Marketing Plan Template – and finally…

Some useful ‘general’ Marketing Plan theory which you may find helpful when considering putting your Marketing Plan together.

Think about the following when evaluating where you are now:  Strategic, organisation, systems, productivity, functional mix, suppliers, customers, competitors, distributors, employees.

• Objectives

Consider what you want to achieve:  Set objectives  – Increase trial, increase loyalty, widen usage, create interest, increase repeat purchases, increase upsell value, deflect attention from price, increase market share, increase volume.

• Strategy

What is your commercial and brand strategy?  High price, low volume – low price, high volume? Bargain brands, premium brands.    Create a simple matrix and plot your position.  Then consider how you deliver on that position.  Existing clients, new clients, existing products, new products, diversification or new product development?   Also – consider where you are now and where you want to be – is there a gap?  How do you plan to bridge that gap?

SEGMENTATION:  Identify, build and profile evaluation on the following: Age, demography, consumer life cycle, socioeconomics

TARGETING:  Identify commercially viable segments on the following: Undifferentiated, differentiated, target, focus.

POSITIONING:  Product and market position:  Leaders, challengers, followers, nichers.

• Implementation

Now you are into, Implementation – the HOW you might communicate:

• Promotional mix:  Advertising, packaging, personal selling, sales promotions, sponsorship, exhibitions, Internet, PR
• Promotional communications: PUSH (Advertising, Point of Sale, Personal Selling, Sales Force, Promotions) PULL (Sponsorship, Advertising, Internet Web-site, Exhibitions)
• Pricing: Strategic (Price skimming, penetration) Tactical (Marginal, quantity discounts, differential, cost-plus pricing, demand-based pricing).
• AIDA – Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action
• DRIP – Differentiate, Remind, Inform, Persuade
• 7p’s – product, price, promotion, place, physical evidence, people, process
• 7c’s – customer value, cost, convenience, communication, confirmation, consideration, co-ordination
• Consider the Product Life Cycle:  Development, Growth, Maturity, Saturation, Decline.  When a product is reaching maturity – options:  product development, diversification, promotions, market development.

Monitor and control

• It’s not just about evalutating a campaign – but also about evaluation your plan and strategy.  Consider the following as part of your evaluation:  Customer expectations, effectiveness, performance and perceptions.
• Monitor and evaluate:  Budgets, sales, targets, customer complaints, market share and product awareness.  Market research, data collection, interviewing, mystery consumer, customer satisfaction survey, performance appraisals, employee group discussions.

Marketing Planning is cyclical and continuous:

• Develope or revise marketing objectives relative to performance (keep it dynamic)
• Assess marketing opportunities and resources
• Revision or formulation of marketing strategy
• Development or revision of the plan for implementation and control
• Implementation of marketing plan

All of the above components make up your Marketing Plan.

To Summarise:

1.    Analysis / Audit

2.    Objectives

3.    Strategy

4.    Implementation

5.    Monitor / control

Happy planning!

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Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.

Step 9

9.1       Organisational Implications

Another consideration that you should document in your plan is the overall organisational implications.

For example:  let’s work with the ‘moving into France’ goal and gaining 20 new French clients.  Not only does this have people implications – but it could also mean making an alliance in France and buying an office in France.  This is an extreme example – but it leads you to think about all the elements of planning. 

If your goals are to increase your customer base by 30% and therefore your people by 20% – can you house them in your current offices?  Would you need to move offices?  Could you outsource some elements? 

It’s important these decisions are documented in your plan, as these too need to be considered.

Step 10

10.1  Contingency / Options

I mentioned earlier that all plans need to be ‘flexible’ and ‘amendable’ – as very often you are working with assumptions.   The more planning of this type you do, the better you will become at it.  And therefore, over time, your assumptions will be hitting the mark.  However, particularly when starting off, you are learning the needs of the market and planning accordingly.  Therefore, some of that which you ‘assume’ is going to fall short of expectation.

That’s why it’s important to document some form of contingency – or have some alternative ‘options’ available to you.

It may be that you plan to do 12 business networking breakfast meetings in one year.  And this activity will generate 10% of the 25% new customer acquisition you have targeted.   So if you don’t achieve the set number of projected new customers to come along to these clubs – then you could be down on your overall target.

Therefore, your contingency plan could be that if after the first quarter you are X% down then you will promote FREE networking sessions with a major influencer, let’s say a Bank,  to get yourself in front of other potential new customers and assist with you meeting your overall target. 

