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Assess the needs of your customers, and develop a product or service to meet these needs.
Communicate the attributes of the product or service to the customer.
Establish distribution channels to get the products/services to the customer.
Developing your marketing plan will help you identify aspects of marketing that are easy to overlook. To
produce a sound plan you will need to outline who your customers are, how they will buy your product or
hire your services , and why. Your banker or lender will also want to see the marketing section of your
business plan before considering lending you money.
Styles, markets, and goals change and so should your plan. Revisit your marketing plan on a regular basis
to keep it current, and adjust it according to changes in your business activities or predictions of new
trends.
Market research
Before you develop your marketing plan, research the potential market for your product or service. Use
the numbers, facts and findings to back up statements in your marketing plan. You can also design a
questionnaire, create an online survey, and search available databases and other resources to find the
information you need to build your marketing plan.
Include the key points from each of the other sections to explain the basics of your marketing plan.
Be interesting enough to motivate the reader to continue reading the rest of your marketing plan.
Be brief and concise.
Your Business
If you haven't already done so in your overall business plan, you'll want to clearly describe who you are,
what your business is about, your business goals; and what inspired you to start, buy or grow the business.
For example:
Include the company name, address, phone number, and names of owners/partners.
Indicate the business' vision, and mission statement (this should align with your target market).
Indicate the core values and goals of the business and its owner(s).
Describe the product or service
Detail how your product or service is unique or why it is superior to other models on the market. If the
product or service is not unique, maybe the location is ideal or a large market allows room for
competition. It’s important to use facts and numbers to show how your business will be profitable.
By conducting research you can identify the age group, gender, lifestyle, and other demographic
characteristics of the people who have shown interest in your product or service. It is important to provide
statistics, analysis, numbers, and supporting facts that can show the reader there is a demand for your
product or service.
When developing a general profile of your customers, you might want to define them by:
Once you have defined your target customers, you will want to learn about their needs, and preferences.
A few of the many things you might want to learn about your prospective customers include:
What challenges do they have that could be solved with your product or service?
What are their needs and expectations regarding this product or service?
What types of things do they desire?
What do they spend their money on?
Where do they shop?
How do they make spending decisions?
Remember, if you want to develop a profile of your customers, and understand their needs, you will have
to do some market research.
Advertising (TV, radio, print publications, online publications, websites, billboards, business cards)
Publicity (signs, stationary, branding, testimonials, referrals)
Listings (business directories, telephone directories, online listings, association listings)
Sponsoring (research, community events, local charities, sports)
Networking (get feedback from existing and potential customers, and other industry players; reach out to
the public through online social networks; provide advice on blogs, and by speaking at public events;
meet industry players at business events)
Promotions (mail outs, samples, freebies, discount coupons, sales, displays)
Internal marketing (employee rebates, sales incentives, referral incentives)
Plan for Problems
Like any aspect of running a business, preparation helps you deal with challenges. No matter how
meticulously you've planned your marketing strategy, something unexpected can come your way. What
you can do is consider some possible "surprises" that might happen, and write down how you would
handle them.
The following are some marketing challenges that you could plan for: