<iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?

id=GTM-P4QPDLW" height="0"
width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe>
The Balance Small Business

10 Questions You Need to Answer to Create a Powerful Marketing Plan

Menu Search
Go
Go

 Becoming an Owner
o Small Business
o Entrepreneurship
o Online Business
o Home Business
o View All
 Industries
o Retail Small Business
o Nonprofit Organizations
o Restauranting
o Freelancing & Consulting
o View All
 Operations
o Business Law & Taxes
o Marketing
o Accounting
o Supply Chain Management
o View All

visit our other sites

Growing Your Small Business

 Introduction
 Growth Strategy
o Your Vision Statement
o Sales Strategy
o Goal-Setting
o Getting Referrals
o Mastering Your Niche
 Marketing
o Marketing Strategies
o Making a Plan
 o Your Target Audience
o 101 Marketing Ideas
o Low-Cost Marketing
o Advertising Methods
 Customer Service
o Great Customer Service
o Customer Service Rules
o Loyalty Programs
o The 5 Types of Customers
 Finances
o Bookkeeping 101
o Getting a CPA
o Smart Accounting
o Reducing Costs

Becoming an Owner Small Business

10 Questions You Need to Answer to

Create a Powerful Marketing Plan
o Share
o Flip
o Pin
o Email

By Alyssa Gregory
Updated October 03, 2018

A marketing plan is an essential marketing tool for every small business. To create an

effective plan, you'll need to ask yourself—and answer—such important questions as:
What do I want to accomplish and why? What is my target market? Who is my
competition? Consider these important questions and more before taking any other
action. 

 01

Marketing Strategy: How Will Your Marketing Plan Support Your

Business Goals?

Before you start developing your marketing plan, you need a clear idea of what you want
to accomplish. This is your marketing strategy, and it's directly related to your business
goals and objectives. Your marketing strategy outlines what you want to do, and the rest
of the marketing plan provides details on how to do it.
 For example, let's say one of your business goals is to expand your brick-and-mortar
retail store into an e-commerce website. Your marketing strategy for that goal could be to
introduce your products to a new national market segment. You would then break down
your strategy even further into short- and long-term objectives while defining your
specific marketing message. Delve into how a marketing strategy and a marketing plan
work together.

If you don't have them already, create specific business goals with a business goal setting
guide to get started. Also, make sure you are attaching a specific timeline to your goals,
such as a 90-day plan. Having a time frame helps you create a more targeted and realistic
marketing plan.

 02

Mission Statement: What Are You Trying to Accomplish, and Why?

Your mission statement addresses what are you trying to do and why you are doing it.
You may have already created a mission statement as part of your business planning
process. If so, add it to your marketing plan.

Your mission statement is the foundation of your marketing plan. Although it may not
play a direct role in your marketing activities, the mission statement focuses on your
business goals and helps you make sure that your marketing activities support the
business's overall objectives. It's an effective tool to refer back to whenever you start to
question if you are still on the right track.

If you haven't finalized your mission statement yet, do so now. A mission statement
tutorial can help you to get started.

 03

Target Market: Who Are You Trying to Reach With Your Marketing
Activities?

Your target market is the specific audience you want to reach with your products and
services or the group you are trying to sell to. The more details you include as you
determine who is in your target market, the more targeted your marketing plan will be.

Take time to conduct market research so that you can identify:

o Who makes up your target audience

o Where you can find them
o What they value as important
o What they are worried about
o What they need right now
 Create a sketch of the person or business you would consider your ideal customer. This
exercise helps you identify specifics about that customer as well as personalize your
marketing messaging.

 04

Competitive Analysis: Who Are You Up Against, and Where Do You

Rank?

One of the best ways to research your target market and prepare your own marketing
activities is to study your competition. Know who is out there selling what you are,
especially if they are selling it to consumers who fit your ideal customer profile. Take a
hard look at what your competitors are doing right, and what they may be doing wrong.

