How to collect data for creating your marketing plan

Let's look at a few points having to do with collecting data for your marketing plan:

Marketing means more than just advertising. Marketing means more than television commercials, radio spots, magazine ads, and so forth. Marketing is the whole huge process of preparing a product or service for the market. Marketing includes things such as how you price a product, how you advertise a product, how you deliver a product and receive payment for it, your company's image (which will go a long way in selling said product), and so forth. Given the fact that marketing means a range of things, when we speak of collecting data for a marketing plan we're talking about a range of data.

Let's take a closer look at the range of data implied here. Collecting data for your marketing plan includes, for example, knowing (in general) your ideal or target market as opposed to Everyone Else. Your ideal or target market consists of the people your product or service is absolutely made for. For example, you're a maker of running shoes. Your target market in this case would be-runners. But of course we're talking about real runners, i.e. not weekend warriors. Your focus would be on people who take running seriously, because once you've satisfied them, once you continue to satisfy them, you're assured of satisfying everyone else.

Remember, though, we're focusing here on collecting data for creating your marketing plan. The data in this case would be-what do runners want in a good running shoe? What do they want in a good running shoe company? How often does a runner go through a pair of running shoes? How often and how far does a serious runner run? And so forth. All of this data would be key in creating an effective marketing plan. This data would help you get right to the heart of what (a) the sort of product you want to create, and (b) how to tell your customers that you've created it.

Other kinds of data that would come into a marketing plan here might be-age of the runner-what does an older runner need as opposed to a younger runner?-what runners are used to paying for a top-notch running shoe-how much have they paid in the past? What would they pay for a running shoe with this feature, etc.?-and so forth.

The fact that gathering data for marketing plans is difficult and complicated doesn't necessarily mean you should feel overwhelmed! Marketing data is gathered by marketing teams, that is, groups of people devoted to a task, each bringing different skills to the table, different ideas, and so forth. The main questions you'll need to answer at first are the broad ones. You start with general questions and then hone in and specify and so forth. That way, you not only cover all the bases, your marketing plan becomes ever more refined, ever more sophisticated, and ever more able to reach your customers effectively.

As we mentioned above, marketing data covers a broad range of issues. Your marketing team will need to look at them one by one. The one by one approach makes things easier, reduces stress, and allows for clarity of mind and thought. Thinking about these simple steps, tossing them around with other intelligent, devoted marketers, and applying your service or product, your particular customers, to them, will give you a leg up and then some in the business world. Be sure to do more research, Internet and otherwise (books, seminars, etc.) on collecting data for creating a superb marketing plan.