what is a market plan essay

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

Published: December 27, 2023

For a while now, you've been spearheading your organization's content marketing efforts, and your team's performance has convinced management to adopt the content marketing strategies you’ve suggested.

Now, your boss wants you to write and present a content marketing plan, but you‘ve never done something like that before. You don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, we've curated the best content marketing plans to help you write a concrete plan that's rooted in data and produces results. But first, we'll discuss what a marketing plan is and how some of the best marketing plans include strategies that serve their respective businesses.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. Marketing plans can include different marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, all working toward the same business goals.

The purpose of a marketing plan is to write down strategies in an organized manner. This will help keep you on track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Writing a marketing plan will help you think of each campaign‘s mission, buyer personas, budget, tactics, and deliverables. With all this information in one place, you’ll have an easier time staying on track with a campaign. You'll also discover what works and what doesn't. Thus, measuring the success of your strategy.

Featured Resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

Looking to develop a marketing plan for your business? Click here to download HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template to get started .

To learn more about how to create your marketing plan, keep reading or jump to the section you’re looking for:

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Types of marketing plans, marketing plan examples, marketing plan faqs, sample marketing plan.

If you're pressed for time or resources, you might not be thinking about a marketing plan. However, a marketing plan is an important part of your business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute resources and make decisions as your business grows.

I like to think of a marketing plan as a subset of a business plan; it shows how marketing strategies and objectives can support overall business goals.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy describes how a business will accomplish a particular goal or mission. This includes which campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software they'll use to execute that mission and track its success.

For example, while a greater plan or department might handle social media marketing, you might consider your work on Facebook as an individual marketing strategy.

A marketing plan contains one or more marketing strategies. It's the framework from which all of your marketing strategies are created and helps you connect each strategy back to a larger marketing operation and business goal.

For example, suppose your company is launching a new software product, and it wants customers to sign up. The marketing department needs to develop a marketing plan that'll help introduce this product to the industry and drive the desired signups.

The department decides to launch a blog dedicated to this industry, a new YouTube video series to establish expertise, and an account on Twitter to join the conversation around this subject. All this serves to attract an audience and convert this audience into software users.

To summarize, the business's marketing plan is dedicated to introducing a new software product to the marketplace and driving signups for that product. The business will execute that plan with three marketing strategies : a new industry blog, a YouTube video series, and a Twitter account.

Of course, the business might consider these three things as one giant marketing strategy, each with its specific content strategies. How granular you want your marketing plan to get is up to you. Nonetheless, every marketing plan goes through a particular set of steps in its creation.

Learn what they are below.

• State your business's mission.
• Determine the KPIs for this mission.
• Identify your buyer personas.
• Describe your content initiatives and strategies.
• Clearly define your plan's omissions.
• Define your marketing budget.
• Identify your competition.
• Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

1. State your business's mission.

Your first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to your marketing department, it should serve your business‘s main mission statement.

From my experience, you want to be specific, but not too specific. You have plenty of space left in this marketing plan to elaborate on how you'll acquire new customers and accomplish this mission.

Need help building your mission statement? Download this guide for examples and templates and write the ideal mission statement.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

Every good marketing plan describes how the department will track its mission‘s progress. To do so, you need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs) .

KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.

Let's take our example of a marketing mission from the above step. If part of our mission is “to attract an audience of travelers,” we might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, “organic page views” is one KPI, and we can see our number of page views grow over time.

Also, make sure to check whether your current reporting software facilitates the KPIs you need. Some reporting tools can only measure a set of pre-defined metrics, which can cause massive headaches in particular marketing campaigns.

However, other tools, like HubSpot’s analytics software , can offer full flexibility over the KPIs you wish to track. You can generate custom reports that reveal anything from average website engagement rates to page visits via organic, email, social media traffic, and more.   

These KPIs will come into the conversation again in step 4.

3. Identify your buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title. Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business's current and potential customers. So, all business leaders must agree on your buyer personas.

Create your buyer personas with this free guide and set of buyer persona templates.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Here's where you'll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy. Because there's a laundry list of content types and channels available to you today, you must choose wisely and explain how you'll use your content and channels in this section of your marketing plan.

When I write this section , I like to stipulate:

• Which types of content I'll create. These might include blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, and ebooks.
• How much of it I'll create. I typically describe content volume in daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly intervals. It all depends on my workflow and the short-term goals for my content.
• The goals (and KPIs) I'll use to track each type. KPIs can include organic traffic, social media traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic. Your goals should also include which pages you want to drive that traffic to, such as product pages, blog pages, or landing pages.
• The channels on which I'll distribute my content. Popular channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.
• Any paid advertising that will take place on these channels.

Build out your marketing plan with this free template.

Fill out this form to access the template., 5. clearly define your plan's omissions..

A marketing plan explains the marketing team's focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not focus on.

If there are other aspects of your business that you aren't serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content. You can’t please everyone in a single marketing campaign, and if your team isn't on the hook for something, you need to make it known.

In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made.

6. Define your marketing budget.

Whether it's freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.

You can establish your marketing budget with this kit of 8 free marketing budget templates .

7. Identify your competition.

Part of marketing is knowing whom you're marketing against. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.

Keep in mind not every competitor will pose the same challenges to your business. For example, while one competitor might be ranking highly on search engines for keywords you want your website to rank for, another competitor might have a heavy footprint on a social network where you plan to launch an account.

Easily track and analyze your competitors with this collection of ten free competitive analysis templates .

8. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it's time to explain who’s doing what. I don't like to delve too deeply into my employees’ day-to-day projects, but I know which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and more.

Now that you know why you need to build an effective marketing plan, it’s time to get to work. Starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming if you haven't done it before. That’s why there are many helpful resources that can support your first steps. We’ll share some of the best guides and templates that can help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.

Ready to make your own marketing plan? Get started using this free template.

Depending on the company you work with, you might want to create various marketing plans. We compiled different samples to suit your needs:

1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans

These plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you'll take on in a certain period.

Forbes published a marketing plan template that has amassed almost 4 million views. To help you sculpt a marketing roadmap with true vision, their template will teach you how to fill out the 15 key sections of a marketing plan, which are:

• Executive Summary
• Target Customers
• Unique Selling Proposition
• Pricing & Positioning Strategy
• Distribution Plan
• Your Offers
• Marketing Materials
• Promotions Strategy
• Online Marketing Strategy
• Conversion Strategy
• Joint Ventures & Partnerships
• Referral Strategy
• Strategy for Increasing Transaction Prices
• Retention Strategy
• Financial Projections

If you're truly lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I highly recommend using this guide to help you define your target audience, figure out how to reach them, and ensure that audience becomes loyal customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan

This type of plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish specifically on social media. A specific subtype is a paid marketing plan, which highlights paid strategies, such as native advertising, PPC, or paid social media promotions.

Shane Snow's Marketing Plan for His Book Dream Team is a great example of a social media marketing plan:

When Shane Snow started promoting his new book, "Dream Team," he knew he had to leverage a data-driven content strategy framework. So, he chose his favorite one: the content strategy waterfall. The content strategy waterfall is defined by Economic Times as a model used to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

Snow wrote a blog post about how the waterfall‘s content strategy helped him launch his new book successfully. After reading it, you can use his tactics to inform your own marketing plan. More specifically, you’ll learn how he:

• Applied his business objectives to decide which marketing metrics to track.
• Used his ultimate business goal of earning $200,000 in sales or 10,000 purchases to estimate the conversion rate of each stage of his funnel.
• Created buyer personas to figure out which channels his audience would prefer to consume his content.
• Used his average post view on each of his marketing channels to estimate how much content he had to create and how often he had to post on social media.
• Calculated how much earned and paid media could cut down the amount of content he had to create and post.
• Designed his process and workflow, built his team, and assigned members to tasks.
• Analyzed content performance metrics to refine his overall content strategy.

I use Snow's marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it's linear and builds on the step before it, creating an air-tight strategy that doesn't leave any details out.

3. Content Marketing Plan

This plan could highlight different strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you'll use content to promote your business or product.

HubSpot's Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy is a strong example of a content marketing plan:

At HubSpot, we‘ve built our marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of hundreds of employees. Along the way, we’ve learned countless lessons that shaped our current content marketing strategy. So, we decided to illustrate our insights in a blog post to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy, regardless of their team's size.

In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, you'll learn:

• What exactly content marketing is.
• Why your business needs a content marketing strategy.
• Who should lead your content marketing efforts?
• How to structure your content marketing team based on your company's size.
• How to hire the right people for each role on your team.
• What marketing tools and technology you'll need to succeed.
• What type of content your team should create, and which employees should be responsible for creating them.
• The importance of distributing your content through search engines, social media, email, and paid ads.
• And finally, the recommended metrics each of your teams should measure and report to optimize your content marketing program.

This is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size — whether you're a team of one or 100. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you'll need, what type of content you should create, and even recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns. If you're aiming to establish or boost your online presence, leveraging tools like HubSpot's drag-and-drop website builder can be extremely beneficial. It helps you create a captivating digital footprint that sets the foundation for your content marketing endeavors.

4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan

This will be a roadmap for the strategies and tactics you‘ll implement to promote a new product. And if you’re searching for an example, look no further than Chief Outsiders' Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product :

After reading this plan, you'll learn how to:

• Validate a product
• Write strategic objectives
• Identify your market
• Compile a competitive landscape
• Create a value proposition for a new product
• Consider sales and service in your marketing plan

If you're looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target one product versus its entire marketing strategy.

5. Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like we see in Venture Harbour’s Growth Marketing Plan Template :

Venture Harbour's growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. Their template has five steps intended for refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle. The five steps are:

• Experiments

I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation always feels risky and unfamiliar, but this plan creates a framework for accountability and strategy.

• Louisville Tourism
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Visit Oxnard
• Safe Haven Family Shelter
• Wright County Economic Development
• The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County
• Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Visit Billings

1. Louisville Tourism

It also divides its target market into growth and seed categories to allow for more focused strategies. For example, the plan recognizes Millennials in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville as the core of it's growth market, whereas people in Boston, Austin, and New York represent seed markets where potential growth opportunities exist. Then, the plan outlines objectives and tactics for reaching each market.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

• The plan starts with a letter from the President & CEO of the company, who sets the stage for the plan by providing a high-level preview of the incoming developments for Louisville's tourism industry
• The focus on Louisville as "Bourbon City" effectively leverages its unique cultural and culinary attributes to present a strong brand
• Incorporates a variety of data points from Google Analytics, Arrivalist, and visitor profiles to to define their target audience with a data-informed approach

2. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

For example, students who become prospects as freshman and sophomore will receive emails that focus on getting the most out of high school and college prep classes. Once these students become juniors and seniors — thus entering the consideration stage — the emails will focus more on the college application process and other exploratory content.

• The plan incorporates competitive analysis, evaluation surveys, and other research to determine the makeup of its target audience
• The plan lists each marketing program (e.g., direct mail, social media, email etc.) and supplements it with examples on the next page
• Each marketing program has its own objectives, tactics, and KPIs for measuring success

3. Visit Oxnard

This marketing plan by Visit Oxnard, a convention and visitors bureau, is packed with all the information one needs in a marketing plan: target markets, key performance indicators, selling points, personas, marketing tactics by channel, and much more.

It also articulates the organization’s strategic plans for the upcoming fiscal year, especially as it grapples with the aftereffects of the pandemic. Lastly, it has impeccable visual appeal, with color-coded sections and strong branding elements.

• States clear and actionable goals for the coming year
• Includes data and other research that shows how their team made their decisions
• Outlines how the team will measure the success of their plan

4. Safe Haven Family Shelter

This marketing plan by a nonprofit organization is an excellent example to follow if your plan will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization. It includes SMART marketing goals , deadlines, action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages , and metrics.

The plan is detailed, yet scannable. By the end of it, one can walk away with a strong understanding of the organization’s strategic direction for its upcoming marketing efforts.

• Confirms ongoing marketing strategies and objectives while introducing new initiatives
• Uses colors, fonts, and formatting to emphasize key parts of the plan
• Closes with long-term goals, key themes, and other overarching topics to set the stage for the future

5. Wright County Economic Development

Wright County Economic Development’s plan drew our attention because of its simplicity, making it good inspiration for those who’d like to outline their plan in broad strokes without frills or filler.

It includes key information such as marketing partners, goals, initiatives, and costs. The sections are easy to scan and contain plenty of information for those who’d like to dig into the details. Most important, it includes a detailed breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative — which is critical information to include for upper-level managers and other stakeholders.

• Begins with a quick paragraph stating why the recommended changes are important
• Uses clear graphics and bullet points to emphasize key points
• Includes specific budget data to support decision-making

6. The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

This marketing plan presentation by a cultural council is a great example of how to effectively use data in your plan, address audiences who are new to the industry, and offer extensive detail into specific marketing strategies.

For instance, an entire slide is dedicated to the county’s cultural tourism trends, and at the beginning of the presentation, the organization explains what an arts and culture agency is in the first place.

That’s a critical piece of information to include for those who might not know. If you’re addressing audiences outside your industry, consider defining terms at the beginning, like this organization did.

• Uses quality design and images to support the goals and priorities in the text
• Separate pages for each big idea or new strategy
• Includes sections for awards and accomplishments to show how the marketing plan supports wider business goals
• Defines strategies and tactics for each channel for easy skimming

7. Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau

Cabarrus County’s convention and visitors bureau takes a slightly different approach with its marketing plan, formatting it like a magazine for stakeholders to flip through. It offers information on the county’s target audience, channels, goals, KPIs, and public relations strategies and initiatives.

We especially love that the plan includes contact information for the bureau’s staff members, so that it’s easy for stakeholders to contact the appropriate person for a specific query.

• Uses infographics to expand on specific concepts, like how visitors benefit a community
• Highlights the team members responsible for each initiative with a photo to emphasize accountability and community
• Closes with an event calendar for transparency into key dates for events

8. Visit Billings

Visit Billing’s comprehensive marketing plan is like Cabarrus County’s in that it follows a magazine format. With sections for each planned strategy, it offers a wealth of information and depth for internal stakeholders and potential investors.

We especially love its content strategy section, where it details the organization’s prior efforts and current objectives for each content platform.

At the end, it includes strategic goals and budgets — a good move to imitate if your primary audience would not need this information highlighted at the forefront.

• Includes a section on the buyer journey, which offers clarity on the reasoning for marketing plan decisions
• Design includes call-outs for special topics that could impact the marketing audience, such as safety concerns or "staycations"
• Clear headings make it easy to scan this comprehensive report and make note of sections a reader may want to return to for more detail

What is a typical marketing plan?

In my experience, most marketing plans outline the following aspects of a business's marketing:

• Target audience

Each marketing plan should include one or more goals, the path your team will take to meet those goals, and how you plan to measure success.

For example, if I were a tech startup that's launching a new mobile app, my marketing plan would include:

• Target audience or buyer personas for the app
• Outline of how app features meet audience needs
• Competitive analysis
• Goals for conversion funnel and user acquisition
• Marketing strategies and tactics for user acquisition

Featured resource : Free Marketing Plan Template

What should a good marketing plan include?

A good marketing plan will create a clear roadmap for your unique marketing team. This means that the best marketing plan for your business will be distinct to your team and business needs.

That said, most marketing plans will include sections for one or more of the following:

• Clear analysis of the target market
• A detailed description of the product or service
• Strategic marketing mix details (such as product, price, place, promotion)
• Measurable goals with defined timelines

This can help you build the best marketing plan for your business.

A good marketing plan should also include a product or service's unique value proposition, a comprehensive marketing strategy including online and offline channels, and a defined budget.

Featured resource : Value Proposition Templates

What are the most important parts of a marketing plan?

When you‘re planning a road trip, you need a map to help define your route, step-by-step directions, and an estimate of the time it will take to get to your destination. It’s literally how you get there that matters.

Like a road map, a marketing plan is only useful if it helps you get to where you want to go. So, no one part is more than the other.

That said, you can use the list below to make sure that you've added or at least considered each of the following in your marketing plan:

• Marketing goals
• Executive summary
• Target market analysis
• Marketing strategies

What questions should I ask when making a marketing plan?

Questions are a useful tool for when you‘re stuck or want to make sure you’ve included important details.

Try using one or more of these questions as a starting point when you create your marketing plan:

• Who is my target audience?
• What are their needs, motivations, and pain points?
• How does our product or service solve their problems?
• How will I reach and engage them?
• Who are my competitors? Are they direct or indirect competitors?
• What are the unique selling points of my product or service?
• What marketing channels are best for the brand?
• What is our budget and timeline?
• How will I measure the success of marketing efforts?

How much does a marketing plan cost?

Creating a marketing plan is mostly free. But the cost of executing a marketing plan will depend on your specific plan.

Marketing plan costs vary by business, industry, and plan scope. Whether your team handles marketing in-house or hires external consultants can also make a difference. Total costs can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. This is why most marketing plans will include a budget.

Featured resource : Free Marketing Budget Templates

What is a marketing plan template?

A marketing plan template is a pre-designed structure or framework that helps you outline your marketing plan.

It offers a starting point that you can customize for your specific business needs and goals. For example, our template includes easy-to-edit sections for:

• Business summary
• Business initiatives
• Target market
• Market strategy
• Marketing channels
• Marketing technology

Let’s create a sample plan together, step by step.

Follow along with HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template .

1. Create an overview or primary objective.

Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience’s valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.

For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:

We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform].

The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.

Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.

• Profession:
• Background:
• Pain points:
• Social media platforms that they use:
• Streaming platforms that they prefer:

For more useful strategies, consider creating a buyer persona in our Make My Persona tool .

Our content pillars will be: [X, Y, Z].

Content pillars should be based on topics your audience needs to know. If your ideal clients are female entrepreneurs, then your content pillars can be: marketing, being a woman in business, remote working, and productivity hacks for entrepreneurs.

Then, determine any omissions.

This marketing plan won’t be focusing on the following areas of improvement: [A, B, C].

5. Define your marketing budget.

Our marketing strategy will use a total of [Y] monthly. This will include anything from freelance collaborations to advertising.

6. Identify your competitors.

I like to work through the following questions to clearly indicate who my competitors are:

• Which platforms do they use the most?
• How does their branding differentiate?
• How do they talk to their audiences?
• What valuable assets do customers talk about? And if they are receiving any negative feedback, what is it about?

7. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

Create responsible parties for each portion of the plan.

Marketing will manage the content plan, implementation, and community interaction to reach the KPIs.

• Social media manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Content strategist: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Community manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Sales will follow the line of the marketing work while creating and implementing an outreach strategy.