Of course, these contingencies need to be documented and considered, as there are often implications for resource, both physical and financial.

Step 11

Monitor and Evaluate

There’s an important fact, ‘what you can measure you can manage’, so it’s crucial to track and monitor what’s happening with your marketing campaigns/activities.

Whether you are using sophisticated marketing activity tracking software, or tracking responses in excel or some other simple way – the important thing is to keep an eye on results so that you can measure your marketing effectiveness.

Being aware of what results you are achieving enables you to learn from your marketing activity.  Too many times when business owners have gone to significant effort to put a marketing campaign together, when I query the response rates – there’s a stunned silence. 

Would you repeat a campaign if it returned nothing?  Hopefully not, you’d tweak it, test different headlines, messages or offers.  It’s always a good idea to run split campaigns – to test which offer or message gains the better response.  

Whichever way or method – you need to understand your marketing effectiveness and return on investment:

Marketing Effectiveness Example:

Campaign 1

Let’s consider a campaign to observe the power of measurement:

Email to 500 hairdressers in postcode areas SL1, SL4 and SL6.

Offer 1:

Exhibit at local Hair & Beauty show – 25% saving.  Book your stand before 30^th April.

Offer 2:

Hair & Beauty Show – 5,000 potential new customers – save £500 on your stand.  Time limited offer – act now.

•          3 Emails sent promoting both offers x 3 sent to 500 verified email addresses

•    Email 1 (sent 3 weeks prior to deadline)
  • Offer 1 : Generated 5 bookings =      1% conversion
  • Offer 2 : Generated 15 bookings =    7% conversion

•  Email 2            (sent 2 weeks prior to deadline)
  •  Offer 1: Generated 2 bookings =       % conversion
  • Offer 2: Generated 8 bookings =       % conversion

• Email 3 (sent 2 days prior to deadline – last chance offer)
  • Offer 1: Generated 4 bookings =       % conversion
  • Offer 2: Generated 14 bookings =     % conversion

From the above example, you can see how one can begin to grow marketing intelligence: 

1.    We know the overall success of the campaign was X% conversion.

2.    We further know that Offer 2 performed better than Offer 1 – generating X more bookings. 

3.    From this we can assume that the audience preferred the monetary offer (£500 saving – rather than a 25% one). 

4.    We observed that the ‘last chance offer’ generated the most response – and therefore, given the success of this tactic, we’d be likely to repeat this in future campaigns. 

I hope this simple example demonstrates that had we not measured the results – we wouldn’t have anything firm to work with. 

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Step 7

7.1    Action Plans

Any strategies or marketing goals are simply just theoretical objectives.  It’s the Action Plans that really bring your strategy and objectives to life.

Your action plans are your implementation plans.  These are your ‘hands on’ rules of play.  Therefore, your Action Plans should be specific and detail:

Who, how, which, when, where and how….

•          Who is responsible?
•          When will it be done?
•          How much will it cost?
•          Which segment?

Very often these Action Plans are created in a calendar format.  This enables you to see the activities overall – and of course, look at how campaigns can be integrated.  It may be that you have an Email campaign to promote one product / service to a particular segment.  And you notice that you could double up with the same campaign to a different segment.  However, it’s only through having these clearly mapped out that you can spot these economies of effort.

Practical Exercise 

Creating an Action Plan

All Action Plans should cover:

Target market

Be specific in terms of segments. 

Who are you aiming for?

Clarifying the need                 

What do your target market need from you. 

Which problem can you provide a solution to?

Competitor watch                 

Identify your competition and assess your strengths. 

Some target markets may be worth leaving alone, purely because you cannot compete with the service they are already receiving.

Targets / Goals                      

State your goals and decide the activities that you

need to do to achieve them.  For example: If one of your goals is to host a business breakfast every month for customers, then what activities need to be put in place to promote these, who will you be inviting, how much will you charge. 

Resource                                

Does the activity provide you with the results you

need.  Are you meeting your overall business objectives?   Monitor return on activity, are you using your resources to maximum benefit?

Budget                                    

Financial resource has to be monitored too.   

Action Plans will have cost implications and therefore, if you create a budget for each Action Plan, you can then simply feed the budgets into your overall Marketing Budget.

Step 8

8.1    Budgets

Whilst there’s only ever so much money in the pot to undertake certain activities – your overall Marketing Plan cannot be driven purely by budgets. 

