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How to Create a Promotional Plan to Maximize Business Growth (with Examples & Strategies)

Updated July 2023.

You can elevate your business to new heights with a stellar promotional plan. In an increasingly competitive world, this tool has become indispensable for businesses big and small.

From identifying your target market to choosing a catchy promotion name, from selecting an effective promotion type to deciding on key messages and promotional products, we’ll journey through the creation of a powerful promotional plan.

Get ready to excel with our comprehensive guide and downloadable promotional plan template. You’re one step away from transforming your business goals into a reality!

We can count on them to bring new ideas to the table consistently

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

What is a promotional plan.

• Public relations
• Sales promotion
• Social media marketing
• Online marketing

Advertising

• Personal selling
• Conduct a SWOT Analysis

What Are the Main Components of a Promotional Plan?

• Define Your Target Audience
• Name Your Promotion
• Determine Your Promotion Type
• Craft Your Key Messages
• Create Your Promotional Products and Swag
• A Promotional Planning Template to Help You Get Started

Brand Promotion

6 types of marketing & sales promotion strategies to boost your sales.

• How to Create a Promotional Plan: A Final Recap

Before we dive deeper into the main components of a promotional plan, I think it’s absolutely necessary to understand what a promotional plan is. This will help us be more accurate in defining the future steps of a business plan, thus making it more likely for us to achieve our marketing objectives and grow.

A promotional plan is a strategic document that outlines your company’s marketing and advertising efforts over a specific period. It details the actions your business will take to promote its products or services to its target audience.

A promotional plan is an element of a marketing plan for a specific product or service. It includes the types of promotional methods you’ll use, such as social media marketing and print advertisements, as well as key components like target market and key messages.

Here are some of the key elements that you might find in a promotional plan:

• Objective : Clear, specific goals that the promotion seeks to achieve, such as increasing product awareness, driving sales, or attracting a new audience.
• Target Audience : Identification of the group of people who are most likely to be interested in the product or service. This can be based on demographic information, lifestyle, consumer behavior, and other factors.
• Promotion Name : A catchy name for the promotional campaign that aligns with the brand and resonates with the target audience.
• Promotion Type : The specific form of promotion that will be used. This might include advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations or digital marketing, among others.
• Promotion Mix : This refers to the combination of promotional tools and methods that will be used to reach the target audience. It might include a mix of traditional advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, event marketing, and more.
• Key Messages : The main points that the promotional campaign seeks to communicate to the target audience. This could include information about the product, the brand, or other important aspects.
• Promotional Products or Services : The specific products or services that will be promoted. These might be a new product, a seasonal offering, a special deal, etc.
• Budget : The financial resources allocated to implement the promotional plan. This should cover all costs associated with the promotion, such as advertising costs, production costs, and event costs.
• Timeline : The start and end dates of the promotion, including any important milestones or deadlines within the promotional period.
• Evaluation Metrics : The measures that will be used to determine the success of the promotional campaign. This could include sales data, website traffic, social media engagement, customer surveys, and more.

It’s essentially a roadmap that guides all of your promotional activities, helping to ensure they align with your overall business goals and objectives.

What Are Promotional Strategies?

As you can see from the definition above, this plan details the tools and you need to implement various promotion strategies. But what exactly are promotional strategies?

In a nutshell, promotional strategies are the tactics, techniques, and activities you use to promote your product or service. Promotional strategy examples can include:

Public Relations

Playing a major role in getting your key promotional messages out to as wide an audience as possible, Public Relations (PRs) uses various communications strategies designed to influence public perception and opinion of a brand, its products, or public-facing figures.

These strategies include:

• Media relations and pitching stories to journalists
• Organizing press conferences and media events
• Community engagement events covered by the media

Sales Promotion

Sales promotions typically involve enticing customers with a discount, freebie or other perk.

Examples include:

• Buy-one-get-one-free offers
• Percentage-off sales
• Limited-time only discounts
• Seasonal sales
• Free trial periods
• Free shipping when the cart total reaches a specific volume

Social Media Marketing

Few brands (if any) can truly thrive in today’s digital society without an effective social media presence.

With an array of social media platforms available, brands have unprecedented opportunities to connect with their target audience and drive engagement.

Examples of social media marketing include:

• Partnerships with social media influencers
• Creating and sharing relevant and useful content
• Running contests and giveaways
• Using paid social media advertising such as Facebook ads
• Improving brand loyalty and reputation by engaging with followers

Online Marketing

Online marketing can take many forms, including:

• Content such as blogs and videos
• Email marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Social media
• Affiliate marketing

Advertising remains a tried-and-true promotion method that continues to generate significant revenue for brands, even at a time when those brands have more marketing and promotional options at their disposal than ever before.

Examples of advertising as a promotional strategy can include:

• Display ads placed on websites and video sites such as YouTube
• Print advertising
• Television , radio and streaming media spots
• Billboards and street furniture (like bus benches) advertising

Personal Selling

Personal selling is all about building direct connections and relationships with potential customers. It’s a hands-on approach that involves face-to-face interactions and persuasive communication techniques such as:

• Presenting products at tradeshows and exhibitions
• Product demonstrations at locations your audience is likely to populate
• Networking at events
• Personalized lead generation and follow-ups

Together, these strategies can prove highly effective for achieving marketing goals relating to your website or digital presence.

Related Content:   10 Inspiring Examples of Promotional Campaign Videos for Startups

Conduct a SWOT Analysis for Your Promotional Plan

After having outlined your activities and marketing efforts, you then need to put your plan out there. What’s extremely important is to make sure that you conduct some sort of situation analysis or SWOT analysis.

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats:

To put it simply, such an analysis will help you track and measure the effectiveness of your promotion plan as well as your marketing plan as a whole.

Author’s Note:  Keep in mind that conducting a SWOT analysis can also be beneficial for your business’ content marketing strategy, social media plan, SEO, and – in general – any other actions that your marketing department might be taking, like creating a marketing plan template.

Measuring the results and monitoring your metrics will help you understand whether you’ve put some smart goals in place when designing your plans or if you should reconsider. It’ll also give you a clear idea of how close you are to achieving your marketing goals and what your future steps should be.

Simply put, to be aware and keep track of the results will help you make sure you’re not losing time or money on an ineffective promotional plan.

The promotion plan template below illustrates the main components you’ll need to use in your plan, including (we’ll go into details about each one in the next section):

• Target audience
• Name of your promotion
• Type of promotion
• Key messages
• Promotional products and swag
• Additional notes

This template illustrates various examples of promotional strategies inspired by a UK government promotional campaign that ran across the country after the reopening of restaurants. The campaign’s goal was to help the industry that had been hit hard by the pandemic:

How to Create a Promotional Plan

I’ll use the example of a fictitious London restaurant participating in this campaign to demonstrate how to create a promotional plan of your own in the following step-by-step tutorial.

1) Define Your Target Audience

No promotional plan can ever be successful if you don’t know who it is you’re promoting to. This is why it’s so important that you start this process by defining who your audience is and what they want.

In the free promotional strategy template included with this guide, you’ll see that the target audience doesn’t have a specific audience, as the campaign was essentially an appeal to the entire country.

That may be fine if you’re a national government with a bottomless budget, but let’s face it: The products and services produced by most businesses were never designed to appeal to everyone.

Whether you sell classy-but-comfortable business shoes to female executives or performance monitoring watches to marathon runners, practically every business has a specific ideal customer they want to reach.

So, before you do anything else, determine who that ideal customer is for your brand.

If your business is brand new, you’ll benefit from learning how to develop buyer personas , a process that can be invaluable for helping you think about the type of people your promotional marketing strategies are aimed towards:

If you’re already well-established, think about your long-term customers:

• Who are they?
• What do they like?
• What would appeal to them from a promotional stand point?

These insights into your target audience will make a world of difference when it comes to making informed decisions about the kind of promotional message that is most likely to hit home with your customers and the best approach to deliver that message.

To show you what this might look like, we can refer to our fictitious London restaurant, which might come up with the following:

Our target audience is young executives working in the nearby business complex. Most of our existing customers fit these audience demographics and we know that they value fast, efficient service. We also know that the majority of bookings and enquiries from this demographic are made on social media.

2) Name Your Promotion

Now that you know who your audience are, you need to give your promotion a name that will appeal to them.

“Eat Out to Help Out” was a great name for this campaign because it was catchy, memorable and appealed to people’s sense of patriotic duty in the aftermath of major crisis while also answering that fundamentally important question: “What’s in it for me?”

You mean all I have to do to help out my country is go to a restaurant for a hugely discounted meal? Sure, I’ll do that, sign me up!

To give a more recent example from here in the United States, Taco Bell’s “Freeing Taco Tuesday” campaign is fast gaining a lot of attention partly because it’s such a unique idea, but also because it genuinely engages the curiosity of its audience.

Why does Taco Tuesday need freeing? Who from? I don’t know! Tell me more Taco Bell, and tell me how I can help!

LeBron James was featured in an ad called “Taco Bleep,” which emphasized the campaign message: the absurdity of “Taco Tuesday” being trademarked:

This is what you’re trying to do by naming your promotion. Come up with something that grabs the attention of your audience, sticks in their mind, and compels them to want to take action, whether that action is signing a taco-related petition , eating at a restaurant, or buying a pair of shoes.

3) Determine Your Promotion Type

Next, you need to determine what type of promotion you’re planning for.

Some of the most effective promotion types  include:

• Discounts (percentage off or dollar off)
• Loyalty schemes
• Referral rewards
• Free shipping
• Spend a set amount and get a free product or service

To determine which promotion types are bested suited for your campaign, it pays to think about what your goals are.

With Eat Out to Help Out , restaurants were offering customers £10 off (almost $13 USD) per person:

This type of promotion would be classed as a discount and is the right approach for our restaurant, as it aligns with the business goal of getting more paying customers through the door and increasing profits.

However, for the aforementioned Taco Tuesday  campaign, a discount would be less effective as the main goal of this campaign is essentially boosting Taco Bell’s brand reputation and visibility by presenting themselves as “the good guys” who want to liberate the Taco Tuesday trademark from the evil clutches of their competitors.

