it's time to create your own!  Download the free marketing plan template and get started on your strategy.  (Or revamp what you already have in place!)

Your free template includes a marketing plan in PDF format for printing, or a Google doc you can edit and customize for your business. 

Get Your Free Marketing Plan 

Jordan Wahl photo

Jordan Wahl is a former content manager at G2. She holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She loves anything that puts her in her creative space. including writing, art, and music.

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  • Marketing |
  • How to create a winning marketing plan, ...

How to create a winning marketing plan, with 3 examples from world-class teams

Caeleigh MacNeil contributor headshot

A marketing plan helps leaders clearly visualize marketing strategies across channels, so they can ensure every campaign drives pipeline and revenue. In this article you’ll learn eight steps to create a winning marketing plan that brings business-critical goals to life, with examples from word-class teams.

quotation mark

To be successful as a marketer, you have to deliver the pipeline and the revenue.”

In other words—they need a well-crafted marketing plan.

Level up your marketing plan to drive revenue in 2024

Learn how to create the right marketing plan to hit your revenue targets in 2024. Hear best practices from marketing experts, including how to confidently set and hit business goals, socialize marketing plans, and move faster with clearer resourcing.

level up your marketing plan to drive revenue in 2024

7 steps to build a comprehensive marketing plan

How do you build the right marketing plan to hit your revenue goals? Follow these eight steps for success:

1. Define your plan

First you need to define each specific component of your plan to ensure stakeholders are aligned on goals, deliverables, resources, and more. Ironing out these details early on ensures your plan supports the right business objectives, and that you have sufficient resources and time to get the job done. 

Get started by asking yourself the following questions: 

What resources do I need? 

What is the vision?

What is the value?

What is the goal?

Who is my audience?

What are my channels?

What is the timeline?

For example, imagine you’re creating an annual marketing plan to improve customer adoption and retention in the next fiscal year. Here’s how you could go through the questions above to ensure you’re ready to move forward with your plan: 

I will need support from the content team, web team, and email team to create targeted content for existing customers. One person on each team will need to be dedicated full-time to this initiative. To achieve this, the marketing team will need an additional $100K in budget and one new headcount. 

What is the vision?  

To create a positive experience for existing customers, address new customer needs, and encourage them to upgrade. We’ll do this by serving them how-to content, new feature updates, information about deals and pricing, and troubleshooting guides. 

According to the Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) , CEOs and go-to-market leaders report that more than 60% of their net-new revenue will come from existing customers in 2023. By retaining and building on the customers we have, we can maintain revenue growth over time. 

To decrease the customer churn rate from 30% to 10%, and increase upgrades from 20% to 30% in the next fiscal year. 

All existing customers. 

The main channel will be email. Supporting marketing channels include the website, blog, YouTube, and social media. 

The first half of the next fiscal year. 

One of the most important things to do as you create your marketing strategy is to identify your target audience . As with all marketing, you need to know who you’re marketing to. If you’re having a hard time determining who exactly your target audience is, try the bullseye targeting framework . The bullseye makes it easy for you to determine who your target audience is by industry, geography, company size, psychographics, demographics, and more.

2. Identify key metrics for success 

Now it’s time to define what key marketing metrics you’ll use to measure success. Your key metrics will help you measure and track the performance of your marketing activities. They’ll also help you understand how your efforts tie back to larger business goals. 

Once you establish key metrics, use a goal-setting framework—like objectives and key results (OKRs) or SMART goals —to fully flush out your marketing objectives. This ensures your targets are as specific as possible, with no ambiguity about what should be accomplished by when. 

Example: If a goal of your marketing plan is to increase email subscriptions and you follow the SMART goal framework (ensuring your objective is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) your goal might look like this: Increase email subscription rate from 10% to 20% in H1 . 

3. Research your competition 

It’s easy to get caught up in your company’s world, but there’s a lot of value in understanding your competitors . Knowing how they market themselves will help you find opportunities to make your company stand out and capture more market share.

Make sure you’re not duplicating your competitors’ efforts. If you discover a competitor has already executed your idea, then it might be time to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm new ways to differentiate yourself.  By looking at your competitors, you might be surprised at the type of inspiration and opportunities you’ll find.

To stay ahead of market trends, conduct a SWOT analysis for your marketing plan. A SWOT analysis helps you improve your plan by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Example: If your competitor launches a social media campaign identical to what you had planned, go back to the drawing board and see how you can build off their campaign. Ask yourself: How can we differentiate our campaign while still getting our message across? What are the weaknesses of their campaign that we can capitalize on? What angles did they not approach?

4. Integrate your marketing efforts

Here’s where the fun comes in. Let’s dive into the different components that go into building a successful marketing plan. You’ll want to make sure your marketing plan includes multiple supporting activities that all add up into a powerful marketing machine. Some marketing plan components include: 

Lead generation

Social media

Product marketing

Public relations

Analyst relations

Customer marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Conversational marketing

Knowing where your consumer base spends the most time is significant for nailing this step. You need to have a solid understanding of your target audience before integrating your marketing efforts. 

Example: If your target audience is executives that spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, focus your social media strategy around placing branded content on LinkedIn. 

5. Differentiate with creative content

Forty-nine percent of marketers say visual images are hugely important to their content strategy. In other words, a clear brand and creative strategy is an essential component to every marketing plan. As you craft your own creative strategy, here are some tips to keep in mind: 

Speak to your audience: When defining your creative strategy, think about your audience—what you want them to feel, think, and do when they see your marketing. Will your audience find your creative work relevant? If your audience can’t relate to your creative work, they won’t feel connected to the story you’re trying to tell. 

Think outside the box: Find innovative ways to engage your audience, whether through video, animations, or interactive graphics. Know what screens your creative work will live on, whether desktop, mobile, or tablet, and make sure they display beautifully and load quickly across every type of device. 

Tie everything back to CTAs: It’s easy to get caught up in the creative process, so it’s important to never lose sight of your ultimate goal: Get your audience to take action. Always find the best way to display strong Calls to Action (CTAs) in your creative work. We live in a visual world—make sure your creative content counts.

Streamline creative production:   Once you’ve established a strong creative strategy, the next step is to bring your strategy to life in the production stage. It’s vital to set up a strong framework for your creative production process to eliminate any unnecessary back and forth and potential bottlenecks. Consider establishing creative request forms , streamlining feedback and approval processes, and taking advantage of integrations that might make your designers’ lives easier.

Example: If your brand is fun and approachable, make sure that shows in your creative efforts. Create designs and CTAs that spark joy, offer entertainment, and alleviate the pressure in choosing a partner.

6. Operationalize your marketing plan

Turn your plan into action by making goals, deliverables, and timelines clear for every stakeholder—so teams stay accountable for getting work done. The best way to do this is by centralizing all the details of your marketing plan in one platform , so teams can access the information they need and connect campaign work back to company goals.  

With the right work management tool , you can: 

Set goals for every marketing activity, and connect campaign work to overarching marketing and business objectives so teams focus on revenue-driving projects. 

Centralize deliverables for your entire marketing plan in one project or portfolio .

Mark major milestones and visualize your plan as a timeline, Gantt chart, calendar, list, or Kanban board—without doing any extra work. 

Quickly loop in stakeholders with status updates so they’re always up to date on progress. This is extremely important if you have a global team to ensure efforts aren’t being duplicated. 

Use automations to seamlessly hand off work between teams, streamlining processes like content creation and reviews. 

Create dashboards to report on work and make sure projects are properly staffed , so campaigns stay on track. 

With everything housed in one spot, you can easily visualize the status of your entire marketing plan and keep work on track. Building an effective marketing plan is one thing, but how you operationalize it can be your secret to standout marketing.

Example: If your strategy focuses on increasing page views, connect all campaign work to an overarching OKR—like “we will double page views as measured by the amount of organic traffic on our blog.” By making that goal visible to all stakeholders, you help teams prioritize the right work. 

See marketing planning in action

With Asana, marketing teams can connect work, standardize processes, and automate workflows—all in one place.

See marketing planning in action

7. Measure performance

Nearly three in four CMOs use revenue growth to measure success, so it’s no surprise that measuring performance is necessary. You established your key metrics in step two, and now it’s time to track and report on them in step eight.

Periodically measure your marketing efforts to find areas of improvement so you can optimize in real-time. There are always lessons to be learned when looking at data. You can discover trends, detect which marketing initiatives performed well, and course-correct what isn’t performing well. And when your plan is complete, you can apply these learnings to your next initiative for improved results. 

Example: Say you discover that long-form content is consistently bringing in 400% more page views than short-form content. As a result, you’ll want to focus on producing more long-form content in your next marketing plan.

Marketing plan examples from world-class teams

The best brands in the world bring their marketing plans to life every day. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these examples from successful marketing teams.

Autodesk grows site traffic 30% three years in a row

When the Autodesk team launched Redshift, it was initially a small business blog. The editorial team executed a successful marketing plan to expand it into a premier owned-media site, making it a destination for stories and videos about the future of making. 

The team scaled content production to support seven additional languages. By standardizing their content production workflow and centralizing all content conversations in one place, the editorial team now publishes 2X more content monthly. Read the case study to learn more about how Autodesk runs a well-oiled content machine.