Your budget will project the revenues, expenditures, profits and cash flows over the planned period. 

And then, having pulled your budget together you can then assess whether or not your Marketing Plan is realistic – yet ambitious, whether the costs are reasonable and assess the risks involved.

Dependent upon budget available – you may have to prioritise some of the Action Plans – based on what you can afford to do initially.  However, your overall plan should not be held back because of ‘budgets’.

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Step 5

5.1    Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve created and agreed your ‘goals’ then you need to create the strategy to achieve them.  Two key factors are identified 1) who do you want to be targeting to achieve your goals? Effectively, identifying your ‘target market segment’?   Cover off the following points when identifying this segment:

• New or existing clients?
• How they buy?
• Where do they come from?
• What influences them?
• How do they use your services?

And 2) your ‘differential advantage’ ie:  what have you got that will attract your ‘target market segment’ away from competitors and to buy your products and services.  Think about these areas:

• What will motivate the market towards you rather than your competitors?
• What have you got that will meet the needs of your selected segment?
• What are the advantages you can offer over your competitors?
• What are your competitors up to and how do you compete?

Step 6

6.1 The Marketing Mix

These are effectively the resources that you identify and utilise for implementation of your plan.  In other words, the tactics you apply to implement your marketing strategy.  Once you’ve set your strategy you need to develop an understanding of how you are going to achieve it – what are your methods?

Traditionally you may have heard of the ‘4 p’s of Marketing’ – however, particularly in service driven organisations, two more decisions need to be considered; process and people.

Let’s take a look at each element of the ‘marketing mix’ and address the areas that you need to be thinking about when creating yours.  Not all categories will be relevant to you – however, these are the factors commonly considered:

Product

Product variety                       Product presentation              Product packaging

Product features                     Sizes                                        Product design

Brand name                             Guarantee

Pricing

List price                                 Geographical pricing              Fixed pricing

Discounts                                Allowances                             Payment terms

Allowances                             Credit terms                           Value pricing

Promotion

Sales team                               Client promotion                    Advertising

Public relations                       Trade promotion                    Direct marketing

Publicity                                  Third party deals

Place (Distribution)

Location                                  Accessibility                            Intermediaries

Process (Service)

Pre-sales                                  Post-sales                                Point of sale

Performance Standards           KPI* monitoring

*Key performance indicators – measures you put in place to monitor performance

People

Training                                   Incentives                                Culture

6.2       Mixing the Mix

The categories above need to be considered when putting together your ‘plan of attack’ to the market.  In simple terms, consider each point and whether or not it is relevant to your marketing plan.

The tools (ie: the marketing mix) you use to execute your plan are dependent upon your overall marketing goals.

It may be that there are no ‘People’ implications within your plan.  And therefore, you would not have to document it.

However, if one of your goals was to move into France and gain 20 French clients by the end of the year – then you would document under ‘People’, whether you would consider either employing French speaking people whilst in the UK, or train your own team.

for more information on The Marketing Mix see my blog post Getting to Grips with the Marketing Mix

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Step 3

3.1    Opportunities and Options

Let’s undertake a practical exercise here that will help you to complete this section:

Practical Exercise 2

SWOT Analysis

This is a great and simple way to offer a ‘this is where we are now’ it also helps you to focus on whether or not you have the competence and resource to take you where you want to go.

Take a look at the following areas and categories and assess whether you have strength or weakness in these areas.  

From this exercise you can cover Background Analysis and Opportunities and Options – so keep to the key areas.  If you identify an opportunity when going through the points – then note that down, also do the same with threats.  It may be that you realise through this quick analysis that a key competitor is much stronger with technology than you and therefore, you have identified a threat.

Options to be explored may be: shifting into a new market segment, adding new products to your current offering, enhancing service levels or investing in technology.

Marketing Strengths

•          Image among clients
•          Market share
•          Reputation for quality
•          Service levels
•          Effectiveness of communications
•          Geographical cover
•          Globally connected

Financial Strengths

•          Profitability
•          Cash flow
•          Debt carried
•          Technical skills

Operational Strengths

•          Efficiency of projects
•          Corporate leadership
•          Motivation of employees
•          Entrepreneurial skills
•          Range of products / services
•          Technological development
•          Differentiating factors

Step 4

4.1    Marketing Objectives

Overall Marketing Objectives: (These top line business objectives ‘should’ theoretically speaking, fall out of your strategic business plan (providing you have one!). 

