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Creating A Marketing Plan

One of the most important parts of a business plan is the marketing plan. How exactly are you going to lure customers to your business and persuade them to buy what you have to offer?

When you are first developing your marketing plan, you should consider such things as:

• Previous marketing methods you have used to communicate to your customers
• Methods that have been most effective
• Cost compared to sales
• Cost per customer
• Possible future marketing methods to attract new customers
• Percentage of profits you can allocate to your marketing campaign
• Marketing tools you can implement within your budget - newspaper, magazine or Yellow Pages advertising; radio or television advertising; direct mail; tele-marketing; public relations activities such as community involvement, sponsorship or press releases
• Methods of testing your marketing ideas
• Methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign
• The marketing tool you can implement immediately

Now, that was certainly the hardest part. Look over what you've done and make sure the things you've included in your plan are consistent with your understanding of your own business and your customer base. If they aren't, revisit the subject and adjust it accordingly.

Now, the next part of devising a marketing plan is to state your overall objectives with respect to your plan. Are you looking to increase sales? Increase brand awareness?

Do you have other specific goals in mind? If so, list them. Those goals can be a great way of motivating yourself as you move forward to success.

Finally, you need to decide which methods you will use to effectuate those goals in a manner consistent with your other observations and goals.

Congratulations, you just wrote a marketing plan!