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Five Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

September 29, 2011 at 9:45 pm Leave a comment

Five Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

How business owners can put together a detailed marketing guide for business growth.

By Tim Berry

While your business plan generally outlines your entire business, a standalone marketing plan focuses specifically, and in more detail, on just that one function. When business owners want to dive deeper into their marketing strategy they will likely put together a detailed plan that outlines their marketing goals — as well as the steps needed to accomplish them.

The standard components of an effective marketing plan can vary depending on who you ask. Here is my recommended five-step process for developing a marketing plan that will help you achieve your goals for business growth.

Step One: Look inward.
Think of your company as if it were a person with its own unique personality and identity. With that in mind, create separate lists that identify your business’s strengths, weaknesses and goals. Put everything down and create big lists. Don’t edit or reject anything.

Then, find priorities among the bullet points. If you’ve done this right, you’ll have more than you can use, and some more important than others. Kick some of the less important bullets off the list and move the ones that are important to the top.

This sometimes requires input from your managers as well. For example, your management team thinks being conservative on spending is a weakness but you don’t. That might be something to drop off the list.

Step Two: Look outward.
The next list you’ll need to make outlines your business’s opportunities and threats. Think of both as external to your business — factors that you can’t control but can try to predict. Opportunities can include new markets, new products and trends that favor your business. Threats include competition and advances in technology that put you at a disadvantage.  Read More

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220148

Entry filed under: Business, Business Coaching, Entrepreneurship, General, Marketing, Productivity, Promotion, Rising Entrepreneurs, Startups. Tags: Five Steps to Create a Marketing Plan, Marketing, Marketing Plan.