One way to conduct a competitive analysis is with a SWOT analysis, a strategic tool that
evaluates a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Take time to
measure the SWOT of your top competition as well as your own business.

Conducting a thorough analysis of your competition will help you identify areas where
you can beat the competition, fine-tune your niche market, and make sure you are
prepared to address competitive challenges.

 05

Unique Selling Proposition: What Makes Your Business Unique?

Once you know what you're up against in the market, it's time to identify the approach
that sets you apart from everyone else. 

A unique selling proposition (USP) outlines how your business, products, or services
differ from your competition's. The statement identifies what makes your business the
better choice, and why your target clients should choose you over the competition.

A unique selling proposition tutorial can help craft a USP for your business.

 06

Pricing Strategy: What Will You Charge, and Why?

If you have a traditional business plan, you already have spent a great deal of time
researching the best price point for your products and services. Now relate that pricing
information to your marketing activities.

One highly important factor is determining how you will work your pricing strategy into
your marketing message. In most cases, you want to be able to support your price points
 by providing your customers with a clear idea of the value and benefits they receive in
return. A high-value proposition often leads a customer to make a purchase.

If you haven't identified your pricing perspective yet, review a pricing strategy primer to
explore different approaches and consider how they may relate to your business.

 07

Promotional Plan: How Will You Reach Your Target Market?

As a key element of the marketing mix, your promotional plan covers all of the
communication that will take place with the consumer. 

Your promotional plan should combine a variety of marketing activities and may include:

o Advertising
o Packaging
o Public relations
o Direct sales
o Internet marketing
o Sales promotions
o Marketing materials
o Other publicity efforts

Don't want to start out with too many variations in your promotional plan. Select three to
five specific activities to help you execute your marketing strategy.

For example, if one of your goals is to provide five free initial consultations within three
months, your promotional plan may include focusing on targeted leads through a cold
calling campaign, a social media outreach plan, and a direct mail campaign. You can get
some idea on specific activities by browsing lists of 101 small business marketing ideas.

Complete this step at the same time as the next step since your budget affects the
activities you can include.

 08

Marketing Budget: How Much Money Will You Spend, and on What?

As you outline a promotional plan, you need to have a budget in place so that you know
which activities you can afford. Unfortunately, most new small businesses have a limited
budget when it comes to marketing, so creating a promotional plan that works with your
available funds is vital.
 You may have an annual marketing budget, but you should also break it down into
separate monthly budgets so that you can track results and modify the promotional plan
to focus on the activities that provide you with the biggest return on investment.

A marketing budget template from Entrepreneur.com and another template from

Microsoft Office can get you started.

 09

Action List: What Tasks Do You Need to Complete to Reach Your

Marketing Goals?

Outlining exactly what you need to do and when is an important part of your marketing
plan. This outline becomes the task list to guide you through every one of your
promotional activities. Your action steps help you stay on track so that you can make
consistent progress without having to re-create the wheel every time you're ready to take
a step.

To formulate your marketing plan action list, follow the same process for managing your
daily tasks: take the end goal, and break it down into a series of single-step tasks that lead
you to achieving your desired result

For example, if one of the activities outlined in your promotional plan is launching a
direct mail campaign, your first few action steps may look like this:

o Determine your budget for the campaign.

o Clarify your objective for the campaign.
o Determine the type of direct mail you will send.
o Hire a designer or firm to create your collateral.
o Write (or hire out) the copy for the direct mail piece.
o Clarify the call to action.
o Have a draft of the direct mail piece created.

Your action list can take a number of different forms, as long as it's created in a way that
supports progress. Each action item should also include a due date that works with the
timeline you created for your marketing plan. Typically, the smaller the steps, the easier
it will be for you to complete tasks and build momentum.

 10

Metrics: What Results Have You Achieved, and Where Can You
Improve?