If you were selling shoes, you might also run with (pun intended, of course) a discount promotion, while a company selling performance monitoring watches might run a promotion in which customers who upgrade to their newest device get an additional product for free.

4) Craft Your Key Messages

Your next task is to come up with a compelling marketing message that tells your audience what you want them to do and how they’ll benefit from doing it.

Again, the Eat Out to Help Out campaign did a good job with their message:  Support your local restaurant by eating out with a 50% discount on food or non-alcoholic drinks.

This one has it all.

It provides a clear call to action to eat out at a local restaurant and answers the “What’s in it for me?” question by telling people that they’ll benefit by enjoying a half-price meal .

Here, the word “support”   lends this promotional message added gravitas as it subtly tugs at our emotions and appeals to that part of human nature that makes us want to help others.

Your message should be equally as clear, concise and compelling as this one.

If you’re struggling with this, here are a couple more examples to get you inspired:

• Upgrade your TechX Performance Monitoring Watch to the latest new model and get a free pair of headphones.
• Save 50% on this season’s most popular shoes when you shop at Big Foot’s Shoe Store.

Both of these messages contain all the vital components.

They make it clear what action the audience should complete (upgrade their watch or shop at a certain shoe store), and they outline a clear benefit (save 50% or get some free headphones).

Each example also appeals to the audience’s emotions in different ways. The word “free” triggers a certain level of excitement in all of us, while the promise of a discount on “this season’s most popular shoes” appeals to customers who love staying up-to-date with the latest styles.

6) Create Your Promotional Plan’s Swag

Promotional products serve as a kind of distribution channel which help draw attention to your current campaign and your business as a whole.

What’s great about branded merchandise is that it can be almost anything, through the closer your swag ties into your campaign, the better.

In my hypothetical promotional campaign, I’m using promotional t-shirts  to convey my message and promotion name:

Promotional hats are also among the most popular branded products, so why not include them as well?

Both the t-shirts and hats can be worn by members of restaurant staff, but also be given to customers as a “thank you” gift.

Elsewhere, our shoe store might create high-quality, reusable bags that customers can take away their purchases in, while our company selling performance watches for marathon runners would naturally opt for branded running apparel to help boost their campaign’s visibility among their key demographic.

You might even choose to create a swag box  in which you put several useful items relating to the promotion and your brand:

When it comes to creating products of your own, keep the following tips in mind:

• The more useful your promotional items are to your target audience, the more they’ll be used, and therefore the more effective they’ll be at increasing brand recognition.
• Use your company’s logo and usual branding colors across your items. If your logo, website, and storefront all use a blue and white color scheme, don’t suddenly start giving away yellow and black t-shirts.

6) Take Notes

Creating a notes column in your promotional plan template will be a huge help when it comes to keeping track of new ideas or other relevant details that could help you run your campaign more effectively.

I’ve definitely used the notes column in my promotional plan template to write down a few additional ideas for promoting my campaign.

For example, I thought promotional banners outside the restaurant, alongside digital banners posted on social media platforms, would significantly help me bring more awareness to my campaign.

A Promotional Plan Template to Help You Get Started

After having broken down the components of a promotional plan, here’s the promotional plan example I promised I’d give you.

👉 Click here for access to the Promotional Planning Template 👈 ( be sure to save a copy to your own computer first ):

The columns are as discussed above and include all essential information about the promotion. Make sure to copy/download it first and then start using it to build your promotional plans!

Related Content: Just Do It: What We Can Learn from Nike’s $39B Marketing Strategy

Promotional Plan Examples

1) Johnston County 2022-2023 Marketing Plan

Johnston County in North Carolina put together a comprehensive marketing plan outlining how they plan to increase visitor numbers:

The plan outlines the challenges faced by the tourism board: “In year two of recovery from the pandemic, travel seems to be on the rise, however, new challenges continue to plague the tourism industry.”

To overcome those challenges, Johnson County first defines its target audiences and then sets forth a list of clearly defined marketing goals.

The plan then outlines the strategies they’ll use to achieve those goals, such as increasing email marketing efforts and upping the game in online paid advertising.

2) Viral Spiral Marketing Plan

Viral Spiral (VS) is a Taiwanese biotechnology company that used its marketing strategy to promote at-home covid testing kits:

Containing everything from an analysis of current market trends and the company’s competitors to a thorough SWOT analysis and detailed information on their promotional strategy, this is an excellent marketing plan example for those going to market with a new product.

1) Unicef PPC

An excellent example of a promotional strategy focused on advertising comes from Unicef:

The charity frequently uses pay-per-click advertising on YouTube and social media as part of its fundraising efforts.

If you read our round-up of multi-channel PPC case studies , you may recall that one campaign served display ads to around 5 million people, resulting in Unicef tripling their anticipated fundraising total.

2) Boston Red Sox Media Campaign

The Boston Red Sox had an image problem:

“Despite coming off two straight division titles, there was an inexplicable yet palpable “ho-humness” among the team’s fanbase that not even a new manager or a $100 million slugger could fix. We needed to find a way reignite the city’s passion for the team.”

Since a disengaged audience can harm brand reputation and sales, the Red Sox launched a new advertising campaign to foster a personal connection between the team and their fans:

“’More’ became a foundation for our work: the idea that to the city of Boston, baseball is more than just a game. And those who play for the team are more than a collection of names and uniform numbers. They’re our family. It was a deliberately intimate campaign that provided snapshots of the team and players, thereby giving fans a more personal connection with the team.”

The Opening Day spot earned over one million impressions within the first two weeks of airing.

1) Boohooman Personalized Promotions

In men’s fashion, boohooMAN was experiencing some frustrations when it first began sending SMS campaigns to customers:

• They used the channel mostly as a one-off on big shopping days such as Black Friday.
• They sent non-personalized messages to unsegmented customers.
• They sent these messages to largely inactive customers.

Their ROI was, as they stated, “subpar at best.”

So they created a new promotional plan in which they sent personalized SMS campaigns to drive more sales:

With messages relating to each customer’s purchase history, birthday and other key data, the company generated increased ROI on promotional activities 25-fold.

2) Industrial Tool Supplies Customer-First Approach

Further proof that focusing on your audience can lead to better sales comes courtesy of UK-based Industrial Tool Supplies :

A case study  showed that focusing on giving users the best shopping experience and putting customers front and center of every decision helped them increase orders by 21% and revenue by 23%.

1) Glossier Brand Promotion

This case study details how beauty company Glossier grew into a $1.2 billion enterprise by placing a heavy emphasis on branding in its promotional plans:

The company focused on getting to really know its audience and developing a unique signature style that proved irresistible to its target customers.

2) Visit Baton Rouge

Here’s another example of a tourism board making good use of its promotion plans. This time, it’s from the folks over in Louisiana who came up with a detailed campaign to promote their “Visit Baton Rouge” brand:

Their strategy involved a complete rebranding with a new logo, tagline, and vision that appealed to tourists and local Louisiana folk alike. They used the SWOT template for a deep analysis, deeply segmented their target audience, and outlined specific goals.

In the dynamic world of commerce, employing a diverse mix of marketing and sales promotion strategies is crucial for driving growth and achieving your revenue goals. These six strategies encompass a blend of paid and organic methods to attract, engage and convert your target audience.

We can help you skyrocket your sales and grow your business with these strategies:

• Paid advertising :  Harness the power of targeted advertising platforms to reach your ideal audience with compelling messages that drive conversions.
• Content marketing : Create and distribute engaging, informative and valuable content that attracts and retains a clearly defined audience — and ultimately drives profitable customer action.
• Sponsorships and Influencer Marketing :  Collaborate with reputable brands and individuals to tap into their established audiences and gain credibility in your industry.
• Email marketing :  Build strong relationships with your subscribers through personalized and relevant email campaigns that nurture leads and drive sales.
• Retargeting :  Reconnect with website visitors who have shown interest in your products or services by displaying targeted ads across the web.
• Referral marketing :  Encourage your existing customers to refer their friends, family, and colleagues to your business through incentives and rewards.

Final Recap: How to Create a Promotional Plan

Once again, here is your free Promotional Planning Template  ( be sure to save a copy to your own computer first! ).

In this post, we’ve discussed the definition and importance of a promotional plan, some of the main activities that such a plan might include, and what the components of a promotional plan should be in order to be concise and successful in achieving your goal.

After presenting the main components of a promotional plan, we’ve also shared with you a free promotional planning template.

If you’re ready to level up your business, Single Grain’s marketing experts  can help!👇

Additional content by  David Borgogni .

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Table of Contents

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A promotional plan is one of the best marketing techniques to expand your consumers’ rate and your business. This plan includes some benefit structures for the consumers to attract them in large numbers. This step is usually taken to increase sales and make your brand used by a large number of people. We have designed various templates structuring the promotion plan that you might like to have for your business planning. Have a look at them.

Step 1: Highlight Target Audience

Step 2: decide the advertisement source, step 3: adopt marketing techniques, step 4: convey the message properly, step 5: the message structure.

More in Plan Templates

Sample promotion plan template, mother promotion template, education event promotion plan, coachella promotion, drug awareness promotion, event promotion plan template, sales promotion plan template, product promotion plan template, social media promotion plan template, job promotion plan template.

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• In a sales slump? Try these 12 promotio ...

In a sales slump? Try these 12 promotion strategies to create customer demand

If you want people to buy something, you need to tell them about it first. It sounds simple, but that’s the core principle behind all promotion strategies—raising awareness about a product, then convincing potential customers they should buy it. Learn about 12 different types of promotion strategies, plus best practices to create a successful strategy of your own.

People don’t just choose Red Bull for the taste and jolt of energy it provides. Thanks to the brand’s distinctive promotion strategy, customers prefer the Red Bull brand because it’s famous, edgy, and part of something bigger. 

What is a promotion strategy?

A promotion strategy is a plan to create or increase demand for a product. It outlines the tactics you’ll use to raise awareness about your product and get people interested in buying it.

