Developing an Effective Marketing Plan

2. Target Market
Find niche or target markets for your product and describe them.

3. Product
Describe your product. How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use?

4. Competition
Describe your competition. Develop your "unique selling proposition." What makes you stand apart from your competition? What is your competition doing about branding?

5. Mission Statement
Write a few sentences that state:
•"Key market" - who you're selling to
•"Contribution" - what you're selling
•"Distinction" - your unique selling proposition

6. Market Strategies
Write down the marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider:
•Networking - go where your market is
•Direct marketing - sales letters, brochures, flyers
•Advertising - print media, directories
•Training programs - to increase awareness
•Write articles, give advice, become known as an expert
•Direct/personal selling
•Publicity/press releases
•Trade shows
•Web site

7. Pricing, Positioning and Branding
From the information you've collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness.

8. Budget
Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? What can you do in house, what do you need to outsource.

9. Marketing Goals
Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goals might be to gain at least 30 new clients or to sell 10 products per week, or to increase your income by 30% this year. Your goals might include sales, profits, or customer's satisfaction.

10. Monitor Your Results
Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working.
•Survey customers
•Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions

By researching your markets, your competition, and determining your unique positioning, you are in a much better position to promote and sell your product or service.By establishing goals for your marketing campaign, you can better understand whether or not your efforts are generating results through ongoing review and evaluation of results.

As mentioned earlier in this article, be sure to use your plan as a living document.Successful marketers continually review the status of their campaigns against their set objectives.This ensures ongoing improvements to your marketing initiatives and helps with future planning.

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