• Sales strategists: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Sales executives: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Customer Service will nurture clients’ relationships to ensure that they have what they want. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Project Managers will track the progress and team communication during the project. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Get started on your marketing plan.

These marketing plans serve as initial resources to get your content marketing plan started. But, to truly deliver what your audience wants and needs, you'll likely need to test some different ideas out, measure their success, and then refine your goals as you go.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure t o learn more about how we use AI.

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What Is a Marketing Plan and Why Is It Essential for Business Success

Putting together a solid marketing plan is crucial for any business – it's like drawing up a game plan before a big match. It helps you determine your customers, what they want, and how to reach them effectively. Whether launching a new product, expanding your business, or aiming to boost your brand, a solid plan gives you a clear path. It involves researching your market, checking out your competition, creating creative ways to promote your offerings, and setting goals to track your progress. 

In this article, we'll break down the steps you need to take to create a winning marketing plan for college to help you stand out and succeed in today's competitive business world. At the end of the article, you can find a good marketing plan example for your inspiration and a source of practical know-how.

Definition of What Is a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic blueprint that outlines a company's marketing objectives and the specific actions needed to achieve them within a defined timeframe. It serves as a roadmap for businesses to identify their target audience, understand market dynamics, and allocate resources effectively to maximize their marketing efforts. 

Typically, a marketing plan includes an analysis of the current market situation, the establishment of clear objectives, the identification of target markets, the development of marketing strategies and tactics, the allocation of budgets, and methods for measuring success. By providing a structured approach to marketing activities, a well-crafted plan helps businesses stay focused, aligned, and competitive in their industry while driving sustainable growth and profitability. If you’re struggling with this assignment during your MBA course, you can easily say, ‘ write my essay for me ,’ and our experts will handle it shortly.

How to Write a Winning Marketing Plan?

With expert writers on your team, the chances of success increase dramatically!

What Is the Purpose of a Marketing Plan

The purpose of a marketing plan is multifaceted, serving as a crucial tool to guide businesses in achieving their marketing objectives effectively. Firstly, writing a marketing plan provides clarity by outlining specific goals, target audiences, and strategies, aligning the entire organization towards a common vision. Secondly, it serves as a roadmap, providing a structured framework for decision-making and resource allocation, ensuring that marketing efforts are focused and efficient. 

Additionally, it facilitates coordination and communication across different departments, promoting synergy and coherence in marketing activities. Furthermore, it enables businesses to anticipate and adapt to market changes by incorporating mechanisms for monitoring performance and adjusting strategies accordingly. 

Ultimately, the overarching goal is to drive business growth, enhance brand visibility, and generate sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. If things don’t work out at the moment with such an assignment, use our business essay writing service to streamline the process. 

Difference Between Marketing vs. Business Plan

The primary difference between marketing and business plans lies in their focus and scope. What is a business plan? It is a comprehensive document that outlines a business's overall objectives, strategies, and operational details. It encompasses various aspects such as organizational structure, financial projections, target market analysis, product or service offerings, and competitive analysis. 

In contrast, a marketing plan is a subset of the business plan that specifically focuses on the marketing strategies, tactics, and activities required to achieve the business's marketing objectives. While a business plan provides a holistic view of the entire business, including marketing, operations, finance, and management, a plan delves deeper into the specific marketing strategies, target audience segmentation, promotional tactics, and metrics for measuring marketing effectiveness. 

Essentially, the business plan serves as the overarching blueprint for the entire business, while the marketing plan zooms in on the marketing aspect within that broader framework. To improve your academic writing skills, consult our guide on the most effective business essay format . 

Difference Between Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

The main distinction between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan lies in their scope, focus, and level of detail. What is a marketing strategy? It is a high-level approach that outlines the overall direction and objectives for achieving a company's marketing goals. It involves identifying target markets, positioning the brand, and establishing a competitive advantage. Essentially, the marketing strategy sets the overarching framework for all marketing activities. 

On the other hand, a marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that operationalizes the marketing strategy. It delineates specific tactics, timelines, budgets, and metrics for implementation. A marketing plan breaks down the strategic goals into actionable steps, such as product development, pricing strategies, distribution channels, promotional campaigns, and communication channels. In summary, while a marketing strategy defines the "what" and "why" of marketing efforts, a plan outlines the "how," providing a tactical blueprint for executing the strategy effectively.

Types of Marketing Plans

Overall, a marketing plan can be of several types, while the choice depends on your specific goals and current purposes. Let’s analyze each type in detail:

Digital Marketing Plan

As the world of commerce has gone digital-first, businesses must harness the power of online platforms to reach their target audience effectively. A digital marketing plan uses various digital channels such as social media, search engines, email marketing, and content marketing to promote products or services, engage with customers, and drive conversions. 

It includes a marketing strategy for creating compelling digital content, optimizing websites for search engine visibility, running targeted advertising campaigns, and measuring performance through analytics tools. By embracing digital marketing tactics, businesses can enhance their online presence, build brand awareness, and generate leads cost-effectively, catering to the evolving preferences of modern consumers who increasingly rely on digital channels for information and purchasing decisions. By the way, if you’re really into digital advertising, check out this list of the best marketing books !

Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a specific target audience. A content marketing plan outlines the strategy for developing and disseminating various types of content, such as blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and podcasts, across different channels and platforms. It involves conducting audience research to understand their needs and interests, identifying relevant topics and themes, creating high-quality content, and distributing it through appropriate channels to maximize reach and engagement. 

A content marketing plan includes mechanisms for measuring the effectiveness of content, such as website traffic, social shares, and conversion rates, allowing businesses to refine their content strategy based on data-driven insights. By consistently delivering valuable content that resonates with their audience, businesses can establish thought leadership, build trust, and drive customer acquisition and retention.

Social Media Marketing Plan

Social media has become ubiquitous in people's daily lives, making it an indispensable platform for businesses to connect with their target audience, build brand visibility, and foster relationships. A social media marketing plan delineates the strategies and tactics for leveraging various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok to achieve marketing objectives. It involves defining target audience demographics and preferences, creating a content calendar with engaging posts, implementing paid advertising campaigns, and actively engaging with followers through comments, messages, and live sessions. 

A good marketing plan for social media incorporates performance metrics such as reach, engagement, and conversions to evaluate the effectiveness of social media efforts and make data-driven optimizations. By harnessing the power of social media, businesses can humanize their brand, drive brand loyalty, and cultivate a community of loyal advocates who amplify their message and support their business goals.

Product Launch Marketing Plan

Launching a new product or service into the market requires careful planning and execution to ensure a successful introduction and adoption by customers. A product launch marketing plan outlines the strategies and tactics for generating excitement, building anticipation, and driving sales around the new offering. It involves conducting market research to identify target customer segments and their needs, developing compelling messaging and positioning highlighting the product's unique value proposition, and creating a multi-channel marketing campaign to reach and engage the target audience. 

In addition, a product launch marketing plan includes media outreach, influencer partnerships, event marketing, and customer education to generate buzz and drive awareness. By orchestrating a coordinated marketing effort leading up to and following the product launch, businesses can maximize visibility, generate momentum, and ultimately achieve a successful market entry that lays the foundation for long-term success.

Brand Awareness Marketing Plan

Building brand awareness is essential for establishing a strong presence in the market and differentiating oneself from competitors. A brand awareness marketing plan outlines the strategies and tactics for increasing the brand's visibility, recognition, and recall among the target audience. It involves defining brand identity elements such as logos, colors, typography, and messaging that resonate with the brand's values and personality. Additionally, a brand awareness plan includes sponsorships, partnerships, public relations, and community engagement to raise awareness and generate positive associations with the brand. 

Moreover, leveraging digital channels such as social media, content marketing, and influencer collaborations can amplify brand reach and engagement with relevant audiences. By consistently reinforcing the brand message across various touchpoints and channels, businesses can foster familiarity, trust, and loyalty among consumers, driving brand preference and ultimately influencing purchase decisions.

Customer Retention Marketing Plan

While acquiring new customers is important for business growth, retaining existing customers is equally crucial for long-term success and profitability. A customer retention plan focuses on strategies and tactics for nurturing relationships with existing customers, increasing their loyalty, and encouraging repeat purchases. It involves implementing personalized communication strategies such as email marketing, loyalty programs, and customer feedback mechanisms to stay connected with customers and address their needs and concerns. 

Additionally, customer retention marketing plans include exclusive offers, special discounts, and VIP perks to incentivize repeat purchases and reward loyalty. Moreover, leveraging data analytics and customer segmentation techniques can help businesses identify valuable customers and tailor retention strategies based on their preferences and behaviors. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and loyalty, businesses can maximize lifetime customer value, reduce churn, and create advocates who continue to support the brand and refer new customers, fueling sustainable growth and success.

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan might feel like diving into uncharted waters for many businesses. It's exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. In this section, we've gathered some practical marketing plan tips to help you grasp the process’s ins and outs smoothly. 

Set Clear Objectives

Begin by defining your marketing objectives. What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? Whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or expanding into new markets, having clear and specific goals will guide your strategy and keep your team focused.

When setting your marketing objectives, make sure they are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This ensures your goals are realistic and actionable, providing a clear direction for your marketing efforts.

Study Your Audience

Understanding your target audience is crucial for crafting effective marketing messages and choosing the right channels to reach them. Conduct thorough market research to identify your ideal customer demographics, preferences, and pain points. This will help tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with their needs and interests.

Beyond demographic data, delve deeper into psychographic factors such as values, beliefs, and lifestyle choices. This deeper understanding will help you create more targeted and impactful marketing messages that resonate with your audience personally.

Analyze the Market and Competition

The next step in learning how to create a marketing plan is to assess the competitive landscape to identify opportunities and challenges. Analyze market trends, industry benchmarks, and competitors' strategies to gain insights that will inform your approach and help you differentiate your brand.

Look beyond direct competitors to identify emerging trends and potential disruptors in your industry. You can capitalize on opportunities and mitigate threats before they impact your business by staying ahead of the curve.

Develop Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Define what sets your product or service apart from the competition. Your unique value proposition should communicate the benefits you offer customers and why they should choose you over alternatives.

When writing a parking plan, highlight the benefits and outcomes your product or service delivers to customers. Emphasize how you solve their problems or fulfill their needs in a way competitors cannot replicate.

Choose Your Marketing Channels

Select the most appropriate marketing channels to reach your target audience based on their preferences and behavior. Whether it's social media, email marketing, content marketing, or traditional advertising, each channel has strengths and limitations, so choose wisely.

To fully comprehend how to write a marketing plan, don't spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere at once. Instead, focus on key channels where your target audience is most active and engaged. This allows you to allocate your resources more effectively and maximize your impact.

Create a Marketing Strategy

Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that outlines how you will achieve your objectives using the chosen channels and tactics. This may include defining messaging, setting budgets, planning campaigns, and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.

Take a holistic approach to your marketing strategy by integrating online and offline tactics. For example, creating marketing plans for social media advertising can combine traditional methods like direct mail to create a cohesive and multi-dimensional campaign.

Implement Your Plan

Put your marketing plan into action by executing your strategies and tactics according to the established timeline and budget. Ensure all team members are aligned and aware of their roles and responsibilities to ensure smooth execution.

Effective implementation requires clear communication, collaboration, and accountability among team members. Regular check-ins and progress updates ensure everyone stays on track and can address any challenges or roadblocks as they arise.

Measure and Adjust

Monitor the performance of your marketing efforts using relevant metrics and analytics tools. Evaluate the effectiveness of each campaign and channel against your objectives and KPIs. Based on the results, make necessary adjustments to optimize your marketing plan for better outcomes in the future. Remember, it is not set in stone; it should evolve and adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs.

Look beyond vanity metrics like website traffic or social media followers and focus on metrics directly tied to your business objectives, such as lead generation, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value. Use this data to identify what's working well and needs improvement, then adjust your strategy for continuous optimization and success. Is the workload too heavy to ensure it all by yourself? Let a seasoned economics essay writer share the burden with you!

Marketing Plan Examples

In this section, we’d like to offer you two examples of marketing plans to provide real-world insights into how theoretical concepts are applied in practice, helping bridge the gap between academic learning and practical implementation. By studying successful marketing plans from various industries, you can gain valuable knowledge about different strategies, tactics, and best practices, enabling you to develop unique strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

Learning how to write a marketing plan is invaluable for students as it equips them with essential skills and knowledge applicable across various industries and roles. It deepens your understanding of marketing principles and cultivates critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategic planning abilities. 

Moreover, the practical experience gained from creating marketing plans provides students with a competitive edge in the job market, enabling them to demonstrate their proficiency in developing actionable strategies to achieve business objectives. By honing their planning skills, students prepare themselves for success in their future careers and contribute to driving innovation and growth in the dynamic and ever-evolving marketing field. Whenever you need assistance with such tasks, feel free to ask an MBA essay writer to give you a hand.

Need Help with Your Marketing Plan?

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What Is a Marketing Plan?

How to create a marketing plan, what should a good marketing plan include.

Annie Lambert

specializes in creating authoritative content on marketing, business, and finance, with a versatile ability to handle any essay type and dissertations. With a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a passion for social issues, her writing not only educates but also inspires action. On EssayPro blog, Annie delivers detailed guides and thought-provoking discussions on pressing economic and social topics. When not writing, she’s a guest speaker at various business seminars.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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Blog Marketing What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

Written by: Sara McGuire Oct 26, 2023

A marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines your strategies to attract and convert your ideal customers as a part of your customer acquisition strategy . It’s a comprehensive document that details your:

• Target audience:  Who you’re trying to reach
• Marketing goals:  What you want to achieve
• Strategies and tactics:  How you’ll reach your goals
• Budget:  Resources you’ll allocate
• Metrics:  How you’ll measure success

In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about creating a marketing plan . If you need a little extra help, there are professionally designed marketing plan templates that’ll make the process much easier. So, let’s ditch the confusion and get started!

Click to jump ahead:

What is a marketing plan?

How to write a marketing plan .

• Marketing plan v.s. business plan
• Types of marketing plans

9 marketing plan examples to inspire your growth strategy

Marketing plan faqs.

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for your products or services, which could be applicable for the coming year, quarter or month.  

Watch this quick, 13-minute video for more details on what a marketing plan is and how to make one yourself:

Typically, a marketing plan includes:

• An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals
• A description of your business’s current marketing position
• A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking
• A description of your business’s target market and customer needs
• A description of how you will measure the performance of the strategy

For example, this marketing plan template provides a high-level overview of the business and competitors before diving deep into specific goals, KPIs and tactics:

Learning how to write a marketing plan forces you to think through the important steps that lead to an effective marketing strategy . And a well-defined plan will help you stay focused on your high-level marketing goals.

With Venngage’s extensive catalog of marketing plan templates , creating your marketing plan isn’t going to be hard or tedious. In fact, Venngage has plenty of helpful communications and design resources for marketers. If you’re ready to get started, sign up for  Venngage for Marketers   now. It’s free to register and start designing.

Whether you’re a team trying to set smarter marketing goals, a consultant trying to set your client in the right direction, or a one-person team hustling it out, Venngage for Marketers helps you get things done.

As mentioned above, the scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for.

For example, you could create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing strategy or simply focus on a specific channel like SEO, social media marketing, content marketing and more, like in this example:

A typical outline of a marketing plan includes:

• Executive summary
• Goals and objectives
• User personas
• Competitor analysis/SWOT analysis
• Baseline metrics
• Marketing strategy
• Tracking guidelines

Below you will see in details how to write each section as well as some examples of how you can design each section in a marketing plan.

Let’s look at how to create a successful marketing plan (click to jump ahead):

• Write a simple executive summary
• Set metric-driven marketing goals
• Outline your user personas
• Research all of your competitors
• Set accurate key baselines & metrics
• Create an actionable marketing strategy
• Set tracking or reporting guidelines

1. Write a simple executive summary

Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.

One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well-written executive summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future plans, and other important contextual facts.

Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.

Include things like:

• Simple marketing goals
• High-level metrics
• Important company milestones
• Facts about your brand
• Employee anecdotes
• Future goals & plans

Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to keep it under three to four paragraphs.

Take a look at the executive summary in the marketing plan example below:

The executive summary is only two paragraphs long — short but effective.

The executive summary tells readers about the company’s growth, and how they are about to overtake one of their competitors. But there’s no mention of specific metrics or figures. That will be highlighted in the next section of the marketing plan.

An effective executive summary should have enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but not bog them down with specifics yet. That’s what the rest of your marketing plan is for!

The executive summary also sets the tone for your marketing plan. Think about what tone will fit your brand ? Friendly and humorous? Professional and reliable? Inspiring and visionary?

2. Set metric-driven marketing goals

After you perfect your executive summary, it’s time to outline your marketing goals.

(If you’ve never set data-driven goals like this before, it would be worth reading this growth strategy guide ).

This is one of the most important parts of the entire marketing plan, so be sure to take your time and be as clear as possible. Moreover, optimizing your marketing funnel is key. Employing effective funnel software can simplify operations and provide valuable customer insights. It facilitates lead tracking, conversion rate analysis, and efficient marketing optimization .

As a rule of thumb, be as specific as possible. The folks over at  VoyMedia  advise that you should set goals that impact website traffic, conversions, and customer success — and to use real numbers.

Avoid outlining vague goals like:

• Get more Twitter followers
• Write more articles
• Create more YouTube videos (like educational or Explainer videos )
• Increase retention rate
• Decrease bounce rate

Instead, identify  key performance metrics  (KPI) you want to impact and the percentage you want to increase them by.

Take a look at the goals page in the marketing plan example below:

They not only identify a specific metric in each of their goals, but they also set a timeline for when they will be increased.

The same vague goals listed earlier become much clearer when specific numbers and timelines are applied to them:

• Get 100 new Twitter followers per month
• Write 5 more articles per week
• Create 10 YouTube videos each year
• Increase retention rate by 15% by 2020
• Decrease bounce rate by 5% by Q1
• Create an online course  and get 1,000 new leads
• Focus more on local SEO strategies
• Conduct a monthly social media report to track progress

You can dive even deeper into your marketing goals if you want (generally, the more specific, the better). Here’s a marketing plan example that shows how to outline your growth goals:

3. Outline your user personas

Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of value.

Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.

You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get the right visitors.

Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your business solve customer problems?

Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.

Some ways to conduct user research are:

• Interviewing your users (either in person or on the phone)
• Conducting focus groups
• Researching other businesses in the same industry
• Surveying your audience

Then, you will need to compile your user data into a user persona  guide.

Take a look at how detailed this user persona template is below:

Taking the time to identify specific demographic traits, habits and goals will make it easier for you to cater your marketing plan to them.