The goal of a promotion strategy is to introduce potential customers to your product and convince them to make a purchase. You want to move them along the buyer’s journey—the path customers take from realizing a need, considering your product as a solution, and finally deciding to buy.

Promotion strategy vs. marketing strategy

Your promotion strategy is just one piece of a larger marketing strategy —a long-term plan outlining how you’ll market and sell your product. A successful marketing plan covers all the tactics you’ll use to promote your product, including the full “marketing mix”: product, price, place, and promotion. Your promotion strategy is a key component of the marketing mix. 

Here’s a breakdown of the marketing mix, also known as the 4 P’s of marketing :

Product: The item you’re selling. 

Price: How much you should charge for your product in order to make a profit.

Place: Where you should sell your product to reach your target audience . 

Promotion: How you create demand for your product and move customers through the marketing funnel.

The 4th “P” of marketing—promotion—is your promotion strategy. 

Promotion strategies and the marketing funnel

The buyer’s journey is often visualized as a funnel divided into three sections: top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel. Customers enter their journey at the top of the funnel, then decide to purchase your product once they reach the bottom. A successful promotion strategy includes different tactics to appeal to customers in each section of the marketing funnel. 

Here’s a breakdown of the marketing funnel, with example promotion strategies for each section: 

Top of funnel

When a customer is at the top of the funnel, they know the problem they want to solve and are looking for a solution. They may not know your product exists yet, so at this stage your promotion strategy should grab the customer’s attention and build awareness about your brand and your product. 

Example promotion strategies: TV ads, event sponsorships, content marketing  

Middle of funnel

In the middle of the funnel, customers weigh your product against other available options. To keep them in the funnel, you need to show how your product is different from the competition and convince customers that your product is the best option. Here, your promotion strategy should create an emotional connection and show how your product can specifically resolve customer pain points. 

Example promotion strategies: Customer reviews, free samples, case studies

Bottom of funnel

Customers decide if they want to purchase your product when they’re in the bottom of the funnel. To target bottom-of-funnel customers, your promotion strategy should prompt people to take action.

Example promotion strategies: Special deals, email offers, flexible return policies

12 types of marketing promotion strategies, with examples

There are lots of ways to promote a product. If you’re looking for inspiration, we’ve laid out 12 different types of promotion strategies below. 

1. Paid advertising

Paid advertising is often the first type of promotion that comes to mind. This straightforward strategy involves paying to show an advertisement in a specific place at a specific time, so you can capture the attention of your target market. It’s a great way to build brand awareness and introduce your brand to people who may not have heard of it before. 

Here are some examples of paid advertising:  

Television ads

Newspaper and magazine ads

Online display ads (for example, through Google or social media)

2. Content marketing 

Content marketing is a common type of digital promotion strategy, focused on distributing valuable content in order to attract and retain an audience. The idea behind content marketing is this: It associates your brand with useful, relevant content that helps customers solve issues—building trust over time and ultimately encouraging customers to buy your products. Content marketing is a great promotional tool for any company, but it’s especially helpful for businesses with longer sales cycles, like B2B and SaaS companies. For these companies, content marketing helps provide enough customer education for buyers to make informed purchase decisions.

Content marketing comes in many forms, including: 

Social media posts

Email newsletters

Whitepapers or reports

Content created to improve SEO (search engine optimization)

3. Sponsorships

Sponsorships involve aligning your company with another brand—like an event, TV program, charity, or even a celebrity. For example, Pepsi routinely sponsors the Super Bowl, while Red Bull sponsors NASCAR and extreme athletes of all kinds. Nowadays, sponsorships often include social media influencer marketing—creating partnerships with individuals who became famous through social media platforms like Instagram or Youtube. 

The goal of a sponsorship is to boost your brand’s public image and credibility. Aligning yourself with another brand can drive media exposure, improve public relations, and expand your audience—plus make you stand out from the competition. 

4. Email marketing

Email marketing helps you connect with your target audience via—you guessed it—email. You can send emails to any subscribers on your mailing list—whether they’re potential customers, loyal customers, or something in between. For example, you can collect email addresses from potential customers by offering free products or services in exchange for their information. 

There are lots of things you can send via email, including: 

Newsletters and exclusive content

Information about product releases

Special deals and coupons

5. Retargeting

Retargeting focuses on customers (or potential customers) with high purchase intent. In other words, it involves targeting segments of your customer base who’ve already made it down to the bottom of the marketing funnel. Prioritizing retargeting can help you get a high return on your investment, since this audience is already primed and ready to buy. 

For example, retargeting could include: 

Sending reminder emails to customers who filled up an online shopping cart but didn’t check out.

Showing targeted advertisements to customers who purchased your products in the past. 

Sending nurture emails to people who purchased something a while ago but haven’t been back. 

6. Referral marketing

Referral marketing is when you get customers to tell their friends about your brand. Also known as word-of-mouth marketing, referral marketing happens organically when you have a great product—but you can also speed it along with special deals and incentives for customers who refer their connections. 

Referral marketing is a powerful strategy because it’s virtually free. And since people tend to trust their friends, referred customers are more likely to actually purchase your product than someone who just sees an ad. For example, Dropbox used referral marketing to permanently increase signups by 60 percent —eventually growing into a multi-billion dollar startup. 

7. Event marketing

Event marketing involves participating in, sponsoring, or hosting events in order to promote your brand or product. This strategy helps you connect and engage with customers first-hand, so they can get a real sense of your product and what your brand represents. Not only that, but events can help you build your brand presence, generate leads, and generate goodwill with customers. 

Event marketing comes in many forms, including: 

Conferences

Trade shows

Seminars and classes

Virtual events

Live streaming events

Community events

8. Special Causes 

Aligning your brand with a special cause makes customers feel like they’re part of something bigger. They’re not just helping themselves by purchasing your products—they’re also helping make the world a better place. This can help boost brand loyalty and give customers a reason to choose your brand over competitors. 

The clothing company Patagonia is a great example of this. By promoting their sustainable manufacturing processes, Patagonia attracts and retains customers who believe in environmental preservation. 

9. Customer reviews

Customer reviews are one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Brands like Amazon, Yelp, and TripAdvisor built their businesses out of reviews—generating trust by promoting customer feedback. The beauty of this strategy is that it encourages customers to promote your brand for you. And as long as you have a high-quality product (and positive reviews), this type of user generated content can go a long way in convincing potential customers to purchase. 

Collecting customer reviews often happens organically, but you can speed it along by specifically requesting reviews from current customers via email or website banners. Some newer brands also seed reviews by sending products to customers in exchange for their honest feedback. 

10. Customer loyalty programs

Customer loyalty programs reward people who repeatedly interact with your brand. It’s a way to keep customers coming back by offering deals, discounts, and exclusive product launches. The more customers purchase from your company, the more perks they earn. For example, the beauty company Sephora promotes a loyalty program that offers discounts and gifts to customers who spend a certain amount.

Loyalty programs don’t just boost customer retention—they also help convince potential buyers to choose your brand over competitors. By promoting loyalty programs, you demonstrate ways customers can save money and get more bang from their buck over time. 

11. Free samples, giveaways, and trials

Everyone loves free stuff. Giving away samples of your product can help promote customer satisfaction and make customers feel like they’re getting a great deal. But most importantly, free samples and trials give potential customers first-hand experience with your product—and therefore the confidence to actually buy it later on. 

To employ this promotion strategy, companies can: 

Offer a trial period so customers can try out the product risk free. Gyms, apps, and online software companies often do this. 

Offer free samples for customers who visit stores in person. The warehouse club Costco is famous for using this method. 

Include free samples when customers purchase a product. This method can encourage existing customers to try new products. For example, online beauty suppliers like Glossier often include free skincare and makeup samples with every purchase. 

Organize contests with free prizes. This is a good way to collect contact information from potential customers. For example, a hotel company might encourage potential customers to enter their contact information for a chance to win a free vacation. 

12. Coupons and deals

Special deals can help you capture customers at the bottom of the marketing funnel—people who are deciding whether or not to purchase your product. Deals work in two ways: First, they create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to act quickly before the deal is over. Second, they help customers save money and feel like they’re getting a high return on their investment. 

The types of deals you can offer are endless. Here are some examples: 

Special intro offers for first-time customers

Bundling products together and offering them at a discount (for example, a 10-pack of socks)

Buy one, get one free deals

Seasonal sales and discounts (like Black Friday promotions)

Discounts on special item categories

Birthday coupons for customers

Free shipping for customers who spend over a certain amount

Best practices for a successful promotion strategy

Even the most innovative promotion strategies can fail if they’re not executed correctly. Here’s how to set yours up for success: 

Keep promotions simple: The best promotions strategies are simple and easy for customers to understand. You don’t want to make them spend a lot of effort figuring out what an advertisement means or how to redeem a deal. Instead, promotions should feel almost effortless—so customers don’t give up and decide to spend their money somewhere else. For example, keep sales promotion emails simple and to the point. Instead of cluttering the page with text, highlight the deal and include a call to action button so customers can click through and redeem directly. 

Measure results and be ready to change your strategy: Not all promotions work as expected. That means it’s important to routinely track metrics and measure how your strategy is performing—for example, with A/B tests or split tests. This helps you avoid wasting time on marketing efforts that aren’t working anymore, and quickly adapt when the market environment changes. 

Re-merchandise your product and homepage for promotions: People get used to seeing your homepage and product a certain way. Re-merchandising means mixing up your creative strategy and changing the look and feel of your homepage or product landing page to grab customers’ attention. For example, an e-commerce business could add new visual elements to their homepage to draw attention to promotions. 

Create a distinctive brand: There are a lot of products in the market, so chances are you need to compete for your audience’s attention. That means it’s important to focus on brand differentiation—demonstrating how your brand is better than the competition, and what you can offer that other companies can’t. For example, the grocery chain Whole Foods set their brand apart by promoting a healthier approach to eating and living—plus creating a visually appealing shopping experience. 

Provide a good customer experience: Your promotion strategy isn’t over once customers make a purchase. Instead of just focusing on attracting new customers, make sure existing customers have a good experience and want to come back to your brand later on. Create a customer journey map to plot how people think, act, and feel throughout the buying process—then see what improvements you can make. This might include better customer service, a more seamless checkout process, or even welcome emails and ongoing communications to maintain customer relationships over time. 

