Marketing Plan Creation Tool Creating a marketing plan is a critical step to ensuring your company has success with its marketing efforts. At Landau Design Reviews, we give clients following questionnaire to get them started on the process. These questions can help you create an outline so you can create a marketing plan that is targeted to the audience you are trying to read. 1) What is the objective of your marketing campaign? Use clear, specific statements (i.e. increase sales by 300%, not just “increase sales”). 2) What is the target audience you are trying to reach. Note that you may have several targets. For each target, define: What is the size of the target market? What motivates them? Have they done business with you before? Have they purchased products or services similar to yours from your competitors? Do they have a need for the quality and service you provide? Do they have the potential to be a repeat customer? How are they affected by government regulation? Do they have the resources to pay for the product or service? 3) What differentiates your company from the competition? How is our company the same or different from the competitor? How do we plan to compete? Is there part of our target market that the competitor has overlooked? Do we offer a product or service that the competition does not? How does our pricing compare? How do we differentiate ourselves? 4) What is the marketing message you want to convey to your target audience. Your message should be succinct (i.e. “Expert web design services with 100% customer satisfaction.” not “we do great web design”.) 5) Campaign Goals: Write 4 specific goals for this 3-month marketing campaign: 1. 2. 3. 4. 6) Talking Points: What are the taglines, specific facts or marketing verbage you will use to sell your product or service? Pay attention to contrary information that customers often complain or retort to. For example, if you know customers complain that you charge to do a service call to provide an estimate, come up with what you will say in response when this issue is brought up. 7) Available Budget: Do you have any budget available to implement this marketing plan?
8) Based on your target audience, what marketing outlets do you feel will reach them? Fill in the following chart, checking off the areas that will reach them, and who would be responsible for implementing a marketing campaign: X
Marketing Opportunity
Entity responsible for implementing Salesperson
Offline Marketing Opportunities Advertising o Newspapers o Magazines o Newsletters o Banners (i.e. little league field) Community Outreach o Community sponsorship (local schools, little leagues, community events, etc) o Charitable donations o Chambers/Associations o Public Service organizations (Big Brothers, Habitat for Humantiy, etc) PR in form of article mentions PR in the form of TV appearances Teaching/Lectures Trade Relations (partner with complimentary companies) Newsletter Tradeshows & conventions Online Marketing Opportunities Website o Comments on articles o Community Message Board o Polls o Interactive FAQs (where users send in questions) o Create an industry Knowledge Base o Live Chat o Video library o Optimize for SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) o Keywords to target o Local areas to target o List of places to get in-bound links Internet Presence o Online reviews o Association Directories o Squidoo, Hubpages, etc. Twitter Facebook LinkedIn, Jigsaw, SWOM, etc. Industry-specific social media communities Banner advertising Blog Guest blogging Article writing Email newsletter Commenting on other blogs Participating in online communities Marketing collateral Official logo Official tagline Brochure
Department
Company
Marketing Opportunity
X
Entity responsible for implementing
Mailings Business cards Promotional items
Budget Based on available marketing budget, come up with allocation across areas of marketing you plan to participate in. Fill in the following chart: Marketing Area
$ to be invested
Expected return
TOTAL MARKETING BUDGET:
Team Fill in the following chart for each individual who will be participating in the implementation of this marketing plan. Team Member
# hours/week
Areas of interest & tasks to be completed
TOTAL HOURS/WEEK:
Weekly Tasks Based on the time available from your team, write an outline of all tasks to be done each week by the entire team. These should be measurable tasks. Week
Hours spent
Marketing Task
3/28
3.0
Example: Visit and comments on blogs. Comment on at least 20 blogs per week.
Individual Tasks Based on what needs to be accomplished each week, come up with individual tasks assigned to team members. Remember to note the interests of each individual since their desire to do the task will assure it is accomplished with maximum effort. Note that this is the most complex part of the project since it requires allocating specific steps of tasks across the team. It is easiest if you take one task at a time, and allocated it to the team across the 12-week plan. For example, if you want to get 20 comments on blogs each week, assign a specific number of comments per team member and write them in for each week. Then move onto the next task. Week 3/28
Team Member Cindy
Hours/ Week 2.5
Marketing Tasks Assigned Example: Read industry blogs and leave at least 5 comments. Attend one chamber mixer Find 2 conventions for possible exhibition
Tracking Progress When implementing marketing actions, each individual should keep a log of their efforts, which should be combined into a weekly marketing report for the company. In this way an overview of all efforts can be seen. The following log is an example: NAME: Date
Task
Result