Here’s how you can create a user persona guide:

The first thing you should add is a profile picture or icon for each user persona. It can help to put a face to your personas, so they seem more real.

Next, list demographic information like:

• Identifiers
• Activities/Hobbies

The user persona example above uses sliding scales to identify personality traits like introversion vs. extroversion and thinking vs. feeling. Identifying what type of personality your target users tend to have an influence on the messaging you use in your marketing content.

Meanwhile, this user persona guide identifies specific challenges the user faces each day:

But if you don’t want to go into such precise detail, you can stick to basic information, like in this marketing plan example:

Most businesses will have a few different types of target users. That’s why it’s pertinent to identify and create several different user personas . That way, you can better segment your marketing campaigns and set separate goals, if necessary.

Here’s a marketing plan example with a segmented user persona guide:

The important thing is for your team or client to have a clear picture of who their target user is and how they can appeal to their specific problems.

Start creating robust user personas using Venngage’s user persona guide .

4. Conduct an extensive competitor analysis

Next, on the marketing plan checklist, we have the competitor research section. This section will help you identify who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how you could carve yourself a place alongside them in your niche — and ideally, surpass them. It’s something you can learn to do with rank tracking software .

Competitor research is also incredibly important if you are starting a blog .

Typically, your competitor research should include:

• Who their marketing team is
• Who their leadership team is
• What their marketing strategy and strategic marketing plan are (this will probably revolve some reverse-engineering)
• What their sales strategy is (same deal)
• Social Media strategy (are they using discounting strategies such as coupon marketing to get conversions)
• Their market cap/financials
• Their yearly growth (you will probably need to use a marketing tool like Ahrefs to do this)
• The number of customers they have & their user personas

Also, take as deep a dive as you can into the strategies they use across their:

• Blog/Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Video marketing
• And any other marketing tactics they use

Research their strengths and weaknesses in all parts of their company, and you will find some great opportunities. Bookmark has a great guide to different marketing strategies for small businesses  if you need some more information there.

You can use this simple SWOT analysis worksheet to quickly work through all parts of their strategy as well:

Click the template above to create a SWOT chart . Customize the template to your liking — no design know-how needed.

Since you have already done all the research beforehand, adding this information to your marketing plan shouldn’t be that hard.

In this marketing plan example, some high-level research is outlined for 3 competing brands:

But you could take a deeper dive into different facets of your competitors’ strategies. This marketing plan example analyses a competitor’s content marketing strategy:

It can also be helpful to divide your competitors into Primary and Secondary groups. For example, Apple’s primary competitor may be Dell for computers, but its secondary competitor could be a company that makes tablets.

Your most dangerous competitors may not even be in the same industry as you. Like the CEO of Netflix said, “Sleep is our competition.”

5. Set accurate key baselines & metrics

It’s pretty hard to plan for the future if you don’t know where your business stands right now.

Before we do anything at Venngage, we find the baselines so we can compare future results to something. We do it so much it’s almost like second nature now!

Setting baselines will allow you to more accurately track your progress. You will also be able to better analyze what worked and what didn’t work, so you can build a stronger strategy. It will definitely help them clearly understand your goals and strategy as well.

Here’s a marketing plan example where the baselines are visualized:

Another way to include baselines in your plan is with a simple chart, like in the marketing plan example below:

Because data can be intimidating to a lot of people, visualizing your data using charts and infographics will help demystify the information.

6. Create an actionable marketing strategy

After pulling all the contextual information and relevant metrics into your marketing plan, it’s time to break down your marketing strategy.

Once again, it’s easier to communicate your information to your team or clients using visuals .

Mind maps are an effective way to show how a strategy with many moving parts ties together. For example, this mind map shows how the four main components of a marketing strategy interact together:

You can also use a flow chart to map out your strategy by objectives:

However you choose to visualize your strategy, your team should know exactly what they need to do. This is not the time to keep your cards close to your chest.

Your strategy section may need to take up a few pages to explain, like in the marketing plan example below:

With all of this information, even someone from the development team will understand what the marketing team is working on.

This minimalistic marketing plan example uses color blocks to make the different parts of the strategy easy to scan:

Breaking your strategy down into tasks will make it easier to tackle.

Another important way to visualize your marketing strategy is to create a project roadmap. A project roadmap visualizes the timeline of your product with individual tasks. Our roadmap maker can help you with this.

For example, this project roadmap shows how tasks on both the marketing and web design side run parallel to each other:

A simple timeline can also be used in your marketing plan:

Or a mind map, if you want to include a ton of information in a more organized way:

Even a simple “Next, Now, Later” chart can help visualize your strategy:

7. Set tracking or reporting guidelines

Close your marketing plan with a brief explanation of how you plan to track or measure your results. This will save you a lot of frustration down the line by standardizing how you track results across your team.

Like the other sections of your marketing plan, you can choose how in-depth you want to go. But there need to be some clear guidelines on how to measure the progress and results of your marketing plan.

At the bare minimum, your results tracking guidelines should specify:

• What you plan to track
• How you plan to track results
• How often you plan to measure

But you can more add tracking guidelines to your marketing plan if you see the need to. You may also want to include a template that your team or client can follow,  for  client reporting ,  ensure that the right metrics are being tracked.

The marketing plan example below dedicates a whole page to tracking criteria:

Use a task tracker to track tasks and marketing results, and a checklist maker to note down tasks, important life events, or tracking your daily life.

Similarly, the marketing plan example below talks about tracking content marketing instead:

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy

Although often used interchangeably, the terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” do have some differences.

Simply speaking, a marketing strategy presents what the business will do in order to reach a certain goal. A marketing plan outlines the specific daily, weekly, monthly or yearly activities that the marketing strategy calls for. As a business, you can create a marketing proposal for the marketing strategies defined in your company’s marketing plan. There are various marketing proposal examples that you can look at to help with this.

A company’s extended marketing strategy can be like this:

Notice how it’s more general and doesn’t include the actual activities required to complete each strategy or the timeframe those marketing activities will take place. That kind of information is included in a marketing plan, like this marketing plan template which talks about the content strategy in detail:

Marketing plan v.s business plan

While both marketing plans and business plans are crucial documents for businesses, they serve distinct purposes and have different scopes. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

Business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines all aspects of your business, including:

• Mission and vision
• Products or services
• Target market
• Competition
• Management team
• Financial projections
• Marketing strategy (including a marketing plan)
• Operations plan

Marketing plan on the other hand, dives deep into the specific strategies and tactics related to your marketing efforts. It expands on the marketing section of a business plan by detailing:

• Specific marketing goals (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, sales)
• Target audience analysis (detailed understanding of their needs and behaviors)
• Product:  Features, benefits, positioning
• Price:  Pricing strategy, discounts
• Place:  Distribution channels (online, offline)
• Promotion:  Advertising, social media, content marketing, public relations
• Budget allocation for different marketing activities
• Metrics and measurement to track progress and success

In short, business plans paint the entire business picture, while marketing plans zoom in on the specific strategies used to reach your target audience and achieve marketing goals.

Types of marketing plans that can transform your business strategy

Let’s take a look at several types of marketing plans you can create, along with specific examples for each.

1. General marketing strategic plan / Annual marketing plan

This is a good example of a marketing plan that covers the overarching annual marketing strategy for a company:

Another good example would be this Starbucks marketing plan:

This one-page marketing plan example from coffee chain Starbucks has everything at a glance. The bold headers and subheadings make it easier to segment the sections so readers can focus on the area most relevant to them.

What we like about this example is how much it covers. From the ideal buyer persona to actional activities, as well as positioning and metrics, this marketing plan has it all.

Another marketing plan example that caught our eye is this one from Cengage. Although a bit text-heavy and traditional, it explains the various sections well. The clean layout makes this plan easy to read and absorb.

The last marketing plan example we would like to feature in this section is this one from Lush cosmetics.

It is a long one but it’s also very detailed. The plan outlines numerous areas, including the company mission, SWOT analysis , brand positioning, packaging, geographical criteria, and much more.

2. Content marketing plan

A content marketing plan highlights different strategies , campaigns or tactics you can use for your content to help your business reach its goals.

This one-page marketing plan example from Contently outlines a content strategy and workflow using simple colors and blocks. The bullet points detail more information but this plan can easily be understood at a glance, which makes it so effective.

For a more detailed content marketing plan example, take a look at this template which features an editorial calendar you can share with the whole team:

3. SEO marketing plan

Your SEO marketing plan highlights what you plan to do for your SEO marketing strategy . This could include tactics for website on-page optimization , off-page optimization using AI SEO , and link building using an SEO PowerSuite backlink API for quick backlink profile checks.

This SEO marketing plan example discusses in detail the target audience of the business and the SEO plan laid out in different stages:

4. Social media marketing plan

Your social media marketing plan presents what you’ll do to reach your marketing goal through social media. This could include tactics specific to each social media channel that you own, recommendations on developing a new channel, specific campaigns you want to run, and so on, like how B2B channels use Linkedin to generate leads with automation tools and expand their customer base; or like making use of Twitter walls that could display live Twitter feeds from Twitter in real-time on digital screens.

For B2C brands, you can target Facebook and Instagram. Gain Instagram likes to build trust for your brand’s profile and post engaging content on both platforms

Edit this social media marketing plan example easily with Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor:

5. Demand generation marketing plan

This could cover your paid marketing strategy (which can include search ads, paid social media ads, traditional advertisements, etc.), email marketing strategy and more. Here’s an example:

1. Free marketing plan template

Here’s a free nonprofit marketing plan example that is ideal for organizations with a comprehensive vision to share. It’s a simple plan that is incredibly effective. Not only does the plan outline the core values of the company, it also shares the ideal buyer persona.

Note how the branding is consistent throughout this example so there is no doubt which company is presenting this plan. The content plan is an added incentive for anyone viewing the document to go ahead and give the team the green light.

2. Pastel social media marketing campaign template

Two-page marketing plan samples aren’t very common, but this free template proves how effective they are. There’s a dedicated section for business goals as well as for project planning .

The milestones for the marketing campaign are clearly laid out, which is a great way to show how organized this business strategy is.

3. Small business marketing strategy template

This marketing plan template is perfect for small businesses who set out to develop an overarching marketing strategy for the whole year:

Notice how this aligns pretty well with the marketing plan outline we discussed in previous sections.

In terms of specific tactics for the company’s marketing strategy, the template only discusses SEO strategy, but you can certainly expand on that section to discuss any other strategies — such as link building , that you would like to build out a complete marketing plan for.

4. Orange simple marketing proposal template

Marketing plans, like the sample below, are a great way to highlight what your business strategy and the proposal you wan to put forward to win potential customers.

5. One-page marketing fact sheet template

This one-page marketing plan example is great for showcasing marketing efforts in a persuasive presentation or to print out for an in-person meeting.

Note how the fact sheet breaks down the marketing budget as well as the key metrics for the organization. You can win over clients and partners with a plan like this.

6. Light company business fact sheet template

This one-page sample marketing plan clearly outlines the marketing objectives for the organization. It’s a simple but effective way to share a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

What really works with this example is that includes a mission statement, key contact information alongside all the key metrics.

7. Marketing media press kit template

This press kit marketing plan template is bright and unmistakable as belonging to the Cloud Nine marketing agency . The way the brand colors are used also helps diversify the layouts for each page, making the plan easier to read.

We like the way the marketing department has outlined the important facts about the organization. The bold and large numbers draw the eye and look impressive.

8. Professional marketing proposal template

Start your marketing campaign on a promising note with this marketing plan template. It’s short, sharp and to the point. The table of contents sets out the agenda, and there’s a page for the company overview and mission statement.

9. Social media marketing proposal template

A complete marketing plan example, like the one below, not only breaks down the business goals to be achieved but a whole lot more. Note how the terms and conditions and payment schedule are included, which makes this one of the most comprehensive marketing plans on our list.

What should marketing plans include?

Marketing plans should include:

• A detailed analysis of the target market and customer segments.
• Clear and achievable marketing objectives and goals.
• Strategies and tactics for product promotion and distribution.
• Budget allocation for various marketing activities.
• Timelines and milestones for the implementation of marketing strategies.
• Evaluation metrics and methods for tracking the success of the marketing plan.

What is an executive summary in a marketing plan and what is its main goal?

An executive summary in a marketing plan is a brief overview of the entire document, summarizing the key points, goals, and strategies. Its main goal is to provide readers with a quick understanding of the plan’s purpose and to entice them to read further.

What are the results when a marketing plan is effective?

When a marketing plan is effective, businesses can experience increased brand visibility, higher customer engagement, improved sales and revenue, and strengthened customer loyalty.

What is the first section of a marketing plan?

The first section of a marketing plan is typically the “Executive Summary,” which provides a concise overview of the entire plan, including the business’s goals and the strategies to achieve them.

Now that you have the basics for designing your own marketing plan, it’s time to get started:

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What Is a Marketing Plan?

Understanding marketing plans, how to write a marketing plan, marketing plan vs. business plan.

• Marketing Plan FAQs

The Bottom Line

• Marketing Essentials

What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One

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Pete Rathburn is a copy editor and fact-checker with expertise in economics and personal finance and over twenty years of experience in the classroom.

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A marketing plan is an operational document that outlines an advertising strategy that an organization will implement to generate leads and reach its target market . A marketing plan details the outreach and PR campaigns to be undertaken over a period, including how the company will measure the effect of these initiatives. The functions and components of a marketing plan include the following:

• Market research to support pricing decisions and new market entries
• Tailored messaging that targets certain demographics and geographic areas
• Platform selection for product and service promotion: digital, radio, Internet, trade magazines, and the mix of those platforms for each campaign
• Metrics that measure the results of marketing efforts and their reporting timelines

A marketing plan is based on a company’s overall marketing strategy.

Key Takeaways

• The marketing plan details the strategy that a company will use to market its products to customers.
• The plan identifies the target market, the value proposition of the brand or the product, the campaigns to be initiated, and the metrics to be used to assess the effectiveness of marketing initiatives.
• The marketing plan should be adjusted on an ongoing basis based on the findings from the metrics that show which efforts are having an impact and which are not.
• Digital marketing shows results in near real-time, whereas TV ads require rotation to realize any level of market penetration.
• A marketing plan is part of a business plan, which describes all of the important aspects of a business, such as its goals, values, mission statement, budget, and strategies.

The terms marketing plan and marketing strategy are often used interchangeably because a marketing plan is developed based on an overarching strategic framework. In some cases, the strategy and the plan may be incorporated into one document, particularly for smaller companies that may only run one or two major campaigns in a year. The plan outlines marketing activities on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis while the marketing strategy outlines the overall value proposition.

Types of Marketing Plans

There are a variety of different marketing plans that suit different businesses and different business needs.

New Product Launch: This is a marketing plan that outlines how a new product will enter the market, who it will target, and in what way advertising will be done.

Social Media: A social media marketing plan focuses on the advertising strategies on different social media platforms and how to engage with the users on these platforms.

Time-Based: Time-based marketing plans, such as those that are executed quarterly or annually, focus on the time of the year, the current condition of the business, and the best strategies in that period.

Mission and Value Proposition

A marketing plan considers the value proposition of a business. The value proposition is the overall promise of value to be delivered to the customer and is a statement that appears front and center of the company website or any branding materials.

The value proposition should state how a product or brand solves the customer's problem, the benefits of the product or brand, and why the customer should buy from this company and not another. The marketing plan is based on this value proposition to the customer.

Establishing your key performance indicators (KPIs) will allow you to measure the success of your marketing plan in relation to your company's value proposition . For example, if your goal is to engage with a certain demographic in a certain region, you can track social media and website visits.

The most effective digital marketing techniques in 2020 according to marketers are content marketing and marketing automation.

Identify Your Target Market

The marketing plan identifies the target market for a product or brand. Market research is often the basis for a target market and marketing channel decisions. For example, whether the company will advertise on the radio, on social media, through online ads, or on regional TV. 

Knowing who you want to sell to and why is an extremely critical component of any business plan. It allows you to focus your business and measure its success. Different demographics have different tastes and needs, knowing what your target market is will help you market to them.

Strategy and Execution

The marketing plan includes the rationale for these decisions. The plan should focus on the creation, timing, scheduling, and placement of specific campaigns. The plan will include the metrics that will measure the outcomes of your marketing efforts. For example, will you advertise on the radio or on social media? What time will you air advertisements if they are on the radio or TV? The strategy may include flighting scheduling , which includes the times when you can make the most of your advertising dollars.

Set Your Budget

A marketing plan costs money. Knowing your budget for a marketing plan will allow you to create a suitable plan within that context, stick to it, and prevent runaway costs. It will also help you allocate to different areas of your marketing plan.

Adjust Your Plan

A marketing plan can be adjusted at any point based on the results from the metrics. If digital ads are performing better than expected, for example, the budget for a campaign can be adjusted to fund a higher-performing platform or the company can initiate a new budget. The challenge for marketing leaders is to ensure that every platform has sufficient time to show results.

Without the correct metrics to assess the impact of outreach and marketing efforts, an organization will not know which campaigns to repeat and which ones to drop; maintaining ineffective initiatives will unnecessarily increase marketing costs.

Digital marketing shows results in near real-time, whereas TV ads require rotation to realize any level of market penetration. In the traditional marketing mix model, a marketing plan would fall under the category of "promotion," which is one of the four Ps , a term coined by Neil Borden to describe the marketing mix of product, price, promotion, and place.

A business plan details how a business will operate and function in its entirety. A business plan is a roadmap for a business. It will cover the goals, missions , values, financials, and strategies that the business will use in day-to-day operations and in the achievement of its objectives.

A business plan will include an executive summary, the products and services sold, a marketing analysis, a marketing strategy, financial planning, and a budget , to name but a few items.

As mentioned, a business plan will include a marketing plan, which focuses on creating a marketing strategy on how to bring awareness to the public of the company's product or service, how to reach the target market, and generate sales.

Example of a Marketing Plan

John came up with a new business idea that he believes is a niche offering in the market. He decides to start a business and his first step is creating a business plan that outlines all of the objectives, goals, values, pitfalls, and finances of his company.

John is able to raise enough capital from friends and family to get started, hires a few employees, and eventually creates his product. He now has to start selling his product and generate sales to keep his business operating.

To achieve this, John, with the help of a marketing company, creates a marketing plan. The marketing plan consists of market research that details the target market for John's product, which is recently retired men.

The marketing plan then comes up with the best methods of reaching this target market. The marketing plan stresses radio and television as opposed to social media as older, retired men use social media less than traditional forms of media, according to the market research that was conducted.