Strategize your way to success

A solid promotion strategy is key for any great marketing campaign , digital marketing strategy , or go to market (GTM) strategy . As you craft your approach, keep in mind that the 12 examples in this article don’t need to stand on their own. You can combine different tactics to catch customers’ attention at every stage of the buyer’s journey—whether they’re new to your brand, weighing your product against the competition, or returning for a repeat purchase. 

To run a successful promotion strategy, you need to coordinate work with many different stakeholders. Keep tasks organized with a marketing strategy template, which can help you plan goals, allocate resources, and clarify strategy owners—all in one place.

Related resources

Write better AI prompts: A 4-sentence framework

How to find alignment on AI

What is content marketing? A complete guide

Grant management: A nonprofit’s guide

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

Published: December 27, 2023

For a while now, you've been spearheading your organization's content marketing efforts, and your team's performance has convinced management to adopt the content marketing strategies you’ve suggested.

Now, your boss wants you to write and present a content marketing plan, but you‘ve never done something like that before. You don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, we've curated the best content marketing plans to help you write a concrete plan that's rooted in data and produces results. But first, we'll discuss what a marketing plan is and how some of the best marketing plans include strategies that serve their respective businesses.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. Marketing plans can include different marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, all working toward the same business goals.

The purpose of a marketing plan is to write down strategies in an organized manner. This will help keep you on track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Writing a marketing plan will help you think of each campaign‘s mission, buyer personas, budget, tactics, and deliverables. With all this information in one place, you’ll have an easier time staying on track with a campaign. You'll also discover what works and what doesn't. Thus, measuring the success of your strategy.

Featured Resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

Looking to develop a marketing plan for your business? Click here to download HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template to get started .

To learn more about how to create your marketing plan, keep reading or jump to the section you’re looking for:

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Types of marketing plans, marketing plan examples, marketing plan faqs, sample marketing plan.

If you're pressed for time or resources, you might not be thinking about a marketing plan. However, a marketing plan is an important part of your business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute resources and make decisions as your business grows.

I like to think of a marketing plan as a subset of a business plan; it shows how marketing strategies and objectives can support overall business goals.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy describes how a business will accomplish a particular goal or mission. This includes which campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software they'll use to execute that mission and track its success.

For example, while a greater plan or department might handle social media marketing, you might consider your work on Facebook as an individual marketing strategy.

A marketing plan contains one or more marketing strategies. It's the framework from which all of your marketing strategies are created and helps you connect each strategy back to a larger marketing operation and business goal.

For example, suppose your company is launching a new software product, and it wants customers to sign up. The marketing department needs to develop a marketing plan that'll help introduce this product to the industry and drive the desired signups.

The department decides to launch a blog dedicated to this industry, a new YouTube video series to establish expertise, and an account on Twitter to join the conversation around this subject. All this serves to attract an audience and convert this audience into software users.

To summarize, the business's marketing plan is dedicated to introducing a new software product to the marketplace and driving signups for that product. The business will execute that plan with three marketing strategies : a new industry blog, a YouTube video series, and a Twitter account.

Of course, the business might consider these three things as one giant marketing strategy, each with its specific content strategies. How granular you want your marketing plan to get is up to you. Nonetheless, every marketing plan goes through a particular set of steps in its creation.

Learn what they are below.

• State your business's mission.
• Determine the KPIs for this mission.
• Identify your buyer personas.
• Describe your content initiatives and strategies.
• Clearly define your plan's omissions.
• Define your marketing budget.
• Identify your competition.
• Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

1. State your business's mission.

Your first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to your marketing department, it should serve your business‘s main mission statement.

From my experience, you want to be specific, but not too specific. You have plenty of space left in this marketing plan to elaborate on how you'll acquire new customers and accomplish this mission.

Need help building your mission statement? Download this guide for examples and templates and write the ideal mission statement.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

Every good marketing plan describes how the department will track its mission‘s progress. To do so, you need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs) .

KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.

Let's take our example of a marketing mission from the above step. If part of our mission is “to attract an audience of travelers,” we might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, “organic page views” is one KPI, and we can see our number of page views grow over time.

These KPIs will come into the conversation again in step 4.

3. Identify your buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title. Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business's current and potential customers. So, all business leaders must agree on your buyer personas.

Create your buyer personas with this free guide and set of buyer persona templates.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Here's where you'll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy. Because there's a laundry list of content types and channels available to you today, you must choose wisely and explain how you'll use your content and channels in this section of your marketing plan.

When I write this section , I like to stipulate:

• Which types of content I'll create. These might include blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, and ebooks.
• How much of it I'll create. I typically describe content volume in daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly intervals. It all depends on my workflow and the short-term goals for my content.
• The goals (and KPIs) I'll use to track each type. KPIs can include organic traffic, social media traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic. Your goals should also include which pages you want to drive that traffic to, such as product pages, blog pages, or landing pages.
• The channels on which I'll distribute my content. Popular channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.
• Any paid advertising that will take place on these channels.

Build out your marketing plan with this free template.

Fill out this form to access the template., 5. clearly define your plan's omissions..

A marketing plan explains the marketing team's focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not focus on.

If there are other aspects of your business that you aren't serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content. You can’t please everyone in a single marketing campaign, and if your team isn't on the hook for something, you need to make it known.

In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made.

6. Define your marketing budget.

Whether it's freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.

You can establish your marketing budget with this kit of 8 free marketing budget templates .

7. Identify your competition.

Part of marketing is knowing whom you're marketing against. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.

Keep in mind not every competitor will pose the same challenges to your business. For example, while one competitor might be ranking highly on search engines for keywords you want your website to rank for, another competitor might have a heavy footprint on a social network where you plan to launch an account.

Easily track and analyze your competitors with this collection of ten free competitive analysis templates .

8. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it's time to explain who’s doing what. I don't like to delve too deeply into my employees’ day-to-day projects, but I know which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and more.

Now that you know why you need to build an effective marketing plan, it’s time to get to work. Starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming if you haven't done it before. That’s why there are many helpful resources that can support your first steps. We’ll share some of the best guides and templates that can help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.

Ready to make your own marketing plan? Get started using this free template.

Depending on the company you work with, you might want to create various marketing plans. We compiled different samples to suit your needs:

1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans

These plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you'll take on in a certain period.

Forbes published a marketing plan template that has amassed almost 4 million views. To help you sculpt a marketing roadmap with true vision, their template will teach you how to fill out the 15 key sections of a marketing plan, which are:

• Executive Summary
• Target Customers
• Unique Selling Proposition
• Pricing & Positioning Strategy
• Distribution Plan
• Your Offers
• Marketing Materials
• Promotions Strategy
• Online Marketing Strategy
• Conversion Strategy
• Joint Ventures & Partnerships
• Referral Strategy
• Strategy for Increasing Transaction Prices
• Retention Strategy
• Financial Projections

If you're truly lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I highly recommend using this guide to help you define your target audience, figure out how to reach them, and ensure that audience becomes loyal customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan

This type of plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish specifically on social media. A specific subtype is a paid marketing plan, which highlights paid strategies, such as native advertising, PPC, or paid social media promotions.

Shane Snow's Marketing Plan for His Book Dream Team is a great example of a social media marketing plan:

When Shane Snow started promoting his new book, "Dream Team," he knew he had to leverage a data-driven content strategy framework. So, he chose his favorite one: the content strategy waterfall. The content strategy waterfall is defined by Economic Times as a model used to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

Snow wrote a blog post about how the waterfall‘s content strategy helped him launch his new book successfully. After reading it, you can use his tactics to inform your own marketing plan. More specifically, you’ll learn how he:

• Applied his business objectives to decide which marketing metrics to track.
• Used his ultimate business goal of earning $200,000 in sales or 10,000 purchases to estimate the conversion rate of each stage of his funnel.
• Created buyer personas to figure out which channels his audience would prefer to consume his content.
• Used his average post view on each of his marketing channels to estimate how much content he had to create and how often he had to post on social media.
• Calculated how much earned and paid media could cut down the amount of content he had to create and post.
• Designed his process and workflow, built his team, and assigned members to tasks.
• Analyzed content performance metrics to refine his overall content strategy.

I use Snow's marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it's linear and builds on the step before it, creating an air-tight strategy that doesn't leave any details out.

3. Content Marketing Plan

This plan could highlight different strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you'll use content to promote your business or product.

HubSpot's Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy is a strong example of a content marketing plan:

At HubSpot, we‘ve built our marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of hundreds of employees. Along the way, we’ve learned countless lessons that shaped our current content marketing strategy. So, we decided to illustrate our insights in a blog post to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy, regardless of their team's size.

In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, you'll learn:

• What exactly content marketing is.
• Why your business needs a content marketing strategy.
• Who should lead your content marketing efforts?
• How to structure your content marketing team based on your company's size.
• How to hire the right people for each role on your team.
• What marketing tools and technology you'll need to succeed.
• What type of content your team should create, and which employees should be responsible for creating them.
• The importance of distributing your content through search engines, social media, email, and paid ads.
• And finally, the recommended metrics each of your teams should measure and report to optimize your content marketing program.

This is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size — whether you're a team of one or 100. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you'll need, what type of content you should create, and even recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns. If you're aiming to establish or boost your online presence, leveraging tools like HubSpot's drag-and-drop website builder can be extremely beneficial. It helps you create a captivating digital footprint that sets the foundation for your content marketing endeavors.

4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan

This will be a roadmap for the strategies and tactics you‘ll implement to promote a new product. And if you’re searching for an example, look no further than Chief Outsiders' Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product :

After reading this plan, you'll learn how to:

• Validate a product
• Write strategic objectives
• Identify your market
• Compile a competitive landscape
• Create a value proposition for a new product
• Consider sales and service in your marketing plan

If you're looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target one product versus its entire marketing strategy.

5. Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like we see in Venture Harbour’s Growth Marketing Plan Template :

Venture Harbour's growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. Their template has five steps intended for refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle. The five steps are:

• Experiments

I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation always feels risky and unfamiliar, but this plan creates a framework for accountability and strategy.

• Louisville Tourism
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Visit Oxnard
• Safe Haven Family Shelter
• Wright County Economic Development
• The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County
• Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Visit Billings

1. Louisville Tourism

It also divides its target market into growth and seed categories to allow for more focused strategies. For example, the plan recognizes Millennials in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville as the core of it's growth market, whereas people in Boston, Austin, and New York represent seed markets where potential growth opportunities exist. Then, the plan outlines objectives and tactics for reaching each market.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

• The plan starts with a letter from the President & CEO of the company, who sets the stage for the plan by providing a high-level preview of the incoming developments for Louisville's tourism industry
• The focus on Louisville as "Bourbon City" effectively leverages its unique cultural and culinary attributes to present a strong brand
• Incorporates a variety of data points from Google Analytics, Arrivalist, and visitor profiles to to define their target audience with a data-informed approach

2. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

For example, students who become prospects as freshman and sophomore will receive emails that focus on getting the most out of high school and college prep classes. Once these students become juniors and seniors — thus entering the consideration stage — the emails will focus more on the college application process and other exploratory content.

• The plan incorporates competitive analysis, evaluation surveys, and other research to determine the makeup of its target audience
• The plan lists each marketing program (e.g., direct mail, social media, email etc.) and supplements it with examples on the next page
• Each marketing program has its own objectives, tactics, and KPIs for measuring success

3. Visit Oxnard

This marketing plan by Visit Oxnard, a convention and visitors bureau, is packed with all the information one needs in a marketing plan: target markets, key performance indicators, selling points, personas, marketing tactics by channel, and much more.

It also articulates the organization’s strategic plans for the upcoming fiscal year, especially as it grapples with the aftereffects of the pandemic. Lastly, it has impeccable visual appeal, with color-coded sections and strong branding elements.

• States clear and actionable goals for the coming year
• Includes data and other research that shows how their team made their decisions
• Outlines how the team will measure the success of their plan

4. Safe Haven Family Shelter

This marketing plan by a nonprofit organization is an excellent example to follow if your plan will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization. It includes SMART marketing goals , deadlines, action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages , and metrics.

The plan is detailed, yet scannable. By the end of it, one can walk away with a strong understanding of the organization’s strategic direction for its upcoming marketing efforts.

• Confirms ongoing marketing strategies and objectives while introducing new initiatives
• Uses colors, fonts, and formatting to emphasize key parts of the plan
• Closes with long-term goals, key themes, and other overarching topics to set the stage for the future

5. Wright County Economic Development

Wright County Economic Development’s plan drew our attention because of its simplicity, making it good inspiration for those who’d like to outline their plan in broad strokes without frills or filler.

It includes key information such as marketing partners, goals, initiatives, and costs. The sections are easy to scan and contain plenty of information for those who’d like to dig into the details. Most important, it includes a detailed breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative — which is critical information to include for upper-level managers and other stakeholders.

• Begins with a quick paragraph stating why the recommended changes are important
• Uses clear graphics and bullet points to emphasize key points
• Includes specific budget data to support decision-making

6. The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

This marketing plan presentation by a cultural council is a great example of how to effectively use data in your plan, address audiences who are new to the industry, and offer extensive detail into specific marketing strategies.

For instance, an entire slide is dedicated to the county’s cultural tourism trends, and at the beginning of the presentation, the organization explains what an arts and culture agency is in the first place.

That’s a critical piece of information to include for those who might not know. If you’re addressing audiences outside your industry, consider defining terms at the beginning, like this organization did.

• Uses quality design and images to support the goals and priorities in the text
• Separate pages for each big idea or new strategy
• Includes sections for awards and accomplishments to show how the marketing plan supports wider business goals
• Defines strategies and tactics for each channel for easy skimming

7. Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau

Cabarrus County’s convention and visitors bureau takes a slightly different approach with its marketing plan, formatting it like a magazine for stakeholders to flip through. It offers information on the county’s target audience, channels, goals, KPIs, and public relations strategies and initiatives.

We especially love that the plan includes contact information for the bureau’s staff members, so that it’s easy for stakeholders to contact the appropriate person for a specific query.

• Uses infographics to expand on specific concepts, like how visitors benefit a community
• Highlights the team members responsible for each initiative with a photo to emphasize accountability and community
• Closes with an event calendar for transparency into key dates for events

8. Visit Billings

Visit Billing’s comprehensive marketing plan is like Cabarrus County’s in that it follows a magazine format. With sections for each planned strategy, it offers a wealth of information and depth for internal stakeholders and potential investors.

We especially love its content strategy section, where it details the organization’s prior efforts and current objectives for each content platform.

At the end, it includes strategic goals and budgets — a good move to imitate if your primary audience would not need this information highlighted at the forefront.

• Includes a section on the buyer journey, which offers clarity on the reasoning for marketing plan decisions
• Design includes call-outs for special topics that could impact the marketing audience, such as safety concerns or "staycations"
• Clear headings make it easy to scan this comprehensive report and make note of sections a reader may want to return to for more detail

What is a typical marketing plan?

In my experience, most marketing plans outline the following aspects of a business's marketing:

• Target audience

Each marketing plan should include one or more goals, the path your team will take to meet those goals, and how you plan to measure success.

For example, if I were a tech startup that's launching a new mobile app, my marketing plan would include:

• Target audience or buyer personas for the app
• Outline of how app features meet audience needs
• Competitive analysis
• Goals for conversion funnel and user acquisition
• Marketing strategies and tactics for user acquisition

Featured resource : Free Marketing Plan Template

What should a good marketing plan include?

A good marketing plan will create a clear roadmap for your unique marketing team. This means that the best marketing plan for your business will be distinct to your team and business needs.

That said, most marketing plans will include sections for one or more of the following:

• Clear analysis of the target market
• A detailed description of the product or service
• Strategic marketing mix details (such as product, price, place, promotion)
• Measurable goals with defined timelines

This can help you build the best marketing plan for your business.

A good marketing plan should also include a product or service's unique value proposition, a comprehensive marketing strategy including online and offline channels, and a defined budget.

Featured resource : Value Proposition Templates

What are the most important parts of a marketing plan?

When you‘re planning a road trip, you need a map to help define your route, step-by-step directions, and an estimate of the time it will take to get to your destination. It’s literally how you get there that matters.

Like a road map, a marketing plan is only useful if it helps you get to where you want to go. So, no one part is more than the other.

That said, you can use the list below to make sure that you've added or at least considered each of the following in your marketing plan:

• Marketing goals
• Executive summary
• Target market analysis
• Marketing strategies

What questions should I ask when making a marketing plan?

Questions are a useful tool for when you‘re stuck or want to make sure you’ve included important details.

Try using one or more of these questions as a starting point when you create your marketing plan:

• Who is my target audience?
• What are their needs, motivations, and pain points?
• How does our product or service solve their problems?
• How will I reach and engage them?
• Who are my competitors? Are they direct or indirect competitors?
• What are the unique selling points of my product or service?
• What marketing channels are best for the brand?
• What is our budget and timeline?
• How will I measure the success of marketing efforts?

How much does a marketing plan cost?

Creating a marketing plan is mostly free. But the cost of executing a marketing plan will depend on your specific plan.

Marketing plan costs vary by business, industry, and plan scope. Whether your team handles marketing in-house or hires external consultants can also make a difference. Total costs can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. This is why most marketing plans will include a budget.

Featured resource : Free Marketing Budget Templates

What is a marketing plan template?

A marketing plan template is a pre-designed structure or framework that helps you outline your marketing plan.

It offers a starting point that you can customize for your specific business needs and goals. For example, our template includes easy-to-edit sections for:

• Business summary
• Business initiatives
• Target market
• Market strategy
• Marketing channels
• Marketing technology

Let’s create a sample plan together, step by step.

Follow along with HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template .

1. Create an overview or primary objective.

Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience’s valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.

For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:

We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform].

The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.

Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.

• Profession:
• Background:
• Pain points:
• Social media platforms that they use:
• Streaming platforms that they prefer:

For more useful strategies, consider creating a buyer persona in our Make My Persona tool .

Our content pillars will be: [X, Y, Z].

Content pillars should be based on topics your audience needs to know. If your ideal clients are female entrepreneurs, then your content pillars can be: marketing, being a woman in business, remote working, and productivity hacks for entrepreneurs.

Then, determine any omissions.

This marketing plan won’t be focusing on the following areas of improvement: [A, B, C].

5. Define your marketing budget.

Our marketing strategy will use a total of [Y] monthly. This will include anything from freelance collaborations to advertising.

6. Identify your competitors.

I like to work through the following questions to clearly indicate who my competitors are:

• Which platforms do they use the most?
• How does their branding differentiate?
• How do they talk to their audiences?
• What valuable assets do customers talk about? And if they are receiving any negative feedback, what is it about?

7. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

Create responsible parties for each portion of the plan.

Marketing will manage the content plan, implementation, and community interaction to reach the KPIs.

• Social media manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Content strategist: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Community manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Sales will follow the line of the marketing work while creating and implementing an outreach strategy.

• Sales strategists: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Sales executives: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Customer Service will nurture clients’ relationships to ensure that they have what they want. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Project Managers will track the progress and team communication during the project. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Get started on your marketing plan.

These marketing plans serve as initial resources to get your content marketing plan started. But, to truly deliver what your audience wants and needs, you'll likely need to test some different ideas out, measure their success, and then refine your goals as you go.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure t o learn more about how we use AI.

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Strategic Marketing Plan Template & Examples

Imagine setting out to climb Mt. Everest guided only by intuition. You wouldn’t make it very far without a detailed plan (and an experienced sherpa) to guide the way. 

Marketing may not be an extreme sport with life-or-death consequences, but you’ve got big goals to reach nonetheless. And your team’s success relies on a lot more than gut instinct. 

That’s why a strategic marketing plan is a must, no matter your industry. Think of it as the roadmap that gets your business where it needs to go each and every year. 