Sony Music boosts creative production capacity by 4X

In recent years the music industry has gone through a pivotal transition—shifting from album sales to a streaming business model. For marketing and creative teams at Sony Music, that meant adopting an “always on” campaign plan. 

The team successfully executed this campaign plan by centralizing creative production and approvals in one project. By standardizing processes, the team reduced campaign production time by 75%. Read the case study to learn more about how Sony Music successfully scaled their creative production process.

Trinny London perfects new customer acquisition 

In consumer industries, social media is crucial for building a community of people who feel an affinity with the brand—and Trinny London is no exception. As such, it was imperative that Trinny London’s ad spend was targeted to the correct audience. Using a work management tool, Trinny London was able to nail the process of creating, testing, and implementing ads on multiple social channels.

With the help of a centralized tool, Trinny London improved its ad spend and drove more likes and subscriptions on its YouTube page. Read the case study to learn more about how Trinny London capitalized on paid advertising and social media. 

Turn your marketing plan into marketing success 

A great marketing plan promotes clarity and accountability across teams—so every stakeholder knows what they’re responsible for, by when. Reading this article is the first step to achieving better team alignment, so you can ensure every marketing campaign contributes to your company’s bottom line. 

Use a free marketing plan template to get started

Once you’ve created your marketing strategy and are ready to operationalize your marketing plan, get started with one of our marketing templates . 

Our marketing templates can help you manage and track every aspect of your marketing plan, from creative requests to approval workflows. Centralize your entire marketing plan in one place, customize the roadmap, assign tasks, and build a timeline or calendar. 

Once you’ve operationalized your entire marketing plan with one of our templates, share it with your stakeholders so everyone can work together in the same tool. Your entire team will feel connected to the marketing plan, know what to prioritize, and see how their work contributes to your project objectives . Choose the best marketing template for your team:

Marketing project plan template

Marketing campaign plan template

Product marketing launch template

Editorial calendar template

Agency collaboration template

Creative requests template

Event planning template

GTM strategy template

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that outlines the different strategies your team will use to achieve organizational objectives. Rather than focusing solely on the end goal, a marketing plan maps every step you need to reach your destination—whether that’s driving pipeline for sales, nurturing your existing customer base, or something in-between. 

As a marketing leader, you know there’s never a shortage of great campaign and project ideas. A marketing plan gives you a framework to effectively prioritize work that aligns to overarching business goals—and then get that work done. Some elements of marketing plans include:

Current business plan

Mission statement  

Business goals

Target customers  

Competitive analysis 

Current marketing mix

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Marketing budget  

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

The purpose of a marketing plan is to grow your company’s consumer base and strengthen your brand, while aligning with your organization’s mission and vision . The plan should analyze the competitive landscape and industry trends, offer actionable insights to help you gain a competitive advantage, and document each step of your strategy—so you can see how your campaigns work together to drive overarching business goals. 

What is the difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy? 

A marketing plan contains many marketing strategies across different channels. In that way, marketing strategies contribute to your overall marketing plan, working together to reach your company’s overarching business goals.

For example, imagine you’re about to launch a new software product and the goal of your marketing plan is to drive downloads. Your marketing plan could include marketing strategies like creating top-of-funnel blog content and launching a social media campaign. 

What are different types of marketing plans? 

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, what your timeline is, or which facet of marketing you’re driving, you’ll need to create a different type of marketing plan. Some different types of marketing plans include, but aren’t limited to:

General marketing plan: A general marketing plan is typically an annual or quarterly marketing plan that details the overarching marketing strategies for the period. This type of marketing plan outlines marketing goals, the company’s mission, buyer personas, unique selling propositions, and more. A general marketing plan lays the foundation for other, more specific marketing plans that an organization may employ. 

Product launch marketing plan: A product launch marketing plan is a step-by-step plan for marketing a new product or expanding into a new market. It helps you build awareness and interest by targeting the right audience, with the right messaging, in the right timeframe—so potential customers are ready to buy your new offering right away. Nailing your product launch marketing plan can reinforce your overall brand and fast-track sales. For a step-by-step framework to organize all the moving pieces of a launch, check out our product marketing launch template .

Paid marketing plan: This plan includes all the paid strategies in your marketing plan, like pay-per-click, paid social media advertising, native advertising, and display advertising. It’s especially important to do audience research prior to launching your paid marketing plan to ensure you’re maximizing ROI. Consult with content strategists to ensure your ads align with your buyer personas so you know you’re showing ads to the right people. 

Content marketing plan: A content marketing plan outlines the different content strategies and campaigns you’ll use to promote your product or service. When putting together a content marketing plan, start by identifying your audience. Then use market research tools to get the best insights into what topics your target audience is most interested in.

SEO marketing plan: Your SEO marketing plan should work directly alongside your content marketing plan as you chart content that’s designed to rank in search results. While your content marketing plan should include all types of content, your SEO marketing plan will cover the top-of-funnel content that drives new users to your site. Planning search engine-friendly content is only one step in your SEO marketing plan. You’ll also need to include link-building and technical aspects in order to ensure your site and content are as optimized as possible.

Social media marketing plan: This plan will highlight the marketing strategies you plan to accomplish on social media. Like in any general or digital marketing plan , your social media strategy should identify your ideal customer base and determine how they engage on different social media platforms. From there, you can cater your social media content to your target audience.  

Market Business News

What is a Marketing Plan? Definition and Examples

If you want to be sure that your company will grow, you should have a marketing plan, i.e., a marketing strategy for your products or services for the next year, half year, or quarter.

Do you have a marketing plan - marketing plan definition article

A marketing plan is an outline or document in which all your marketing and advertising efforts for a given period are laid out in detail.

Your marketing plan should contain an overview of the marketing and advertising goals of your company. It compares your current marketing position with where you would like to be at a given time in future. It also details how you plan to get there.

Marketing Plan – Timeline

Timeline - Marketing Plan Definition Article

A six-month or twelve-month marketing plan, for example, contains a timeline which shows when certain tasks will be carried out.

At various points during that period, you should include a description of how you will measure the success of your actions.

According to the Corporate Finance Institute :

“A marketing plan is a document that lays out the marketing efforts of a business in an upcoming period, which is usually a year. It outlines the marketing strategy, promotional, and advertising activities planned for the period.”

The Marketplace, Rivals, and Market Research

Your marketing plan can help you and other employees gain a better understanding of the marketplace and and the behavior of your main rivals. It shows you which way to move forward, i.e., which direction to take for future tasks.

Before creating your plan, you will need to gather and analyze vital information, which market research can provide .

Marketing Plan Includes Your Goals and Objectives

You must specify what your goals are , such as boosting market share from 10% to 15%, plus how you plan to get there.

How you plan to get there, i.e., what you will do each month, are your objectives . The ultimate aim – to reach 15% market share – is your goal. Hence the term, goals and objectives.

Marketing Budget

Image about Marketing Budget

It is not possible to have a six- or twelve-month plan without working out how much it will all cost. Make sure you include a detailed outline of your company’s allocation of financial resources for marketing activities, i.e., you need to have a marketing budget.

It is also important to keep within the stated budget – don’t overspend.

A good marketing plan can help your business grow solidly. It can help you reach your goals, and will give you a clearer view of not only what needs to be done, but also why.

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Marketing Plan

By Entrepreneur Staff

Marketing Plan Definition:

The written document that describes your advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year; it includes a statement of the marketing situation, a discussion of target markets and company positioning and a description of the marketing mix you intend to use to reach your marketing goals

A company needs a marketing plan just as it needs a business plan. Here's how to write a five-part marketing plan that works as hard as you do:

Section 1: Situation Analysis This introductory section contains an overview of your situation as it exists today and will provide a useful benchmark as you adapt and refine your plan in the coming months. Begin with a short description of your current product or service offering, the marketing advantages and challenges you face, and a look at the threats posed by your competitors. Describe any outside forces that will affect your business in the coming year--this can be anything from diminished traffic levels due to construction if you're a retailer or a change in law that could affect a new product introduction if you're an inventor, for example.

Section 2: Target Audience All that's needed here is a simple, bulleted description of your target audiences. If you're marketing to consumers, write a target-audience profile based on demographics, including age, gender and any other important characteristics. B2B marketers should list your target audiences by category (such as lawyers, doctors, shopping malls) and include any qualifying criteria for each.

Section 3: Goals In one page or less, list your company's marketing goals for the coming year. The key is to make your goals realistic and measurable so that you can easily evaluate your performance. "Increase sales of peripherals" is an example of an ineffective goal. You'd be in a much better position to gauge your marketing progress with a goal such as, "Increase sales of peripherals 10 percent in the first quarter, 15 percent in the second quarter, 15 percent in the third quarter and 10 percent in fourth quarter."

Section 4: Strategies and Tactics This section will make up the bulk of your plan, and you should take as much space as you need to give an overview of your marketing strategies and list each of the corresponding tactics you'll employ to execute them. Here's an example: A client of mine markets videotape and equipment. One of her goals is to increase sales to large ministries in three states by 20 percent. Together we've developed a strategy that includes making a special offer each month to this prospect group, and one of her tactics is to use monthly e-mails to market to an in-house list.

Your tactics section should include all the actionable steps you plan to take for advertising, public relations, direct mail, trade shows and special promotions. You can use a paper calendar to schedule your tactics or use a contact manager or spreadsheet program--what matters most is that you stick to your schedule and follow through. A plan on paper is only useful if it's put into action.