•          Timescale - long and short term pressures / achievements
•          Markets -  Greater share of existing or exploit new markets
•          Services - High added value or low added value
•          Culture - Build on existing or develop new culture
•          Financial - More profit or strengthen market positioning

In your marketing plan you will outline two key objectives.  Marketing objectives and financial objectives – let’s call them ‘goals’.  These are typically what you want to achieve. 

Remember all ‘goals’ must be SMART :

S          -           Specific

M         -           Measurable

A         -           Attainable

R         -           Realistic

T         -           Trackable

Whilst goals should be ‘SMART’ they should also stretch your business and the team.   Your goals provide you with targets and a means for evaluating your business and those who work within it.  So do ensure that your targets aren’t too ‘safe’ and that you are going the extra mile.

4.2       Marketing Goals

Some examples of areas typically measured:

•          Increase market share by X %
•          Increase the average transaction value by X %
•          Increase the number of sales by X %
•          Increase the level of client satisfaction by X %
•          Increase level of awareness (your brand) by X %

4.3       Financial Goals

Some examples of areas typically measured:

•          Increase return on investment by X %
•          Reduce number of debtors by X %
•          Increase return on sales by X %
•          Decrease cost of acquisition by X %

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Step 1

1.1    Background Analysis

Your plan has to be understood by all that read it.  It’s got to be clear and simple and easy to follow – and give a ‘snap shot’ of your business to whomever you need to read it.  Therefore, the analysis and evaluation section is really a ‘this is where we are now’ and ‘this is where we are heading’ section.    It should answer the following questions:

1.    How well are you performing now?

2.    What are the contributors to your success or failure?

3.    How optimistic are you about the future?

Let’s look at an exercise to help you funnel down what you need to include:

Practical Exercise 1

Strategic Positioning

More commonly referred to as a Mission Statement – (your Strategic Positioning) – is a statement, which clearly sets out the overall focus, objectives and guidelines for development and implementation activity.

Your ‘strategic positioning’ or Mission Statement must tell a story.  It must clearly set out:

Step 2

2.1       Current Performance

For this section we are looking at both financial and awareness measurement.  From a financial viewpoint you need to assess performance of total profits, gross and net margins, return on capital employed and cash flow.   

Awareness is based on market share:

•          What percentage of the market you want do you have? 
•          What is the size of your current customer base? 
•          What is the quality of your current customer base? 

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The development of all plans, at any level and of any type, will only be as good as the objectives and methods, and the process documented for delivery.  The following key stages are typically addressed when putting together your Marketing Plan.  Whether strategic, operational, short-term or long-term these stages apply:

•          Background Analysis
•          Current Performance (sales figures and profit)
•          Background Analysis
•          Opportunities and Options

•          Marketing Objectives
•          Marketing Goals
•          Financial Goals

•           Marketing Strategy
•          Target market segments
•          Differential advantage

•          Marketing Mix (the resources you use to implement your plan)
•          Product
•          Price
•          Promotion
•          Distribution
•          Services
•          Team

•        Action Plans

•        Budget

•        Organisational Implications

•         Contingency

•          Monitor  and Evaluate

In this marketing plan template guide in the coming posts we’ll work through each of these stages helping you to understand what you need to consider when putting your plan together.

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A couple of years ago I created a Marketing Plan Template, a practical resource which provides a good starting point when wanting to put a marketing plan together.  It doesn’t just highlight what goes into a plan – but it provides practical exercises too.  So I thought I’d share via the blog…

Why create a Marketing Plan?

Whatever led you to dive in starting your own business; whether redundancy, sheer chance, a new product or idea, the need to take control - life running your own business can be pretty hectic.

Being organised definitely helps to keep an element of order to how you grow and manage your business – and part of being organised is business is ‘good planning’.

Time does not stand still – and therefore, neither can your business – you need to plan a means of developing your business, serving customers, getting new customers and retaining the ones you have; innovatively, simply and effectively (nothing too difficult there then!).

In an ever changing business environment you need to be sure you have considered every resource to help drive your business.  The internet has opened the playing field, and reduced the barriers to entry – and so even the smallest businesses have significant opportunities for growth, development and brand visibility. 

Simply committing your ideas and plans to paper gives you a blueprint to refer to.  It’s your business plan.  And a key component of that business plan is your Marketing Plan.  Your ‘Marketing Plan’ is the ‘HOW’ you are going to deliver your business objectives.