Drafting your first marketing plan can feel intimidating, but don’t worry. We’ll walk you through the basics, show you what a strategic marketing plan looks like, and even give you a couple of free templates to get started. Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is a strategic marketing plan?

Essential elements of a strategic marketing plan, free marketing plan templates and examples.

Let’s start from square one and define what a strategic marketing plan is. 

A strategic marketing plan is a formal document that guides your team’s marketing efforts throughout the year. It maps your annual marketing goals to your company’s overall business objectives, while also outlining how you’ll spend your yearly marketing budget.

A good marketing plan clearly outlines:

• Your target market and key competitors
• Major goals for the year and how they’ll help you get ahead
• Key results that serve as indicators for success
• How you’ll use your money and resources to meet your goals 

Keep in mind that your plan may vary based on your industry and goals. Length and format don’t matter as much as the details you include. Do your research, and make it as easy as possible for company leaders to understand how your strategic marketing plan helps business grow.

What’s the difference between a marketing strategy vs. marketing plan?

A marketing strategy details how you’ll execute a piece of your marketing plan with a specific tactical goal in mind. You might do this by launching an email or social media campaign, publishing a blog series, offering a special promo, or hosting a live event. 

A marketing plan , on the other hand, is the high-level framework that drives all your marketing strategies. It’s a big-picture look at the who, what, and why behind your marketing goals, with a focus on tying them to larger organizational objectives. 

No two marketing plans are exactly the same, but they do share some common threads. Here are 6 important elements you’ll want to identify and research before you build out your next strategic marketing plan.

• Business objectives

Everything you do as a marketing team should support your company’s overall strategy and goals. So summarize your organization’s business objectives, and let it serve as your marketing plan’s true north. Your team and stakeholders should be able to clearly see how the marketing strategies and goals you outline in your plan align with your company’s top priorities.  

• SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis breaks down your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This enables you to assess both the internal and external factors that influence your success so you can build targeted strategies that close gaps and drive results. 

• Strengths and weaknesses : Take stock of your organization’s inner workings. Where does your team or company really shine? What’s working well, and what needs to be improved? Do you have any resource limitations?
• Opportunities and threats : Now look outward to consider your market and competition. Where do you have a chance to push ahead? Where are you struggling to keep up? Are there any market changes to consider?
• Market research

Research is the core of any marketing plan because it’s what you’ll use to shape your goals and strategy. Don’t be afraid to dive deep into the details here. A well-researched marketing plan is worth the time invested. 

Focusing your research energy on these areas will equip you with a solid base for smart marketing decisions.

It’s important to understand major movements in the industry you’re marketing to so you have a feel for the pulse of the market. Thoroughly research the industry your organization works in, and be sure to report on the general climate, as well as any noteworthy happenings. If your company serves any subindustries, don’t forget to include them in your analysis too. 

Target market

Marketing to the masses rarely pays off. That’s why narrowing down your target audience is a must for any marketing plan. Consider it the filter you run every marketing strategy through. 

The more specific you can get, the better. Answering questions like these can help you paint a clear picture of your ideal buyer so you know how to focus your resources for a bigger impact on the people you want to reach.

• What are your ideal buyer’s key demographics (e.g., age, location, job title)?
• What do they care about (e.g., interests, values)?
• What are their biggest challenges or pain points? 
• Where does your ideal buyer hang out (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn, industry conferences or events)?

Competitive analysis

It’s also important to understand who and what you’re up against when it comes to attracting your perfect buyer. Identify the key players in your space, and give a brief rundown of what they’re doing to win. This groundwork will make it easier to see how to differentiate yourself from the competition. 

• Strategic marketing goals

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to talk strategy. Outline your strategic marketing goals for the year, and briefly explain how these strategies support company-wide goals. Use a gantt chart to establish a timeline for each goal and monitor results along the way. This is an easy way to set expectations and keep your team and stakeholders in the loop.

• Key marketing metrics

Metrics are where the rubber meets the road in your marketing plan. Use your market research to define specific KPIs or key marketing metrics that will serve as your measure for success. This will help you track progress so you know if you need to change course mid-project to ensure you hit your strategic marketing goals.

• Marketing channels

Marketing channels are the vehicles you’ll use to reach your target audience and grow your brand. Choose your channels wisely based on where you expect to get the most bang for your marketing buck. Briefly explain the purpose of each channel and how it supports your overall marketing strategy and business goals. 

Want to build a more detailed plan for each marketing channel so you can bring your ideas to life? Check out our free social media strategy plan and editorial content plan templates for more information on planning by channel. 

Marketing budget

Establishing a monthly budget for your marketing plan—and tracking it along the way—helps you maximize ROI and identify wasted spend before it drains your marketing dollars. 

Start by listing any ongoing expenses you have so you know what you can afford to spend on new initiatives. Then do your best to estimate any new costs you expect in the coming year. Don’t forget to account for any new hires, freelance workers, or third-party agencies you might need to rely on to get the work done. 

Not sure where to start? We’ve got you! Here are a few examples of how you might structure a marketing plan so you can easily start writing your own. 

Your marketing plan may shake out differently depending on the industry you work in or the goals you’re focused on. Use these marketing plan templates and samples as a guide to jumpstart the process and come up with a marketing plan structure that works for you. 

Google Docs marketing plan template and example

The most common way to create a marketing plan is simply to write it out as a text document. This format enables you to freely elaborate on any research findings you gathered during discovery, while also making a clear case for the marketing goals you’ve set for the year.

We put together a free Google Docs marketing plan template to help you save time so you can get your planning process off the ground faster. This marketing plan example is perfect for documenting and sharing the full scope of your strategic marketing plan with your team and stakeholders.

Here’s a basic breakdown of what the Google Docs marketing plan template covers:

• Company mission

Save a copy of the template to your Google Drive or download it as a Word document, and customize it to fit your own strategic marketing plan needs.  ‍

Use template in Google Docs

Gantt chart marketing plan template and examples

A plan’s no good if you set it and forget it. That’s where a gantt chart comes in handy. Use this free gantt chart marketing plan template to track your strategic marketing plan all the way to success. 

A gantt chart is a great way to lay your marketing plan out in a simple, visual timeline that’s easy to update as work progresses. It gives you a high-level view of your plan’s major goals and strategies, while enabling you to collaborate on and share your plan with your team and stakeholders.

How you use a gantt chart to put your plan into action is up to you. Build a timeline for the tasks you need to complete as you develop your marketing plan, like the example below. 

Once you’ve fleshed out the details of your marketing plan, you can use a gantt chart to define and track your strategic marketing goals. For example, you could break your marketing plan down by quarter to show when specific objectives will come into play and update progress as you close in on your goal. Here’s how that might look.

Use template in TeamGantt

Ready to build a strategic marketing plan of your own? 

We’ve created a free marketing plan template for you in TeamGantt so you can jump right in!

Customizing the template is quick and easy, thanks to TeamGantt’s drag and drop simplicity. And since everything’s online, your whole team can collaborate on activities in real time.

Here are a few pointers to help you get the most out of our free TeamGantt strategic marketing plan template.

Drag and drop tasks to schedule your plan

Configuring your marketing plan is as easy as dragging and dropping tasks—or entire task groups—into their new rightful place. Click and drag the edges of each taskbar to set a new task duration. 

Communicate with comments 

Collaboration is easy with TeamGantt's discussion feature . Share documents and chat with your team directly from a task’s Comments section. Use Notes to communicate important information—like goals, target audience, and budget—at the project level. 

Have a more formal marketing plan document? Attach the file or link to your project so everyone has easy access to it.

Share a copy with stakeholders

Plans are meant to be shared, so we made it easy to keep even the most inquisitive stakeholders in the loop. Export your plan to a printer-friendly PDF , or share a view-only link to your project so stakeholders can see your marketing plan progress in real time. 

Sign up for a free TeamGantt account today , and save time on project setup with this free marketing plan template!

Free Marketing Strategy Templates

By Joe Weller | November 21, 2022

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We've compiled marketing strategy templates in a variety of formats that are completely free to download. Each template details a marketing mix and channels that can help you achieve objectives and gain a competitive advantage. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a marketing strategy template , a basic marketing strategy template , and a marketing strategy slide deck template .

Marketing Strategy Template

Download a Marketing Strategy Template with Sample Data for Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Docs | Google Sheets

Download a Blank Marketing Strategy Template for Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Docs | Google Sheets  

Outline your marketing strategy to achieve campaign objectives with this template. You’ll find space to describe the buyer's buying cycle and unique value proposition. This template also features an expanded marketing mix table to list action, ownership, and cost information for all seven parts. 

Outline your plan to align marketing and business objectives with a variety of free marketing plan templates .

Basic Marketing Strategy Template

Download a Basic Marketing Strategy Template for  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs

Use this basic template to describe your marketing strategy, objectives, competitive advantage, and more specifics in detail. This template features space for a standard four-part marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. The bottom table of this template allows you to list the action, owner, date, and cost for the marketing channels your strategy requires for success. 

Engage your target audience and track demand with this collection of free digital marketing plan templates .

Marketing Strategy Slide Deck Template

Download a Marketing Strategy Slide Deck Template for  PowerPoint | Google Slides

Present your marketing strategy, objectives, competitive advantage, and more to stakeholders with this slide deck template. You can map the essential seven-part marketing mix, marketing channel descriptions, and cost estimates. Use this marketing strategy template to share important information and get buy-in to your overall marketing plan. 

Check out this collection of free go-to-market strategy and plan templates to ensure a successful product launch.

What Is a Marketing Strategy Template?

A marketing strategy template is a document that an agency uses to describe a marketing plan in detail to stakeholders. These templates map marketing strategies to meet client and customer needs and objectives in order to achieve a competitive advantage.

What Should Be Included in a Marketing Strategy Template?

A marketing strategy template should include details about buying cycles, branding, marketing mix, and more. The template should lay out an action plan that provides an overview of marketing activities that will achieve business objectives. 

