Some Ideas On What A Marketing Plan Should Encompass

Yesterday, we discussed some of the reasons why a marketing plan is a necessary step to implement in any business.

Today, I am just going to touch on some of the Elements a Good marketing plan should utilize. There have no doubt been books written about this subject. I don't intend to do that here.

Let me throw some ideas using some methods that I have used in the past of what a good marketing plan should be rooted to. It is up to you to do some research on some of the topics that I will attempt to highlight here;

1. One that comes to mind is how are you going to reach your customers? are you going to use mail order, the Internet, Print media or?

2. Next obvious thing is who are you going to target for your product or service?

3. For any product or service to be successful, it has to be of benefit to your buyer. What benefits will your product or service provide?

4. I know that if you have been reading any of my posts, you have to be consistent. Where will you market or advertise your products or service and when? You have to have a month to month outline or timetable to do this.

5. This may seem a little silly, but what business are you in? You need a product or service don't you? Where does that product or service fit in the market? Why does Toyota do better than Ford in the Market place? They are cars are they not? So if you are marketing a widget why is that widget better than other widgets? Is it price? quality, service or? Where do you fit in?

6. What is your Advertising strategy? Let's say you have a similar product that many competitor's have. You have to study who your competitors are and see how you are different from them and than get that idea conveyed to your reader.

7. How much is it going to cost to get your product sold and to the consumer? You now have to compute your budget. I have mentioned it before and that percentage has been time tested to be at least 10% of your sales. Winners in any market always seem to spend more than that. This is just a guideline.

Now is the time to do some research of what was just mentioned. I may have missed some Elements, but I think that gives you a lot to think about and implement. You might hire a marketing consultant. You will find that if you get yourself a good one, you will actually spend less than if you did not have one.