A marketing plan is a map for your business advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year to help reach marketing goals. Your marketing plan is unique. The marketing plan helps you decide on the best use of your resources to achieve your business goals such as coming up with a sales forecast.
The marketing plan acknowledges the needs of the consumers and aligns the business to fit those needs. This will become your corporate mission. With your marketing plan, you will keep ahead of the trends. A trend can be difficult to forecast and mostly be determined in hindsight. Any time consumer tastes change so will the prices and marketing change.
Your marketing plan should have timely points of research to verify the consumers’ demands. Has your target market changed or disappeared? What are the consumer trends in the present market place like? What are the predictors to where/how the trends will change? You need to change your product or parts of your service to fit the new needs and goals of your present customers. Also, you will change your product or parts of your service to fit the needs of your new customers. If you do not change the business will not thrive and you will lose your competitive edge. It also helps you forecast market size and provide guidance when introducing new products.
I recently used my marketing plan to introduce new line of products designed for other woodcarvers. During a large carving festival with lots of instructors and classes I observed that many students preferred to carve pieces from something called a rough out rather than starting for scratch. A rough out is a partially-finished wood carving made from another completed piece. A student can carve a rough out in their own manner and finish it quicker than carving from a blank piece of wood. I decided to create a line of rough outs based on my original, completed designs and sell the rough out to other carvers. So far, the response to this new line of products has done well. By observing the trends, I could introduce a new product.
Marketing Plan Check List
1) Budget your marketing strategies – your plan must be financially reasonable
2) Give time to create your marketing plan – do not strain your man power resources. This plan is important for your business success. But use your man power efficiently
3) List the business marketing goals – list possible events and research the target markets
4) Revisited update the marketing plan – you can do this yearly or when customer needs and trends change
5) Don’t forget to create a business plan
More on the Marketing Plan