The ads are tailored to the target market, showing how John's product will benefit their lives, particularly when compared to market alternatives. Once the marketing plan has been executed, the marketing team analyzes how the efforts translate into sales.

What Is a Marketing Plan Template?

A marketing plan template is a document that an individual can use to create a marketing plan. The marketing plan template will contain all the important elements and the various needed language with blank sections. A user can insert their own information related to their business in the blank sections to ultimately create their own marketing plan.

What Is an Executive Summary in a Marketing Plan?

The executive summary of a marketing plan provides a brief overview of the entire marketing plan. The executive summary will contain the key findings of the market research, the company's objectives, marketing goals, an overview of the marketing trends, the description of the product or service being marketed, information on the target market, and how to financially plan for the marketing plan.

What Is a Top-Down Marketing Strategy?

A top-down marketing strategy is a traditional marketing strategy. This is where a business determines who it should sell to and how, and the customer base is largely passive and spurred to take action once they hear the advertisement. For example, a top-down marketing strategy would include ads on radio or television. Top-down marketing strategies are usually determined by the executives of a firm. It usually consists of what a firm desires to do and then determining a way to do it.

What Is a Bottom-Up Marketing Strategy?

A bottom-up marketing strategy focuses on discovering a workable strategy and then building on that strategy to create an impactful advertising campaign. Today's consumer wants to relate to a product or service in a meaningful way and a bottom-up marketing strategy is better suited to this. A bottom-up marketing strategy should focus on the target market and how better to create value for them.

How Much Does a Marketing Plan Cost?

The cost of a marketing plan will vary based on the company, the complexity, and the length of the overall strategy. The cost can range anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000.

A marketing plan is the advertising strategy that a business will implement to sell its product or service. The marketing plan will help determine who the target market is, how best to reach them, at what price point the product or service should be sold, and how the company will measure its efforts.

Constantly monitoring and adjusting a market plan is an important part of running a business as it shows what are the best and worst ways to generate sales. Without a successful marketing plan, a business may not be able to continue operating for very long.

Statista. " Most Effective Digital Marketing Techniques According to Marketers Worldwide in 2020 ."

Laire. " How Much Does a Marketing Plan Cost? "

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What is a Marketing Plan & How To Write One? [Easy Guide]

What is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a strategic guide that helps businesses map out their advertising and promotional strategies to attract prospective customers and connect with their intended audience. It offers clear and detailed direction on how to achieve business objectives through targeted marketing efforts. 

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

Understanding the distinction between a marketing plan and a business plan is crucial for any organization aiming to navigate the complexities of strategic planning and resource allocation.

• Marketing Plan: This is a focused document dedicated to the marketing segment of an organization’s strategy. It meticulously outlines the marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics that will be employed to achieve the desired market presence and customer engagement. 
• Business Plan: A business plan has a broader scope, encompassing every facet of the company’s operations. While it includes marketing, it also delves into finance, operations, human resources, and more, providing a comprehensive overview of the entire business. 

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

Differentiating between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan is essential for implementing effective marketing operations within a business. These two elements, while closely related, serve distinct functions in the marketing process.

• Marketing Strategy: This aspect defines the overarching approach and long-term vision for a company’s engagement in the market. Each element of the marketing strategy is designed to align with the company’s top-level goals and contribute to realizing its vision statement. In essence, the marketing strategy answers the “what” and “why” behind a company’s marketing efforts, outlining what the company aims to achieve and why those goals are important.
• Marketing Plan: In contrast, the marketing plan focuses on the “how” of reaching strategic objectives. It is a practical document that outlines specific actions, timelines, and resources required to execute the marketing strategy. It details the campaigns, channels, tools, and tactics that will be used to achieve the strategic goals outlined in the marketing strategy. 

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Types of Marketing Plans

Marketing plans vary depending on their focus, scope, and objectives. Understanding the different types of plans is crucial for businesses aiming to target their marketing efforts and resources effectively. Here are some of the key types:

• Go-to-market/Product Launch: This plan is specifically designed to introduce a new product. It outlines the target audience, market entry strategy, and advertising tactics to be employed.
• Social Media : A social media plan is tailored to the unique dynamics of social media platforms. It details the advertising strategies to be used on these platforms, focusing on engaging with users and leveraging specific features to maximize reach and impact.
• General Marketing Strategic Plan / Annual Marketing Plan: This comprehensive plan covers a company’s overall marketing activities for the entire year. It encompasses various marketing efforts and campaigns, outlining a cohesive strategy that supports the company’s annual goals.
• Content Marketing Plan : Focused on content creation and distribution, this plan outlines the strategies, campaigns, and tactics for using content to achieve business objectives. It details how different types of content (blog posts, videos, infographics) will be used to attract and engage the target audience.
• SEO Marketing Plan: Dedicated to search engine optimization, this plan outlines the strategies and actions to improve a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). It focuses on keyword research, content optimization, link building, and other tactics to drive organic traffic to the website.

Benefits of a Marketing Plan

Having a structured plan is invaluable. It acts as a strategic roadmap, guiding businesses toward achieving their goals through well-organized and monitored marketing activities. 

Here are five important benefits of creating a marketing plan:

• Goal Setting: It allows your business to define clear marketing objectives and set measurable targets. This facilitates focused efforts toward lead generation, sales increase, market share expansion, brand awareness, and customer acquisition.
• Strategic Direction: The plan provides a detailed outline of your promotional strategy, helping identify the target audience, their preferences, and the best methods to reach and engage them effectively.
• Competitive Advantage: A plan helps you articulate and leverage your unique selling proposition (USP), ensuring you stand out in the market and secure a competitive edge.
• Consistency and Integration: The plan fosters consistency and integration in marketing efforts, ensuring a unified brand message and customer experience across all marketing channels and touchpoints,
• Long-term Sustainability: A comprehensive plan not only focuses on immediate goals but also lays the groundwork for sustained growth and adaptability to market evolution, customer demands, and emerging trends.

How To Write a Marketing Plan

• Create a mission statement

The foundation of any effective marketing plan begins with a clear and concise mission statement. This crucial step sets the stage for all subsequent planning by articulating the core purpose and direction of your company’s marketing efforts. A mission statement serves as a compass, guiding your marketing strategies and ensuring they align with your organization’s broader goals.

Developing a mission statement is more than just a formality; it’s a strategic exercise that clarifies your marketing vision and sets a purposeful path for your team. With a compelling mission statement in place, you can craft a plan that resonates with your audience and drives your business toward its long-term objectives.

• Set your goals/KPIs

Establishing clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) is a pivotal step in crafting a marketing plan that aligns with your company’s value proposition and ensures measurable success. This stage involves setting financial and non-financial objectives to guide your marketing efforts and evaluate their effectiveness.

Marketers who set specific goals are significantly more likely to report success. By defining financial and non-financial objectives, you create a comprehensive framework for guiding your marketing strategies. This dual focus not only drives economic value but also fosters qualitative improvements in your marketing efforts, ensuring a balanced approach to achieving your company’s vision.

• Identify Your Target Market

Pinpointing your target market is a crucial step in any marketing plan. Understanding who your product or service is for and why forms the backbone of your marketing efforts and influences decisions on marketing channels, content creation, and overall outreach strategies.

A key outcome of market research is the development of buyer personas. These semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers are crafted based on real data and insights about your existing clientele. Buyer personas detail your target market’s characteristics, needs, and motivations, offering a detailed profile that guides your marketing strategies.

• Conduct Competitive Analysis

Conducting a competitive analysis is integral to crafting a robust marketing plan. This process involves identifying your main competitors, understanding their strategies, and evaluating how your business can establish a distinctive and superior position in your niche. Through this analysis, you’ll gain insights into the competitive landscape, helping you to leverage your own strengths and identify areas for improvement.

Understanding both the internal and external factors that influence your market positioning is crucial. They include:

• Internal factors: Examine what could impact your competitive advantage, such as your team’s expertise, proprietary technology, or customer service practices.
• External factors: Look beyond your immediate competitive environment to broader market conditions that could affect your position. This includes economic trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements.
• Economic considerations: Assess how the current economic climate might influence consumer purchasing behavior and, consequently, your market strategy.
• Sociological trends: Understand shifting societal values, lifestyles, and consumer behaviors and how they offer new market opportunities.
• Industry trends: Keep an eye on overarching trends within your industry, including emerging technologies, shifts in consumer preferences, and new regulatory frameworks.
• Set Your Budget

Your marketing budget is the planned amount of money you’ll spend to achieve your marketing goal. Knowing the financial resources you have available for marketing activities allows you to craft a plan that maximizes impact while maintaining fiscal responsibility. This financial foresight prevents overspending and ensures that every dollar spent contributes to achieving your marketing objectives.

This overview should include all sources of funding and any constraints or stipulations attached to them. Having a comprehensive understanding of your financial resources sets the groundwork for all subsequent planning and decision-making.

• Execute your Plan

Execution involves the detailed scheduling of marketing activities, assigning responsibilities to team members, and setting deadlines that align with the marketing plan’s timelines. It’s about bringing the plan to life through a series of coordinated efforts, from launching advertising campaigns to engaging with customers on social media platforms. This phase is where the theoretical aspects of the plan, such as target audience engagement and brand messaging, are put into practice through concrete actions like content creation, digital marketing, and promotional events.

In conclusion, a well-crafted marketing plan is the linchpin of successful marketing efforts, offering a strategic blueprint that guides businesses through the intricate landscape of market engagement and customer interaction. From the initial stages of understanding the marketing plan’s scope and its relationship with the overarching business strategy to the detailed planning and execution of marketing activities, each step is vital in steering an organization toward its desired market position.

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Marketing is an often misunderstood profession. Peers often stereotype marketing with massive budgets, loosey-goosey timelines, haphazard tactics, high-profile influencers, and Snapchat filters. In reality, modern marketing plans are more complex and orchestrated than a Premier League-winning football team.

Businesses have big goals to hit and fine margins to walk—and they need realistic, yet imaginative, marketing plans to make it happen. Sure, bigger companies can spend all willy-nilly hiring Taylor Swift for a commercial op and dropping a quarter million on Facebook advertising, but small businesses and startups have to get downright strategic with every dollar they spend.

If your business is trying to stretch every penny, you’ve come to the right place. This article will show you how to create a marketing plan in 2024 that actually works with a down-to-earth budget. We’ve included step-by-step actions, outlines, examples, and more to give you everything you need to take an idea to the market with laser precision.

Table of Contents

What is a marketing plan?

How to create a marketing plan

Marketing plan template

Marketing plan example

Marketing Plan FAQs

What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a documented roadmap for how you plan to drive awareness, sales, signups, attendance, or other marketing initiatives. It outlines your KPIs, budget, and timeline, dictating everything from the critical milestones to the nitty-gritty to-do items.

Marketing plans come in all shapes and sizes. You could build an overarching marketing plan to document and guide your entire department’s annual goals and strategies for the upcoming year. Or you might create a marketing plan detailing the launch strategy for the brand-new product release coming out next quarter. Big plans can even include small plans, just like an adorable collection of Russian nesting dolls.

Plans can be short, long, fat, or thin—just remember what your plan is trying to accomplish. If you’re trying to pitch an idea to a team of venture capitalists or a local bank, you might need a chunky document with accompanying spreadsheets and financial figures. However, if you’re trying to communicate the plan to your marketing team leads, you’ll want to skip straight to the point with tactics, deadlines, and deliverables.

Regardless of your use case, the next section will give you the building blocks you need to create a marketing plan that works.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

This section will show you the 7-step process to creating a marketing plan. Plans are fluid and versatile, so we don’t recommend filling out one of these with pen and paper—get your eraser ready because a marketing plan is never perfect from the get-go.

Here’s an overview of the 7-step process:

• Establish Your Marketing Goal
• Identify Your Audience and Competitors
• Set Your Marketing Budget
• Determine Your Deadline(s)
• Pick Your Marketing Channels and Tactics
• Outline the To-Do List and Make Assignments
• Track Performance and Review Analytics

Don’t worry too much about making it all nice and pretty right now. Later, you can use our provided marketing outline to copy, paste, and format a more articulated version for widespread distribution. For now, just focus on hashing out each section and answering the thought-provoking questions.

1. Establish Your Marketing Goal

Define exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to drive more sales? How much? What about recurring customers? How many? Do you need to increase brand awareness? To whom and by how much?

Work out the details of what you want to accomplish, why, and how you’re going to measure it. Establish your KPIs early on to measure the success of your marketing campaign. You’ll refer to these numbers throughout the rest of your marketing plan, so get specific.

For example, how many website visitors you’re trying to drive will affect your marketing budget, deadlines, and tactics. And if you’re targeting a specific demographic, you may need to engage different marketing teams to use the appropriate channels and messaging.

Fine-tune your marketing goal so that you can communicate it simply in a single sentence. For example: “The goal is to drive 25,000 key decision-makers to the new product page by the end of October with a limited marketing budget of $75,000.”

2. Identify Your Audience and Competitors

Explain who this campaign is targeting. If you’ve already built out your buyer personas, you’ll just plug in the persona appropriate to this campaign. However, if this is your first time thinking long and hard about your target audience, really get to know the person you’re marketing to.

Depending on your product, industry, and market, you’ll want to know demographics like:

• Marital status

These details help you identify a broad audience, but you’ll want to narrow it down with psychographics.

Psychographics dig deeper . They cover your audience’s:

• Influencers
• Shopping behaviors

Demographics explain the “who,” while psychographics explain the “why.”

Think about if you were trying to sell a baseball glove. How you market that glove is going to be very different depending on the buyer. Are your messaging and channels targeting a college athlete, recreational youngster, mom, dad, or low-income family? It’s hard to know what to say and how to say it unless you know who you’re talking to.

Don’t just gloss over this section. Without a target audience, you’ll be blindly throwing darts at a board—sure, some plans might work out, but it’ll come down less to strategy and more to sheer luck. A target audience and replicable formula make your success a science and not a game of Russian roulette.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to figure out who’s also targeted the same people. Competition research is a way to understand who you are up against for eyeballs, SEO rankings, and influence, but it also can serve as an opportunity to fill gaps in our needs that your competitors are missing.

One easy way to do this is to look at comment sections or reviews of similar companies in your industry. Look for:

• Frequent complaints about product design.
• Consistent issues with customer service.
• Ads or branding language that falls flat.
• If the competitor hasn’t made a product their customers are asking for.

By identifying your competitor’s weaknesses or gaps their missing with their customers, you’ll have a treasure trove of marketing copy to use in order to differentiate your business from the pack.

3. Set Your Marketing Budget

Marketing plans need budget constraints. Without a cap, plans could hypothetically include:

• 60-second Super Bowl commercial
• Cristiano Ronaldo as a celebrity endorser
• Billboard advertisements along the entirety of Route 66

For most startups, that’s just not a possibility.

And it’s not where the magic happens. Powerful marketing plans turn tiny marketing budgets into impressive ROI. They prioritize the right channels, messaging, and tactics to stretch every dollar to the max.

Decide beforehand how much budget you’ll need to allocate to meet the goals you set in Step 1. When push comes to shove, you may need to throw additional money at the campaign later to get it across the finish line, but stay strong and do your best to create a marketing plan that works with the budget constraints.

Tight on budget but full on creativity? Check out our Small Business Marketing Guide: From Scratch to Success .

4. Determine Your Deadline(s)

Deadlines create the boundaries to your marketing campaign—you can’t have a plan without them. No deadlines mean there’s a never-ending period to achieve your objective, and it’s probably not a good idea to have a 20-year free pass to accomplish that sales goal you set.

Set your deadline. Be realistic, but also be ambitious. The faster you achieve this goal, the faster you can move on to the next one—and each progressive goal should be moving your business forward.

Establish the final deadline for achieving your primary KPI. Then, set the necessary milestones along the journey. For example, you might set milestones for launching different aspects of your campaign, such as hosting 4 webinars, publishing 10 supporting blog posts, or earning a callout in 2 prime news outlets.

Finally, set the start date for when you’ll need to get the ball rolling to meet your deadlines. Don’t assume it’s ASAP—you might have a few weeks to get your ducks in a row instead of immediately heading off into a chaotic marketing battle.

5. Pick Your Marketing Channels and Tactics

This is arguably the funnest part of creating a marketing plan. This is the step where you get to choose the channels, tactics, and deliverables. The right channels and tactics will vary depending on your audience and product or service, but here are the most popular ones to consider:

• Email Marketing: Email marketing is one of the tried-and-true tactics of the digital marketing world. It generates an average ROI of $40 for every $1 invested —you can’t get much more bang for your buck than that. (Check out our complete email masterclass to learn how to conquer this lucrative channel.)
• Social Media Marketing: Whether you’re running organic strategies or targeted paid campaigns , social media marketing is an excellent modern-day tactic for reaching consumers where they’re most comfortable: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, or TikTok.
• PPC Marketing: Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing lets you run advertising campaigns on search engine pages and other websites across the internet. It’s a competitive way to get your content in front of the right eyeballs.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing paired with a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is a long-term tactic that can drive organic traffic (read: free) to your website for years to come.

And do you know what all these channels have in common? They each give you the ability to monitor your results and track your progress to prove if a channel is worth your time and money. Unlike traditional outbound advertising and its estimated impressions and influence, you know exactly what you’re getting with these digital marketing strategies.

6. Outline the To-Do List and Make Assignments

Here’s where you get into the nitty-gritty of your marketing plan. Step 6 is where you’ll outline everything that needs to get done:

• Launch meeting
• Recurring meetings and syncs
• Creative assets
• Promotional channels
• Post-mortems

And that’s just the start. Outline everything that needs to happen to make your plan a reality. Once you know what needs to happen, it’s time to start making assignments. Someone needs to be responsible for every deliverable.

Here’s where you may run into roadblocks. You may discover that your creative team is overwhelmed and won’t be able to handle the creative requests until later, or you may find that other email campaigns or social media advertisements are the top priority.

If that’s the case, go back to Step 4 to revisit your timeline. Make adjustments to ensure there’s bandwidth available to make your marketing plan a reality.

7. Track Performance and Review Analytics

No marketing plan will go off without a hitch. That’s why you need your ear to the ground to understand what’s working. Through analytic tools, you can understand if your marketing plan’s target audience, messaging, or creative needs adjusting. Thankfully, most digital tactics allow you to do this on the fly.

Make sure you familiarize yourself with these basic marketing analytics tools:

• Facebook Ads Manager
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Semrush or Ahrefs for SEO

For more on analytics, read our marketing metrics guide .

Marketing Plan Template (Copy/Paste)

Marketing Plan Template: [Name of Project]

Marketing Plan Example (Filled Out)

Here’s a fake content marketing plan example for a fictitious shoe company.