A marketing strategy template typically includes the following items:

• Buyer's Buying Cycle: This section addresses how customers go through a cycle of awareness, consideration, and intent before purchasing a product or service.
• Unique Value Proposition: This statement describes how a product or service differs from the competition and meets customer needs.
• Branding: This marketing tool uses brand identity to promote market perception and a positive trust relationship with customers.
• Marketing Mix: This model outlines a comprehensive strategy into these fundamental marketing terms: product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.
• Marketing Channels: Firms use channels such as digital advertising, partnerships, social media, and search engine optimization for marketing products or services to consumers.
• Marketing Budget: A budget strives to earn the highest return on financing for a marketing strategy to achieve sales objectives.

Track the Progress of Your Marketing Strategy with Smartsheet

The best marketing teams know the importance of effective campaign management, consistent creative operations, and powerful event logistics -- and Smartsheet helps you deliver on all three so you can be more effective and achieve more. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Don't bother with copy and paste.

Get this complete sample business plan as a free text document.

Promotional Products Maker Business Plan

Start your own promotional products maker business plan

Elsewares Promotional Products & Packaging

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

Introduction

A market exists within the advertising specialty industry for velour and leatherette drawstring bags, eyeglass bags, jewelry bags & pen bags to hold various promotional products to increase their perceived value. Elsewares Promotional Products & Packaging (EPPP) has been established to supply these logo imprinted products to advertising specialty distributors who, in turn, market these products to the end user.

The Products

Elsewares intends to develop an inventory of unique products and drawstring packaging products that can add perceived value to those products. These products, which will be sourced from Mexico and the Far East, will be imprinted in-house with various company logos before they are shipped to the distributors.

By joining the Advertising Specialties Institute trade association, Elsewares will have print and electronic access to a network of 13,000 to 14,000 ASI-listed advertising specialty distributors, part of a $7 billion a year industry. This ranks only behind television and newsprint in terms of advertising dollars spent. Elsewares will market their products exclusively through these distributors and will not sell directly to end users. Elsewares intends to reach those distributors through advertisements in trade publications, through an in-house sales force, and a network of salaried and commission-based sales reps.

Concurrent with our campaign to market these packaging products, we will showcase our line of unique promotional products to the same distributors, thus giving ourselves three sales opportunities: the sale of the promotional product by itself; the sale of some packaging products that the distributor can use with promotional items that are purchased from other suppliers; and the sale of our promotional product coupled with our packaging.

Sales in the advertising specialties industry have been growing at a rate of almost 7% per year for the past decade and reached over $7 billion in sales last year. This is a very mature industry that is crowded with suppliers and distributors. Within that industry, the three suppliers that offer only velour and leatherette drawstring bags did a combined $2,500,000 in sales. Those three suppliers are located on the East Coast while some of largest advertising specialty distributors in the industry are Midwest and West Coast firms. We feel that by concentrating our efforts on marketing to the West Coast distributors, many of which already have had positive business relationships with our personnel, we will acquire a significant market share of the packaging niche over the next three years.

Financial Considerations

A portion of our initial startup costs will be used to purchase inventory, office equipment, and imprinting machinery. The balance will be used for catalog costs and initial advertising expenses. Additionally, we project the need for additional financial commitment to finance receivables and payroll expenses for the first 12 months of operation.

Elsewares intends to concentrate its sales force in the western United States and to reach a respectable sales level by the end of Year 2. With our per month fixed cost estimate and anticipated monthly unit sales we should hit running monthly break-even after the fourth month.

Elsewares is seeking a financial package based on a note due in five years, but amortized over 15 years. The note will be personally guaranteed by the founder’s assets. By amortizing the note over 15 years, the company will be afforded the opportunity to establish a healthy track record which will enable the company to seek alternate financing for the balance. It should be noted that the owners of Elsewares do not intend to take any profits out of the business until the long-term debt has been satisfied. Whatever profits remain after the above debt payments will be used to finance growth, mainly through the acquisition of additional inventory.

1.1 Objectives

Presently, the three leading suppliers of imprinted pouches to advertising specialty distributors are located on the East Coast and are doing a combined $2,500,000 solely in the sales of pouches. Elsewares intends to concentrate its sales force in the western United States and to reach a respectable sales level by the end of Year 2. Elsewares intends to factor our growth by diversifying into unique promotional product offerings which will be attractive as advertising specialties in their own right, or packaged in a drawstring pouch which we can also provide.

1.2 Mission

1.3 keys to success.

Elsewares management believes that it has the right products and the right people to attract a loyal customer base. But most importantly, it is our business philosophy that will ensure success. The advertising specialty industry demands that products be delivered on time and with high quality imprinting. Pursuant to these demands:

Elsewares will satisfy this demand by maintaining acceptable inventory levels that will be delivered on time according to pre-arranged shipping schedules.

Elsewares will institute a quality control procedure for overseeing the on-site imprinting facility to ensure an acceptable imprint quality.

In addition to offering a complete line of velour packaging products, Elsewares will offer a unique line of promotional products that will encourage advertising specialty distributors to think of our company first when looking for original products.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

Elsewares is a new company to be established based on this plan.

2.1 Start-up Summary

Our initial startup costs will include the purchase of inventory, office equipment, and imprinting machinery, as well as catalog costs and initial advertising expenses. Additionally, we project the need for a further financial commitment to finance receivables and payroll expenses for the first 12 months of operation.

2.2 Company Locations and Facilities

This is proprietary information, omitted on this sample plan, not relevant for purpose of examples.

2.3 Company Ownership

This is proprietary information, omitted on this sample plan.

The product and service description in this sample plan has been omitted because it contains proprietary and strategic information. In the original plan, products and services were described in detail.

3.1 Product Description

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3.2 Competitive Comparison

3.3 sourcing, 3.4 technology, 3.5 future products, 3.6 sales literature, market analysis summary how to do a market analysis for your business plan.">.

By definition, the advertising specialties industry deals with the sale of promotional products. These products can be practical, informative, entertaining and/or decorative products most often imprinted with the sponsoring advertiser’s name, logo, slogan, or message, and almost always retained and appreciated by the end recipients who received them free of charge.

Sales in the advertising specialties industry have been growing at a rate of almost 7% per year since 1988 and reached over $7 billion in sales last year. Within that industry, the three suppliers that offer only velour and leatherette drawstring bags did a combined $2,500,000 in sales. Those three suppliers are located on the East Coast while some of largest advertising specialty distributors in the industry are Midwest and West Coast firms. We feel that by concentrating our efforts on marketing to the West Coast distributors, many of which already have had positive business relationships with our personnel, we will acquire a significant market share of the packaging niche over the next three years.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Below are the major product segments of the advertising specialties market and their corresponding percentage of the total market as measured by large distributor dollar sales:

• Wearables [i.e. T-shirts, jackets, & caps]: 22.2%
• Writing Instruments [i.e. pens & pencils]: 13.1%
• Glassware & Ceramics [i.e. mugs]: 9.9%
• Recognition Awards [i.e. trophies, plaques, emblematic jewelry]: 9.8%
• Desk & Office Accessories: 9.2%
• Calendars: 7.8%
• Sporting Goods and Leisure Products: 6.9%
• Buttons, Badges, & Ribbons: 6.8%
• Auto Accessories [i.e. key fobs, sun screens]: 4.2%

There are presently some 2,800 suppliers listed by ASI that are selling over 390,000 different promotional products to over 13,000 advertising specialty distributors. This ASI listed distributor network serves as a large sales force for the suppliers by actively selling promotional products to the public and then directing that business to ASI listed suppliers with whom they are familiar. The ASI listed distributors offer the suppliers’ products to a multi-segmented end-user market. Below are the major segments of this market listed in order of size as measured by dollars spent:

• Clubs, Associations, & Civic Groups
• Financial [i.e. banks, investor groups, financial professionals]
• Schools and Colleges
• Service Businesses
• Insurance Agencies
• Retail Stores
• Industrial Products Companies

4.2 Industry Analysis

As you may expect, we will be entering a very mature industry that is crowded with suppliers and distributors. As with any product-oriented business, it is important to maintain a competitively priced product line. The safest way to increase overall margins will be to continuously introduce new products which will remain exclusive offerings for a period of time. When the competition has found a way to source similar products, the margins will adjust downward, driven by competitive market forces. It will be critical for Elsewares to keep one step ahead of the competition by having a new product ready for introduction when the margins slip. Thus, a new cycle of discovery will begin. We intend to be the originators and not the imitators.

Service and support may actually be more important to a majority of distributors than price points. After all, they are putting their reputations on the line when they afford our company the opportunity to fulfill their clients needs. On-time delivery of quality imprinted product will be crucial to our success.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

Our marketing strategy is to get our foot in the distributor’s door by offering them drawstring pouches as packaging products to add to the perceived value and profit on the promotional products they have already sold. Once we have established a business relationship and they have had a positive customer service experience with our company, we intend to offer them products in addition to the packaging items.

5.1 Marketing Strategy

We intend to focus on Midwest and West Coast distributors who have had to look to the East Coast as the only source of supply for their bag needs. Along with our on-time shipping commitment, we will focus on the quality and durability of our imprinting process, guaranteeing their quality so that distributors can ensure their clients that their message will be around for a while.

5.1.1 Promotion Strategy

All advertising will be disseminated through ASI publications. This will pinpoint the only market that we are attempting to reach, ASI listed distributors. We must market the product successfully to the distributor so that it is appealing enough for him to turn around and market it to the end user.

5.1.2 Distribution Strategy

Elsewares will sell its products exclusively through ASI listed distributors. Because many specialty advertising distributors are wary of doing business with suppliers whom they believe to be “dealing direct”, all direct inquiries will be directed to a distributor with whom we already have a business relationship. Distributors invest a significant portion of their selling time to finding, screening and qualifying specialty advertising buyers and convincing them that the suppliers products have a place and purpose in their activities, and are consequently predisposed to avoid doing business with suppliers who compete with them.

5.1.3 Service and Support

Offering the highest level of customer service to our distributor network will be crucial to Elsewares’ long-term success. Logo imprints will have to be of the highest quality and product shipping deadlines must be met. Because products will always be bought for a specific event or promotion, it will be important to support the distributors in resolving any legitimate conflicts between them and the end user.