Section 5: Budget Breakdown The final section of your plan includes a brief breakdown of the costs associated with each of your tactics. So if you plan to exhibit at three trade shows per year, for example, you'll include the costs to participate in the shows and prepare your booth and marketing materials. If you find the tactics you've selected are too costly, you can go back and make revisions before you arrive at a final budget.

You can adapt this plan as your business grows and your marketing programs evolve. You'll find it's a simple tool you can't afford to be without.

More from Marketing

Competition.

Rivalry in business, as for customers or markets

Competitive Analysis

Identifying your competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your own product or service

Competitive Intelligence

The process of gathering actionable information on your business's competitive environment

Competitive Matrix

A chart that compares your product or service to your competitor(s)

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What Is a Marketing Plan and How Do You Make One?

Renowned management consultant and educator Peter Drucker once said that businesses exist to create customers, which means a business enterprise has two, and only two, core functions: innovation and marketing.

Drucker also adds : “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

These quotes make for great soundbites, but the data also confirms just how important marketing is to the success of a business. 

The Wall Street Journal , citing research from Deloitte’s CMO Survey, notes that marketing is responsible for driving revenue growth among 38.4 percent of companies. These companies also spend more money on marketing (roughly 14.5 percent of their overall budgets) than businesses that don’t see marketing as a primary revenue driver. 

At its most basic, marketing is how you get people to learn about your business so they can pay for your products and services. Without marketing, your customers wouldn’t know your business exists. Without customers, your business has no purpose. So clearly, marketing is good, right? 

Yes, but there’s a catch: marketing can create a business, but only if it’s done right. 

What often happens is that your average small business will try a few marketing tactics and ‘wing it,’ only to see minor to moderate success. Others might be lucky enough to score big but eventually find themselves unable to scale their marketing strategies as the enterprise grows and product demand increases.

To prevent this from happening, businesses need a roadmap—a blueprint that guides their marketing efforts to focus on clear goals, objectives, and tactics.

That’s where a marketing plan comes in. But first, let’s define what a marketing plan is.

What is a marketing plan?

According to marketing professors and authors Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller , a marketing plan documents how a business’s strategic objectives can be achieved through specific marketing activities, with the customer being the focal point.

It’s essentially a document that outlines your organization’s marketing strategy and tactics, ideally throughout a specific time frame—usually by month, quarter, or year. 

Creating a marketing plan seems intimidating, but it’s usually nothing more than a straightforward Word document that the business owner can use as a marketing playbook. If you want to make it fancier or work on a progress report for your plan, sign up for a free account on Piktochart . Graphic design experience is not needed, and you can easily create a report , presentation , or infographic by starting out with a design template .

Let’s say you’re considering investing in radio advertising. Does a sizable portion of your target audience even listen to the radio? If yes, is the cost of radio advertising worth the increase in revenue—in other words, is it cost-effective? 

Your marketing plan, and the research that goes into creating it, will help you answer these questions. 

Every marketer knows that there’s no shortage of fantastic ideas and things to try out when it comes to marketing. A marketing plan helps you prioritize ideas and activities relevant to your goals, allowing you to be effective and efficient with your work. 

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy

You’ll often hear the terms ‘marketing plan’ and ‘marketing strategy’ used interchangeably, but they mean two different things.

  • Marketing strategy : A marketing strategy explains the goals and objectives behind your marketing efforts. Your strategy and business goals go hand-in-hand, a relationship that explains the “What” and “Why” of your marketing activities.
  • Marketing plan : A marketing plan explains how you will use your marketing activities to achieve your business goals. It documents the application of your strategy and how specific marketing tactics can bring you from Point A to Point B. 

Here’s a practical example of a marketing plan and marketing strategy:

  • Business goal: To grow sales by 20 percent year-over-year
  • Marketing strategy: Break into the previously untapped 18 to 25 market segment.
  • Marketing plan: Create a marketing campaign that focuses on reaching out to young customers on their preferred social media platforms. 

While the difference between a marketing plan and marketing strategy can seem arbitrary, failing to understand the two concepts is where many business owners and marketers make mistakes.

The issue is that people proceed to the “how” of marketing without first understanding the “what” and “why,” which often leads to a disjointed marketing effort that wastes both time and money.

Components of a marketing plan

While different marketers will have their own take on how to make a marketing plan, most of them will agree that a basic marketing plan checklist should include the following elements:

  • An overview of your company’s business goals and marketing goals
  • An overview of your marketing position in your niche/industry
  • A timeline for executing your marketing activities
  • Key performance indicators to measure your marketing efforts’ success
  • An overview of your business’s target audience
  • A description of your current marketing capabilities and infrastructure 

Your plan’s scope will ultimately depend on your specific business and marketing goals, as well as the nature of your organization. 

How to make a crystal clear marketing plan

Finally, it’s time to dive into creating a plan. 

Whether you’re doing it for your business, for a client, or for an academic paper, learning how to make a marketing plan forces you to slow down and think strategically. 

It helps you see great marketing as the product of a fine-tuned machine, one with specific parts working in conjunction with one another, which we’ll cover below. 

You can jump straight to each section by clicking on the links. 

  • Define your goals
  • Select key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Create buyer personas
  • Research your competition
  • Nail your positioning
  • Key baseline and metrics
  • Identify clear processes and tactics
  • Track your results

1. Define your goals

The process of marketing an enterprise and its offerings begins by identifying why there’s a need to market them in the first place. 

As mentioned earlier, any marketing goal you wish to achieve must be aligned with your overall business goals. 

Perhaps the simplest way to go about setting marketing goals is to ask yourself questions such as:

  • “How do we want our customers to feel about our brand?”
  • “What do our buyers really want to know about our product?”
  • “How can marketing activities integrate with our business initiatives?” 
  • “Do we really understand what motivates our customers?”
  • “Where does the business currently stand in the industry?”

Remember, any goal you choose for your marketing efforts must be realistic . You can use a framework like the SMART system to plan and achieve practical marketing goals.

how to write smart goals

Consider this example of a non-SMART goal:

  • “I want to increase my company’s social media following.”

Sure, it’s a good goal, but it leaves many questions unanswered.

What kind of increase are we talking about? Which social media platforms will be involved? How long do we expect this effort to take place? 

In contrast, the SMART version of this goal could look like this:

  • I want to increase my Facebook followers by at least 1,000 users over the next three months. To do this, I am going to run a promotion on my Facebook page that incentivizes Likes

To break this goal down:

  • It identifies a Specific end-result of increasing the number of Facebook followers
  • The goal of 1,000 users means we can Measure this goal 
  • It identifies an Actionable tactic of running a promotion that incentivizes Likes
  • We can assume it’s a Relevant goal if Facebook is an important marketing platform for the business (this depends on your situation)
  • Its specific time frame of three months makes it Time-bound

Bottom line? Well-defined SMART goals are crucial to guide your marketing activities. If you are clear about the results you want to achieve, it will be easier to make a marketing plan that gets you there.

2. Choose your KPIs

Now that you have a good idea about your goals, it’s time to define what key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll be using to measure the success of your marketing efforts. 

Your core KPIs will help you understand the performance of your marketing activities, telling you whether things are going according to your plan or going awry. 

Another reason to set SMART goals is the ease of connecting measurable goals with relevant KPIs. 

Going back to the goal of increasing your Facebook Likes, we can easily tack on Facebook Likes, Audience Growth, and Visits as relevant KPIs. Your SMART goal also sets an appropriate timeline for reaching your target KPI growth—in the earlier example, we want to generate 1,000 Likes in three months.

Just remember that when choosing KPIs for your plan, focus on the metrics within your control. 

KPIs like bounce rate, which Google refers to as the “percentage of all sessions on your site in which users viewed only a single page and triggered only a single request to the Analytics server,” seem bad but aren’t necessarily so, if you think about it. 

For example, a user can visit your site, find the information they’re looking for, and leave right after. There’s nothing wrong with that, which is why tracking your bounce rate can sometimes be an exercise in futility. 

Alternatively, you could also consider using the OKR framework .

3. Create buyer personas

As Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller explained, any marketing plan must begin with the customer. 

They receive your marketing messages, so it’s important that whatever information you communicate is actually relevant to them. 

The issue here is that many business owners rely on guesswork when identifying their audience. Some marketers will make an educated guess based on interactions with existing customers, while others simply go by who they think their customers are.

Either way, no marketing plan outline should be based on conjecture, not when you can use research to create buyer personas.

According to Hubspot , “A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.”

A persona provides marketers with a reference for who they are marketing to, ensuring that any message and activity is targeted towards a group of people who match your ideal customer profile. A buyer persona will provide information such as:

  • Who your ideal customers are (demographics and location)
  • What kind of challenges do they face (work, education, industry)
  • Where they like to hang out online (social media, websites perused)
  • What their media consumption habits are (TV, radio, print, Internet browsing habits)
  • What their unmet needs are 
  • How your business can solve their problems

The simplest way to get this information is to just talk to your customers, either in person, chat or over the phone. 

You can take things a notch higher by hosting focus group discussions or running audience surveys. You can also research other businesses in your industry to understand who their audience is. 

Note that your target audience is not a monolith. If you have multiple product lines, for example, you may be looking at a particular market segment for each category. This means that you can and should create personas for different customers. 