Marketing Plan Template: [Project Zeus Running Collection]

Marketing Goal Drive $200,000 in sales for the new Zeus running collection within the first 4 months of launch day.

Target Audience The primary audience is 35 to 50-year-old male recreational runners who tend to run 30-40 miles a week at an average page of 8:00-10:00 minutes per mile. They’re not overly competitive, but they like to race 5K and 10K races occasionally throughout the year and are always trying to beat their personal best. Many have experienced mild injuries over the last few years that the Zeus Running Collection can help alleviate.

Marketing Budget We have a budget of $40,000 for the initial launch period. If we can prove out the Zeus Running Collection, we’ll allocate additional budget after the first 4 months.

• Launch Day: June 1
• Marketing Assets Ready to Go: May 28
• Pre-Launch Teaser: May 24
• Creative Assets Finished: May 21
• Product Beta Tester Reviews Submitted: May 10
• Written Content Creation Period: April 12 – May 7
• Enlist Beta Testers: April 12
• Project Kickoff Meeting: April 5

Marketing Tactics

• Social Media Marketing: Target runners on Instagram and Facebook with paid ads featuring our endorsed runner racing in the shoe.
• Email Marketing: Email existing customers with a 15% off discount code on the new Zeus Running Collection. Email prospects with a link to the product breakdown page with a code for free shipping.

Responsibilities and Assignments

• Lizzy K: Creative assets
• Mark B: Blog post announcement + product page
• Spencer S: Beta tester outreach
• Larry G: Email and social media marketing campaigns
• Carly M: Project manager

Do I need to write a marketing plan for everything?

As stated earlier, marketing plans can come in all shapes and sizes. But that doesn't mean you need one for every single Facebook ad or whitepaper your team creates. The best marketing plans serve as a source of truth for your team to reach a goal. Within the marketing plan, you should have enough wiggle room to adjust your strategy and tactics. Marketing is an art and science, so there are bound to be surprises once you start executing your plan.

How do I know if my marketing plan is a success?

One of the most common mistakes marketers make is creating a seemingly perfect marketing plan and then going off script as soon as there's a sign of trouble or distraction. Using the SMART goal method (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound) is a simple way to ensure your marketing plan is applicable. Every marketing plan should be a success, whether you hit your goal or not, because you'll learn something new about your customer, tactics, and business throughout the process.

Who should make a marketing plan?

If you're reading this article, ideally you. A marketing manager or marketing team member typically writes marketing plans, but marketing strategy should start at an enterprise level. The more people understand the marketing plan for your business, the more you can work together (not in silos) to achieve a common goal. You'll see this happen in larger organizations where the marketing team works plan that the product or sales team have no idea about.

Plan It Out—Make It Happen

Every great campaign starts with an even better plan. Don’t leave your startup’s success up to chance—give it all the thought and attention you can.

With the right plan in place, you won’t be crossing your fingers on launch day or during the quarterly review. You’ll be sitting confidently, knowing that everything is running according to plan.

Need a high-level plan for your startup? We got you covered with our foundr+. Get access for $1. .

About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

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What is a marketing plan and why is it important?

Before you spend a cent on marketing, you first have to understand the market and your customers.

Companies of all sizes have one thing in common: They all began as small businesses.  Starting small  is the corner for those just getting off the ground. Learn about how to make that first hire, deal with all things administrative, and set yourself up for success.

A marketing plan is a blueprint for launching new products, understanding the intricacies of your market, growing your audience, and promoting your company to customers who want what you’re selling. 

With a well-designed marketing plan, you can design more effective promotions and impactful campaigns, reach your customers with targeted advertising, and track your business success with analytics. Without one, you might as well throw your marketing budget down a well and hope for the best. 

If you’ve been tasked with creating a marketing plan for your company, there are some basic elements to keep in mind. Though every marketing plan will reflect the specific business and industry it’s been created for, most share a few common features and can be boiled down to just one or two simple objectives. In this article, we’ll outline some of the basic elements of a marketing plan and how to write one.

When you’re ready to put the plan into action, WeWork All Access and WeWork On Demand are there to support you with hundreds of dedicated workspaces around the world, so you can seamlessly collaborate on marketing strategy in a professional and stylish office space.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a document outlining a company’s future marketing efforts and goals. It can be as short as a single page or made up of many smaller campaign plans from different marketing teams. 

However large and complex those plans are, the idea remains the same: A marketing plan is created to organize, execute, and eventually measure the success of a business’s marketing strategy .

Types of marketing plans

Marketing plans come in as many different shapes and sizes as there are different kinds of business, but they can be broadly placed into one (or more) of a few different categories. Here are some of the most common you’ll encounter.

• Annual marketing plans. These types of marketing plans arrange campaigns according to when they’re expected to launch, rather than the content of the campaigns themselves. It’s a useful way to get an overview of a marketing strategy for the upcoming year, and to measure success continuously as time passes.
• Content marketing plans. This is a more content-focused way of approaching a marketing strategy, and highlights the specific channels and audiences you want to reach. Content marketing plans can look very similar to annual marketing plans, but are less concerned with the “when” and more with the “what” and the “how.”
• Product launch plans. Launching a new product or service requires a specific kind of marketing plan. The main goal is to successfully introduce the new product to the market. But these plans also include the strategies, tactics, and content needed in the buildup to the launch itself.
• Social media marketing plans. Social media channels are such a vital part of a company’s marketing goals that it’s often wise to create a separate social media marketing plan dedicated to creating advertising and promotional content on these platforms.

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

A marketing plan lays out your business strategy for acquiring new customers and selling more products and services. But it also serves as a way of analyzing exactly how successful your marketing efforts have been so far. Knowing this information helps steer ongoing campaigns in the right direction, aligns your marketing with your company’s values, and ensures that future campaigns are better targeted and more effective.

To understand why a marketing plan is important, just consider what would happen without one. Your advertising budget would be spent based entirely on guesswork about where your potential customers can be found and what they’re looking for. You’d have no idea which of your campaigns contributed to increased sales figures. And you’d have no baselines from which to build more effective campaigns in the future.

How to create a marketing plan

Elements of a marketing plan.

The basic building blocks of any good marketing plan are focused on objectives, research, competitors, and content. These objectives should be clearly defined and easily measurable goals —ideally no more than two or three—and informed by as much consumer research as you can reasonably gather.

Whether your goal is increasing your Instagram followers, driving traffic to your site, or attracting more cheese fans to your cheese store, set a specific target by which to monitor the performance of any campaign. As you develop your marketing plan and learn what’s effective and what’s not, you can set more accurate targets and begin to hone in on the strategies that really work for your company.

A marketing plan should also describe your brand’s biggest competitors and the campaigns they’re running, as well as identify any openings in the market that would allow your company to grab market share. This is where SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis comes into its own, enabling a company to shape its marketing plan around its own strengths and weaknesses.

Lastly, a marketing plan should outline the content of each campaign. Will your pre-roll video content use animation or live actors? Can you offer discounts and voucher codes to new customers? Will you leverage your mailing list to notify existing customers of a new product launch?

Define a marketing plan strategy

If your marketing plan is a roadmap, then your marketing strategy is the road. The strategy describes which tools you’ll use to hit the targets laid out by the main marketing plan document, and how they’ll be applied.

Here’s where you get down to the fundamentals of selling. Depending on who you ask, there are as many as seven P’s of marketing, though most agree on four core elements: price, product, place, and promotion.

What are you selling? How much are you charging? Where will your customers see it? And how will you promote it to them? Marketing gurus will promise you that if you can answer all of these questions correctly, you’ll be guaranteed boundless success.

Of course, in the real world it’s not quite so straightforward. But the four main P’s are an ideal starting point for anyone creating a market plan from scratch.

How to measure the success of a marketing plan

An enormous amount of effort and investment is poured into monitoring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, but at some level, consumer behavior becomes what’s known as a black box. You can measure what goes into it and what comes out the other end, but what happens inside the mind of a consumer can ultimately only be guessed at based on outcomes. Even the shoppers themselves can’t reliably report on why they choose certain products over others.

That’s why tracking a marketing plan’s performance alongside more specific KPIs (key performance indicators) is crucial. Advertising spend and sales figures aren’t linked in a simple or obvious way, so measuring success on a more granular level—such as increasing conversions or returning customers—helps create a much clearer picture of how well your marketing plan is doing.

Related articles

Final thoughts on creating a marketing plan

Marketing plans need to be squarely outlined and adhered to, but they shouldn’t be set in stone. You need to be able to course-correct when something isn’t landing, or lean more into campaigns when they’re working well. 

Quick aside: This is particularly true when it comes to the content of social media marketing plans, which are truly effective only when they’re timely and topical. Memes are a perfect example of this: How often have you seen a promoted tweet deploy some forgotten joke from months ago, presumably because it had been left in somebody’s annual marketing plan?

But while it’s useful to have a flexible approach , it’s important that your marketing plan is resilient and doesn’t flip-flop or bounce wildly between ideas. Move the goalposts too much and your plan will quickly fall apart, leaving your campaign in chaos. Allow your strategies some time to settle in, and even if you don’t reach success, you will gain invaluable performance data for future projects.

Steve Hogarty is a writer and journalist based in London. He is the travel editor of City AM newspaper and the deputy editor of City AM Magazine , where his work focuses on technology, travel, and entertainment.

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Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The marketing department is an essential department of any organization. It fuels the organization’s continuity for the long term. The department must have an organized plan that enables them to involve the executives, the staff, the distributors, and the point of sale. They should also include marketing agencies and the customer. It is called the marketing plan. It communicates the marketing strategy for an offering (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014). It is supposed to influence all the stakeholders to invest their money, time, and effort. The marketing plan is, therefore, the most important aspect of marketing because it acts like a map and dictionary that everyone in the organization should follow for the achievement of the goals.

Marketing is a comprehensive module that covers more than 60% of a business’s activity. In order for the Chief Marketing Officer and his department of professionals, analysts, and engineers to go far, they have to make wise decisions (Pagla & Brennan, 2014). A Marketing plan enables a company accurately to estimate the costs of delivering products to the customer at an agreeable offering. It helps to get every marketing officer to get on board and work. The production department has to adhere to the plan since production without sales sounds baseless. The plan communicates to the sales teams about their role and expectations.

A marketing plan is a plan. Whenever people work without a plan, they can never realize when they are making a mistake. It may lead to many mistakes. The marketing unit has to have its plan and use it as a reference tool (Reed FIDM, 2014). It helps in problem-solving because it aligns duties and responsibilities to key people who must be answerable to the unit.

Proctor and Gamble is a reputable company. It has over twenty products in the market and sells worldwide. One of its products is Pampers. It has managed to make an impact all over the world because of its marketing techniques (Tanner & Raymond, 2013). The marketers who design the marketing plan understand that the market is flooded with so many similar items that, in order to sell, one has to employ vigorous marketing techniques. Its global outreach is commendable.

The Pampers is acceptable worldwide. The marketing team must have global orientation skills. Before making a product, the group must first test the market by scanning the environment and its competitors. It yields more income if the customers participate in the design of a product that they would soon buy from the market.

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2014). Principles of marketing . Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

Pagla, M., & Brennan, R. (2014). The development of brand attitudes among young consumers. Mrkting Intelligence & Plan , 32 (6), 687-705. Web.

Reed FIDM, D. (2014). SOSTAC: The guide to the perfect digital marketing plan. J Direct Data Digit Mark Pract , 16 (2), 146-147. Web.

Tanner, J., & Raymond, M. (2013). Principles of marketing version 2.0 . Irvington, N.Y.: Flat World Knowledge.

• Proctor & Gamble Company's Effective Team Building
• Procter and Gamble: Company Overview
• Benchmarking and Creativity's Conflict
• Talabat Delivery Services and Satisfaction Levels
• Fast-Moving Consumer Goods in Marketing Research
• Consumer-Brand Relationships and Shopping Patterns
• Internet Marketing and Business Models
• The Marketing Segmentation Concept
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, September 10). Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/marketing-plan-its-importance-and-examples/

"Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples." IvyPanda , 10 Sept. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/marketing-plan-its-importance-and-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples'. 10 September.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples." September 10, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/marketing-plan-its-importance-and-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples." September 10, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/marketing-plan-its-importance-and-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Marketing Plan, Its Importance and Examples." September 10, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/marketing-plan-its-importance-and-examples/.

BUS203: Principles of Marketing

The Marketing Plan

Read this chapter, which discusses marketing planning roles, the parts and functions of the marketing plan, forecasting, and the structure of a marketing plan audit. It also discusses PEST Analysis and other external factors that affect marketing decisions. This chapter reviews other concepts we've discussed so far. Key takeaways include the steps in the forecasting process. You will be able to identify types of forecasting methods and their advantages and disadvantages and discuss the methods used to improve the accuracy of forecasts. Lastly, you will apply marketing planning processes to ongoing business settings and identify the role of the marketing audit. Answer the discussion questions at the end of the chapter.

Functions of the Marketing Plan

In the conclusion, repeat the highlights. Summarize the target market, the offer, and the communication plan. Your conclusion should remind the reader of all the reasons why your plan is the best choice.

Of course, the written plan is itself a marketing tool. You want it to convince someone to invest in your ideas, so you want to write it down on paper in a compelling way. Figure 16.9 "Tips for Writing an Effective Marketing Plan" offers some tips for effectively doing so. Also, keep in mind that a marketing plan is created at a single point in time. The market, though, is dynamic. A good marketing plan includes how the organization should respond to various scenarios if the market changes. In addition, the plan should include "triggers" detailing what should happen under the scenarios. For example, it might specify that when a certain percentage of market share is reached, then the price of the product will be reduced (or increased). Or the plan might specify the minimum amount of the product that must be sold by a certain point in time – say, six months after the product is launched – and what should happen if the mark isn't reached. Also, it should once again be noted that the marketing plan is a communication device. For that reason, the outline of a marketing plan may look somewhat different from the order in which the tasks in the outline are actually completed.

Figure 16.9 Tips for Writing an Effective Marketing Plan

• Call to +1 844 889-9952

Amazon Company’s Marketing Plan

Executive summary.

Founded on May 28, 1996, Amazon Inc. is a company that operates in the sphere of e-commerce. Through a range of customer-oriented websites, Amazon offers its clients a wide variety of products, including content. The company often rebuys the offered products from other sellers or third parties offer their products for the company to sell. Sales operate both through retail websites and the specially designed tablet and smartphone application. Furthermore, Amazon is known for its own electronic products such as electronic readers Kindle, tablets, phones, and TVs (Reuters, n.d., para. 1).

Financial overview

The financial overview of Amazon Inc. comprises five years of financial information and is presented in the chart below. All necessary information was collected from web-resources like Market Watch, Google Finance, and Wikinvest.

Current market situation

Market description.

The Market of e-commerce continues to be dominated by Amazon.com. With the emergence of the Amazon Prime service that offers quick delivery as well as music and video-streaming services, the company has acquired a new status in the sphere of e-commerce. Furthermore, with the testing of innovative technologies like delivery drones, Amazon is able to broaden the spectrum of its services and satisfy the needs of customers worldwide.

However, the expansion of the smartphone market with the Amazon Fire phone was unsuccessful; thus, there is reasonable doubt that the company will be able to combine the roles of an Internet marketplace and a smartphone manufacturer. In addition, Amazon is under threat from Walmart Corporate, which is conducting tests for a much affordable version of the Amazon Prime service.

Lastly, Google and Microsoft both compete with Amazon for a spot in the sphere of public cloud computing business and are trying to make the prices of their services fitting to battle with the prices offered by Amazon (Fortune, 2015, para. 6). Amazon has a five-tier strategy for satisfying the needs and requirements of its customers. The strategy includes the “customer first” culture, convenience, personalization, proactivity, and trust. By offering personalized products and services taking into account the convenience of their delivery, Amazon’s customer experience is one of the most satisfying.

Product review – Amazon Fire Tablet

The latest version of the Amazon Fire Tablet is a low-cost version intended to become an alternative to the iPad produced by Apple. By design, it is sturdy despite being covered in plastic and not metal (two times more durable than the Apple iPad 2).

However, the technical characteristics of the table are not up to par with products offered by competitors. The screen resolution is not enough for watching videos in High-Definition, although the tablet is quite useful for reading e-books for its adjustable light sensors. The features of Fire’s processor and RAM are again, not comparative with the features provided by Apple or Lenovo; however, for the price of $50, it was neither quick in its operation, nor it is filled with lags or glitches.

Overall, Amazon set low expectations for the $50 tablet; however, its capabilities have disproven them expectations. While, on the one hand, the Amazon Fire is not the best tablet on the market its durability is a contributor for making sure that it will last a long time. Furthermore, if it does not last, the price is low enough to buy a new tablet. To conclude, these are the main features of the Amazon Fire tablet:

Competitive review

The main competitors of the Amazon Fire tablet are iPad Air 2, Microsoft Surface 3, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Lenovo Tab. All of the tablets exceed the majority of the characteristics offered by Amazon; however, none of them can compete with the Amazon Fire prices. Furthermore, the 2015 Black Friday sales and the Thanksgiving night sales were indicative of Amazon Fire tablet is the leader among all other tablets, including iPad Air 2.

However, Apple products still remain the leaders on both tablet and smartphone markets. Despite being more expensive than the Amazon Fire tablet, iPad Air 2 is much suitable for watching videos in high resolution and downloading games and applications. In addition, the iPad is much faster in its performance as well as offering much higher battery and storage capabilities, not to mention the high-definition camera.

Channels and logistics

In the majority of cases, customers who order from Amazon get their parcels delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or other options of the possible services; however, now Amazon is branching out to become its own delivery carrier, offering clients speedy services with its special Amazon Prime option. According to customer reviews found on various websites, Amazon-owned delivery services are much personal than that of the U.S. Postal Services. While UPS leaves packages at the front doors of entrances, call the customer to say that the package is delivered, Amazon makes sure that every package is delivered into customers’ hands (Frank, 2015, para. 5).

At the beginning of 2016, Amazon has also revealed new details about its innovative Drone Delivery Program (Amazon Prime Air). The delivery conducted by a drone should supposedly take thirty minutes; however, the parcel should not weight more than 5 pounds and be small enough in order to fit into the box carried by the drone. Luckily, approximately eighty-six percent of products sold by Amazon fit these requirements.