About the Marketing Plan Template

My Marketing Plan template is designed to help you build an effective Marketing Plan.  Effectively, I’ll take you through the key points of the plan and explain what you need to do/consider for each section.

In an ideal world – prior to completing your Marketing Plan you would undertake some research to help you understanding your current position.  It’s what’s effectively known as a Marketing Audit - and it covers such things as:

• trends within the economy and society that may impact your business  
• competitor analysis – understanding what your competitors are up to (turnover, activity)
• customer and market analysis – understanding more about your customers and the market you operate in.  
• breakdown of your sales figures, market share and profit margins

At Carvill Creative I call this a Marketing Audit.  A Marketing Audit is an indepth and often time consuming project.  But if you would like to get a copy of our Marketing Audit Template – simply email michelle@carvillcreative.co.uk and request the Carvill Creative Marketing Audit Template – there’s no fee for the document, however, do consider that it’s a working document and whilst it will help you see what’s involved in a Marketing Audit – we won’t be doing the Audit with you.

 So now to get on with the task in hand – creating your Marketing Plan…watch out for this next post – coming to you very soon!

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Some key frustrations of small business owners have been identified as:

• Lack of progress in growing the business
• Wanting to take the business to the next level but unclear on to how to do this
• Implementing change – creating a plan of action and sticking to it

To add to this – often there are personal frustrations too:

• Too much time consumed by the business
• Weekends and evenings impinged upon because of business commitments
• Friends and family time reduced

Sound familiar?  If so, let’s take a look at how the practical step of creating a plan of action – can help to ease the way forward – and ultimately help business owners create businesses that provide them with a particular lifestyle of choice.

Plans are nothing, planning is everything – and implementation is follow through…

In a business era where long-term fixed business plans don’t often work for a business that needs to react quickly to market change – plans are still necessary.

Having a focus – a path to follow, however short or long term that plan may be – helps to ensure that a business keeps on the right track, something to focus progress – and importantly, measure success against.  Plans can be flexible, fixed, changed on a monthly basis – whatever works for your business.   But you need a strategic direction. 

Creating your plan is one thing, and in my view, a significantly important part of the process – but what is absolutely crucial to success – is implementation.

Fail to implement and nothing happens.

So let’s take a look at first things first…

Creating your plan of action:

Start with research:

Take a step back from your business and consider your business with an outsider’s viewpoint.  Be brave, immerse yourself and get that ‘hands on’ understanding that an external consultant would, if they came in and assessed your business from an impartial position.

Once you’ve got a feeling for what’s currently happening – and an idea of some of the sticking points (believe me, spend some time with your people, in the office(s), listening to calls, customer interactions – you’ll be amazed what you pick up on).  I bet you’ll find at least 30 things you’ll want to change or improve on.

Apply a clear direction:

·         What objectives have you set for your business, your financial, personal and strategic goals?

·         Do you have a plan in place?

·         Are all those responsible for delivering those objectives up to speed with the strategic direction – your plan? 

·         Who is responsible for what?  Are roles clear, and are they aligned with the goals of the business?

·         How is the business functioning – what processes are in place?

·         Do you have the right people doing the right things?  If you do, are they happy – are your business processes working for them?  Ask yourself, how you know this?

Get a plan in place

1. Run an ‘audit’ on your business – look at each of the critical functions, assess how they are working and whether there are ‘gaps’ to fill.

1. You are not on your own, get other people within your business involved.  Run team research to assess how the business is working for them.  It’s incredible how what they say often translates with what the market is saying.  And who knows, you may have some hidden ‘rainmakers’.

1. Create a plan of action – call it what you will, Strategic Plan, Business Plan – whatever, but have a plan in place.  Something that you can revisit to keep you and others involved, on track.

Key to it all…implementation

Implementation is the difference between talking about it – and getting on and doing it.  Once you have a clear direction – then you want to ACTION your plan.  Be very specific when drilling down to how you are actually going to achieve your objectives.  Question everything – and drill down until you know how it is going to happen, how it’s going to happen and who is taking responsibility. 

Provide clear action plans for those responsible for implementation, plans which include timelines – so that you can keep a track of when you expect certain elements to be in place. 

As a business owner – not failing to implement means including excellent and effective project management into your ‘repertoire’ of skills.

Someone once said to me – those who don’t aim for anything, hit it with incredible accuracy!  Wise words indeed, so know what you want – plan it out and then get on and do it!

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