Company Partners sees a lot of business plans, some are very good but many are poorly thought out, the most common problem is a lack of effort on the marketing or sales plan. This is an area that Investors and business partners pick up on straight away. It is often the difference between just a good idea and a real opportunity that will get to market and become a successful business.
Marketing plans can be stand-alone in the sense that although referring and being guided by an overall business plan, the marketing plan can be written as a separate document. Alternatively it can be constructed as a chapter within the business plan.
Whilst marketing plans of course have to fit the business's unique needs and situation, there are standard elements that you just can't do without: analysis of the situation, the marketing strategy, sales and marketing actions, sales forecast, and expense budget.
- Situation Analysis: Normally this will include a market analysis, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and a competitive analysis. The market analysis will include market forecast, segmentation, customer information, and market needs analysis.
- Marketing Strategy: This should include at least a mission statement, objectives, and focused strategy including market segment focus and product positioning.
- Sales & Marketing Actions: Based on your marketing strategy you should spell out specific actions or programmes that you will be carrying out. The more specific you can be, the more likely-hood of it ending up a practical workable plan. For example, part of your marketing may be to have a web page, so include actions on search engine optimization and how you will publicise it. Include dates and who is responsible for the action.
- Sales Forecast: This would include enough detail to track sales month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales by product, by region or market segment, by channels, by manager responsibilities, and other elements.
- Expense Budget: This ought to include enough detail to track expenses month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis.
Implementation
You should also remember that planning is about the results, not the plan itself. A marketing plan must be measured by the results it produces. The implementation of your plan is much more important than its brilliant ideas or massive market research. You can influence implementation by building a plan full of specific, measurable and concrete actions that can be tracked and followed up. Plan-vs.-actual analysis is critical to the eventual results, and you should build it into your plan
What does a Sales & Marketing Plan outline look like?
The following table of contents is taken from a complete Sales & Marketing Plan that was generated using Palo Alto's Marketing Plan software and gives a good example of the structure. Depending on your situation, you may not do every section, but don't dismiss a section until you have thought carefully whether it could help you.
1.0 Marketing Vision
1.1 Goals
1.2 Purpose
1.3 Picture
2.0 Ideal Customer
2.1 Market Needs
2.2 Market Trends
2.3 Market Description
2.3.1 Demographics
2.3.2 Psychographics
2.3.3 Behaviors
2.3.4 Geographics
2.4 Market Growth
Table: Market Analysis
Chart: Market Analysis (Pie)
Chart: Market Analysis (CAGR)
3.0 Competition & Differentiation
3.1 Differentiators
3.2 Direct Competition
Table: Competitive Analysis
Table: Growth and Share
Chart: Competitor by Growth and Share
Chart: Competitor by Growth
Chart: Competitor by Price
Chart: Competitor by Share
3.3 Indirect Competition
4.0 Core Strategy
4.1 Core Message
4.2 Positioning Goal
4.3 Key Strategic Indicators
4.4 Core Branding Elements
4.4.1 Colors
4.4.2 Logo
4.4.3 Images
4.4.4 Type
5.0 Product/Service Innovation
5.1 Strategy
5.2 Price Rationale
6.0 Marketing Materials
6.1 Marketing Kit
6.2 Marketing Story
6.3 Case Study Plan
6.4 Testimonial Plan
6.5 Multi Media Materials
7.0 Web Plan
7.1 Website Marketing Strategy
Table: Web Development Milestones
Chart: Web Development Milestones
7.2 Content Strategy
7.2.1 Update
7.3 Search Engine Strategy
7.3.1 Local Search
7.3.2 Social Search
7.4 Email Marketing Plan
7.4.1 Lead Capture Strategy
7.4.2 Ezine and Data Mining
7.5 Social Media Plan
7.5.1 RSS
7.5.2 Blog
7.5.3 Podcast
7.5.4 Social Networking
8.0 Lead Generation Plan
8.1 Advertising
Table: Pay-Per-Click ROAS
Table: Advertising Milestones
Chart: Advertising Milestones
8.2 Public Relations
8.2.1 Media List
Table: PR Milestones
Chart: PR Milestones
8.3 Referrals
8.4 Direct Mail
Table: Direct Marketing Milestones
Chart: Direct Marketing Milestones
8.4.1 Mailing List Source
8.5 Lead Generation Tracking Plan
9.0 Lead Conversion Plan
9.1 Sales Strategy
9.2 Sales Process
9.2.1 Qualify
9.2.2 Present
9.2.3 Nurture
9.2.4 Transaction
9.2.5 Follow-up
9.3 CRM Plan
10.0 Service Experience
10.1 Community Building Plan
10.2 Loyalty Product/Service Offerings
11.0 Marketing Calendar
11.1 Monthly
Table: Milestones
12.0 Critical Numbers
12.1 Sales Forecast
Table: Sales Forecast
Chart: Sales Monthly
Chart: Sales by Year
12.2 Marketing Expense Budget
Table: Marketing Expense Budget
Chart: Monthly Expense Budget
Chart: Annual Expense Budget
12.3 Measurement Plans
12.4 Key Marketing Metrics
Table: Key Marketing Metrics
13.0 Marketing Training
13.1 Marketing Organization
13.2 Keys to Success Training Plan
13.3 Numbers Reporting
Tables
Table: Sales Forecast
Table: Marketing Expense Budget
Table: Key Marketing Metrics