Amazon’s operation comprises four domains: business-to-business, business to consumer, consumer to business, and consumers to consumers. The primary distribution channel for videos, cloud drive computing, games, and software is the online channel while tangible products are distributed physically via centralized centers of distribution. For the operation with the distribution channel being effective, Amazon implements the following approaches:

• Bar-coding;
• Outsourcing;
• Quick response;
• Inventory Managed by the Vendor;
• Cost based on activity;
• The collaborative method of managing transportation.

Our target is to expand the business by at least 5% every month. In order to achieve this, we have strongly emphasized on robust sales for the first year and we intend to improve on that in the second and third years respectively. Our sales projections for the first year are $85,348. For us to achieve this, we have a plan to aggressively increase our sales month by month. By the end of the third year, we expect that the sales will have tripled. The business intends to draw down a minimum amount for it to have enough working capital to sustain it during its first year of operation. The figures below indicate the projected cash flows and profit and loss.

Mission statement

Our intention is to give our customers good quality and a good price. This will be attained by providing first-class products and competitive pricing of the products.

SWOT Analysis

We expect our business to be the best in the region and rise above the competitors. We are determined to be exclusive in the market due to the following reasons:

• We intend to provide high-quality products at affordable prices.
• Our technology will be locally sourced, hence, reducing the high costs of production.
• We intend to utilize a part of our profits for social responsibility in society in order to promote good livelihoods.
• Our special technology for the products will be very hard to be replicated by our competitors, making our products have a distinct identity.
• We have adequate capital to start and operate the business until it breaks even.

In as much as we would like to be an exclusive e-commerce company and distributor, there are some shortfalls that still hamper our business plans and operations. Moving on, we will position the business in a way that we can mitigate these weaknesses. The weaknesses include:

• The business requires hiring much personnel to help with the operations.
• The business also needs to work hard to traverse the wide market segment.
• The business needs to obtain a patent right for our brands to protect the identity and avert duplication of our brand by the local competitors.

Opportunities

The main reason why we are setting up the company is to be exclusive in regards to the quality of our distribution, for instance:

• Our customers will be highly entertained by our high profile products.
• We have the potential to reach a wide range of customers at the same time.
• We will offer exclusive services to our customers.
• There is a growing population of internet users, which translates to additional customers.

Even though we expect our business to be successful, there are threats that it is likely to face, for instance:

• Stiff competition from other distributors that operate within the same line.
• We will be constantly on our toes to maintain our unique identity in order to stay ahead of our competitors. Our focus will entirely be on quality as we make use of the locally available technology.
• Maintaining a competitive price for a new business is tricky; pricing still will remain to be our main focus.

Business objectives

First-year objectives.

Our short term objective is to expand the business by at least 5% every month in order to realize a total sales target of $85,348. This means that we intend to sell at least 110 products daily for 365 days of the year.

Second-year objectives

Our main aim is to continue growing the business by bringing on board additional customers month by month; this translates to the fact that the business will grow exponentially. In addition, we intend to excel in our services until we become recognized as the best distribution outlet of the year. Consequently, we plan to expand by bringing in more customers through creating awareness.

Long-range objectives

Expansion is our key strategy. We need to expand within and without and continue spreading to other parts of the province. The expansion does not just end there; we intend to expand beyond our borders to reach the other new markets.

Corporate targets

• To be the fastest growing e-commerce firm through the acquisition of new clients;
• To re-assemble brand personality to dispense with the current brand picture related disarray among customers.

Business targets

• To expand total turnover by 25% in the one-year period;
• To develop the present dynamic client base by 20% in the one-year period;
• To build a piece of the overall industry by 1% in the one year period.

Advertising and communications targets

• To improve the brand’s premium, by moving concentration far from its value coordinating action;
• To plainly characterize brand character and make a convincing message to bolster it;
• To make a passionate bond with potential clients by emphasizing the advantages of the brand for the clients.

Just as it has been stated in our business objectives, our main motive is to make the outlet successful and consequently expand to a level where we capture the attention of billions of people across the world. Therefore, if everything works out as planned, we will appoint a professional manager and establish a professional team to run the business. If we fall short of our first year’s targets, it will mean that our business model is not viable; therefore, we will have to track and monitor the business activity and operations on a daily basis.

We intend to do a monthly examination of our sales and revenue so that we know our exact position. Also, the progress of the business will be checked at half a year’s time. If we still fall short of the targets we should re-assess our marketing and publicity. When our efforts do not pay off, then we will adopt the next option, which is to liquidate the business and pay off the debts which will have accrued by then. Actually, these debts will be negligible.

Marketing strategy

The product is the good that is produced by the company, which is the products, in this case. The products will be sold in van products trucks a marketing strategy. The brand name is also unique in its own way as it differentiates the products from the competitors’ products. The quality of the products will be in line with the standard requirements for product production. The price of our products is set in line with the local forces of demand and supply, considering the fact that the market is readily available.

It is critical for the company to have a reasonable picture of what the client anticipates from them. The consumers’ decision on the nature of a brand is altogether different from their decisions concerning buying the merchandise or items.

This is on account of the brands are considerably more not quite the same as products. Products are unmistakable and can be touched while brands are not substantial; products are perishable, the brand is not, and so. In this way, these difficulties are faced by the clients when looking at brands and items. Brands cannot be felt, or touched, or tasted, or seen, unlike products or items. Clients are known to settle on decisions, taking into account both unmistakable and impalpable components.

Measurements like the quality of the product or service and the cost of the product in connection with the service are a few cases of elusive variables that impact the decision-making process of the consumers. The company ordinarily selects to focus on substantial components that impact the clients’ decision-making. The substantial measurements that they embrace are the quality of service, enhanced products, and so forth.

A brand differs from one supplier to another, furthermore from a client to another. Because of this variability, consumers have a tough undertaking to settle on a decision to pick one service provider over another. We, likewise, have a tough errand of keeping up an unfaltering level of operation regarding the quality of the products or the service. We will gauge the efficiency of the brand only after we have sold the service. On the other hand, a customer will gauge the efficiency of the brand only after he/she has bought it. Our level of professionalism will give the customers an insight in regards to the brand quality. In the same context, the feedback or responses received from customers will give us a perception of the customers’ satisfaction regarding the company’s brand.

Price refers to the amount of money that the consumers will be willing to pay for the products in the market. Before deciding on the price to impose on the product, the company will compare the prices of the competitors so as to make sure that their prices are at par. After the company breaks even, it will be upon it to review the price of the products with the changing environment.

Place refers to the locality where the products can be purchased. It describes how the product will follow the distribution channel before reaching the final customer. The company will initiate direct marketing and personal selling as a form of distribution technique for the products. The distributors and wholesalers will buy the products direct from the company before selling to the retailers, who in turn sell the beer to the final customers.

The promotional campaign of the company revolves around the marketing mix. The marketing mix is a combination of various aspects of marketing that are geared to drive the company into achieving its objective of popularizing the products to the consumers. Marketing mix, therefore, lays a benchmark for the implementation of the company’s marketing strategies. Marketing is any paid non-individual interchanges through different media by a recognized organization, non-benefit association or person.

The primary advantage of this way to deal with interchanges is that it furnishes the publicist with complete control of what message and feeling to bestow into the promotion. Any brand can advance its advantages in a powerful manner to purchasers and endeavor at drawing in them with a message of useful and/or enthusiastic qualities, to expand brand/item thought and deals.

As a consequence of good purchaser and contender knowledge, brands can make promoting which displays them in the best conceivable light, to engage potential clients. Media stations, techniques and innovative yield are all measured and are chosen by the brand/organization, making the outcome useful much of the time. On the other hand, it has been contended that regardless of the brands’ best goals to put in the most convincing and positive message into their publicizing, shoppers may translate the message diversely to what it is proposed to be interpreted as.

The translation of boosts and signs in the environment is reliant on numerous individual qualities of the message beneficiary which is the reason the same boost may be understood diversely by diverse individuals.

Before the launch of our products outlet, we intend to carry out a marketing campaign whereby we will officially announce the launch of the products outlet and we will emphasize how different it is from other outlets in the locality. We will also inform the potential customers on our unique identity that makes us differ from the other products outlets. We will work aggressively in the first three months in order to maintain our profile.

We will also use posters to advertise the official opening date and also carry out a tasting session on the due date. Our marketing and sales campaigns will be aimed at capturing the attention of the competitors’ customers so that we can bring them on board.

Consumers can buy physical items at any given time because of the way that they can be put away and sold whenever a consumer gets some information about their accessibility. Then again, it is impractical to store a brand. At the point when a brand is not sold, it means that the brand does not exist in any case. One way of illustrating this is to take, for instance, a customer who has made a reservation and fails to show up (Codrington, 2002, p. 40).

Market research

Amazon.com, Inc. is a company that operates in the sphere of e-commerce. Through a range of customer-oriented websites, Amazon.com offers its clients a wide variety of products, including content. The company often rebuys the offered products from other sellers or third parties offer their products for the company to sell. Sales operate both through retail websites and the specially designed tablet and smartphone application. Furthermore, Amazon is known for its own electronic products such as electronic readers Kindle, tablets, phones, and TVs.

Action programs

Right now, The company focuses on a fairly wide client section, and can be regarded as lacking concentration because of the premium cost of its various offers, whilst advancing itself as less expensive than the others competitors’. The brand is right now focusing on clients who might ordinarily shop at the company. This inexorably prompts a certain level of perplexity as to what the company remains for, and an integrated marketing communication crusade would need to focus on this. It could hence be presumed that the centered retailer now targets high profile clients; what’s more, needs to narrow this down to all the other clients in light of a legitimate concern for better characterizing its market suggestion, hence, expanding its deals in the long haul.

Their principle leeway is that they work physical stores, which clients are acquainted with and are thusly more prone to trust these brands’ administration. On the other hand, this test can be overwhelmed by essentially dodging direct rivalry with these retailers. The company, having been connected with many clients, because of their long run association, is more inclined to draw in the competitors’ clients, instead of simply looking for ones who rely on discounts.

The test that the company is confronted with is persuading potential clients that it remains for high caliber at a premium value, and is pretty much as solid as any physical store, however, with a more proficient online business model. This can be accomplished by utilizing a painstakingly organized IMC campaigns directed to probable clients. Cautious knowledge into the objective client profile would help in distinguishing key customer conduct and inclinations, which need to be tended to by the company.

Altogether, for the company newly incorporated campaign to be effective in accomplishing the set destinations, it needs to be completely adjusted regarding the methods and the execution. The industry can possibly make a perfect association between the brand and the purchaser, however that would just be conceivable if the center procedure supporting the campaign is completely actualized all through the entire organization, with a specific end goal to accomplish a full coordination of exercises and operations working towards the same objective aimed at the business achievement.

The company’s two primary marking communications objectives are to convey a premium picture and to stress the psychosocial advantages of its dedication plan, and the retailer by and large. These two objectives, in spite of being independently recognized, can be accomplished all the while, through a painstakingly executed incorporated campaign, which is high quality, while connecting with the customers on an enthusiastic level.

Presently, the company’s business is composed around the thought of providing valuable services to the clients. This is reliable with the marketing campaigns which have not been exceptionally effective previously, as they have produced perplexity and suspicion among customers. That is the reason why another focal thought needs to be produced, which will bolster the vital change of brand picture and will assume a focal part in the newly incorporated marketing campaign.

The new thought and trademark will characterize the adjustments in the key course for the business, and will help in wiping out perplexity about the brand later on. The newly coordinated advertising campaign will be implemented under the thought of the time, instead of expense, sparing the point of interest of the business and will go for setting up a passionate association with the objective buyers, who are in the upper middle class. These buyers are associated with a substantial work timetable and minimal extra time to go through with their friends and family.

Push marketing involves advertising and circulation networks and is gone for persuading outsiders to advance the organization advertising. Push techniques incorporate exchange shows, displays, engaging suppliers, and making a production network to encourage circulation. Such a methodology is, for the most part, treasured to producers hoping to construct a conveyance system for their items. On account of the company, it being a mechanical company as opposed to an organization offering a solitary item, it does not fundamentally need to actualize a push procedure of marketing in the customary sense.

Due to the fact that push methodologies are principally concerned with pushing a solitary item through different circulation channels to the buyer, such methodologies are not significant to The company as the organization is in control of its own appropriation and is indeed more inclined to be an objective of push procedures, instead of a dynamic implementer of such. Push promoting ordinarily includes building associations with wholesalers to backing the vicinity of an item available in-store or on the web. In any case, as a merchant itself, the company is the last purpose of contact in the middle of the brand and the customer and is hence in charge of its own business identity.

With the goal for the company to be a favored wholesaler for premium items, it needs to have an interest in such items by shoppers. By making the company more obvious to customers, and a favored shopping destination for products, a pull marketing technique would help build interest for the company’s sourced items and would, therefore, make free suppliers more intrigued by building an association with the company.

It is, thus, of basic significance for the company to execute a pull marketing method keeping in mind the end goal to continue adding to the business, on both the supply and the demand side. The pull marketing showcasing is the demonstration of executing promoting and special methods that are intended to tempt the prospect to purchase your item or administration. Pull marketing advertising is coordinated at buyers, as opposed to promoting or conveyance channels, welcoming them to look for the item or the benefit themselves through alluring promoting and/or persuasive exercises.

The company can take advantage unequivocally from the usage of different pull marketing procedures, thus, exercises would elevate the company to the objective buyer and make it more unmistakable, which could conceivably prompt client securing and maintenance. As of now, the company is expanding its client base at a relentless level; even though it needs a correspondence push so as to plant it in the purchaser minds for the long haul.

Numerous internet shopping-favoring shoppers might not have offered thought to the company, and an in number coordinated promoting interchanges campaign in light of the drawn procedures. This would assume an indispensable part in expanding levels of thought and transformation. The previously stated examination of the importance of push marketing and pull marketing procedures to the company’s new campaign prompts the determination that a pull marketing procedure would be most fitting for the automobile company for the motivation behind re-marking and client procurement.

A pull marketing method can be executed by different components, for example, promoting in distinctive structures, public relations, direct advertising, advanced promoting, and that’s just the beginning.

Out of the $15,000 required to start up the business, I have personally raised $5,000. The total monthly expenses will be $1,500. Every month I will pull $1,800 for my upkeep so the business also moves on. I am searching for an additional investment of $10,000. I am talking to banks and other potential bodies. The projected cash flow, balance sheet and profit and loss account are attached in the appendices.

Direct costs

These are the continuing costs that we are likely to incur in our daily production of our products. The direct costs include the amount of money we will spend daily.

These are the costs we intend to incur in the daily business operations. These costs cannot be avoided, and the business can come to a stop if we cease to pay them.

Amazon.com, Inc. is a leader in the market of e-commerce with a primary aim of reducing costs for vendors and sellers, providing clients with a large variety of products and services, which are delivered via the Internet and postal services. The innovative ideas like the Amazon Prime Air, if implemented successfully, will set the company apart from its rivals like eBay or Walmart.com. Despite the fact that Amazon does not lead the market when it comes to smartphones and tablets, its spot within the e-commerce sphere cannot be taken easily.

Appendix 1: Projected cash flow

Appendix 2: projected profit and loss, appendix 3: projected balance sheet.

Codrington, G. (2002). Welcome to the Future World. Future Business. Marketing, Media and Business in S.A. , 1 (1), 38-40.

Fortune . (2015). Amazon.  Web.

Frank, B. (2015). Delivered by Amazon: What It’s Like to Get a Package from the Online Retailer . Web.

Reuters. (n.d.). Profile: Amazon. Inc. Web.

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Essay on Marketing: Top 9 Essays on Marketing

Essay on‘Marketing’. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Marketing’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Marketing

Term Paper Contents:

• Essay on the Challenges and Opportunities of Marketing

Essay # 1. Introduction to Marketing:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Marketing is everywhere. Everything from presenting yourself for a job interview to selling your products includes marketing. Main objective of any company is to gain profits which can be achieved only through marketing of the products. Marketing enables the companies to create demand and earn profits. If these two aspects are not taken care of, then the company will not survive in the market.

“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers, and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.” – (American Marketing Association)

“Marketing is a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.” – (Philip Kotler)

Thus it can be safely said that a company reaches its customer through marketing and communicates to them about the products and services offered by the company.

ADVERTISEMENTS: (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Essay # 2. Evolution of Marketing :

In earlier days, an organization was mainly concerned with production of goods. It used to believe on mass production and paid less or negligible attention on quality of the product and the customer’s demand.

After some time, the focus of organization shifted from production of the product to the sale of the product. The concept of marketing emerged gradually in 1970’s after the production and sales era. It took many years for organizations to realize that a customer is the key for making profits in the long run. The marketing concept is evolved through various stages.

These stages are explained below:

1. Production Era :

The production era began with the Industrial Revolution in the 17th century and continued till 1920s. Say’s law – Supply creates its own demand – was applicable in this era. The demand for products was more than the supply in the market; thus, it was a seller’s market. In the production era, the main aim of an organization was to manufacture products faster and at low prices. In this era, customers were concerned only about the availability of products and no importance was given to features and quality of products.

2. Sales Era :

The sales era came into existence in 1920s and continued till the mid of 1950s. This era was marked by the great depression of 1923. The depression proved that manufacturing products was not everything because the sale of the products was also important for organizations to earn profit.

Thus, the need for developing promotion and distribution strategies emerged to sell products. The organizations started advertising their products to increase their sales. Many organizations created specialized market research departments to collect and analyze the prevailing market data.

3. Marketing Era :

The sales era merely focused on selling the goods and ignored the consumers’ needs and demands. The year 1970 marked the advent of marketing era. In the marketing era, organizations realized the importance of customers and started designing the products as per customers’ needs.

Therefore, the marketing era led to the development of customer-centered activities over the production and selling activities. Organizations came up with different techniques, such as customer survey, to collect and analyze data for understanding the customer’s expectations, needs, and wants.

ADVERTISEMENTS: (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Essay # 3. Approaches to the Study of Marketing:

The meaning of marketing is different to different people. In common parlance, marketing is the process of selling something at a market place. To a salesman it means selling whereas to an advertising manager it means advertising. To some it means the study of individual commodities and their movement in the market place, to some others marketing means the study of institutions and persons who move their products or study of the economic contributions.

Thus, there are different approaches to the study of marketing:

1. Commodity Approach:

The commodity approach focuses a specific commodity and includes the sources and conditions of supply, nature and extent of demand, the distribution channels used and the functions, such as buying, selling, financing, advertising storage etc. various agencies perform. Prof. Paul Mazur defined as “the delivery of a standard of living to society. Prof. Malcolm McNair expanded the definition to “the creation and delivery of a standard of living”.

2. Institutional Approach:

The institutional approach focuses on the study of various middlemen and facilitating agencies.

