What should be part of a marketing plan?

Before any company begins any type of marketing strategy or campaign, a well-researched and written plan should be done.It gives the company direction and focus, thus improving their effort and increasing their rate of success. But what should be part of a marketing plan? Here are a few questions to ask yourself and some suggestions to consider:

Target Market
What demographic(s) are you targeting in your marketing strategy? This is one of the most important things to consider. The way you present your product or service is almost completely dependent on whose business you want. Depending on who you are marketing you, you will choose different words, images, trends, and role models to help sell your product.

For example, if you're marketing to teens, you will want to be careful not to come across as preachy, condescending, or phony - teens are quite skeptical of marketers because they are already so heavily marketed to. If you're marketing to an older demographic, you may want to consider other issues, like portraying your product as a good value for the money and as an important addition to the life experience of the customer (especially if they're older).

Once you've established who your target market is, you will need to write a plan on how to market to that demographic. Also consider how your competitors will market to this same group. Your marketing plan should outline what you will do either in response to your competitors' marketing strategy and/or what you'll do differently.

Competition
Competition is a huge factor and consideration when making your marketing plan. Your marketing plan needs to have your competition clearly outlined and understood. In your plan, define who exactly is your competition. This can be specific businesses or just types of businesses you may be in competition with.

Once you've decided who your competition is, consider why they are your competition. What do they offer? What are their prices? Are there things about their business that work better than yours?What can your company offer that they do not or cannot?It's also a good idea is to especially focus in on your closest competitor. How is your marketing plan going to be different from theirs?This series of questions about your competitors will get you thinking about this important part of your marketing plan.

Figures and Forecasts
The next part of your marketing plan should include various figures and forecasts regarding your product and industry.In terms of financial figures, there are a few especially important things to consider. One is pricing your product. Take into consideration your competitors' prices and your profit margin.Another figure that needs to be included in your marketing plan is the cost of the plan - what kind of money will be needed to advertise, how different sales, promotions, and coupons will affect the bottom line, and other similar expenses.

Various forecasts need to be considered and included in your marketing plan. Some of these may include a comparison of past years' sales. Using these past sales histories, you can forecast how much you expect to sell this year and how much money you'll make. This will give you a fairly accurate sales goal.Another forecast to include would be how you expect the market to be in a few years.

Your marketing plan should also include a backup plan if your marketing strategy doesn't work or some unforeseen problem arises.A good marketing plan covers all the bases, ranging from how you'll advertise, where the product will be stored, to what exactly you'll do in the first few months. It is an outline that will guide you through the whole marketing process. Since it is so important, take the time to cover every aspect of your strategy and you will have a roadmap to success.