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What is a Marketing Plan? A marketing plan contains a list of actions needed to accomplish marketing goals. It may be for a product, a service or a brand. There are marketing plans for short term goals - 1 year, and long term goals - five years. A marketing plan could be part of an overall business plan format. A good marketing strategy is the foundation of a good marketing plan. Why does a Small Home Business require a Marketing Plan? A marketing plan can help a small home based business owner to focus his marketing efforts. It ensures a systematic technique to developing products and services to meet and gratify customers' needs. How to create a Marketing Plan Creating a marketing plan is not hard to do. Center on the content and do not fret too much about the writing style. Center on the goals and the initiatives required to realize them need to be stated clearly in the marketing plan. Bear in mind that a good marketing plan sets clear, realistic, achievable and measurable goals. It should provide deadlines, a budget and allocation of responsibilities. Marketing Plan Outline A basic marketing plan outline may include these topics: Current Market Analysis Explain the current market condition which the organization is in. This can later be used as a benchmark to tweak the marketing plan in the future. By using a marketing plan SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and also the PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis tools, write a basic description of the current product or service offering, the marketing advantages and obstacles the business could experience. Consider the threats posed by competitors and also consider other factors that could affect the company in the year ahead. This will help in the formulation of strategies later on. Target Market Certainly every product or service needs a market. This explains why customer analysis in marketing plans is of paramount importance to its success. The product could be directed at the internet market as well as the offline market. It could be directed at the general public or it could be directed at a niche market. For an online market the analysis should include internet shopping stats.Once a target market is chosen, write a target market profile based on demographics and include qualifying benchmarks. Marketing Objectives List the company's marketing goals for the coming year. The goals should be specific, realistic and measurable in order to asses the marketing progress. Avoid unspecific statements like, "Increase indoor sales." Include specifics instead - "Increase indoor sales by 25%." Strategies to Achieving Objectives If the marketing aim is to grow indoor sales by 25% then a strategy has to be devised to meet this objective. For instance, there could be special a promotion for walk-in consumers. This promotion may be marketed via an emailed weekly newsletter to consumers. The strategies should be comprehensive and cover the 4P's of marketing - Price, Product, Place, Promotion. Marketing Budget Executing marketing strategies to reach marketing goals costs money. Create a breakdown of marketing connected expenses associated with the strategies. Have a look at the numbers and decide if it is too big. Do not be afraid to rescale or revise the budget until a viable figure is attained. Keep in mind that a marketing plan must remain a constant process throughout the life of a company. Marketing plans should adapt to changes in environment in order to remain applicable.

Tags: Online Business, Promotion and Marketing //