Having a marketing plan is an essential part of your business planning and should be continually referred to and updated.

All businesses do marketing in some form or other so use this template to make sure that you are heading in the right direction. Remember the old adage ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’. It’s not just about getting people to find you. It’s important that you attract people that are likely to be interested in what you provide and hopefully become a paying customer. This requires some planning if you aren’t going to waste a lot of time or money.

Completing a marketing plan will give you a road map to attract and retain customers, dramatically improving your chances of success. By researching and writing your marketing plan, you will be able to:

develop clear targets and objectives which are measurable and realistic

identify your target market and how your products and services meet their needs

understand where you fit in the market in comparison to your competitors and your current strengths and weaknesses

position your branding, products and services in a way that is different from the competition

create a promotional strategy to reach your target audience which can include online and offline methods

set a realistic budget against activities and measure the return on investment to improve and develop your promotional strategies on a continuing basis

Use this template to get started. Spend some time on it and keep coming back and updating it when you have more information. It will never be static as your competition will change, the market will change and the needs of your customers will change on an ongoing basis. Go back once a month and see if your plan is working or needs adapting.

This is one of the single most important activities you can take to ensure business success so what are you waiting for? Fill it in as best you can and try to have a go at every section. If you are missing some information that may mean you need to do some more research and come back to it.

If you need any further help or guidance you can give Business Information Point a call on 0800 592 872 or email team@businessinfopoint.co.uk

Summary

This should be a short summary of all the other information in your plan to give a quick overview at a glance. Though this at the beginning, you might find it easier to write this last once you have completed the rest of the plan.

Introduction

Include a brief description of your company and its history if relevant. Include the following:

What kind of products and services do you provide? Where are you located? How do you sell your products/services? Storefront? Online? In person? Etc. If you have any staff, what do they do? What is your pricing structure? What makes your business, products and services unique?

Competitors

Identify and gather as much information about your competitors as possible. This can include current competition as well as likely future competition. Try a web search to find out who your competitors may be but also look at business directories, trade exhibitions and advertising.

Once you’ve got a list of competitors, dig a little deeper. Much of the information you’ll need will be on their website if they have one though you may also be able to obtain financial information from Companies House. If it helps you can put this information in a spreadsheet. Ask yourself the following questions:

What products and services do they offer? How much do they charge? What are their values? What is their customer service like? How and where do they promote their products and services? What is their branding like? What are their unique selling propositions? (what makes them unique) How many staff do they have? What is their financial situation?

Strengths

Fill in the box below with all the strengths that your company has and bear in mind what you do better than your competitors. If you are the only person in the business then think about what strengths you have. Here’s some things to think about when compiling your list:

What do you do better than anyone else? Are you able to offer better customer service? Do you charge less or offer a higher quality product or service? Is it better value? Are you able to source better quality suppliers? Do you hold any accreditations or awards? Are you financially stronger? Do you have a large contact network? Have you got more highly trained or skilled staff? Do you have a geographical advantage? Do you have any intellectual property such as patents, copyrights or trademarks? Any other unique selling propositions?

Weaknesses

Fill in the box below with all the weakness that you or your company has. Again try and related this to your competitors. Think about what they are able to do better than you. It’s just as important to consider your weaknesses as your customers will certainly make comparisons between you and your competitors. You may be able to negate some of these issues in advance or at least be aware of them rather than getting a nasty shock later on down the line. Here’s some things to think about when compiling your list:

What can you improve on? Do you lack any qualifications or certification? What is likely to lose you sales? Do you have any gaps in your knowledge or expertise (or perceived gaps)? Are you financially weaker than your competitors? Do you have a poor reputation or lack of awareness for your products and services? Is time management a problem or lack of resources? Difficulty in obtaining finance? Is staff turnover high? Do you have few or no competitive advantages?

Opportunities

Think of any opportunities that could be an advantage to your business. This could be anything from a change in legislation or new technology to eliminating one of the weaknesses you have identified above. Also look at the likelihood and timescale of these opportunities arising so you get a picture of how much effort you should put in to exploiting them. Questions to ask yourself when identifying opportunities include:

Can you expand into new markets or geographic areas? Are there any export opportunities? Introduction of new products or services? Can you exploit any of your competitor’s weaknesses? Are there any new technologies that will help you? Any changes in legislation? More availability of finance, changes in rates or grant funding? Changes in weather or climate? New suppliers or available contracts? Access to new information? New sales and distribution channels such as the internet? Changes in lifestyle, fashion or other trends? Increase in demand? Ability to reduce or remove identified weaknesses?