When complete, a buyer persona should look like this.

user persona example

Read more about creating personas in our user persona research guide . 

4. Research your competition

Too often, marketers get caught up in their organization and see it as the center of the world. It’s important to detach yourself from the company every once in a while and visit your competitors to conduct competitive analysis.

According to Entrepreneur , competitor analysis helps you establish what makes your product and service unique, which, in turn, shows you which attributes you can market to attract your audience. 

The idea isn’t to mimic your competitors’ actions but rather to understand how rival businesses are marketing themselves. This will help you identify opportunities to market your own brand in new ways.

There are different ways to do this. McKinsey, for example, recommends using a competitor-insight loop to get into your competitors’ mindset. 

competitor insight loop

Of course, any competitive analysis must begin with data gathering. While tools and platforms like SimilarWeb, BuzzSumo, and Alexa can provide all kinds of information on your competitors for a relatively small fee, you can always take the hands-on (and free) approach to research your competition. 

Simply assume the role of a customer and check out what marketing activities businesses in the same niche are doing. You can do this by:

  • Reading their latest blog entries
  • Keeping tabs on them on social media
  • Subscribe to their newsletter
  • Adding a product to the cart on their site and monitor the follow-up emails you get
  • You can even purchase a product to evaluate your customer experience

Whatever the case, be sure to document your findings, taking detailed notes on the tactics you see. What kind of engagement do they get on social media? What kind of content are they producing, and which ones receive the highest engagement? What kind of promotions do they push through email? How do they respond to shopping cart abandonment? 

Using these insights, you can then include a detailed overview of your competition in your plan. 

5. Nail your positioning

Product positioning is the process of determining how to communicate your products to your target audience based on customer needs, your market position, relevant communication channels, and targeted messages. 

Strategic product positioning is crucial to any marketing plan because it can be the foundation of your overarching marketing strategy plan. By understanding who your audience is and what their needs are, you can align your product with these factors in new and creative ways.

In fact, the research you perform on your audience, combined with an understanding of your product’s benefits, can reveal new market segments that you may not have even considered relevant before. 

This is a strategy that Old Spice used in their advertising campaign “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” whose inaugural TV spot , starring Isaiah Mustafa, has now racked up over 56 million views on YouTube.

The campaign was the product of new product positioning, one that focused on women instead of men.

In an interview with the LA Times , James Moorhead, Old Spice’s former brand manager, said, “In recent memory, we haven’t targeted women directly. So our goal was to find a way to reach out to them. We wanted an ad that men and women would enjoy together.”

Old Spice’s targeting of women was in direct contrast with Unilever’s Axe brand, whose risqué ads told men that women would literally come running after them if they used their body spray. 

Again, the key takeaway here is to understand your product, your current market position, and your customers’ needs. While larger companies have the budgets for extensive market research, small businesses can do their own research simply by talking to their customers and asking questions such as:

  • What do you like about our product?
  • Would you recommend our product to your family and friends? Which features would you highlight?
  • What would you like to see in our product/product line in the near future?

This research can uncover a goldmine of insights to guide your future product positioning strategies. You may even discover new markets you can pivot to.

6. Key baseline and metrics

Maya Angelou once said that “If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”

It seems ridiculous to use a revered poet’s words for marketing, but it’s actually more relevant than you think. For starters, you can’t make a marketing plan that steers you towards specific results without first knowing where your brand currently stands. 

It’s for this reason that every marketing plan must be based on a clearly defined baseline for you to measure the incremental value of your marketing activities.

A baseline is simply the starting point of the value your current marketing activities are generating. When expressed in numerical form, this value is presented as a metric. 

An example of an important marketing metric is customer engagement, which describes how your customers interact with your marketing messages. Customer engagement is a top metric because engaged people are more likely to pay for your offering. 

By knowing your current engagement levels (perhaps on social media, for example), you can identify a baseline to measure your progress accurately and see what’s working (or what’s not).

For example, instead of just saying, “Our engagement rate on Facebook increased by 25 percent last quarter,” you can say, “Our Facebook engagement rate increased by 25 percent last quarter and 18 percent is attributable to our infographics posted during that period.”

7. Identify clear processes and tactics

Now it’s time to get specific. It’s at this stage where many marketing teams have been known to drop the ball, creating well-thought-out strategies that never come to fruition because they don’t come with clear steps and processes to get the wheels turning. 

One way to ensure your marketing plan includes a series of actionable steps and tactics is to use a framework that demands them. One such framework is the SOSTAC® Planning System , developed by PR Smith.

marketing plan, marketing growth wheel

The SOSTAC system is especially effective because it details not only your marketing tactics but also the actions behind these tactics, including: 

  • Responsibilities and structures
  • Marketing processes and systems
  • Internal resources
  • Required skills
  • External agencies/talent, if necessary
  • Resource allocation

Paired with your SMART goals, the SOSTAC system should give you a clear roadmap of marketing activities driven by clear timelines and specific objectives. 

8. Track your results

Finally, your marketing plan should also include a system for measuring your plan’s success. This will help you understand your marketing activities’ effectiveness (or lack thereof) and determine the ROI of your marketing campaigns.

How you measure your marketing plan depends on your chosen KPIs and baseline metrics. At the very least, they should help you answer questions such as:

  • What KPIs and metrics should I be tracking? 
  • What tools and platforms will I use to track results?
  • How often will I measure my marketing activities?

Your answers to these questions can help you detect trends that may yield more value. For example, if you discover that video posts on Facebook generate more engagement, you’ll want to focus on creating more videos in your next marketing plan. 

Marketing plan examples

1. fedex marketing plan.

This presentation offers a marketing plan in response to threats determined during the researchers’ SWOT analysis of FedEx.

Visually, one of the strengths of this marketing plan example is its use of the FedEx logo as a backdrop for the presentation. The visual repetition enhances brand awareness.

2. Lush marketing plan

Lush Marketing Plan

Publish at Calameo

This marketing plan example is presented as a magazine and analyzes cosmetics retailer Lush’s market. Apart from market segmentation and marketing mix, it discusses the packaging and the retail experience – two essential drivers of Lush’s brand image.

It also offers a value matrix that maps out the brand’s mission, vision, and values against their appeal to a consumer’s mind, heart, and spirit.

3. Coca-Cola marketing plan

This marketing plan is a stellar example by one of the world’s most recognizable brands.

Released in 2011, the Coca-Cola Content 2020 Initiative video presented the company’s emerging content marketing strategy, along with how they planned to achieve their goals and evaluate their actions. The gist is to focus on storytelling and creating conversations about the brand.

Do watch the entire video – it’s worth your 18 minutes. Apart from learning about a major brand’s content marketing strategy plan, you’ll get a visual surprise at the end.

4. Uber marketing plan

This marketing plan example dives into the 4 Ps of marketing – product, price, place (here called distribution), and promotion (specifically, marketing communications) – as they relate to Uber.

It also presents a monthly action plan, a budget, and controls. One example of controls is how to quickly respond to the failure of Uber kiosks, which the researchers propose to set up in high-traffic urban areas so that people without smartphones can still book a ride.

Notice how the presentation mimics the minimalist Uber branding aesthetics.

5. Naperville Park District strategic marketing plan

naperville marketing plan, marketing plan example

This is the most comprehensive marketing plan example on the list and spans four years. But as the organization notes in its conclusion, this plan is “a living document that will be updated as the District moves forward on implementing the goals as defined in the 5-year Strategic Plan.”

Their statement gives two important points about a marketing plan. One is that it can be adjusted as you implement and evaluate it. The other is that it should be based on a strategy that points towards a longer-term vision.

You can read the entire 79-page plan here .

6. Heavenly Pies marketing plan

In this hypothetical marketing plan example for a pie business, the University of Tennessee cautions business owners against getting “so involved in details that they lose sight of their goals” when writing a marketing plan.

Their antidote? Keep paragraphs simple.

One way they achieve simplicity is by using bullet points and lists. You can see these in their introduction, analyses, and advertising plan.

They also present an easy-to-read budget on page six and a marketing plan checklist at the end.

7. Stericycle marketing plan

This marketing plan example comes from the Marketing-Based Management book by Roger Best. It’s split into three sections: the situation analysis, marketing strategy, and performance plan.

One of the strengths of this marketing plan example is its extensive use of data as a foundation for its analyses and strategies. Data and processes are presented in diagrams so readers can digest them more easily.

Marketing plan templates to help you along the way

Sometimes, you may need to present only a part of your marketing plan. We’ve got you covered with our marketing strategy and customer acquisition templates. Sign up for a free Piktochart account to access our online presentation maker .

Marketing Strategy template

This marketing strategy plan template presents your overarching strategy for driving customers down the acquisition funnel.

When you use this marketing strategy template , you begin with an overview of the funnel stages:

marketing strategy plan template

You then explain your strategy for acquiring customers in each step, from awareness all the way down to referral.

funnel stages examples, how to make a marketing plan

Customer Acquisition Funnel

This template is similar to the marketing strategy presentation above, except that it focuses on the channels you’ll use throughout the customer acquisition funnel.

customer acquisition funnel, marketing plan template

It’s ideal to use this funnel template when explaining a digital marketing strategy and plan, as it emphasizes online channels and user experience.

