Marketing Plans In A Week

How To Write A Marketing Plan In Seven Simple Steps

Ros Jay, John Sealey

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781473609594
• eBook ISBN: 9781444159424
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Marketing planning just got easier
Nothing can bring a business greater rewards than getting its marketing right. If you have formed a company, it is vital to market your products or services and to make consumers aware of your business. It doesn't matter how good your products or services are if your marketplace doesn't understand what it is you do, why that is going to be of value to them and why they should buy from you and not the competition. Well-thought-out marketing approaches, attached to a good marketing plan, can be the key to your success. Great marketing will grab people's attention, bringing you more customers, more sales and more profits.The way you market your company's brand, products and services can mean the difference between you or your competitor getting the sale. Having a good marketing plan in place and enabled will not only unlock huge potential for your business but also help you run your enterprise more smoothly and effectively.This book will give you the information and skills you need to develop a sound marketing plan. In a week you will learn how to draw up the kind of plan that not only will impress the bank but can be used as your guide to delivering market awarenessand to attracting, winning and keeping sales opportunities.Whether you choose to read it in a week or in a single sitting, this is your fastest route to success: - Sunday: What is a marketing plan?
- Monday: Asking questions
- Tuesday: Researching the answers
- Wednesday: The objectives
- Thursday: Converting objects into action plans
- Friday: Putting the plan together
- Saturday: Using the marketing plan

We’ve already seen that the first thing you have to do to draw up your marketing plan is to establish where you are now. There are two stages to this: asking the right questions, and finding out the answers. Today we’re going to concentrate on the questions.

Obviously, in order to get the most out of today’s exercise, you’re going to have to know precisely what questions to ask. In order to establish where you are now, you need to ask specific, thoughtful questions about:

• your product or service

• your customers and prospects

• your competitors

• your business.

Questions about your product or service

What exactly is it that you’re marketing? You need to describe your product or service range and every variable that it has.

This isn’t as pointless as it may sound. We already know that outsiders (such as your investors) may want this information, but you need it too. In fact, you should write it down for the very reason that it seems you shouldn’t: there is a strong inclination to take it for granted.

This is the main reason why businesses fail to construct a strong marketing message that fulfils the needs of a market. They take for granted that the marketplace knows what they offer and what their offering will do for them.

Most companies never question the basic range they offer. But one of the strengths of a marketing plan is that everything in it is open to question whenever you review it. And often – very often – the problem with small companies that are trying to turn into large companies is that their original product range is holding them back. But they don’t see it.

The following case study illustrates the type of mistake that companies frequently make. That’s why you must ask every possible question, including every possible question about your product and any trends and future trends in your market. That way, you can be sure that, if anything ever needs to change, it will show up at your marketing plan review sessions.

Understanding market trends

Steve manages a business that runs training seminars and invites companies to send delegates along. As time goes by, more and more companies ask him to run online seminars – webinars – for them instead; that’s the way the trend is going.

After a while, it gets harder to fill the open on-site seminars, which start to lose money. But Steve thinks, ‘We’re a company that organizes open seminars; we always have been. We must invest more in this side of the business so that it becomes profitable again.’ Steve tries harder to sell his seminars, even though the evidence shows that the market has grasped that online seminars are more cost-effective and cheaper for them.

The only way Steve will find out whether he is pouring money into a bottomless pit is from his marketing plan. But the m...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• About the Author
• Contents 
• Introduction
• Sunday: What is a marketing plan?
• Monday: Asking questions
• Tuesday: Researching the answers
• Wednesday: Finding your objectives
• Thursday: Converting your objectives into action plans
• Friday: Putting the plan together
• Saturday: Using your marketing plan
• 7 × 7
• Answers
• Copyright