Marketing Plan Template: What Exactly to Include
To grow your business, you need a marketing plan. The right marketing plan identifies everything from 1) who your target customers are, to 2) how you will reach them, to 3) how you will retain your customers so that they buy from you repeatedly.
Done correctly, your marketing plan will be the roadmap you follow to get unlimited customers and dramatically improve the success of your organization. To help you succeed, use this proven marketing plan template, and the information below details the 15 key sections you should include in your marketing plan.
Section 1: Executive Summary
Complete your executive summary last, and as the name suggests, this section simply summarizes each of the other sections of your marketing plan.
Your summary will help give you and other stakeholders (eg, employees, advisors, etc.) an overview of your plan.
Section 2: Target Customers
This section describes the customers you are targeting. It defines their demographic profile (eg, age, gender), psychographic profile (eg, their interests), and their specific wants and needs in relation to the products and/or services you offer.
Being able to more clearly identify your target customers will help you both identify your advertising (and get a better return on investment) and better “speak the language” of potential customers.
Section 3: Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Having a strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is critically important as it sets your business apart from its competitors.
The hallmark of many large companies is their USP. For example, FedEx’s USP “When it absolutely has to be there overnight” is well-known and resonates strongly with customers looking for reliability and fast delivery.
Section 4: Pricing and positioning strategy
Your pricing and positioning strategy must be aligned. For example, if you want your business to be known as the leading brand in your industry, pricing too low can deter customers from buying.
In this section of your marketing plan, detail the positioning you want and how your pricing will support it.
Section 5: Distribution Plan
Your distribution plan details how customers will buy from you. For example, will customers buy directly from you on your site? Will they buy from distributors or other retailers? etc
Think about the different ways you might be able to reach customers and document them in this section of your marketing plan.
Click “next page” below for sections 6-10 of your marketing plan or or here for the proven marketing plan template.
Section 6: Your offers
Offers are special offers that you put in place to attract more new customers and bring old customers back to you.
Offers may include free trials, money-back guarantees, bundles (for example, combining different products and/or services) and discount offers. While your business doesn’t necessarily need offers, using them will usually lead to faster customer growth.
Section 7: Marketing Materials
Your marketing materials are the collateral you use to promote your business to current and potential customers. Among other things, they include your website, printed brochures, business cards and catalogs.
Identify which marketing materials you have completed and which ones you need to create or redo in this section of your plan.
Section 8: Promotion Strategy
The promotions section is one of the most important sections of your marketing plan and details how you will reach new customers.
There are many promotional tactics, such as TV commercials, trade show marketing, press releases, online advertising, and event marketing.
In this section of your marketing plan, consider each of these alternatives and decide which will most effectively allow you to reach your target customers.
Section 9: Online Marketing Strategy
Like it or not, most customers go online these days to find and/or review new products and/or services to purchase. As such, having the right online marketing strategy can help you attract new customers and gain a competitive edge.
The four key elements of your online marketing strategy are:
- Keyword strategy: Identify the keywords for which you want to optimize your website.
- Search engine optimization strategy: Document the updates you will make to your website so that it appears more prominently for your main keywords.
- Paid online advertising strategy: Write down the online advertising programs you will use to reach target customers.
- Social media strategy: document how you will use social media websites to attract customers.
Section 10: Conversion Strategy
Conversion strategies refer to the techniques you employ to turn potential customers into paying customers.
For example, improving your sales scripts can increase conversions. Likewise, increasing your social proof (eg, showing testimonials from past customers who were happy with your business) will almost always boost conversions and sales.
In this section of your plan, document the conversion strategies you will use.
Click “next page” below for sections 11-15.
Section 11: Joint ventures and partnerships
Joint ventures and partnerships are agreements you enter into with other organizations to help reach new customers or better monetize existing customers. For example, if you were selling spare guitar strings, it could be very lucrative to partner with a guitar manufacturer who had a list of thousands of customers they sold guitars to (and who probably needed spare strings). in the future).
Think about what customers buy before, during, and/or after they buy from your business. Many of the companies that sell these products and/or services could be good partners. Document these businesses in this section of your marketing plan, then contact them to try to secure them.
Section 12: Recommendation Strategy
A strong referral program could revolutionize your success. For example, if each of your customers referred a new customer, your customer base would constantly increase.
However, you will rarely achieve such growth unless you have a formalized SEO strategy. For example, you need to determine when you will ask customers to recommend you, what you will offer them as a reward, etc. Consider the best recommendation strategy for your organization and document it.
Section 13: Strategy for increasing transaction prices
Although your main goal when talking to potential customers is often to secure the sale, it’s also important to pay attention to the price of the transaction.
The transaction price, or the amount customers pay when they buy from you, can dictate your success. For example, if your average customer transaction is $100 but your competitor’s average customer transaction is $150, they will generate more revenue, and likely profit, per customer. As a result, they will be able to outspend you on advertising and continue to gain market share at your expense.
In this section of your plan, think about ways to increase your transaction prices, such as increasing prices, creating product or service bundles/packages, etc.
Section 14: Retention Strategy
Too many organizations spend too much time and energy trying to attract new customers instead of investing in getting existing customers to buy more often.
By using loyalty strategies such as a monthly newsletter or a customer loyalty program, you can increase revenue and profits by getting customers to buy from you more frequently over time.
Identify and document ways to better retain customers here.
Section 15: Financial Projections
The last part of your marketing plan is to create financial projections. In your projections, include all information documented in your marketing plan.
For example, include the promotional expenses you plan to incur and the expected results in terms of new customers, sales, and profits. Likewise, include the expected results of your new retention strategy. etc
While your financial projections are never 100% accurate, use them to identify promotional spend and other strategies that should give you the best return on investment. Additionally, by completing your financial projections, you will set goals (for example, your goals for your referral program) that your business should be striving for.
Completing each of the 15 sections of your marketing plan is hard work. But, once your marketing plan is complete, it will be worth it because your sales and profits should skyrocket. To save you time, I’ve developed this marketing plan template that can be completed quickly and easily.
