Direct Marketing

Plan Template
An initiative of CMA’s Direct
Marketing Council
Contents

Overview 3
What is Direct Marketing? 4
How Direct Marketing fits into business planning 5
Elements of a Marketing plan 6
Marketing plan to Direct Marketing plan 7
Direct Marketing plan template & guidelines 8-17
Overview

A plan can help to organize many pieces of information &/or people and guide
thought processes. While there are often changes in direction, a good plan
contains most information needed to identify a new route.

The purpose of this document is to provide a user friendly template to build a

direct marketing plan.

The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) offers many excellent courses to

further the education and knowledge of marketers. For more information go to:
What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is media agnostic. DM media includes, but is not limited to:

Email (plus HTML) Web/Online/Viral

Event Marketing Sales Promotion
Guerrilla Marketing Merchandising
Ambient Tactics DRTV
Direct Mail DR Radio
DR Print Advertising Outdoor/Transit
Retail/In-Store/POS Collateral
 How Does It All Fit?
Vision What business are we in? (core value proposition)

Mission Where will we be in 3-5 years?

Long term Goals What will we achieve over the next 3-5 years?

What will we achieve this year and what are the

Annual Business Plan
priorities?

Marketing Plan What are the right product & service solutions for key
target customers and prospects?
How will investment be allocated between acquisition,
retention and development to meet the business goals
and maximize customer value?

Who is the target?

How much should be spent by customer group?
Direct Marketing Plan / When should we communicate with them?
Communication Plans What is the right channel, message, offer, product
solution?
Elements of a Marketing Plan

• Executive Summary
• Current Situation These are the key elements of a
• SWOT Analysis & Summary marketing plan for reference.
(key lessons and implications)
If a marketing plan doesn’t exist,
• Objectives missing information can be included in
• Marketing Strategy the direct marketing plan.
• Tactics
• Timelines
• Budgets & Forecast
• Measurement and Controls
 Marketing Plan
• Executive Summary
• Current Situation
• SWOT Analysis & Summary
(key lessons and implications)
• Objectives
• Marketing Strategy
• Tactics
• Timelines
• Budgets & Forecast
• Measurement and Controls
Direct Marketing Plan
• Introduction / Executive Summary
• Overview of Marketing Plan:
• Marketing Objective
• Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Tactics
• Background, past findings/ results
• Direct Marketing Objective
• Direct Marketing Strategies
• Direct Marketing Tactics
• Target audience
• Product Offering
• Key Message
• Offer / Call to action
• Expected Results and ROI
• Key Measures
• Timing
• Budgets
DM Plan – Executive Summary

Introduction
Written after completion to provide a summary of contents including:
• The challenge or opportunity
• Decision is required by the audience
• Resources and investment required
• The recommendation
• Expected end result, critical timing elements
Overview of the marketing plan
• If the direct marketing plan is a subset of a marketing plan,
provide a recap
Background and past findings / results
• Describe what worked and what didn’t, research findings and
customer insights, implications and recommendations
• May include SWOT findings: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats
Overview of the Marketing Plan (if applicable)

Marketing objectives
• Marketing objectives should have a direct correlation to business plan objectives
• Describes what you need to achieve by when and by how much
• Marketing objectives need to be quantifiable (SMART: Specific, Measurable,
Actionable, Realistic, Time specific)
Marketing strategies
• Have a direct correlation to the marketing objectives and explain how you are going to
achieve the objectives
• Single focus statements to support one or more objectives
Marketing tactics
• Tie directly to the marketing strategies and outline what specific actions to implement
each strategy
• Tactics are budgeted individually to roll up to a total marketing budget
Background & Key Learning

• What worked and what didn’t

• Implications and recommendations
• What is known about customers and prospects
• Include SWOT findings
• Strengths & Weaknesses - Internal
• Opportunities & Threats - External
Direct Marketing Objectives

• Describe what needs to be achieved by when and by how much

• SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time specific
• Have a direct correlation to marketing plan and business plan objectives
Direct Marketing Strategy

• Explain how you are going to achieve the objectives

• The action plan to meet the goal
Direct Marketing Tactics

• Tactics break strategy into manageable sections and provide the details and
specific activities to be undertaken
• Tactics are tracked to measure success or failure over time
• Tactics are budgeted individually to roll up to a total budget
• Tactics may include: email (plus HTML), web/online/viral, event marketing,
sales promotion, guerrilla marketing, DRTV, direct mail, DR radio, DR print
advertising
Target Audience

• Key section of the plan - the better the target market description, knowledge
and segmentation, the more successful the plan
• Demographics, psychographics, past purchase behaviour, segmentation
&/or profile summaries
• Should include financial evaluations, behavioural summaries,
(transactional), attitudinal understanding by key segments
• What are their perceptions today and what do we want them to think about?
Why should they believe it?
 Product Offering / Key Message /
Offer
Product offering
• Summarize the key products and/or services and the information needed for a
customer or prospect to make a decision
Key message
• What is the most important thing the customer or prospect needs to know and
what information supports it?
Offer / Call to action
• What do we want customers/prospects to do and why should they do it? What
is in it for them?
 Expected Results and ROI / Key
Measures

Expected results and ROI

• What do you expect as a result of these efforts? Will it pay back? If so, when?
Key measures
• Carefully consider what you need to measure. It is easier to set it up in advance
than collecting data after the fact
• Describe how progress of the plan can be monitored, assessed and reported
• Identify a contingency plan
Timing / Budget

Timing
• What is the timing? Are there implications of being earlier or later?
• Ensure plan is realistic and can be implemented with available resources
• Develop master timeline sheet to manage the big picture and the individual
tactics simultaneously
Budget
• What is the budget and anticipated return on investment?
• What are the current Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and what are the
projected KPI’s (e.g., cost of acquisition, cost of retention, attrition, lifetime
value, etc.)