Now you have the tools to make beautiful and effective marketing plan presentations . Try them out to create your own visually attractive marketing plans.

Bringing it all together

So, there you have it: eight basic components you will find in most marketing plans today. While it may seem that creating a marketing plan is the end goal, it’s important to see it as a living document—one that should be revisited from time to time to assess its effectiveness and relevance to your current circumstances.

Like a business plan, marketing plans must evolve and scale alongside your organization, especially as you serve more customers, release more products, and change with the times. A plan that worked last year, or even last quarter, may no longer work today. 

Once you’re ready to develop a marketing plan of your own, get started with Piktochart’s visual templates. Sign up or log in to Piktochart to make our sample marketing plan templates your own.  

Create presentations, reports, infographics, and more.

With Piktochart, you don’t need graphic design experience to make beautiful visuals. We made it easy. Watch this demo to learn more.

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What is a Business Plan? Definition, Tips, and Templates

AJ Beltis

Published: June 07, 2023

In an era where more than 20% of small enterprises fail in their first year, having a clear, defined, and well-thought-out business plan is a crucial first step for setting up a business for long-term success.

Business plan graphic with business owner, lightbulb, and pens to symbolize coming up with ideas and writing a business plan.

Business plans are a required tool for all entrepreneurs, business owners, business acquirers, and even business school students. But … what exactly is a business plan?

businessplan_0

In this post, we'll explain what a business plan is, the reasons why you'd need one, identify different types of business plans, and what you should include in yours.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a documented strategy for a business that highlights its goals and its plans for achieving them. It outlines a company's go-to-market plan, financial projections, market research, business purpose, and mission statement. Key staff who are responsible for achieving the goals may also be included in the business plan along with a timeline.

The business plan is an undeniably critical component to getting any company off the ground. It's key to securing financing, documenting your business model, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.

What is a business plan used for?

The purpose of a business plan is three-fold: It summarizes the organization’s strategy in order to execute it long term, secures financing from investors, and helps forecast future business demands.

Business Plan Template [ Download Now ]

businessplan_2

Working on your business plan? Try using our Business Plan Template . Pre-filled with the sections a great business plan needs, the template will give aspiring entrepreneurs a feel for what a business plan is, what should be in it, and how it can be used to establish and grow a business from the ground up.

Purposes of a Business Plan

Chances are, someone drafting a business plan will be doing so for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Securing financing from investors.

Since its contents revolve around how businesses succeed, break even, and turn a profit, a business plan is used as a tool for sourcing capital. This document is an entrepreneur's way of showing potential investors or lenders how their capital will be put to work and how it will help the business thrive.

All banks, investors, and venture capital firms will want to see a business plan before handing over their money, and investors typically expect a 10% ROI or more from the capital they invest in a business.

Therefore, these investors need to know if — and when — they'll be making their money back (and then some). Additionally, they'll want to read about the process and strategy for how the business will reach those financial goals, which is where the context provided by sales, marketing, and operations plans come into play.

2. Documenting a company's strategy and goals.

A business plan should leave no stone unturned.

Business plans can span dozens or even hundreds of pages, affording their drafters the opportunity to explain what a business' goals are and how the business will achieve them.

To show potential investors that they've addressed every question and thought through every possible scenario, entrepreneurs should thoroughly explain their marketing, sales, and operations strategies — from acquiring a physical location for the business to explaining a tactical approach for marketing penetration.

These explanations should ultimately lead to a business' break-even point supported by a sales forecast and financial projections, with the business plan writer being able to speak to the why behind anything outlined in the plan.

business marketing plan definition

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

  • Outline your idea.
  • Pitch to investors.
  • Secure funding.
  • Get to work!

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Free Business Plan [Template]

Fill out the form to access your free business plan., 3. legitimizing a business idea..

Everyone's got a great idea for a company — until they put pen to paper and realize that it's not exactly feasible.

A business plan is an aspiring entrepreneur's way to prove that a business idea is actually worth pursuing.

As entrepreneurs document their go-to-market process, capital needs, and expected return on investment, entrepreneurs likely come across a few hiccups that will make them second guess their strategies and metrics — and that's exactly what the business plan is for.

It ensures an entrepreneur's ducks are in a row before bringing their business idea to the world and reassures the readers that whoever wrote the plan is serious about the idea, having put hours into thinking of the business idea, fleshing out growth tactics, and calculating financial projections.

4. Getting an A in your business class.

Speaking from personal experience, there's a chance you're here to get business plan ideas for your Business 101 class project.

If that's the case, might we suggest checking out this post on How to Write a Business Plan — providing a section-by-section guide on creating your plan?

What does a business plan need to include?

  • Business Plan Subtitle
  • Executive Summary
  • Company Description
  • The Business Opportunity
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Target Market
  • Marketing Plan
  • Financial Summary
  • Funding Requirements

1. Business Plan Subtitle

Every great business plan starts with a captivating title and subtitle. You’ll want to make it clear that the document is, in fact, a business plan, but the subtitle can help tell the story of your business in just a short sentence.

2. Executive Summary

Although this is the last part of the business plan that you’ll write, it’s the first section (and maybe the only section) that stakeholders will read. The executive summary of a business plan sets the stage for the rest of the document. It includes your company’s mission or vision statement, value proposition, and long-term goals.

3. Company Description

This brief part of your business plan will detail your business name, years in operation, key offerings, and positioning statement. You might even add core values or a short history of the company. The company description’s role in a business plan is to introduce your business to the reader in a compelling and concise way.

4. The Business Opportunity

The business opportunity should convince investors that your organization meets the needs of the market in a way that no other company can. This section explains the specific problem your business solves within the marketplace and how it solves them. It will include your value proposition as well as some high-level information about your target market.

businessplan_9

5. Competitive Analysis

Just about every industry has more than one player in the market. Even if your business owns the majority of the market share in your industry or your business concept is the first of its kind, you still have competition. In the competitive analysis section, you’ll take an objective look at the industry landscape to determine where your business fits. A SWOT analysis is an organized way to format this section.

6. Target Market

Who are the core customers of your business and why? The target market portion of your business plan outlines this in detail. The target market should explain the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of the ideal customer.

7. Marketing Plan

Marketing is expansive, and it’ll be tempting to cover every type of marketing possible, but a brief overview of how you’ll market your unique value proposition to your target audience, followed by a tactical plan will suffice.

Think broadly and narrow down from there: Will you focus on a slow-and-steady play where you make an upfront investment in organic customer acquisition? Or will you generate lots of quick customers using a pay-to-play advertising strategy? This kind of information should guide the marketing plan section of your business plan.

8. Financial Summary

Money doesn’t grow on trees and even the most digital, sustainable businesses have expenses. Outlining a financial summary of where your business is currently and where you’d like it to be in the future will substantiate this section. Consider including any monetary information that will give potential investors a glimpse into the financial health of your business. Assets, liabilities, expenses, debt, investments, revenue, and more are all useful adds here.

So, you’ve outlined some great goals, the business opportunity is valid, and the industry is ready for what you have to offer. Who’s responsible for turning all this high-level talk into results? The "team" section of your business plan answers that question by providing an overview of the roles responsible for each goal. Don’t worry if you don’t have every team member on board yet, knowing what roles to hire for is helpful as you seek funding from investors.

10. Funding Requirements

Remember that one of the goals of a business plan is to secure funding from investors, so you’ll need to include funding requirements you’d like them to fulfill. The amount your business needs, for what reasons, and for how long will meet the requirement for this section.

Types of Business Plans

  • Startup Business Plan
  • Feasibility Business Plan
  • Internal Business Plan
  • Strategic Business Plan
  • Business Acquisition Plan
  • Business Repositioning Plan
  • Expansion or Growth Business Plan

There’s no one size fits all business plan as there are several types of businesses in the market today. From startups with just one founder to historic household names that need to stay competitive, every type of business needs a business plan that’s tailored to its needs. Below are a few of the most common types of business plans.

For even more examples, check out these sample business plans to help you write your own .

1. Startup Business Plan

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As one of the most common types of business plans, a startup business plan is for new business ideas. This plan lays the foundation for the eventual success of a business.

The biggest challenge with the startup business plan is that it’s written completely from scratch. Startup business plans often reference existing industry data. They also explain unique business strategies and go-to-market plans.

Because startup business plans expand on an original idea, the contents will vary by the top priority goals.

For example, say a startup is looking for funding. If capital is a priority, this business plan might focus more on financial projections than marketing or company culture.

2. Feasibility Business Plan

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This type of business plan focuses on a single essential aspect of the business — the product or service. It may be part of a startup business plan or a standalone plan for an existing organization. This comprehensive plan may include:

  • A detailed product description
  • Market analysis
  • Technology needs
  • Production needs
  • Financial sources
  • Production operations

According to CBInsights research, 35% of startups fail because of a lack of market need. Another 10% fail because of mistimed products.

Some businesses will complete a feasibility study to explore ideas and narrow product plans to the best choice. They conduct these studies before completing the feasibility business plan. Then the feasibility plan centers on that one product or service.

3. Internal Business Plan

businessplan_5

Internal business plans help leaders communicate company goals, strategy, and performance. This helps the business align and work toward objectives more effectively.

