How to create a marketing plan

A marketing plan is the core of any marketing strategy. If you're asking how to marketing your business, follow these steps to create a solid marketing plan.

Step 1: Get a marketing plan template

Hubspot is offering a marketing plan template that you can download for free.

Make sure to download the template and open it on a document editor before moving on to the next steps.

Step 2: Make it look nice

First, scroll down to the third page after opening the template to begin editing/creating your marketing plan.

Click on the “Your Image Here” section and replace it with your company’s logo or header.

Tip: You can use Shopify to create a free logo for your company.

Replace the Company Name section with your registered company’s name.

In the “Our objective field” you should write down the purpose of your marketing plan / what the marketing plan should help you achieve.

Next, you must confirm the authors/team that created your marketing plan.

Step 3: Skip over table of contents

You can add your company’s logo to the page and leave the table as content as-is. Revisit the page after you have completed the template to add the corresponding page numbers.

Step 4: Add business summary and marketing team details

You must provide a brief and to-the-point summary of your business in the “Business Summary” section.

We recommend mentioning the following in your summary:

• The goal and vision of your business
• The types of services you offer
• Future plans for the company.

In the “Our Marketing Leaders” section you’d have to confirm who is working on your business's marketing activities and what they are contributing to your marketing plan.

Step 5: Do a SWOT Analysis

Once you have confirmed your marketing leaders you would have to move to the next page and complete a SWOT analysis section.

Here’s how you can complete it.

Strengths

List everything your company is good at and what makes your company the best. Also, make sure to mention everything your customers like about your business.

Weaknesses

Mention everything that should improve at your company

A few examples are; Better timeframes, costs, and customer support.

Opportunities

Name everything that might put your business ahead in your industry. What makes your company different from your competitors?

Threats

Write down everything that can slow down your business’ growth or hinder your sales.

Take your time completing your SWOT analysis section - it will help you determine the best marketing strategies and how to market your business.

Step 6: What are your goals?

In this section, you have to confirm your company’s initiatives and the goal of each initiative.

In the “Description” field, you’d have to write down what you’ll be doing to reach your company’s goal. Make sure to mention what marketing channels you will use.

Next, you’d have to confirm what you’d hope to gain from your initiative in the “Goal of initiative” field.

Lastly, you have to state how you will determine if your initiative was successful in the “Metrics to measure success” field.

Make sure to write down all of your initiatives, the template offers up to 3 sections that you can use to confirm your initiatives but you can add more.

Step 7: What's your target market?

Your target market is the type of people or companies that will be interested in your services/products.

In this step, you’d have to confirm if your main target audience (who will buy your products or services) would be people or other companies.

You would have to confirm the industry type for each type of company that might want to buy your products.

You’d have to confirm the following for each industry:

• Type of goods/services they are offering
• Size
• Strengths
• Location

Next, you would have to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a short description of who might be interested in your services/products.

Some of the information you would have to provide when creating a persona includes

• Age
• Interests
• Goals
• Income range

Here’s a free template you can use to create a professional buyer persona.

Lastly, you have to list all your potential competitors in the “Competitive Analysis” section.

Write down all of their services/products that you’re competing with and ways you can compete with them.

You can download a free competitive analysis template from Hubspot.

Step 8: How will you find customers?

Use the marketing strategy section to confirm how you will advertise and sell your products or services:

Product

First, you have to list all of the products or services that you’re going to advertise. Write down what problems your products or services will solve and link them up with your buyer personas.

Price

Elaborate on your pricing. Is your price justified? Will you increase or decrease your pricing as your company grows?

Promotion

Follow up with your pricing in the promotions section. What marketing channels will you use to advertise your products?

People

List all of your marketing team members and what role each position plays in your marketing plan.

Process

Explain your products and services in detail. Are your services once-off or recurring? Also, confirm how your customers will receive the services or products.

Physical Evidence

In the final section, you have to list where customers will be able to find your products or services.

Step 9: How much money will you spend?

It’s extremely important to have a list of all of your expenses to ensure that your company’s income will cover your marketing expenses.

List each potential expense in the “Marketing expense” section and also write down the estimated costs.

We recommend going through Forbes’ tips for building a marketing budget.

Step 10: Choose a marketing strategy

Use this section to list all of the marketing channels/platforms you will use to advertise your business.

Confirm each platform, what it will be used for and how you will determine if it is successful. Make sure you've know the most successful marketing strategies in 2022

Step 11: Select your tools

You have to confirm all of the tools you will use to make sure your marketing strategies are successful.

We have listed a bunch of tools in our marketing articles.

You can go through them here:

• Read more: Getting started with social media marketing
• Read more: Create your first email marketing campaign
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