Threats

Threats to your business can come in many forms and it’s important that you identify these early so that you can mitigate or prepare for them. They may or may not all happen but you can and should assess the likelihood of each. Threats could be anything that prevents your business from fulfilling its goals and could include factors such as an increase in business rates or the emergence of a new competitor. Here’s some things to think about when looking at possible threats:

New competitors or the increasing strength or current competitors? Political or legislative changes? Increases in business rates? Reduction in demand? Cost of new equipment or technologies? Change in accreditation requirements or new quality standards? Lack of available finance or cash flow issues? Late payments? Loss of suppliers or key contracts? Difficulties in obtaining raw materials? Changes in lifestyle, fashion or other trends? Climate changes or seasonality? Economic changes at home or abroad? Loss of staff or high staff turnover?

Objectives

What are the objectives for your business? This is a critical part of your plan so do not overlook it. You will refer back to these and measure your results against them on a regular basis. With a clearly defined and measurable set of objectives you will be able to identify how you are doing and if your business is heading in the right direction or if any changes are needed. When writing your objectives make sure that they are SMART. This means specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. Here’s some more detail on each of these to help you put together a realistic and achievable set of goals:

Specific

Clearly defined and easy to understand what must be achieved Example: 10 new business sales per month

Measurable

Must have a way to identify when the objective has been achieved or how far away you are from achieving it

Example: Increase website traffic 10% by the end of December 2015

Achievable

Make your objectives achievable while also be challenging. Don’t make it so easy that it doesn’t force you to work for it but also don’t make it so challenging that it’s an impossible task as you will lose motivation.

Make sure that you have the necessary resources in place to achieve your goals.

Realistic

It needs to be possible to achieve the desired outcome. You may need to discuss this with suppliers or staff if this affects them.

Time bound

There needs to be a timescale in place for all your objectives by when they should be achieved otherwise there is no urgency to complete them.

Using the guide above write your objectives in the box below. You will want to review and update these as you go. Once you have achieved an objective, set new ones so that you are always moving your business forward with direction.

Target market (your customers)

It’s important to understand that your products and services are not going to appeal to everyone. A common trap to fall in to but one that’s easy to avoid and will save you a lot of time any money. The more clear and specific you can be here the better. Once you know who your customers are you can work out how best to reach them.

Fill in the box below and try to answer the following questions:

Are you selling to businesses or consumers? What problems do they need solving? What is their job title? Are they male or female? How old are they? Where do they live? What is their social status? What kind of income do they have? What are their hobbies and interests? Where do they shop? Are they price sensitive? Do they use social media? What publications do they read?

Positioning statement

This should be a clear and concise statement that describes to your customers what makes you unique and why they should choose you over your competition. It positions your brand in a way that is recognisable and memorable.

For example Amazon’s positioning statement is “It's our goal to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything at Amazon.com”.

Here’s another one from Google: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

A positioning statement is not quite the same as a slogan because it is designed for internal use. You could certainly could use it as a basis for a slogan afterwards though and here are some examples:

"The ultimate driving machine." – BMW“Exceedingly good cakes.” – Mr Kipling"Let your fingers do the walking." – Yellow Pages

Have a go at writing your own positioning statement. It doesn’t have to be perfect first time and may take many attempts to get it just right. Remember to focus on what makes your business unique and how you wish to be perceived by your customers.

Marketing strategy

The marketing strategy is the framework that you will use to decide:

What to sell How to attract and retain your ideal customers How to set your pricing Methods you’ll use to deliver your products and services

This framework is called the 7 Ps of marketing or sometimes referred to as the marketing mix. The 7 Ps are product, price, place, promotion, people, processes and physical evidence. We’ll cover them in more detail and you’ll be able to fill out the information for each as we go.

Product

You have already identified your target market and what your customers are looking for in a product or service. Here we’ll look at this in more detail in order to determine what products or services to offer and how they will fulfil the needs of your customers. Use the box below to fill out the details of your products and services thinking about the following:

Describe your products and services in detailo What are the benefits?o What are the features?

What value are you offering your customers? How will you products and services be delivered? What kind of quality do you need to provide? How will your products or services be used? If you have a physical product, what kind of packaging will you use? How will they be different from your competitors? Are you offering any guarantees or warrantees? How will you manage stock? Do any of your products require safety standards or testing?

Price

When pricing your products and services you’ll need to make sure that you are competitive. You don’t have to be the cheapest as you may be providing a product or service that is of a higher

quality or better customer service than your competitors. The most important thing to bear in mind is the value for money of what you are offering.