3. Functional Approach:

The functional approach considers different kinds of functions recognized for their repetitive occurrences and necessarily performed to consummate market transactions. Converse, Huegy and Mitchell define marketing as the “business of buying and selling and as including those business activities involved in the flow of goods and services between producers and consumers.” American Marketing Association, perhaps, gives more factual or descriptive definition. It defined marketing as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user.

4. Managerial Approach:

The managerial approach concentrates on the decision making process involved in the performance of marketing functions at the level of a firm. Howard, Phelps and Westing and Lazo and Corbin are the pioneers of the managerial approach.

5. Societal Approach:

The societal approach consider the interactions between the various environmental factors (socio-logical, cultural, political, legal) and marketing decisions and their impact on the well- being of society. Kotler, Feldman and Gist, were the main proponents of the societal approach.

6. Systems Approach:

The systems’ approach is based on Von Bartalanffy’s general systems theory. He defined system as a “set of objects together with the relationships among them and their attributes”. This approach recognizes the inter-relations and inter-connections among the components of a marketing system in which products, services, money, and equipment and information flow from marketers to consumers that largely determine the survival and growth capacities of a firm.

7. Modern Concept:

The new managerial awareness and desire reflected in the consumer orientation for all all-out commitment to the market consideration and to connect all marketing operations to the consumer needs has given birth to a new operational concept. Felton views the marketing concept as “a corporate state of mind that insists on the integration and coordination of all marketing functions that, in turn, are welded with all other corporate functions, for the basic objective of producing maximum long-range corporate profits.

According to Kotler, the marketing concept is a customer orientation backed by integrated marketing aimed at generating customer satisfaction as the key to satisfying organizational goals. According to McNamara,” marketing concept is … a philosophy of business management, based upon a company- wide acceptance of the need for customer orientation, profit orientation, and recognition of the important role of marketing in communicating the needs of the market to all major corporate departments”.

Lazo and Cobin describe marketing concept as ” the recognition on the part of management that all business decisions of a firm must be made in the light of customer needs and wants; hence, that all marketing activities must be under one supervision and that all activities of a firm must be coordinated at the top, in the light of market requirements”. King has given one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the marketing concept. He defined it as, “a managerial philosophy concerned with the mobilization, utilization and control of total corporate effort for the purpose of helping consumers solve selected problems in ways compatible with planned enhancement of the profit position of the firm”.

These definitions suggest that marketing is only concerned with the movement of goods and services from the plant to the consumer. This is thus a production-oriented definition more appropriate for a sellers’ market and dangers in case of buyers’ market. In fact, marketing is related with the sophisticated strategy of attempting to offer what the consumer may want and at a profit.

ADVERTISEMENTS: (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Essay  # 4. Objectives of Marketing:

According to Peter F. Drucker, “Marketing means such a perfect understanding of the customer that the product fits him totally and sells itself. Marketing would result in a customer who is ready to buy all that, what should be needed then is to make the product available.”

Organization’s marketing strategies are designed in tune with various marketing objectives.

The objectives of marketing aim at:

1. Creating demand for the products by identifying the needs and wants of customers. The consumers get familiar with the usage of products through different promotional programs, such as advertising and personal selling. This helps in creating demand for the products by the customers.

2. Increasing the market share of the organization. The marketing efforts, such as promotion, create the product awareness in the market. The product awareness helps in capturing the reasonable share in the market by organization.

3. Building the goodwill of the organization in the market. Every organization tries to earn reputation in the market by providing quality goods to the customers. It builds its goodwill by popularizing products supported by advertising, reasonable prices, and high quality.

4. Increasing profits and achieving long-term goals through customer satisfaction. All the marketing activities revolve around the customer. These activities fulfill the organization’s long-term goal of profitability, growth, and stability by satisfying the customer’s demands. All the departments, such as production, finance, human resource, and marketing, coordinate with each other to fulfill the customer’s expectations keeping the maximization of profit as the focus.

Essay # 5. Marketing Process:

Marketing Process —– The marketing process is one that invol­ves the following chain of business activities:

1. Identification and study of the desires, needs, and requirements of the^ consumers;

2. Testing the validity of the consumers’ reaction in respect of product features, price, distribution outlets, new product concepts, and new product introduction;

3. Matching the consumers’ needs with the firm’s offerings and capa­bilities;

4. Creating effective marketing communications and programmes with emphasis on lower price, mass distribution channels and mass advertising to reach numerous market segments so that the consumers know about the product’s availability; and

5. Establishment of resource allocation procedures among the various marketing components like sales promotion, advertisement, distribution, product design, etc. 

Outline of functions in the Marketing Process : In order to place the goods in the hands of the consumers, an integrated group of activities is involved in marketing. Marketing functions cover all those activi­ties which are required for the journey of goods from the producer to the consumer. Goods require some preparations, undergo many operations and pass several hands before they reach the final consumer.

In consideration of the above factors, Clark has divided the modem marketing process into three broad categories as under:

(i) Concentration

(ii) Dispersion

(iii) Equalisation.

These are explained below.

1. Concentration – In a marketing process, concentration is that business activity in which the goods flow from many manufacturers/producers toward a central point or market. If we think of international trade, we find that the customers of a particular corporation or firm world reputation are scattered in different countries and even located thousands of miles, away, and the products are transhipped to points accessible to than. Similar scene is found even in the case of national trade. With the development of trade and commerce, the efforts in the direction of concentration acti­vity have to place more stress on the functions like collection, storage, transportation and inventory of goods in the central markets, and processing of customer’s orders. In addition, the aspects of financing and risk-bearing are also to be taken into consideration.

In India, the concentration activity is undertaken by the Governments at the Central and State levels. Food example, The Food Corporation of India undertakes this activity in case of grains, rice, sugar, etc.

2. Dispersion – In a marketing process, dispersion is that busi­ness activity in which the goods flow from the central locations to the final consumers. The wholesalers and retailers play a great role in this activity. This activity involves many other supporting activities like classification, gradation, storage and transportation of goods. The func­tional aspects of finance and risk-bearing need important considerations.

In India, the agencies like The State Trading Corporation of India, The Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation of India, and The Food Corpora­tion of India undertake this dispersion or distribution activity in respect of certain specified goods. Sane large scale manufacturing companies have, of late, undertaken this activity as a part of their marketing activities.

3. Equalisation – In a marketing process, equalisation refers to the adjustment of supply to demand on the basis of tint, quality, and quantity. This process helps to maintain the state of equilibrium between the forces of demand and supply. The primary responsibility of a business unit towards the consumers and customers is to make available the right products of right qualities at the right tine, in right quantity, at the right place and at the right price. The equalisation activity can serve these objectives.

Essay # 6. Integrated Marketing Communication Process:

Marketers operate is a very dynamic environment characterised by changing customer needs and wants, severe competition, changing process technology, advancements in information technology, government regulations, etc. That is why, they are adopting Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC).

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) involves integration of company’s various communication channels to deliver a clear, consistent and compelling message about the company and its products and brands. Most of the companies communicate with target customers by using promotion tools like advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing. Through each of these tools, some message is transmitted to the target customers. IMC calls for careful blending of these promotional tools to ensure effective communication.

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) requires developing a total marketing communication strategy that recognises that all of a firm’s marketing activities (not just promotion) communicate with its customers. Everything a marketer does sends a message to the target market.

The EMC approach is an improvement over the traditional approach of treating various promotional activities as totally separate. It helps to develop the most suitable and effective method to contact customers and other stakeholders.

Often different tools play different roles in attracting, informing and persuading target customers. These tools are carefully coordinated under IMC so that they provide the same clear and consistent information about the company and its products/brands.

IMC leads to a total marketing communication strategy aimed at building strong customer relationships by showing how the company and its products can help customers solve their problems. It ties together all of the company’s messages and images.

The company’s television and print advertisements have the same message, look, and feel as its e-mail and personal selling communications. And its public relations materials project the same image as its Website or social network presence.

Communication Process:

Definition of Communication:

The term ‘communication’ is derived from the Latin word ‘communis’ which means common. That means if a person communicates with another, he establishes a common group of understanding. According to Newman, Summer and Warren, “Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons”.

Communication does not mean merely sending or receiving message. It involves understanding also. It is, in fact, a bridge of meaning and understanding between two or more people. Thus, communication is a two- way process.

The salient features of communication are as follows:

(i) Communication involves at least two persons—one who sends the message and the second who receives the message.

(ii) Communication is a two-way traffic. The process of communication is not completed until the message has been understood by the receiver. Understanding is an essential part of communication, but it does not imply agreement.

(iii) The basic purpose of communication is to create an understanding in the mind of the receiver of information.

(iv) Communication may take several forms, e.g., order, instruction, report, suggestion grievance, observation, etc. The message may be conveyed through words spoken or written, or gestures.

Elements of Communication:

Communication is a process involving exchange of facts, viewpoints and ideas between persons placed in different positions in the organisation to achieve mutual understanding as shown in Fig. 11.5. The communication process starts when the sender or communicator has a message communicate to some other person known as receiver. It will be completed when the receiver gets the information and sends feedback to the communicator.  

The essential elements of communication are described below:

(i) Sender or Communicator:

The person who conveys the message is known as communicator or sender. By initiating the message, the communicator attempts to achieve understanding and change in the behaviour of the receiver. In case of marketing it is the marketer (sender) who starts the communication process.

(ii) Message:

It is the subject-matter of any communication. It may involve any fact, opinion or information. It must exist in the mind of the communicator if communication process is to be initiated. In marketing, the marketer’s message relates to product, price and place.

(iii) Encoding:

The sender of information organises his idea into a series of symbols (words, signs, etc.) which, he feels, will communicate to the intended receiver or receivers. This is called encoding of message. Communication may take place through physical gestures also.

(iv) Media or Communication Channel:

The communicator has to choose the channel for sending the information. Communication channels are the media through which the message passes. It may be either formal or informal. In marketing, media may be salespersons, advertisement and publicity.

(v) Receiver:

The person who receives the message is called receiver. The communication process is incomplete without the existence of receiver of the message. It is the receiver who receives and tries to understand the message. The receiver in case of marketing is the prospective or present customer.

(vi) Decoding:

After the appropriate channel or channels are selected, the message enters the decoding stage of the communication process. Decoding is done by the receiver. Once the message is received and examined, the stimulus is sent to the brain for interpreting, in order to assign some type of meaning to it. It is this processing stage that constitutes decoding. The receiver begins to interpret the symbols sent by the sender, translating the message to his own set of experiences in order to make the symbols meaningful.

(vii) Response:

Response refers to the set of reactions that the receiver has after being exposed to the message. In case of advertising, a response may mean developing a favourable attitude towards the product as a result of an advertising campaign. However, in many cases, measuring such responses is not easy.

(viii) Feedback:

Communication is completed when the communicator receives feedback information from the receiver. The feedback may reveal that the receiver has understood the message. It may also contain information about the action taken by the receiver on the basis of message sent by the communicator. Thus, feedback is the backbone of effective communication.

(ix) Noise:

Noise is a very common thing we observe in our day-to-day interaction with others. At times it affects adversely the effectiveness of communication. For example, if a person is talking over the phone to another and there is a noise around him, he will feel great difficulty in listening to the person at the other end of the phone. Even the noise can affect the voice of the sender of the message.

Hurdles or Difficulties in Marketing Communication:

There are four factors which might create hurdles or problems in communication between the marketer and the target customer.

These hurdles include noise, selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention as discussed below:

Noise is a sort of interfering sound in the communication process anywhere along the way from the sender to the receiver and vice versa. It can be sound of running bus, two persons talking close at hand or someone shouting around. Noise of any kind has the potential of creating disruption or barrier to effective communication. The sources of noise can be both internal and external. Noise within the office can be controlled, but it is very difficult to control the external noise.

Noise is one of the biggest obstacles in marketing communication. For example, a driver’s need to provide safety to the traffic sidetracks the role of billboards, banners, etc. during disturbed weather conditions —wind, dust storm, rain, etc. Similarly, too much advertisement exposure during the day of purchase of tyre for a car, would disturb the planned purchasing.

These constitute noise in the communication process. The level of noise may not allow a customer to receive the message as intended. The effectiveness of communication depends upon the level of congruity and compatibility between different elements of the communication.

(ii) Selective Attention:

A person may be exposed to hundreds or thousands of ads or brand communications in a day. Because a person cannot possibly attend to all of these, most stimuli will be screened out. This process is called selective attention. Because of this, the marketers have to work hard to attract consumer’s notice. Generally, people are more likely to notice stimuli that relate to a current need.

Thus, a person who is motivated to buy a car is most likely to notice car ads. The process of selective attention explains why advertisers make extra efforts to grab the audience’s attention through fear, music, or bold headlines.

(iii) Selective Distortion:

Selective distortion is the tendency to interpret information in a way that fit one’s perception. Consumers often distort information to be consistent with prior brand and product beliefs. Thus, the target audience will hear what fits into their belief systems.

As a result, receivers often add things to the message that are not there and do not notice other things that are there. The advertiser’s task is to strive for simplicity, clarity, interest and repetition to get the main points across.

(iv) Selective Retention:

People retain in their long-term memory only a small fraction of the messages that reach them. If the receiver’s initial attitude towards the brand is positive and he rehearses support arguments (that is, tells himself things such as the product is in fashion or that it is reasonably priced or that it delivers good value, etc.), the message is likely to be accepted and have high recall.

If the initial attitude towards the brand is negative and the person rehearses counter arguments (that is, tells himself that the product is highly overpriced or that the competing products offer more value to customers or that the brand is not doing well in the market, etc.) the message is likely to be rejected but to stay in long-term memory.

Thus, the advertiser’s task is two-fold here. He not only has to create an initial favourable attitude towards the brands but also through his ads communicate to the audience strong points about the brands so that the customers can rehearse the same and the brand is positively placed in the long-term memory of the customers.

Essay # 7. Role of Marketing in Economic Development :

In today’s era of globalization role of marketing is increasing to fulfill different needs and requirements of people. Due to increase in scale of production and expansions of markets, producers need support of marketing tools to distribute their goods and services to the real customer.

High competition in market and product diversification has increased the marketing activities like advertising, storage, sales promotion, salesmanship etc. Now high profits can be attained by high sales volume and good quality of products and services. Marketing has acquired an important place for the economic development of the whole country. It has also become a necessity for attaining the objective of social welfare and high quality of life.

The importance of marketing can be explained as under:

(a) Importance of Marketing to a Firm:

Marketing is considered to be the prime activity among all the business activities. Success of any business depends on success of marketing. Peter F. Drucker has rightly said that, “Marketing is the business.” Objective and goals of any organization can be achieved through efficient and effective marketing polices. The success of an enterprise depends to a large extent upon the success of its marketing activities.

The importance of marketing to the firm can be explained as under:

1. Marketing in Business Planning and Decision Making:

Marketing research is helpful in searching opportunities and potential in market. It is necessary for an organization to decide what can be sold before deciding that what can be produced. Unless and until these key decisions are taken, it is not practical to take the decisions regarding production, quality of product, type of product and quantity of production etc.

Marketing is very helpful in taking all such decisions therefore its plays an important role in business planning. Marketing provides valuable information regarding production policies, pricing policies, advertisement and sales promotion policies of competitors, so that a suitable policy may be formulated by the top management.

2. Increase in the Profits:

The main objective of every firm is to increase the profitability by successful operations of its activities. Maximization of profits can be possible only through the successful operations of its activities. Marketing department need the help of other departments as well for discharging its duties successfully, marketing department coordinate with other departments like finance, production, to fulfill the needs of customers and regular supply according to market demand.

3. Flow of Marketing Communication:

Integrated marketing communication makes it possible to flow marketing information to intermediaries, publics and customers. Marketing acts as a medium of communication between the society and the firm. Various information regarding trends, needs, attitudes, fashions, taste preferences etc., are collected by marketing department.

(b) Importance of Marketing to the Society:

1. To Uplift Standard of Living:

Ultimate objective of marketing is to produce goods and services for the society according to their needs and tastes at reasonable prices. Marketing discovers the needs and wants of the society, produces the goods and services according to their needs, creates demand for these goods and services encourages consumers to consume them and thus improves the standard of living of the society. By advertising utility and importance of products and services are communicated to the people.

2. To Decreases the Total Marketing Cost:

Next important responsibility of marketing is to control the cost of marketing. Distribution cost and production cost can be decreased by creation of high demand in market. Decrease in cost of production will have two impacts, firstly the high profitability of organization and secondly to increase in the market share of the firm.

3. Increase in the Employment Opportunities:

Marketing provides direct and indirect employment in society. Employment opportunities are directly related with the development of marketing. Successful operation of marketing activities requires the services of different enterprises and organizations such logistics, warehousing, transportation, retailing finance, etc.

4. In controlling Business Fluctuations:

Business fluctuations like recession and depression causes unemployment, and deflation. Marketing helps in protecting society against all these problems. Marketing helps in innovation and discovery of new markets for the goods, modifications and alterations in the quality of the product and development of alternative uses of the product. It reduces the cost of production and protects the business enterprise against the problem of recession.

5. Increase Per Capita Income:

Marketing operations create, maintain and increase the demand for goods and service. Marketing activities flow money from one part of economic system to other. By generation of new employment opportunities it helps to increases income of people.

(c) Importance of Marketing in Economic Development:

Marketing plays an important role in the development of a country. Most of developed countries like USA, Japan, and Germany are having strong marketing system, they are moving towards global marketing. Industrial growth and development need support of marketing, large scale of production requires new markets. In these countries, the production exceeds the demand it need marketing system to be much more effective so that the produced goods and services can be sold.

Marketing has a vital role to play in the development of an underdeveloped and developing economy. In developing economies the industrialization and urbanization is increasing at a faster rate and so the importance of marketing is also increasing as it is required for selling the produced goods and services. A rapid development of underdeveloped economy is possible only if the modern techniques of marketing are used in these countries marketing activities are increasing at a fast rate in developing countries.

Essay # 8. Importance of Marketing :

Role of Marketing in a Firm :

Efficient marketing management is a pre-requisite for the successful operation of any business enterprise. A business organisation is differentiated from other organisations by the fact that it produces and sells products.

The importance of marketing in modern business is discussed below:

Marketing is the beating heart of the business organisation. The chief executive of a business cannot plan, the production manager cannot produce, the purchase manager cannot purchase, and the financial controller cannot budget until the basic marketing decisions have been taken. Many departments in a business enterprise are essential for its growth, but marketing is still the sole revenue producing activity. Marketing function is rightly considered the most important function of management.

Marketing gives top priority to the needs of customers. Quality of goods, storage, display, advertisement, packaging, etc. are all directed towards the satisfaction of customer.