Besides the typical elements in a startup business plan, an internal business plan may also include:

  • Department-specific budgets
  • Target demographic analysis
  • Market size and share of voice analysis
  • Action plans
  • Sustainability plans

Most external-facing business plans focus on raising capital and support for a business. But an internal business plan helps keep the business mission consistent in the face of change.

4. Strategic Business Plan

businessplan_8

Strategic business plans focus on long-term objectives for your business. They usually cover the first three to five years of operations. This is different from the typical startup business plan which focuses on the first one to three years. The audience for this plan is also primarily internal stakeholders.

These types of business plans may include:

  • Relevant data and analysis
  • Assessments of company resources
  • Vision and mission statements

It's important to remember that, while many businesses create a strategic plan before launching, some business owners just jump in. So, this business plan can add value by outlining how your business plans to reach specific goals. This type of planning can also help a business anticipate future challenges.

5. Business Acquisition Plan

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Investors use business plans to acquire existing businesses, too — not just new businesses.

A business acquisition plan may include costs, schedules, or management requirements. This data will come from an acquisition strategy.

A business plan for an existing company will explain:

  • How an acquisition will change its operating model
  • What will stay the same under new ownership
  • Why things will change or stay the same
  • Acquisition planning documentation
  • Timelines for acquisition

Additionally, the business plan should speak to the current state of the business and why it's up for sale.

For example, if someone is purchasing a failing business, the business plan should explain why the business is being purchased. It should also include:

  • What the new owner will do to turn the business around
  • Historic business metrics
  • Sales projections after the acquisition
  • Justification for those projections

6. Business Repositioning Plan

businessplan_6 (1)

When a business wants to avoid acquisition, reposition its brand, or try something new, CEOs or owners will develop a business repositioning plan.

This plan will:

  • Acknowledge the current state of the company.
  • State a vision for the future of the company.
  • Explain why the business needs to reposition itself.
  • Outline a process for how the company will adjust.

Companies planning for a business reposition often do so — proactively or retroactively — due to a shift in market trends and customer needs.

For example, shoe brand AllBirds plans to refocus its brand on core customers and shift its go-to-market strategy. These decisions are a reaction to lackluster sales following product changes and other missteps.

7. Expansion or Growth Business Plan

When your business is ready to expand, a growth business plan creates a useful structure for reaching specific targets.

For example, a successful business expanding into another location can use a growth business plan. This is because it may also mean the business needs to focus on a new target market or generate more capital.

This type of plan usually covers the next year or two of growth. It often references current sales, revenue, and successes. It may also include:

  • SWOT analysis
  • Growth opportunity studies
  • Financial goals and plans
  • Marketing plans
  • Capability planning

These types of business plans will vary by business, but they can help businesses quickly rally around new priorities to drive growth.

Getting Started With Your Business Plan

At the end of the day, a business plan is simply an explanation of a business idea and why it will be successful. The more detail and thought you put into it, the more successful your plan — and the business it outlines — will be.

When writing your business plan, you’ll benefit from extensive research, feedback from your team or board of directors, and a solid template to organize your thoughts. If you need one of these, download HubSpot's Free Business Plan Template below to get started.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Marketing Plan

Example of a marketing plan, how to make a marketing plan, what are some common challenges in creating a marketing plan, .css-uphcpb{position:absolute;left:0;top:-87px;} what is a marketing plan, definition of a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a document that defines a marketing strategy for a company in order to reach their targeted audience and to track their marketing strategies over a period of time.

As stated above, the overall purpose of a marketing plan is to generate leads and reach your targeted audience. For this, you will need to set realistic goals and implement a solid strategy to accomplish said goals.

Leveraging Product Strategy

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What does that look like? For each company, a marketing plan will look different. Depending on your goal, your plan will be different. Regardless of the goal and the plan, however, you should always be focused on what’s best for the company.

A good example of a marketing strategy could include a content plan. This should include:

An editorial calendar

Competitive research

Keyword analysis

Desired tone of voice

And much more

Again, depending on your marketing plan’s goal, this will look different. This is merely an example of what yours could look like.

Even though each company will have a different goal and a different marketing plan, the structure for the marketing plan is the same:

State your mission

The first step should always be to state your mission. This is a marketing-specific plan, but it should mirror the company’s mission overall.

Determine your KPIs

KPIs are important in any project, and creating a marketing plan is no exception. Determining your KPIs upfront will help you stay focused.

Define your target audience

Each company attracts certain buyers . Knowing these people, what they expect of you, and how to attract them in larger quantities is a very important step in any marketing plan.

Create a content strategy

We touched on this above, but it is a very important part of any marketing plan. Without content, you won’t have a way to attract new customers organically.

Research what others are doing

Your competition is likely doing this same thing as we speak. In any circumstance, it helps to know what the competition is doing, how they’re doing it, and how it’s working out for them.

Determine budget

Hidden costs can sneak up on you in the midst of your marketing endeavors. Defining the budget upfront will help you identify what’s essential and what isn’t as necessary. 

Assign roles

Every stakeholder has a role in the marketing plan. In order to avoid chaos, assigning roles and sticking to those roles will help keep things organized, and the plan will go much more smoothly.

Overall, there will be 3 main challenges in creating a marketing plan. Other than potential changes, this is what you can expect to challenge you:

Identifying your customers

Ideally, you already know who your customers are. But in a marketing plan, you need to identify them specifically. The reason this can prove to be a challenge is that it can require a lot of work. You may have to invent an entire user persona profile for multiple different kinds of customers.

Determining the budget

As this is an essential part of creating a marketing plan, this is a challenge that everyone will have to go through. Not everyone has a massive budget, so depending on the final numbers, the budget can make or break the entire plan.

Setting goals

A marketing plan should involve everyone in the marketing team. Agreeing on goals, and determining what’s realistic and what isn’t can prove to be a challenge. The plan absolutely will not work smoothly if everyone is not on the same page.

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What Is a Marketing Plan?

Definition & Examples of a Marketing Plan

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  • Supply Chain Management
  • Operations & Technology
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  • Business Law & Taxes
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  • Business Finance
  • Becoming an Owner

A marketing plan is a roadmap for introducing and delivering your product or service to potential customers. It does not need to be long, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to complete, but it will take some research and effort.

Putting in the work to create this marketing plan can help ensure a company's success later down the line. Learn how you can use it for your small business.

A marketing plan outlines a business's specific marketing strategy and includes concrete actions to be taken and anticipated results. Marketing plans serve as roadmaps for companies to execute and measure the marketing effort's results over a specific period. There are different types of marketing plans, including:

  • Paid marketing : Advertising and pay-per-click
  • Social media marketing : Using different social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
  • Time period marketing : Campaigns used over a designated period
  • Content marketing : Using original content to showcase a product or service
  • New product or service marketing : Plan to showcase a product launch

How Marketing Plan Works

An effective marketing plan helps a company understand its target market and competition, the impact and results of marketing decisions, and it provides direction for future initiatives. You can't develop a marketing plan without market research, which guides the direction of all of your marketing efforts by giving you vital information on your potential customers (your target market) and the feasibility of your products and services. Market research should include the following:

  • Monitoring industry and economic trends
  • Scouting the competition to determine how you can gain a competitive advantage in pricing and customer service
  • Determining the best ways to reach your target market via traditional advertising, social media, and other channels

Marketing plans can vary depending on the industry, type of products or services, and goals you want to achieve, but there are certain essential elements that most plans include:

  • Executive summary and business description
  • Situation analysis
  • Marketing goals and business objectives
  • Target market and delivery plan
  • Unique selling proposition and tactics
  • Messaging guidelines
  • Tracking and evaluation

The executive summary is a high-level overview of the marketing plan. This section should provide a brief summary of the plan for those who may not read the entire document. The business description is what the business is all about—including the location, business owners, position in the marketplace, company mission statement and core values, and external factors that are currently impacting or may eventually affect the business.

Your  situation analysis  details the context for your marketing efforts. In this section, you will take a close look at the internal and external factors that will influence your marketing strategy. Many companies do a SWOT analysis, which combines the external and internal analysis to summarize your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

The SWOT analysis should also highlight areas where the business will need to improve to compete more effectively.

The marketing goals will tie into the overall business objectives, but they'll focus only on the portions of the business that marketing can influence. For instance, if a company's overall objective is to increase revenue from repeat business by a certain percentage in the next year, then the related marketing goal might be to get a certain number of customers to sign up for a rewards program each month.

The concept of target markets is one of the most important aspects of marketing. It is unrealistic to think that you can attract everyone, so you need to identify your ideal customers. You want to know what they like, what they don't like, and where you can find them. The distribution and delivery plan outlines how the company will sell and deliver its products to customers. Methods of sales and delivery include retail, wholesale, direct to homes or businesses, or online.​

Getting specific about your target market and segmenting it into even smaller groups for specific promotions can help you decide where to commit resources and what kinds of tactics and messages to use.

The  unique selling proposition  describes how the company will gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace by supplying one or more of the following benefits to customers:

  • Providing a unique or superior product
  • Delivering lower prices
  • Providing better customer service

Strategies are the approaches you want to take to achieve those goals. For instance, if you're trying to get a certain number of people to sign up for a customer rewards program each month, your strategy may be to introduce new customers to the rewards program with personalized invites that highlight rewards they may be interested in and then providing excellent customer service to help them get started.

