What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One

A marketing plan is a comprehensive and strategic document that outlines the goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics a business will use to promote products or services. It serves as a roadmap for marketing efforts and helps ensure that the company’s marketing activities are aligned with business objectives.

Here, we’ll look at what’s in a marketing plan, how to put it together, and even pitch it to your team.

What’s Included in a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan includes everything you need to know about the direction of marketing efforts. A solid plan starts with an executive summary that outlines the entire plan in a one-page format. The rest of the plan can be quite a hefty document, and this is the at-a-glance information the team initially needs to understand where you are going with the plan.

This overview of the entire marketing plan should highlight the main objectives, strategies, and expected outcomes. This section is typically written after the rest of the plan is completed and should be concise but impactful.

Here are the other sections that might appear in your marketing plan:

• Market Analysis: A detailed analysis of the target market and industry includes information about market size, growth trends, customer needs and preferences, and the overall competitive landscape. Understanding the market is crucial for making informed decisions in your strategy.
• Competitive Analysis: Identify and analyze your main competitors. Assess their strengths, weaknesses, market share, pricing, and marketing tactics. Understanding your competition helps you position products or services effectively and find areas with the greatest opportunity.
• SWOT Analysis: Identification of your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Marketing Objectives: Clearly define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives and tactics. These objectives should align with business goals and provide a clear direction for marketing efforts.
• Target Audience: Define your ideal customer or target market with a profile that includes demographic information, interests, behaviors, and pain points. This persona or set of personas helps you understand who you are marketing to and why.
• Strategies: Create high-level, broad plans of action that will be implemented to achieve marketing objectives, such as product positioning, pricing, distribution, and promotional strategies.
• Tactics: Outline specific actions and initiatives that will be carried out to implement the marketing strategies. This may include advertising campaigns, content marketing efforts, events, social media strategies, etc.
• Budget and Resource Allocation: An allocation of financial and human resources to support the execution of the marketing plan. Align resources and distribute them to maximize your return on investment. Don’t forget to clearly define roles and responsibilities within the marketing team or across different departments involved in the plan’s execution.
• Implementation Timeline: A detailed timeline indicating when each marketing tactic will be executed can help to manage and track progress and keep your plan moving forward after implementation.
• Performance Measurement and Metrics: Define key performance indicators that will help measure the success of your marketing efforts. Monitor and analyze the performance of each tactic and use the data to optimize your strategies.
• Contingency Plans: Anticipate potential challenges or risks that could affect your marketing plan. Develop contingency plans to address these issues and have alternative strategies ready if needed.
• Monitoring and Review: Establish a process for regular monitoring and review of the marketing plan’s progress. Schedule periodic evaluations to make adjustments as needed or to adjust to changes in business goals.

How Do You Write a Solid Marketing Plan?

Writing a good marketing plan requires careful research, analysis, and strategic thinking. It’s unlikely that you will sit down and craft the entire plan at one time. Break it into smaller chunks of information and data-gathering to ensure your plan is comprehensive.

Begin with market research to understand your target audience, industry trends, and competitors. Gather data on customer demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Identify any gaps or opportunities in the market that your product or service can address.

Then, you can think about objectives and goals for the plan. It’s important to define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound marketing objectives. Every objective in your plan should align with an overall business goal. This will be the foundation of your marketing plan and strategy.

Identify your business’s unique selling proposition (USP); this is what sets your product or service apart from the competition. A USP is a critical factor for brand positioning in the market and will help you connect with the right target audience.

Based on market research and understanding of the target audience, develop marketing strategies that align with your objectives. These strategies include product development, pricing, distribution channels, and promotion. Outline tactics that go with each individual strategy to provide an idea of how you will execute the plan.

Think about each of these tactics and strategies and if they require a budget for success. Your budget should take into account financial resources and the time of people on the team to deploy properly. You may end up with both a financial budget and a people’s budget to show exactly what needs the plan includes.

Formulate a complete timeline that goes into detail about every marketing activity in the plan. This includes both tactics and evaluation and reporting.

Remember, a marketing plan should be a living document that adapts to changes in the market and your business environment. Regularly revisit and update the plan to ensure it remains relevant and effective. You may write and rewrite it several times before implementation and then continues to edit it as the plan evolves in action.

What Website Information Should Be in a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan without details about digital marketing and website assets doesn’t exist anymore. Including website information in a marketing plan is essential, as a website often serves as the central hub for marketing activities and is a critical touchpoint for potential customers.

Most marketing plans include a dedicated section for the website, especially if there is a need for new or updated website assets.

Information you should include about your website in a marketing plan includes:

• Website Overview and Objectives: Provide a brief overview of your website, including its purpose, target audience, and the main goals you want to achieve through the website. Outline specific objectives related to your website’s performance. These objectives include increasing website traffic, improving conversion rates, reducing bounce rates, and enhancing user engagement. Website goals and objectives should align with the rest of your plan but not be the whole marketing effort.
• Website Audit: Conduct a thorough audit of your current website if you have one. Evaluate the design, user experience, navigation, functionality, and content. Identify any areas that need improvement or updates.
• Website Target Audience: Clearly define your website’s target audience. Understand their needs, preferences, and pain points to tailor the website content and user experience accordingly. Often the website’s target audience is a segment of the overall target audience.
• Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Describe your SEO strategy for the website. Include the keywords you’re targeting, optimization plans, and backlink strategies to improve search engine rankings and organic traffic.
• Content Strategy: Outline the content strategy for your website with the types of content you’ll create, topics you’ll cover, and how it aligns with your overall marketing plan.
• Conversion Funnel: Create a conversion funnel to move website visitors from awareness to action. Actionable tactics here might include specific landing pages or lead capture forms.
• Integration with Other Marketing Channels: Explain how the website will integrate with other marketing channels, such as social media, email marketing, and online advertising. Describe how these channels will drive traffic to the website.
• Performance Measurement: Outline the key performance indicators to measure success, such as traffic, conversion rates, time on page, and bounce rate.
• Website Updates and Maintenance: Create a plan for updates and maintenance to keep content fresh, fix issues, and adapt to business or technological changes.
• Budget: Include a budget for website-related activities, such as development, hosting, content creation, and SEO.

How Do You Pitch a Marketing Plan to Your Team?

Finally, once you have written a marketing plan, you need to pitch it to your team. Note that often, you’ll pitch the plan and then go back and revise it after this meeting with everyone. These revisions are a positive effort that can get everyone on the same page with your plan before it launches.

When you are ready to share your plan, remember to focus on three things:

• Value of the marketing plan
• Relevance of the marketing plan
• Benefits of the marketing plan

The same writing skills you used to create the plan can be used to pitch it as well.

Put together a clear and concise presentation that highlights key points of the plan. Don’t read the plan; stick to the most important aspects that align with the team’s objectives.

Organize your presentation in the same order as the document you are presenting, beginning with the executive summary and moving through the section chronologically. This will help everyone follow what you are saying in concert with the plan in hand.

Sell the benefit by explaining the market opportunity and demonstrate why the proposed marketing plan is relevant and necessary. Use data and insights from market research to support your claims and show that the plan is based on informed decisions. Emphasize the potential benefits, including increased brand visibility, customer engagement, sales growth, and overall business success. Use concrete examples and success stories from similar campaigns or strategies where you can.

Don’t forget to illustrate how the marketing plan aligns with your broader business goals. Demonstrate how the plan supports the company’s vision and mission and how it contributes to overall growth and success.

Be ready to answer questions and explain how the plan mitigates risks or aligns with your business capabilities and resources.

Don’t forget to show your enthusiasm and confidence in the marketing plan when presenting; it can be contagious. Good luck!