The start of production and investment activities is always accompanied by scientific study and planning. In today’s world, the survival of economic organizations in the markets depends on detailed planning to set goals, inform customers, create a network, and in a word, manage the market properly.
The marketing plan is one of the most important parts of your business and the key to your success. If a plan is implemented correctly, it should include a proper understanding of the company’s current situation, market research, your current position, target customers, competitors, sales price and advertising of your business.
- • Our goals can only be achieved through the plan, which we must have full faith in, and must act on regularly. There is no other path to success. Pablo Picasso
First measure your position…
Before you plan to improve your performance, you need to think about how you are currently performing. Gather more information about your current situation, especially spending and the target audience your products are popular with. If you’re considering updating your old plan, a report on the components of your previous marketing plan that are still available If you have it, get it. Consider any defects and shortcomings, such as lack of proper access to a specific target market, and match it with the target market’s situation so that its shortcomings are displayed.
To step in the right direction, we have to take the right steps and this requires precision and knowledge. But this article does not end here and we are just the beginning. To have a marketing plan, we must first get acquainted with a series of key concepts:
Selling is considered a set of activities that a person does in order to convert an audience into a customer. This exchange can be a physical product or a type of service that the buyer chooses and uses through the seller.
In other words, selling is a clear concept that encourages the customer to buy the product and sometimes leads to daily orders.
Marketing literally means providing goods or services to meet the needs of consumers. In other words, it is a process that creates a balance between the company’s capabilities and the needs of customers, and includes a profitable process for your business.
A marketing plan is a comprehensive plan consisting of short-term and long-term goals that help to use and implement marketing strategies. Also, this program guides the company to achieve the desired goals.
A marketing plan should be designed to optimize your marketing budget. Whether you’re a CFO or a marketing manager, your job in developing a marketing plan is to write a plan that delivers a return on investment. In fact, it is considered a practical strategy used for company marketing. It can be said that the achievement of marketing goals depends on this program.
Related article: Understanding the difference between marketing strategy and marketing plan
1. Determine the company’s goals:
Determining organizational goals is done by top management and may not be about you. However, you must know the organizational goals of your company so that the final plan and the decision you make are in line with its realization.
2. Do inbound marketing research. (Inspection of internal conditions)
Since companies are created and start working in the marketing environment, the first step in developing and creating a marketing plan is research in that environment. This means that you first examine the obstacles and growth factors within the company and take action to remove the obstacles and maintain the growth factors.
Inbound marketing is targeted and attracts customers who are interested in the product. With inbound marketing, you target customers when they are ready to buy. With the ever-increasing expansion of service industries, the issue of service marketing and its quality review has become an important issue for organizations.
The research is first done in the environment itself and then the collected information is analyzed in the product marketing environment.
3. Conduct external marketing research: (Research external conditions)
In general, the process related to the collection, interpretation and analysis of information is considered marketing research. To express marketing research in the field
4. Do a SWOT analysis.
Once all the information and expert opinions are gathered through marketing research, they should be analyzed and presented in a way that helps in making the best decisions. This can be done through the selection of key information and SWOT analysis, which we will discuss below, which involves examining several areas, including analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
5. Hypothesize.
A marketing plan is a set of clear hypotheses related to external and competitive factors. In any case, hypothesis and prediction are both a kind of guess, but they can guide you in moving forward.
6. Set marketing goals and estimate expected results.
The next step that is taken after the hypothesis and is the key to the entire marketing process; Determining marketing objectives. This is what you intend to achieve, that is, the main and fundamental goals of the program, which are designed based on existing facts.
7. Create marketing strategies and action plans.
This step includes methods that will enable you to achieve your marketing goals. It leads to products, pricing, advertising/promotion and distribution. Distribution also includes marketing channels, physical distribution or customer service, which is considered an important principle in the marketing plan.
It is important that your goals should be definable and achievable, and more importantly, they should be defined in terms of values or market share.
8. Define programs.
Defining plans means specifying who will do what, when, where and how.
9. Determine the budget.
You can come up with different goals and strategies but they should be affordable. Determining the budget has different types, the most important of which are fixed, cash, flexible, capital and operating expenses.
10. Write the program.
When all these steps are done, you are in a position to prepare the written application. Of course, the written program should only include key information that needs to be understood further.
11. Understand the program.
Keep in mind, if the program is not well understood by those who will be implementing it, you will fail.
12. Review and update the program.
Circumstances and situations will change and the plan should be reviewed regularly to take into account changing situations.
A useful marketing plan creates a clear roadmap for your marketing team. This means the best marketing plan for your business according to the needs of your team and business. In most marketing plans, there are sections that include some of the following, and knowing them is important for a person who plans to write a marketing plan:
SWOT stands for Strengths and Weaknesses as they relate to our opportunities and threats in the market.
Strengths and weaknesses refer to the company and its products, while opportunities and threats are usually external factors. The SWOT analysis deals with understanding and analyzing the strengths that make you take advantage of them for growth, as well as identify the weaknesses and threats against your business and help you overcome them.
Seize opportunities and repel threats. This is one of the most important parts of the planning process. A SWOT analysis asks questions that enable you to decide whether the company is truly capable of completing your marketing plan, and what its limitations will be.
The number of separate SWOTs depends on the scope of your program. First, do an analysis on your company and related organization. Then do this for your main competitors, your products, geographies and different market segments that the program covers to see the result.
Having a good marketing plan will help you to reach the right position and high sales. In other words, it guides your annual marketing activities if you don’t forget to keep your plan up to date.
Sources How to Write a Marketing Plan by John Westwood