You need to do this while achieving the maximum profit that you can. It’s a difficult thing to get right but it’s worth some very careful consideration. Pricing too low can be as damaging as pricing too high as customers may perceive that your product or service is of a lower quality than it is. Here’s some questions to ask yourself:

What is the cost of the product or service? What other costs are related to your product such as delivery? Are your customers sensitive to price? What is the demand? Are you able to offer something unique that your competitors can’t? What do your competitors charge? Can you offer different price bands for different segments? How are your competitors likely to react? Will you offer any discounts or promotions? How flexible are your margins? Will you charge different prices in different countries? How do you want to be perceived?

Place

Place actually means your distribution channels. These are the ways in which you make your products or services available to your customers. You need to make sure that you choose the correct channels in order to meet the needs and expectations of your target market. If your

customers like to shop online and you only provide a physical storefront then you could be losing a lot of potential business.

There might also be places that your customer would expect to find you. For example a web developer without a website of their own is unlikely to attract many clients. When deciding on the distribution channels for your business think about the following:

What channels are your customers currently using? Do you need to be selling online? Which channels are most cost effective? Where would customers expect to find you? Are there any logistical issues such as transportation or holding stock? Think about the following distribution channels:

o Mail ordero Online sales (ecommerce)o Salespeopleo Telemarketingo Physical storefronto Face to faceo Trade shows and exhibitionso Third party such as eBay, Amazon Marketplace or Etsy

Promotion

When people talk about ‘marketing’ this is what usually springs to mind. This is also the quickest way to waste a lot of time or money if you haven’t spent time on the rest of your marketing

strategy. These are the ways in which you communicate with your customers about your business and your products and services. It includes things such as branding, advertising (online and offline), sales, trade shows, social media and PR. Depending on the size of your business, promotion could also include communicating internally with your staff as well as stakeholders.

As you did when looking at your distribution channels, make sure you understand where you are likely to attract your customers. This is where your research on your target audience will prove very useful.

Here are some things to think about while deciding on your promotional strategy:

What promotional methods are your competitors using? What publications do your customers read? What social media channels do your customers use? What benefits can you promote? Don’t just think about features Are there any trade shows you can attend? Do you need any promotional literature or merchandise? What about branding and product packaging? Are you going to need a website? (almost certainly) Can you provide value to your customer in other ways such as starting a blog (also known

as content or inbound marketing) Think about two way communication with your customers and starting to build a

relationship. Types of promotion to think about:

o Online advertising such as Google AdWords or affiliate advertisingo Website and digital marketingo Email marketingo Social mediao Mobile marketingo Trade shows and exhibitionso Advertising in newspapers and magazineso Press releases (online and offline)o Inbound marketing (blogging)o Comparison websiteso Forumso TV and radioo Direct mailo Referrals / word of mouth

People

Any person inside or outside your company who comes into contact with your customers’ needs to be taken into consideration. It’s an area that’s often overlooked but can have a huge effect on your customer satisfaction and the reputation of your brand. It relies on your ability to select, hire, train and manage people with the necessary skills to carry out the jobs they need to do.

Even if you don’t hire staff directly think about the skills that you possess and the way in which you interact with customers and handle any issues that they have. You may also outsource parts of your delivery or customer service so think about the companies that you are choosing to carry out these tasks for you. Bear in mind that your customer won’t know whether the person they are talking to is directly employed by you or not, they will just consider any interaction as a direct reflection of your business. Consider the following:

What areas do customers come into contact with your business? Who is going to carry out each task for your business? Do you need to hire our outsource anything? Do these people have the correct training and necessary skills? Can you add value to your products and services by offering excellent customer service? Do you have training in place for your staff? If it is just you in the business, do you need any additional training or skills? How are you going to motivate and empower staff to do their best and ensure job

satisfaction? Remember, happy staff are likely to be your best ambassadors.

Processes

Processes and physical evidence are relevant mainly if you are a service business. They may still have some relevance if you only sell products but generally that will be geared towards those in the business to business sector. Feel free to skip these next two sections if you don’t offer any services.

This section will look at the quality of your processes as these can have a big impact in your performance. Similarly to making sure that you have the correct people, having poor processes in place can damage the perception of your brand. In essence the process is the way in which you take your customer from placing an order to taking delivery. This of course can include multiple steps and multiple people along the way. You will also need to make sure that you don’t have any excess or unnecessary processes which increase your costs.