All of this work you've put into creating a marketing plan for your small business will be
rendered useless if you can't track and measure the results. This step allows you to take
 your marketing plan from a one-time, static document and turn it into a plan that grows
and develops with your business.

The way you track and measure your results depends on your particular type of marketing
tactics. For example, online marketing can be tracked using analytics and other internet-
based metrics, while tracking offline marketing methods requires a more manual
approach.

In general, the more standardized your tracking system, the more relevant your results
will be. By measuring your results, you will become much better at tailoring your
marketing activities to focus on the areas where you will have the most success.

For some ideas on how to track your marketing results, read more about marketing
metrics.

Success for Small Businesses Starts with Good Planning

Success comes with hard work and good planning. Create a blueprint, follow it, fine-tune
it, update it, and always go back to it. Planning is essential.
Continue Reading
+
<style>#chop_1-0--chop-content {max-height: initial;}#chop_1-0 {display: none;}</style>

101 Clever Ways to Market Your Small Business

Attract New Customers With These Simple Marketing Strategies

No Budget, No Problem With These Low Cost Business Marketing Ideas



Create a Marketing Plan in 4 Simple Steps

8 Major Media Tactics Used In Modern Advertising

How to Write a Marketing Plan (From Pricing Strategy Through Sales Plan)

How to Reach Your Target Audience

Write an Inspiring Vision Statement for Your Business in 3 Steps



10 Ways to Reduce Small Business Costs

Steps to Implementing Retail Customer Loyalty Programs

The 8 Simple Rules for Good Customer Service

The Business Owner's Guide to Accounting and Bookkeeping

The 5 Types of Customers (And How to Make Them Buy More)


 10 Common Small Business Tax Deductions

4 Time-Saving Hacks for Creating a Comprehensive Marketing Plan

6 Surefire Ways to Increase Sales

Our Best Money Tips, Delivered

Email Address
Sign up
You're in! Thanks for signing up.
There was an error. Please try again.
FacebookPinterestTwitterFlipboardLinkedin

 Becoming an Owner
 Industries
 Operations

 About Us
 Advertise
 Terms of Use
 Privacy Policy
 Cookie Policy
 Careers
 Contact
 Editorial Guidelines

Also from The Balance Team

The Balance
The Balance Careers

The Balance Small Business is part of the Dotdash publishing family.

 Lifewire
 ThoughtCo
 TripSavvy
 The Spruce
 and more

<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?

id=786108458181251&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
t is not possible for a marketer to have similar strategies for product promotion amongst all individuals. Kids do not
get attracted towards products meant for adults and vice a versa. Every segment has a different need, interest and
perception. No two segments can have the same ideologies or require a similar product.

Target Marketing refers to a concept in marketing which helps the marketers to divide the market into small
units comprising of like minded people. Such segmentation helps the marketers to design specific strategies and
techniques to promote a product amongst its target market. A target market refers to a group of individuals who are
inclined towards similar products and respond to similar marketing techniques and promotional schemes.

Kellogg’s K Special mainly targets individuals who want to cut down on their calorie intake. The target market in
such a case would be individuals who are obese. The strategies designed to promote K Special would not be the
same in case of any other brand say Complan or Boost which majorly cater to teenagers and kids to help them in
their overall development. The target market for Kellogg’s K Special would absolutely be different from Boost or
Complan.

Jordan, a college student went to a nearby retail store to purchase a shirt for himself. The retailer tried hard to sell a
nice formal shirt to him, but somehow could not convince Jordan. Jordan left the store sad and empty handed.

Where do you think is the problem ?

The problem is neither with Jordon nor the shirt. The retailer in this case failed to understand that Jordan, being a
college student, was not the target audience for the formal shirt. No amount of convincing helped as the retailer was
targeting the wrong audience. The target market for a formal shirt would be office goers or professionals. Funky T
shirts, casual shirts would have worked better for Jordon.

The target market for Zodiac Clothing Company Limited or Louis Philippe would be the office goers whereas the
target market for Levi’s would be the school and college kids.