Marketing helps in the creation of place, time and possession utilities. Place utility is created by transporting the goods from the place of production to consumption centres. Time utility is created by storing the goods in warehouses until they are demanded by customers. Possession or ownership utility is created through sale of goods. The significance of marketing lies in the creation of these utilities to satisfy the needs of the customers and thereby earn profit. It a firm is able to satisfy its customers, it will have better chances of survival and growth even in the fast changing environment.

Marketing generates revenue for the business firm. Marketing is an important activity these days, particularly in the competitive economies. Marketing generates revenue for the business enterprises. No firm can survive in the long-run unless it is able to market its products. In fact, marketing has become the nerve-centre of all human activities.

Role of Marketing in the Economy :

Marketing plays a significant role in the growth and development of an economy. It acts as a catalyst in the economic development of a country by ensuring better utilisation of the scarce resources of the nation. Since a business firm generates revenues and earns profits by its marketing efforts, it will engage in better utilisation of resources of the nation to earn higher profits.

Marketing determines the needs of the customers and sets out the pattern of production of goods and services necessary to satisfy their needs. Marketing also helps to explore the export markets.

Marketing helps in improving the standards of living of people. It does so by offering a wide variety of goods and services with freedom of choice. Marketing treats the customer as the king around whom all business activities revolve. Besides product development, pricing, promotion, and physical distribution of products are carried out to satisfy the customer.

Marketing generates employment for people. A large number of people are employed by modern business houses to carry out the functions of marketing. Marketing also gives an impetus to further employment facilities. In order to ensure that the finished product reaches the customer, it passes through wholesalers and retailers and in order to perform numerous jobs, many people are employed.

On the whole, marketing leads to economic development of a nation. It increases the national income by bringing about rise in consumption, production and investment. It mobilises unknown and untapped resources and also facilitates full utilisation of production capacity and other assets. It helps in the integration of industry, agriculture and other sectors of the economy. It also contributes to the development of entrepreneurial and managerial talent in the country.

Essay # 9. Challenges and Opportunities of Marketing:

A large number of changes have taken place in the recent years which have influenced the field of marketing as discussed below:

1. Globalisation :

The term ‘globalisation’ means the process of integration of the world economy into one huge market through the removal of all trade barriers or restrictions among countries. In India, restrictions on imports and exports and inflow and outflow of capital and technology have been lifted by the Central Government so that Indian business may become globally competitive.

The broad features of globalisation are as follows:

(i) Free flow of goods and services across national frontiers through removal or reduction of trade barriers.

(ii) Free flow of capital across nations.

(iii) Free flow of technology across nations.

(iv) Free movement of human resources across nations.

(v) Global mechanism for the settlement of economic disputes.

The aim of globalisation is to look upon the world as a ‘global village’ which would allow free flow of goods, capital, technology and labour between different countries. Because of globalisation, there has been a tremendous impact on marketing strategies of business firms, particularly engaged in international marketing. They have to design product, price, promotion, place or distribution strategies to meet the challenges of global marketing.

2. Information Technology (IT) :

Information technology has enabled real-time access and sharing of digital information through digital networks, information database, and computer graphics. It has brought about many changes in the business landscape.

Electronic technology has facilitated purchase and sale of goods and services electronically. E-Commerce can be used not only to market product, but also to build better customer relationships. Thus, marketers are facing new challenges as regards booking of e-orders, e-deliveries of intangible products, receiving e-payments and Customer Relation Management (CRM).

3. Increased Leisure Time :

As a result of shorter working week, vacations, and labour-saving devices available for domestic use, most wage-earners now enjoy more leisure time. So there has grown a market for articles used for recreational purposes to enjoy the leisure time. In the developing countries also, cinema shows, holiday trips, sports and games have come into importance.

4. Changing Role of Women :

Throughout the world more and more women are taking up jobs and have gained economic independence to a large extent. They accept even challenging jobs. They also exert greater influence on buying decisions of their families. It may happen that husband buys a commodity according to the decision of the wife. This has necessitated special study of the buying motives of the working women.

5. Demand for Services :

Over the years, consumers’ demand for services is on the rise as in case of tour and travel, educational, medical, repair and maintenance services, etc. Due to growing complexity, business firms also need expert services like accounting, taxation, advertising, customer care, etc.

6. Increased Competition :

Business has become more competitive these days and this has brought about many changes in the field of marketing, e.g., product differentiation, competitive pricing, competitive advertising, customer support services, etc.

7. Social Emphasis :

Marketing is now concerned with the long-term health and happiness of consumers and well-being of society. Marketers in are getting involved in improving the quality of life of consumers and preventing or minimising the evil effects of environmental pollution on the society by practising green marketing.

Emerging Concepts in Marketing :

1. Social Marketing:

It refers to the design, implementation, and control of programs seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea, cause, or practice among a target group. For instance, a recent publicity campaign for prohibition of smoking in Delhi explained the place where one can and can’t smoke in Delhi.

2. Relationship Marketing:

It is the process of creating, maintaining, and enhancing strong value-laden relationships with customers and other stakeholders. For example, British Airways offers special lounges with showers at many airports for frequent flyers. Thus, providing special benefits to valuable the customers to strengthen bonds will go a long way in building relationships.

To achieve relationship marketing, a marketer has to keep in touch with the regular customers, identify most loyal customers to provide additional services to them, design special recognition and reward schemes, and use them for building long-term relationships.

3. Direct Marketing:

It means marketing through various advertising media that interact directly with consumers, generally calling for the consumer to make a direct response. Direct marketing includes Catalogue Selling, Mail Order, Tele computing, Electronic Marketing, Selling, and TV Shopping.

4. Service Marketing:

It is applying the concepts, tools, and techniques, of marketing to services. Service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Services may be financial, insurance, transportation, banking, savings, retailing, educational or utilities.

5. Non-Business Marketing:

Marketing is applied not only to business firms but also to non-business organisations. Voluntary institutions are adopting principles and practices of marketing to promote their ideologies, schemes and programs among the target groups.

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• Essay on Marketing: Top 5 Essays | Marketing Management
• Essay on Sales Promotion: Top 4 Essays | Functions | Marketing Management
• Marketing Features: 4 Major Features of Marketing – Explained!
• Difference between Marketing and Selling

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Crafting a Winning Strategy: Unveiling the Dynamics of the Marketing Mix

This essay about the dynamics of the marketing mix, exploring how its four key elements—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion—shape consumer perceptions and drive market dynamics. It highlights the significance of each component in crafting successful business strategies, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer behavior, optimizing distribution channels, and leveraging promotional tactics. Through examples spanning various industries, the essay illustrates how businesses can navigate the complexities of modern commerce by effectively integrating the elements of the marketing mix to resonate with their target audience and drive sustainable growth.

How it works

In the realm of commerce and consumerism, the fusion of strategy and creativity gives rise to the intricate tapestry known as the marketing mix. This amalgamation of four essential elements—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion—forms the backbone of any successful business endeavor. By delving into the nuances of these components, we can uncover the intricate dance that shapes consumer perceptions and drives market dynamics.

At the core of the marketing mix lies the concept of Product, a tangible manifestation of a company’s vision and values.

Whether it’s a cutting-edge gadget, a gourmet delicacy, or a bespoke service, a product represents more than just a transactional exchange—it embodies an experience, a promise, a story waiting to be told. Consider the world of artisanal craftsmanship, where centuries-old techniques meet modern sensibilities to create products that transcend mere utility to become objects of desire and fascination. Behind every successful product lies a carefully curated blend of innovation, design, and purpose that resonates with consumers on an emotional level.

Price, the second element of the marketing mix, serves as a powerful signal that shapes consumer perceptions and influences purchasing decisions. Beyond its numerical value, price embodies notions of value, quality, and prestige, weaving a narrative that speaks to the aspirations and desires of the target audience. Take, for instance, the realm of luxury fashion, where iconic brands command premium prices that reflect not only the cost of materials and craftsmanship but also the intangible allure of exclusivity and status. Pricing strategies vary across industries and market segments, from dynamic pricing models in the realm of e-commerce to value-based pricing strategies in the luxury sector. Ultimately, finding the right price point requires a delicate balance between profitability and perceived value, a symphony of economics and psychology that resonates with consumers.

Place, the third pillar of the marketing mix, dictates the channels through which products reach consumers and transactions take place. In an age defined by digital connectivity and global commerce, the concept of Place has evolved beyond physical storefronts to encompass virtual marketplaces and digital platforms. Consider the rise of direct-to-consumer brands, which eschew traditional retail channels in favor of direct relationships with customers online. The key to effective distribution lies in understanding the nuances of consumer behavior, optimizing logistics, and leveraging technology to deliver seamless experiences. Whether it’s a bustling urban marketplace or a virtual storefront in the metaverse, the right Place ensures that products are accessible to consumers when and where they need them.

Promotion, the final element of the marketing mix, encompasses the myriad strategies and tactics used to engage, inform, and persuade consumers. From traditional advertising and public relations to influencer partnerships and experiential marketing campaigns, promotion is about creating memorable moments and forging authentic connections with the target audience. Consider the world of entertainment, where blockbuster movies leverage multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns to generate excitement and anticipation among audiences worldwide. In today’s digital landscape, viral content and immersive experiences have become powerful tools for engaging consumers and driving brand affinity. The key to effective promotion lies in crafting compelling narratives, harnessing the power of storytelling, and embracing the evolving media landscape to reach audiences wherever they may be.

In conclusion, the marketing mix serves as a compass for navigating the complex terrain of consumer culture and market dynamics. By understanding the interplay between Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, businesses can craft strategies that resonate with consumers, differentiate their offerings, and drive sustainable growth. However, success requires more than just a mastery of the fundamentals; it demands creativity, adaptability, and a keen understanding of the ever-changing desires and aspirations of the target audience. As we chart a course through the turbulent seas of commerce and innovation, let us harness the power of the marketing mix to craft experiences that captivate hearts, minds, and imaginations alike.

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This Unique Marketing Strategy Is Winning in 2024 — Here's Why (and How You Can Implement It Successfully) Use this strategy to connect with customers, build trust and differentiate your business.

By Danielle Sabrina Edited by Chelsea Brown May 30, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Founder-led marketing leverages personal branding to create a strong brand identity and build direct relationships with customers. This strategy emphasizes authenticity and personal engagement.
• Founders using social media platforms to connect directly with their audience can control the narrative and ensure a consistent, authentic brand story, which helps influence customers' purchasing decisions more effectively.
• Building a successful founder-led marketing strategy involves reflecting on what sets the brand apart, understanding the audience's preferences and pain points, and consistently engaging with them on social media.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A new trend in the B2B SaaS sector has started to challenge traditional corporate marketing strategies. The term "founder-led marketing" leverages personal branding to establish a strong brand identity and build direct relationships with customers. However, with the traction this strategy is getting, I can't help but wonder whether this customer-centric approach is entirely new or if it has been present the whole time, and executives are just not paying attention and maximizing its benefits. While tools, platforms and technology have evolved dramatically, I believe that a successful marketing strategy has always revolved around a genuine connection and trust with consumers.

Looking ahead into 2024, this shift reflects a broader transformation within marketing towards valuing authenticity and personal engagement . In a digital-first world, brands' ability to forge real connections and humanize their approach has become essential for differentiation. This strategic pivot towards authenticity, personal stories and the human element signifies a deeper understanding of evolving consumer engagement.

I recently saw a post where Mark Zuckerberg casually roasts Apple 's latest product in a living room video filmed on his Meta Quest 3. It seemed unscripted, but its relatable approach resonated with a much larger audience and was labeled as "far more than a meticulously crafted interview" compared to those shot with fully hi-tech equipment in a more elaborately set-up interview room.

Similarly, figures like Sam Altman of OpenAI and Brian Chesky of Airbnb have started using their personal platforms to connect with their communities. The same is true for consumer brands such as George Heaton (Represent), Nick Bare (Bare Performance Nutrition) and MrBeast (Feastables). These founders have become the faces of their companies , effectively blurring the lines between a founder and a brand ambassador.

Related: How to Create Authentic Relationships and Build Customer Trust

Why is founder-led marketing winning in 2024?

There are two key elements that are driving the rise of founder-led marketing: direct connection and narrative control.

According to Edelman's B2B report, economic wobbles are causing sales cycles to stretch, with a staggering 90% of global buyers reporting longer purchase processes in the past year. This shift highlights their preference for a self-directed digital discovery journey, making it harder for brands to be seen and influence their purchasing decisions; hence the positive traction personal branding is getting.

Since founders have a unique take and perspective on their vision and mission, it's just fitting that they take charge of their messaging and how they choose to send it across their following, which in turn guarantees a consistent brand story unfiltered by third-party media outlets, thereby influencing customers' purchasing decisions more effectively. This strategy emphasizes authenticity as they become the embodiment of their brand's values and aspirations.

When founders use social media to connect directly with their following, they project these leadership qualities in a way that piques the emotions and interests of their audience. Humans are wired to respond to strong, dependable figures, and social media provides the perfect platform for founders to establish themselves as such.

Related: Why Personal Branding Is Crucial for CEOs in Today's World

Building your founder-led marketing strategy

Take time and reflect on what sets you and your brand apart. Find your core and think about why you want to thrive in your industry, how you can change people's lives for the better and why exactly you're doing what you're doing — this will fuel your entire strategy.

Next, identify and understand your audience . This goes beyond demographics; you have to know their preferences and pain points. A great deal of your founder-led content should be about getting people to notice your ideal customer profile (ICP) and becoming the best reference for it within your niche. Think of the customer journey as a funnel with different stages leading from initial awareness to conversion. For example, at the top of the funnel, focus on informative content that attracts potential customers. As they move down the funnel, provide more in-depth content that educates and establishes you as a thought leader . Eventually, offer targeted content that drives conversions, such as case studies or free trials.

Now comes the launch. Creating a 90-day campaign on various social media platforms, especially on LinkedIn , has been proven to cater well to professional networking; you can post as often as five times a week. Experiment with different formats, such as text posts, videos, series of pictures (carousel) or in-depth articles. The goal is to learn where your audience relates the most. You have to consistently post and monitor results through your entire campaign period for a data-driven and refined next step.

Social media thrives on interaction, so it requires your full commitment if you want to be seen and build a loyal following . You may respond to all comments on your posts, both positive and negative, but respond with a genuine message not generated by AI.

Additionally, a daily 20-minute engagement with relevant profiles on LinkedIn would greatly help — react or leave a comment to your connections' posts. Focus on building genuine connections with potential customers, not just spamming them with promotional messages.

Related: 8 Effective Ways to Connect With Your Customer

Ready to take action?

Founder-led marketing is not merely a trend but has become a strategic move for brands striving to stand out. The unique blend of authenticity, direct engagement and narrative control accessible to audiences via social media platforms provides an unmatched opportunity for genuine connection. Such connections establish trust and loyalty, invaluable in a time of information saturation and growing skepticism towards traditional advertising.

For entrepreneurs and business leaders, the directive is to leverage their personal brand to enhance their company's message and vision. Begin with a deep dive into what sets your brand apart, gain a profound understanding of your audience, and develop a strategy that aligns with your brand's ethos and meets your customers' needs.

In a digitally advanced era, connection and commitment are your success drivers. Start now by carefully planning your marketing campaigns and crafting a brand narrative that educates, motivates and leads to conversions.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

CEO of Society22 PR

Danielle Sabrina is a celebrity publicist and the founder of Society22 PR , an award-winning boutique PR firm. Before founding her agency she started her career on Wall Street at just 19 years old becoming one of the youngest traders in the industry. Known for her media and brand strategy, her results-oriented reputation through the years has gained the trust of many high-profile CEOs, professional athletes, and celebrities making her one of the most sought-after brand and media strategists. Additionally, she was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year, CIO's Top 20 Female Entrepreneur to follow and Entrepreneur Magazine’s expert contributor.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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Dr. Martens Slashes Costs as It Wraps Up Tumultuous Fiscal 2024

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Dr. Martens is doubling down on its efforts to turn around its U.S. business in fiscal 2025 with a new marketing-centric plan.

On the company’s fiscal 2024 earnings call on Thursday, outgoing chief executive officer Kenny Wilson told analysts that the American market remains the company’s “top priority” across the business. As such, the boot maker is implementing a detailed action plan to return this business to growth, targeting a return to positive direct-to-consumer growth in the second half of fiscal 2025.

In line with the new plan, Dr. Martens is increasing marketing investment as a percentage of revenue in the U.S. in the year ahead, while ensuring that it maximizes the return and efficiency of this spend.

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“The major area of focus in the next 12 months will be with those people who know our brand in the United States, but they haven’t purchased yet,” Wilson said. “If you look at net consideration of our brand, it’s up 5 percent amongst those who have purchased before. So that says we’re retaining consumers. However, consideration amongst non-buyers is down 8 percent, and therefore, we need to change that approach.”

The new plan has three main pillars. The first features an “always on” marketing approach to iconic Dr. Martens styles, a re-energization of boots in autumn/winter 2024 and four key seasonal boot stories to drive newness. Marketing spend will be increased on mid to lower funnel activity, the company said.

“All of our marketing in the United States will support boots with soft leathers in July, with the rigger boot in August, with square toe in September and then obviously winterized in November,” Wilson said. “Throughout the second half of this year, USA consumers will hear a clear boots message from the Dr. Martens brand.”

The second pillar involves an updated digital strategy in the region. This includes improving the quality of the brand’s product pages and optimizing its checkout process in order to maximize e-commerce conversion. The company also plans to implement order in store, which it already has launched in its EMEA business.

The third and final pillar addresses the struggling wholesale market in the U.S. The focus is to drive sell-through with key retail partners so that the company can stimulate reorders for fiscal 2026.

Given the nature of wholesale order books, the company expects there to be a lag between when its U.S. direct-to-consumer performance improves and when its wholesale business will return to growth.

The expectation is that the company won’t see an in-market restock driving a recovery in U.S. wholesale revenues until autumn/winter 2025 at the earliest, which equates to the second half of fiscal 2026. Therefore, the company anticipates its U.S. wholesale revenue to decline double-digit percentage in fiscal 2025.

This comes as the UK-based footwear company reported that total revenues declined 12.3 percent in fiscal 2024 to 877.1 million pounds, down from 1.0 billion pounds in fiscal 2023. Net debt for the year increased to 357.5 million pounds, up from 288.3 million pounds last year, due to returns to shareholders, lower profits and increased lease liabilities.

Looking ahead, Dr. Martens said it expects group revenue to decline around 20 percent in fiscal 2025, driven by wholesale revenues down around a third.

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