So how does a marketing plan differ from a business plan?
Normally, a marketing plan is a detailed set up or design that you use to achieve your marketing goals. They are often made up of actions and information about sales and planning, additional marketing strategy, market analysis, expense budget, sales forecast, and milestones.
Your marketing plan can be used on your products, services, a brand, or a line of products. It can be applied to your promotional tools, to determine and plan the use of flyers, postcards, brochures and other promotional media.
And it can cover an annual plan or even up to 10 years. Nevertheless, most organizations prefer strategic planning that covers the year ahead. This means having an annual planning process. For the others, a practical plan for 3 or more years is preferable.
To create an effective marketing plan, most business organizations provide a written document to formalize it. The bottom line of having a marketing plan is to provide a more detailed and specific action to strengthen the overall objectives of the organization, particularly on the marketing part.
On the other hand, a business plan is the overall strategy to operate successfully one’s business; so obviously it covers everything from marketing and marketing analysis, to cash flow, financing, and goals, among others. Hence, if you want to see the company’s real cash flow insights or the balance sheets and ratios, you go ask for the business plan.
In addition to the numbers, the business plan also sets the organization’s goals, the why’s and how’s they can be achieved. The formal statement also includes some background information of the whole organization, as well as the teams that carry out each of the actions.
In summary, the marketing plan is only a part of a much bigger entity called the business plan. The marketing plan covers only the section where you promote or advertise your business, while the business plan gives you the whole process of operating your business, which of course includes the marketing plan.
To prepare your marketing plan for your business, you want to begin by figuring out who your target market or customer is. Nobody can be all things to all people and if you try to please everyone you'll pain yourself to please no-one and your business will be a failure.
So ask yourself what type of people are you going to try to sell to? Who will want or need what you have to sell, and want it or need it badly enough that they'll pay you money to get it?
The next step to prepare your marketing plan for your business is to figure out the ways that you are going to go about getting the word out to these people. This will, of course, mean giving your website a particular look, feel, and set of content.
When the people at whom you are aiming your marketing efforts towards, land at your website, there will need to be designs, images, words, and content that catch their eye and capture their mind.
You will further want to figure out the other marketing materials that you'll use to drive traffic to your website. These are known as "collateral materials". You will probably want to use such things as e-newsletters that people can opt-in to receive via e-mail on a regular basis.
This will prove your expertise and value by offering attractive free information, auto responders that can send out updates or regular messages on autopilot, and can also compile very accurate tracking data to help you further refine your target marketing efforts; pod casts which are a more dynamic and portable form of the newsletters; and, if you can make them, marketing videos that you can place online for free at a place like Video Jug.
All of your collateral materials should contain links to your website, contact information, and a strong call-to-action to entice their receivers to buy from you (except for some of your auto responses).
Finally, to prepare your marketing plan for your business you will want to brainstorm about different market campaigns that would appeal to your target customers and best encapsulate what you have to offer and who you are.
If you're selling widgets, don't put images of sliced bread in your videos. Put images of your widgets there. Figure out creative, informative ways that you can communicate the value of your product or service to your targets. This part of your plan will undergo constant change as you track your website hits and build your customer base profile.
Both Lynne Saarte & Chris Simpson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Lynne Saarte has sinced written about articles on various topics from Site Promotion, Business Cards and Ezines And Newsletters. For comments and inquiries about the article visit: ,. Lynne Saarte's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
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