It can definitely be said that a marketing plan is a document like any other. Many believe that there is no need to write it. Its secret formula for success must exist in the mind of the entrepreneur or marketer. This observation may seem like nothing. However, it is an important point.
If a marketing plan is not formulated in writing, then it is impossible to familiarize other employees with it, which means to consider its components in their work, to constantly check it and follow the right direction, including how to promote and sell products of the enterprise. Therefore, first of all, a marketing plan is a structural document agreed upon by the management of the company as a guide to action in the appropriate direction.
Of course, the content of the marketing plan is very much correlated with the size of the business, the range of the company, the geography of activities, etc., but in general, is built on the same principle. The structure of the marketing plan includes the following sections:
- analytical note. It includes a description of the state of the company’s business, external conditions and trends existing in the market, as well as key conclusions, which will form the basis of the development of the action plan and applied tools.
- 2. Goal-setting. This section formulates the main parameters of the plan. It includes a description of the goal, implementation period, strategy of its achievement, tasks to be solved in the process, positioning and target audiences for the impact of marketing tools.
- Action plan. It means description of key approaches in decisions on all complex of a marketing mix in achievement of the purposes, and also the calendar plan of undertaken actions. Depending on the structure of the marketing department, it may additionally contain an indication of responsible employees for fulfillment of certain planned activities.
- Budget. A fairly detailed estimate of the amount of investment needed in the marketing of the company with a breakdown by cost items and time periods.
- Execution management. The final section defines key parameters of efficiency of plan implementation, principles of their control and corrective actions taken on the basis of data monitoring.