In simpler words, target market consists of like-minded individuals for whom an organization can afford to have
similar strategies, promotional schemes and advertisements to entice them and prompt them to purchase the product.
Once a company decides on its target audience, it implements various promotional strategies to make a brand
popular amongst them.

Basis of Target Marketing

 Age
  Gender
 Interests
 Geographic location
 Need
 Occupation

Why target marketing? (Need of Target Marketing)

 Organizations can use similar kind of strategies to promote their products within a target market.
 They can adopt a more focussed approach in case of target marketing. They know their customers well and
thus can reach out to their target audience in the most effective way.

How to create Target Market

 The organization must first decide who all individuals would fit into a particular segment. A male and a
female can’t be kept in the same segment. The first and the foremost step is to decide on the target market.
 The next step is to identify need and preference of the target market. It is essential to find out what the
target market expects from the product.
 Once the target market is decided, organizations can decide on the various strategies helpful to promote
their product.

Target Market Selection

Target market represents a group of individuals who have similar needs, perceptions and interests. They
show inclination towards similar brands and respond equally to market fluctuations.

Individuals who think on the same lines and have similar preferences form the target audience. Target
market includes individuals who have almost similar expectations from the organizations or marketers.

Obese individuals all across the globe look forward to cutting down their calorie intake. Marketers
understood their need and came up with Kellogg’s K Special which promises to reduce weight in just two
weeks. The target market for Kellogg’s K Special diet would include obese individuals.

Individuals who sweat more would be more interested in buying perfumes and deodorants with a strong
and lasting fragrance.

How to select the Target Market ?

It is essential for the organizations or marketers to identify the set of people whom they want to
target ?. Marketers must understand the needs and expectations of the individuals to create its target
market.

The target audience must have similar needs, interests and expectations.

Similar products and brands should entice the individuals comprising the target market.

Same taglines and advertisements attract the attention of the target audience and prompt them to buy.

To select a target market, it is essential for the organizations to study the following factors:
Understand the lifestyle of the consumers

Age group of the individuals

Income of the consumers

Spending capacity of the consumers

Education and Profession of the people

Gender

Mentality and thought process of the consumers

Social Status

Always remember you would never be successful if you try to impress everyone. Be specific

Identify individuals who show similar characteristics. Put them in one group to create target market within a broad
market.

Let us go through the below example:

Why do people use soaps ?

Some would use it against body odour

Some would use it to fight germs and infections
Some for a fair and spotless skin

In the above case the product is same but the needs of the individuals are different. Consumers
have different reasons as to why they use soaps.

Target Audience 1

Against body odour - Soaps with a strong and lasting fragrance.

 Marketing professionals
 Sales Representatives
 People exposed to sun for a longer duration
 Individuals travelling by public transport

Target Audience 2

To fight germs and infections - Soaps with medicinal properties

 Individuals working in hospitals, nursing homes and research centres

 Individuals working in unhygienic conditions

Target Audience 3

For a whiter skin - Soaps which improve the skin tone of individuals.
  Teenagers
 College students

Target Audience 4

For a younger looking skin - Soaps which help get rid of wrinkles and fine lines of ageing

 Individuals between age group 30 – 50 years or above

Individuals with identical requirements form the target audience. A 20 year old girl can’t be
targeted along with someone who is 50 years old.

Online matrimony sites target young individuals aspiring to get married. The organizations strive
hard to fulfil their expectations by providing suitable matches.

Other important factors like climatic conditions and geographical locations also play an
important role in deciding the target market.

Deodorants and perfumes sell like hot cakes in humid and warm places.

Target Market for Beverages

Bournvita, Complan, Maltova, Boost - Growing kids

Soft drinks (Pepsi, Coke) - Teenagers
Fruit Juice (Real, Tropicana) - Health conscious individuals
Energy Drinks(Red bull) - Professionals, Office goers