Your tactics are the specific actions you will take to execute the strategies that you set. Suppose you introduce new customers to the rewards program with personalized invites. In that case, one tactic you could use is sending out emails that address each new customer by name and let them know about some specific rewards that they can get, along with a link to easily sign up for the rewards program.

The right messaging can help establish your brand's position in the market, help it stand out from competitors, demonstrate value to potential customers, and reach specific audiences. You can set some general messaging guidelines in your overall plan, then use them as a starting point to craft more specific messages for each campaign and different segments of your target market.

Key Takeaways

  • A marketing plan is an essential part of your overall business plan.
  • Marketing plans should focus on the business's target audience.
  • A marketing plan will help guide your marketing efforts each year.
  • Always ensure that the marketing strategy you use lines up with the goals and plans you've made for the business.
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What Is Marketing?

What is the goal of marketing.

  • What Are the 4 P's of Marketing?

Types of Marketing Strategies

  • Limitations
  • Marketing Essentials

Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained

business marketing plan definition

Natalya Yashina is a CPA, DASM with over 12 years of experience in accounting including public accounting, financial reporting, and accounting policies.

business marketing plan definition

Ariel Courage is an experienced editor, researcher, and former fact-checker. She has performed editing and fact-checking work for several leading finance publications, including The Motley Fool and Passport to Wall Street.

business marketing plan definition

Investopedia / Lara Antal

Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses. Some marketing is done by affiliates on behalf of a company .

Professionals who work in a corporation's marketing and promotion departments seek to get the attention of key potential audiences through advertising. Promotions are targeted to certain audiences and may involve celebrity endorsements , catchy phrases or slogans, memorable packaging or graphic designs, and overall media exposure.

Key Takeaways

  • Marketing refers to all activities a company does to promote and sell products or services to consumers.
  • Marketing makes use of the "marketing mix," also known as the four Ps—product, price, place, and promotion.
  • Marketing used to be centered around traditional marketing techniques including television, radio, mail, and word-of-mouth strategies.
  • Though traditional marketing is still prevalent, digital marketing now allows companies to engage in newsletter, social media, affiliate, and content marketing strategies.
  • At its core, marketing seeks to take a product or service, identify its ideal customers, and draw the customers' attention to the product or service available.

Marketing as a discipline involves all the actions a company undertakes to draw in customers and maintain relationships with them. Networking with potential or past clients is part of the work too and may include writing thank you emails, playing golf with prospective clients, returning calls and emails quickly, and meeting with clients for coffee or a meal.

At its most basic level, marketing seeks to match a company's products and services to customers who want access to those products. Matching products to customers ultimately ensures profitability.

Formal Definition:

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. " —Official definition from the American Marketing Association, approved 2017.

What Are the 4 P's of Marketing?

Product, price, place, and promotion are the Four Ps of marketing. The Four Ps collectively make up the essential mix a company needs to market a product or service. Neil Borden popularized the idea of the  marketing mix and the concept of the Four Ps in the 1950s.

Product refers to an item or items the business plans to offer to customers. The product should seek to fulfill an absence in the market, or fulfill consumer demand for a greater amount of a product already available. Before they can prepare an appropriate campaign, marketers need to understand what product is being sold, how it stands out from its competitors, whether the product can also be paired with a secondary product or product line , and whether there are substitute products in the market.

Price refers to how much the company will sell the product for. When establishing a price, companies must consider the unit cost price, marketing costs, and distribution expenses. Companies must also consider the price of competing products in the marketplace and whether their proposed price point is sufficient to represent a reasonable alternative for consumers.

Place refers to the distribution of the product. Key considerations include whether the company will sell the product through a physical storefront, online, or through both distribution channels. When it's sold in a storefront, what kind of physical product placement does it get? When it's sold online, what kind of digital product placement does it get?

Promotion, the fourth P, is the integrated marketing communications campaign. Promotion includes a variety of activities such as advertising , selling, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing, sponsorship, and guerrilla marketing .

Promotions vary depending on what stage of the product life cycle the product is in. Marketers understand that consumers associate a product’s price and distribution with its quality, and they take this into account when devising the overall marketing strategy.

Marketing refers to any activities undertaken by a company to promote the buying or selling of a service. If there is a limited quantity of a product, a company may market itself in an attempt to be better positioned as one of the few who get to buy something.

Marketing is comprised of an incredibly broad and diverse set of strategies. The industry continues to evolve, and the strategies below may be better suited for some companies over others.

Traditional Marketing Strategies

Before technology and the internet, traditional marketing was the primary way companies would market their goods to customers. The main types of traditional marketing strategies includes:

  • Outdoor Marketing: This entails public displays of advertising external to a consumer's house. This includes billboards, printed advertisements on benches, sticker wraps on vehicles, or advertisements on public transit.
  • Print Marketing: This entails small, easily printed content that is easy to replicate. Traditionally, companies often mass produced printed materials, as the printed content was the same for all customers. Today, more flexibility in printing processes means that materials can be differentiated.
  • Direct Marketing : This entails specific content delivered to potential customers. Some print marketing content could be mailed. Otherwise, direct marketing mediums could include coupons, vouchers for free goods, or pamphlets.
  • Electronic Marketing: This entails use of TV and radio for advertising. Though short bursts of digital content, a company can convey information to a customer through visual or auditory media that may grab a viewer's attention better than a printed form above.
  • Event Marketing: This entails attempting to gather potential customers at a specific location for the opportunity to speak with them about products or demonstrate products. This includes conferences, trade shows, seminars, roadshows , or private events.

Digital Marketing

The marketing industry has been forever changed with the introduction of digital marketing. From the early days of pop-up ads to targeted placements based on viewing history, there are now innovating ways companies can reach customers through digital marketing.

  • Search Engine Marketing: This entails companies attempting to increase search traffic through two ways. First, companies can pay search engines for placement on result pages. Second, companies can emphasize search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to organically place highly on search results.
  • E-mail Marketing: This entails companies obtaining customer or potential customer e-mail addresses and distributing messages or newsletters. These messages can include coupons, discount opportunities, or advance notice of upcoming sales.
  • Social Media Marketing: This entails building an online presence on specific social media platforms. Like search engine marketing, companies can place paid advertisements to bypass algorithms and obtain a higher chance of being seen by viewers. Otherwise, a company can attempt to organically grow by posting content, interacting with followers, or uploading media like photos and videos.
  • Affiliate Marketing: This entails using third-party advertising to drive customer interest. Often, an affiliate that will get a commission from a sale will do affiliate marketing as the third-party is incentivized to drive a sale for a good that is not their own original product.
  • Content Marketing: This entails creating content, whether eBooks, infographics, video seminars, or other downloadable content. The goal is to create a product (often free) to share information about a product, obtain customer information, and encourage customers to continue with the company beyond the content.

In 1978, Gary Thuerk sent a message to roughly 400 people using ARPANET, the first public packet-switched computer network. With that message, the first ever recorded spam e-mail message had been sent.

What Are the Benefits of Marketing?

Well-defined marketing strategies can benefit a company in several ways. It may be challenging in developing the right strategy or executing the plan; when done well, marketing can yield the following results:

  • Audience Generation. Marketing allows a company to target specific people it believes will benefit from its product or service. Sometimes, people know they have the need. Other times, they don't realize it. Marketing enables a company to connect with a cohort of people that fit the demographic of who the company aims to serve.
  • Inward Education. Marketing is useful for collecting information to be processed internally to drive success. For example, consider market research that finds a certain product is primarily purchased by women aged 18-34 years old. By collecting this information, a company can better understand how to cater to this demographic, drive sales, and be more efficient with resources.
  • Outward Education. Marketing can also be used to communicate with the world what your company does, what products you sell, and how your company can enrich the lives of others. Campaigns can be educational, informing those outside of your company why they need your product. In addition, marketing campaigns let a company introduce itself, its history, its owners, and its motivation for being the company it is.
  • Brand Creation. Marketing allows for a company to take an offensive approach to creating a brand. Instead of a customer shaping their opinion of a company based on their interactions, a company can preemptively engage a customer with specific content or media to drive certain emotions or reactions. This allows a company to shape its image before the customer has ever interacted with its products.
  • Long-lasting. Marketing campaigns done right can have a long-lasting impact on customers. Consider Poppin' Fresh, also known as the Pillsbury Doughboy. First appearing in 1965, the mascot has helped create a long-lasting, warm, friendly brand for Pillsbury.
  • Financial Performance. The ultimate goal and benefit of marketing is to drive sales. When relationships with customers are stronger, well-defined, and positive, customers are more likely to engage in sales. When marketing is done right, customers turn to your company, and you gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. Even if both products are exactly the same, marketing can create that competitive advantage for why a client picks you over someone else.

According to MarTech, a digital marketing provider, the world will spend $4.7 trillion on marketing by 2025. This estimate includes an increase of $1.1 trillion from 2021 to 2025.

What Are the Limitations of Marketing?

Though there are many reasons a company embarks on marketing campaigns, there are several limitations to the industry.