Ask yourself the following questions when thinking about your processes:

How long do customers have to wait to get a response when making contact? Do you keep customers informed along the way? Are you efficient in delivering your services? Do your staff interact in a helpful manner? Have you got any unnecessary processes in place or any you can simplify? Do you need any additional processes to improve your service? If you employ staff, are they trained to follow the processes and have they been written

down to ensure consistency? Is the order process easy for your customers to understand? Are there any after sale services that you can introduce to increase customer satisfaction?

Physical evidence

A service represents a harder decision for a customer as it is intangible unlike a physical product. In the case of selling suitcases for example a customer can see the product, open it, feel the textures, understand the dimensions and get a clear picture as to whether it will be suitable for their needs or not. If you are selling a cleaning service then the customer obviously can’t tangibly get to grips with what you are selling in the same way so you need to be able to help them ‘see’ what they are buying by providing some form of physical evidence of it.

You might consider images or videos demonstrating your service in action or feature testimonials from customers who can give their feedback as to what future customers can expect. It may also be worth if relevant to show the cleanliness and décor of your premises. Think about the following factors:

How can you tangibly demonstrate your service? Can you use product demonstrations either in person on via video? If you have a physical premises, show images of its cleanliness and décor. Can you describe your service in detail and answer any likely questions in advance? Are you able to offer any guarantees or money back offers? Do you have any customer testimonials you could share? Are there any ways you could demonstrate expertise? Awards, certificates etc.

Budgeting

Once you have completed the 7Ps, the next step is to allocate a budget for carrying out all of these activities. This will include all the fixed and variable costs associated with your marketing as well as any agency or staff costs. There are various methods in which to determine how much you should be spending on marketing activities. A good starting point is to work out your likely sales forecasts and base your budget on a percentage of your turnover. The difficulty arises as the percentage you will want to allocate depends very much on your industry and the level of growth you are expecting to achieve.

It’s also possible to work backwards and find out what each area or activity you think is likely to cost and then plan a budget around that. You could also base it on the amount your competitors spend, or if you have been operating for a while, then basing it on previous figures could be a good place to start.

If you’re just starting up then you may have limited funds so make sure you try to spend money where you are likely to see the biggest return. Shop around and especially for larger projects make sure you compare more than one supplier as there can be a big difference in costs.

Keep a track of your costs and make sure it’s updated regularly. You will use this to work out which activities are giving you the greatest return on investment or stop activities that have not been worthwhile. Keep in mind the objectives you wrote down and how any spend can be used to help you achieve these. Here are some things to think about:

What is your sales forecast? Are there any promotional activities that are essential? Do you know what your competitors are spending? How will the cost help you to achieve your objectives? What is your break-even point? Are you hiring any staff or appointing an agency? Do you have any previous budgets or costs that you can use as a starting point? What are you prepared to spend to gain a customer?

You can also download and use our free Marketing Budget Template.

Evaluation

This is one of the most important sections. It isn’t good enough just to throw time and money at marketing if you don’t measure and evaluate what works and what doesn’t. You should already have your SMART objectives set up so these will be your key performance indicators (KPIs). Then you can measure whether you are going to meet these goals or not. You may want to set up smaller goals on your way to the overall objectives if this makes monitoring them easier.

On the way to meeting your objectives, you will be conducting various marketing activities as laid out above and in your budget. Under these it should also be possible to measure how well they are working.

Here’s an example: You put an advert in the local paper with a code for people to quote when they call up. The advert costs £200. 20 people phone in as a result of that advert and of those, 10 sign up for your service which costs £50. From this you can work out the following:

Your cost per enquiry is £10 (£200 / 20 people = £10) Your cost per sale is £20 (£200 / 10 people = £20) Your return on investment is £300 (10 x £50 = £500, minus £200 for the advert = £300)

In this example the advert is clearly worth running again as you made £300 for the £200 you invested. If you hadn’t measured its performance you wouldn’t have known whether the advert was worth running again or not. From this you can also measure your conversion rate. In this case it’s 50%. 20 people called and only 10 signed up. Look at whether this can be improved as well.

It doesn’t have to be related to sales either, you could measure other things such as your customer satisfaction, product reviews, market share, brand awareness, profitability etc.

When evaluating ask yourself the following questions:

What are your overall objectives? What do you need to measure? How are you going to measure? How often do you need to measure? How much did each activity cost? What was your return on investment if any? What is your conversion rate? Do you need to set up any reports? Who is responsible for collecting the information? Do you need any additional tools or software?

Well done! You’re now well ahead of many businesses. You should now have a very clear plan of how to position and promote your business. Keep this plan updated regularly and continue to refer back to it.