Marketing plan importance and set up

When you first opened your business you most likely wrote a business plan to outline how you planned to run your business, it included everything from the name of your company to cash flow projections. You might have thought that your plan writing days were over, but guess what; you now have to write a marketing plan to map out how you plan to market your company. Everybody knows that a business plan is important because it is basically the blueprint that you are going to follow to run your business, but many people don't realize that marketing plans are just as important. The reason that marketing plans are just as important as business plans is because your marketing plan is your blueprint to how you are going to get your name out to the public and basically how you are going to promote your product.

Most companies will create more than one marketing plan just in case the first one doesn't work; this provides them with something to fall back on. And like with all other types of plans there are certain aspects that you must include to make the plan successful, these key aspects are an important part to successful marketing plans.

Here are the most important things you will need to include when you set up your marketing plan.

Number one:
The first thing you need to thing that you need to have in your marketing plan is clearly defined company goals. Having goals that are concrete, which means they are actually attainable, is the main part of developing your marketing plan because it is going to tell you exactly what you are trying to accomplish. If you don't know what you want to accomplish then you are not going to know what steps are needed for a plan. Defining your company's goals helps to steer the development of all marketing activities, including but not limited to press related activities, advertising campaigns, and promotions. Keep in mind that all of the goals don't have to be short term; you can include long term goals as well.

Number two:
The second thing you need to have when creating a marketing plan is market research. Market research can be done by using the internet, library, focus groups, surveys, research from an established market research company, or other ways. When conducting market research you are going to want to gather information about the target market (existing size and anticipated growth rate, demand of the product or service, etc.), as well as getting information about the potential customers. Your research should also include the history of the market and the various trends that are within the market. If your company is launching a new product you might not be able to obtain any historical data, but you can see what historical data is available from similar industries. And don't forget when doing market research you are going to want to include a thorough analysis of the competition.

Number three:
The next thing that you need to have in your marketing plan is your marketing activities. Choosing the marketing activities is the last step because you have to have your goals in mind and understand the market so that you can choose the activities that will allow you to achieve your goals. When choosing your marketing activities you are going to need to consult your marketing budget to see what you have to spend on your activities, price can play a big factor in determining what marketing activities you are going to use. The more traditional types of marketing activities are television, radio, newspaper, and magazine advertisements, while your less conventional activities include online banner bars and buttons, newsletters, press releases, and trade show exhibits. The most important thing you will have to consider when choosing your activities is to make sure that the ads you create reflect the specific marketing goals and objectives.

Number four:
Something else that you really need to include in your marketing plan is an explanation of how the effectiveness of marketing activities will be measured. This is included so that companies can figure out which ads are working and which ones might need to be readdressed to gain more of a response.