  • Oversaturation. Every company wants customers to buy its product and not its competitors. Therefore, marketing channels can be competitive as companies strive to garner more positive attention and recognition. If too many companies are competing, a customer's attention may be strongly diluted, resulting in any form of advertising not being effective.
  • Devaluation. When a company promotes a price discount or sale, the public may psychologically eventually see that product as worth less in the future. If a campaign is so strong, customers may even wait to purchase a good knowing or remembering what the sale price was from before. For example, some may intentionally hold off buying goods if Black Friday is approaching.
  • No Guaranteed Success. Marketing campaigns may incur upfront expenses that hold no promise of future success. This is also true of market research studies, where time, effort, and resources are poured into a study that may yield no usable or helpful results.
  • Customer Bias. Loyal, long-time customers need no enticing to buy a company's brand or product. However, newer, uninitiated customers may. Marketing naturally is biased towards non-loyal patrons as those who already support the company would be better served by further investment in product improvement.
  • Cost. Marketing campaigns may be expensive. Digital marketing campaigns may be labor-intensive to set up and costly to maintain the scheduling, implementation, and execution of the plan. Don't forget about the headlines that promote Super Bowl commercial expenses in the millions.
  • Economy-Dependent. Marketing is most successful when people have capital to spend. Though marketing can create non-financial benefits such as brand loyalty and product recognition, the ultimate goal is to drive sales. During unfavorable macroeconomic conditions when unemployment is high or recession concerns are elevated, consumers may be less like to spend no matter how great a market campaign may be.

Marketing is a division of a company, product line, individual, or entity that promotes its service. Marketing attempts to encourage market participants to buy their product and commit loyalty to a specific company .

Why Is Marketing So Important?

Marketing is important for a few reasons. First, marketing campaigns may be the first time a customer interacts or is exposed to a company's product. A company has the opportunity to educate, promote, and encourage potential buyers. Marketing also helps shape the brand image a company wants to convey. For example, an outdoor camping gear company that wants to be known for its rugged, tough goods can embark on specific campaigns that embody these traits and make these emotions memorable to prospective customers.

What Is the Purpose of Marketing?

An important goal of marketing is propelling a company’s growth. This can be seen through attracting and retaining new customers. 

 Companies may apply a number of different marketing strategies to achieve these goals. For instance, matching products with customers' needs could involve personalization, prediction, and essentially knowing the right problem to solve. 

 Another strategy is creating value through the customer experience. This is demonstrated through efforts to elevate customer satisfaction and remove any difficulties with the product or service.

What Are the 4 Ps of Marketing?

A commonly used concept in the marketing field, the Four Ps of marketing looks at four key elements of a marketing strategy. The Four Ps consist of product, price, place, and promotion. 

What Are the Types of Marketing?

There are dozens of types of marketing, and the types have proliferated with the introduction and rise of social media, mobile platforms, and technological advancements. Before technology, marketing might have been geared towards mail campaigns, word-of-mouth campaigns, billboards, delivery of sample products, TV commercials, or telemarketing. Now, marketing encompasses social media, targeted ads, e-mail marketing, inbound marketing to attract web traffic, and more.

American Marketing Association. " What Is Marketing? "

World Economic Forum. " 40 Years On From the First Spam E-mail, What Have We Learned? "

Pillsbury. " How Well Do You Know the Pillsbury Doughboy? "

MarTech. " Worldwide Spend on Marketing to Hit $4.7 Trillion By 2025 ."

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business marketing plan definition

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  1. What is marketing? Definition and meaning

    business marketing plan definition

  2. What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One

    business marketing plan definition

  3. What is Marketing Planning? definition, types, steps, importance

    business marketing plan definition

  4. Simple Marketing Plan

    business marketing plan definition

  5. How to Form a Successful Marketing Plan

    business marketing plan definition

  6. What is a marketing strategy? Definition and examples

    business marketing plan definition

VIDEO

  1. Marketing Plan

COMMENTS

  1. What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One

    A marketing plan is an operational document that outlines an advertising strategy that an organization will implement to generate leads and reach its target market. A marketing plan details the...

  2. What Is a Marketing Plan? And How to Create One

    A marketing plan is a document that a business uses to execute a marketing strategy. It is tactical in nature, and, as later sections of this article explore, it typically includes campaign objectives, buyer personas, competitive analysis, key performance indicators, an action plan, and a method for analyzing campaign results.

  3. Marketing Plan

    A marketing plan is a document that lays out the marketing efforts of a business in an upcoming period, which is usually a year. It outlines the marketing strategy, promotional, and advertising activities planned for the period. Elements of a Marketing Plan A marketing plan will typically include the following elements:

  4. What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

    A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. Marketing plans can include different marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, all working toward the same business goals.

  5. What Is Marketing? Definition, Strategies & Best Practices

    Bottom Line Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Show more As a small business, you need a way to attract and lure customers to your products and services. Enter marketing. What is marketing?...

  6. What is a Marketing Plan?

    A marketing plan clearly defines an organization's marketing goals and focuses departments across the organization on the same business objectives and metrics. Whether you're part of a small business or large enterprise, developing a marketing plan follows the same process.

  7. What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

    A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for your products or services, which could be applicable for the coming year, quarter or month. Watch this quick, 13-minute video for more details on what a marketing plan is and how to make one yourself: Typically, a marketing plan includes:

  8. What Is a Marketing Plan? Definition, Templates, and Tips (2024)

    What Is a Marketing Plan? Definition, Templates, and Tips (2024) Learn the key elements of a marketing plan, access templates to get started, and get tips on how to build an effective plan. by Elise Dopson Apr 4, 2023 Start your online business today. For free. Start free trial 3 Simple Steps to Create a Marketing Plan For Results in 7 Days

  9. What Is a Marketing Plan and How Can You Create an Effective One?

    The definition of a marketing plan is a document that lays out the strategy (or strategies) you will implement in order to advertise, reach your target audience with your message, generate leads, and finally increase your sales. Your marketing plan will of course define your overall goals, but it should also include some of the smaller steps ...

  10. How to Write a Marketing Plan That Works

    Find weak points in your sales funnel. A major part of your marketing plan is the ability to better understand your customer's journey through your sales funnel. Breaking down your customer's journey allows you can find the weak points in each stage of your sales funnel. Identify spots where a customer may fall off.

  11. Marketing plan

    [1] Summary A marketing plan is a comprehensive document that outlines the advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. Creating the marketing plan is an integral part of a marketing team's role. [2] It describes business activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set time frame.

  12. How to Create a Winning Marketing Plan [With Examples] [2023] • Asana

    Create designs and CTAs that spark joy, offer entertainment, and alleviate the pressure in choosing a partner. 6. Operationalize your marketing plan. Turn your plan into action by making goals, deliverables, and timelines clear for every stakeholder—so teams stay accountable for getting work done.

  13. Marketing Strategy: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Create One

    A marketing strategy refers to a business's overall game plan to facilitate the buying and selling of its products or services. A marketing strategy determines how to reach prospective...

  14. What is a Marketing Plan? Definition and Examples

    "A marketing plan is a document that lays out the marketing efforts of a business in an upcoming period, which is usually a year. It outlines the marketing strategy, promotional, and advertising activities planned for the period." The Marketplace, Rivals, and Market Research

  15. Marketing Plan

    Marketing Plan Definition: The written document that describes your advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year; it includes a statement of the marketing situation, a discussion of ...

  16. What Is a Marketing Plan and How Do You Make One?

    Marketing plan: A marketing plan explains how you will use your marketing activities to achieve your business goals. It documents the application of your strategy and how specific marketing tactics can bring you from Point A to Point B. Here's a practical example of a marketing plan and marketing strategy:

  17. How To Write A Marketing Plan

    Unfortunately, the marketing efforts of many small businesses seem to largely be the result of sales efforts by advertising salespeople — that is, many business owners buy whatever they think is ...

  18. What is a Business Plan? Definition, Tips, and Templates

    A business plan is a documented strategy for a business that highlights its goals and its plans for achieving them. It outlines a company's go-to-market plan, financial projections, market research, business purpose, and mission statement.

  19. What is a Marketing Plan? Definition and Common Challenges

    A marketing plan is a document that defines a marketing strategy for a company in order to reach their targeted audience and to track their marketing strategies over a period of time. Essentially, a marketing plan is your roadmap to all things marketing within a given period.

  20. Marketing Plan: What Is It?

    A marketing plan outlines a business's specific marketing strategy and includes concrete actions to be taken and anticipated results. Marketing plans serve as roadmaps for companies to execute and measure the marketing effort's results over a specific period. There are different types of marketing plans, including:

  21. Marketing Plan Component of Your Business Plan

    Find out what business type is right for you. Get Started. The marketing portion of a business plan addresses four main topics: product, price, promotion, and place. A business plan is a blueprint for taking an idea for a product or service and turning it into a commercially viable reality. The marketing portion of the business plan addresses ...

  22. Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained

    Marketing are activities of a company associated with buying and selling a product or service. It includes advertising, selling and delivering products to people. People who work in marketing ...

  23. B2B Marketing 101: A 10-Step Blueprint To Skyrocket Your Business

    A well-defined B2B marketing plan serves as a roadmap, guiding your efforts toward achieving specific business objectives and fostering lasting customer relationships. By meticulously outlining strategies, tactics, and measurable goals, you can effectively navigate the complexities of B2B marketing and achieve tangible results.

  24. E- Commerce Marketing In 2024: The Ultimate Guide

    E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, is the method of buying and selling on the internet. This digital marketplace has become a pivotal part of the global economy with a whopping $6.9 ...