5.1.4 Marketing Programs

Secondly, the same catalog will be placed in the next annual edition of Media File which is a compilation of full page ads of participating suppliers. This catalog is sent to the ASI distributors who in turn give it to their sales people to use when offering various products to the end user. In some cases, distributors also give these catalogs to buyers who do a large volume of business with them.

Thirdly, as Elsewares brings new products into their line before the next annual catalog is printed and distributed, we will introduce these products to the advertising specialty industry through postcards featuring the product on one side and our mailing address on the other. These cards are bundled with other supplier cards for mailing and then bound into The Counselor magazine about six weeks later.

Elsewares will also only hire industry experienced sales reps of the highest caliber. In many cases, they will be the only representatives to call on distributors in person and will subsequently leave a lasting impression of our company. They will not be expected to close sales, but will be expected to represent our products in a competitive atmosphere. Their loyalty will be courted and rewarded through a compensation package combining both a salary and commission.

5.1.5 Pricing Strategy

In the fifty years of business experience that we have accumulated, one message rings true: someone can always beat you on price. Therefore, our pricing strategy is to be competitive within the various product categories, but not to rely on the selling price to overshadow the other advantages of doing business with our company. We will sell ourselves on the basis of a quality-made, unique product line which is reasonably priced and backed by an extraordinary customer service department. The products will be checked prior to shipment and all promised shipping deadlines will be met.

5.2 Sales Strategy

Because Elsewares is a new entity, we understand that we will have to prove our company’s worth to distributors in order to earn their respect and business. Elsewares will promptly honor all dealer requests for product and imprinting samples. We will offer a toll-free 800 number phone line and have a full-time, dedicated customer service person to meet distributors’ needs.

While the network of sales reps is bringing our product line to the attention of the ASI listed distributors, our in-house sales department will be calling on some of the larger West Coast distributors. We have hired a consultant who has had ongoing business relationships with many of these distributors over the last 24 years and we are counting on him to help us meet our sales objectives right from the start.

5.3 Strategic Alliances

The performance of Elsewares will be indelibly linked to the performance of the distributors that purchase our product. It is therefore paramount to the fulfillment of our business objectives that we cultivate customer loyalty with a network of distributors that are both credit worthy and active in selling the types of products we offer. The Advertising Specialty Institute offers suppliers a subscription to a market and credit service that will help us to pinpoint our marketing effort along those lines.

5.4 Milestones

Sample Milestones topic text.

The milestones table and chart show the specific detail about actual program activities that should be taking place during the year. Each one has its manager, starting date, ending date, and budget. During the year we will be keeping track of implementation against plan, with reports on the timely completion of these activities as planned.

Management Summary management summary will include information about who's on your team and why they're the right people for the job, as well as your future hiring plans.">

Elsewares is organized into three main functional areas: product sourcing, sales, and marketing; production and shipping; and finance and administration.

Edie Greenbaum: President and founder. Mrs. Greenbaum ran the financial department for a start-up retail operation whose sales rose to just under one million dollars in seven years. She has also spent the last year and a half heading up the sales department of an ASI listed advertising specialties supplier. Mrs. Greenbaum holds a B.A. from U.C.L.A., is married, and is the mother of one child.

Gary Greenbaum: Co-founder. Mr. Greenbaum ran the day-to-day operations of the previously mentioned retail operation as a partner with Mrs. Greenbaum. Mr. Greenbaum holds a B.A. from Franklin & Marshal College, is married, and is the father of one child.

Marvin Rosenbaum: Consultant. Mr. Rosenbaum has been associated with the Advertising Specialties industry for just under 25 years and holds the credentials of a C.A.S. or Certified Advertising Specialist. Over the years, Mr. Rosenbaum has been hired by both suppliers and distributors that are either starting a new company, as we are, or that are attempting to penetrate the advertising specialties market with products they are already distributing to other markets. Mr. Rosenbaum has been responsible for the successful entry of many companies into this industry and has maintained extensive business contacts with many of the industry leaders. Mr. Rosenbaum is married and is the father of two children.

6.1 Personnel Plan

The cornerstone of the personnel plan is to maximize production and minimize the labor burden on the company’s operating expenses. Pursuant to that goal, the initial payroll will consist of the following disbursements:

Until increases in sales can support additional salaries, Edie Greenbaum will oversee the operations of Elsewares in an unsalaried position. Mrs. Greenbaum will be responsible for the day-to-day operations including personnel company policies, as well as overseeing the sales and marketing departments.

Mr. Greenbaum will be responsible for running the customer service department, which will include handling phone orders and catalog requests. Additionally, Mr. Greenbaum will be responsible for running the company’s computer operations and is expected to play an important role in sourcing new products.

Until increases in sales justify the additional staffing of this department, Mr. Greenbaum will be responsible for assorted secretarial duties in addition to the previously mentioned duties. We are projecting the division of this department into two positions at approximately the fourteenth month of business. Mr. Greenbaum will then shift his duties to marketing and sourcing, and a new employee will take over the customer service department and its related duties.

Elsewares will rely on part-time help for its imprinting, warehousing, and shipping labor requirements. Naturally, as the need arises, this all-encompassing area will be split into two departments. A full-time production person will run the imprinting department, while a second person will be hired to handle both shipping and receiving. We are projecting the need for this additional labor burden at approximately the eleventh month of business.

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

Elsewares is seeking a financial package based on a note due in five years, but amortized over 15 years. The note will be personally guaranteed by the Greenbaums’ assets. By amortizing the note over 15 years, the company will be afforded the opportunity to establish a healthy track record which will enable the company to seek alternate financing for the balance. In light of that strategy, Elsewares proposes the following payback schedule:

• Months 1-12: No payback of principal or interest
• Months 13-24: 15% interest plus 10% net profit
• Months 25-48: 10% interest plus 15% net profit
• Months 49-60: 10% interest plus 20% net profit

It should be noted that the owners of Elsewares do not intend to take any profits out of the business until the long-term debt has been satisfied. Whatever profits remain after the above debt payments will be used to finance growth, mainly through the acquisition of additional inventory.

7.1 Important Assumptions

General assumptions for this plan are on the following table.

7.2 Key Financial Indicators

The most important indicator in our case is inventory turnover. We have to make sure that our inventory of drawstring bags and any other packaging products turns over a minimum of five times to avoid a negative impact on our cost of goods sold and on our cash flow.

• Collection Days : These are very important. It may be necessary to implement a variety of payment terms with different distributors, depending on their payment history. In extreme cases, prepayment of orders may be the only extendible terms. We will rely heavily on our subscription to the ASI Credit Service for this valuable pre-sale information.
• Gross Margins : We must maintain gross margins of 90% at the least, and hold marketing costs to no more than 20% of sales.

7.3 Break-even Analysis

The following table and chart illustrate our break-even analysis with our per month fixed cost estimate, and what we need to sell to break-even in a month. Given the estimates, we hit running monthly break-even after the fourth month.

7.4 Projected Profit and Loss

The following table shows the projected profits. Monthly projections are included in the appendix.

7.5 Projected Cash Flow

The following table shows cash flow for the three years, and the chart illustrates monthly cash flow in the first year. Monthly cash flow projections are included in the appendix.

7.6 Projected Balance Sheet

The projected balance sheet is shown in the following table, with monthly projections in the appendix.

7.7 Business Ratios

The table shows projected business ratios. The Industry Profile columns show statistics for Standard Industry Code (SIC) #5199, Nondurable Goods.

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12 Free Marketing Plan Templates to Build a Marketing Strategy

Senior Content Marketing Manager

February 14, 2024

Marketing used to be simple.

A tuppence on a town crier and maybe an ad in the local newspaper, and you were pretty much set. Nowadays, things have gotten a little bit more complicated.

Marketers plan elaborate campaigns that sync across several mediums in real life and the digital world. This can include ads on social media, search engines, blog content, in-person events, and much more. All of this marketing requires a lot of project planning .

You can’t just throw something together and call it a day. And that’s where marketing plan templates come in. These handy little tools help you plan and coordinate your marketing strategies by doing some of the leg work for you.

Obviously, these templates can’t do everything. It’s still up to you to make big brand decisions, like whether Rihanna or Ariana is the right person to head up your event. But templates can make planning that engagement easier, set out clear to-do lists for your team, and make cross-department execution a breeze.

So regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur dipping your toes into the world of marketing or a multinational company needing help keeping your marketing efforts organized, there’s a marketing plan template for you.

This list of 12 marketing plan templates is a great place to get started. Each has its own focus, so take a moment and find which ones will help you plan your next big marketing move.

What is a Marketing Plan Template?

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A marketing plan template is an essential tool for any business to have when creating and executing a successful marketing strategy. It provides the roadmap for your marketing activities, from setting goals to choosing channels and measuring success.

These templates can also be tailored according to the needs of each organization, allowing you to focus on specific areas that need attention and provide direction for your marketing efforts. So if you need some help planning out your social media campaigns and posts for the next quarter, there’s a template ready to make that process just a little bit easier.

A good marketing plan template can be summed up in three words: organized, specialized, and helpful.

One of the main goals of any marketing strategy template is to add some much-needed order to the chaos that comes with your average marketing department. These templates help keep you organized and on track, allowing you to stay focused on what matters most: achieving success.

Great templates should also specialize in a certain kind of marketing type or task you need help with. For instance, a template could specialize in designing a marketing action plan for your company or in helping you map out your future marketing initiatives. 

Doing everything in one template would be near impossible, so specialization allows each template to be thorough without being overwhelming.

Finally, a template needs to be helpful.

The whole reason you need a template is to save you time or to help you complete a marketing task you’re less familiar with. If the template doesn’t come with smart formatting, data importation options, or expert advice, then it might just be easier to do it on your own.

12 Best Marketing Plan Templates

Marketing plans are a crucial way for businesses to create and execute a top-notch marketing strategy.

However, the process of planning can be overwhelming without the right tools. This list of 12 marketing plan templates provides an excellent starting point for any business looking to create a comprehensive and effective marketing strategy.

The ClickUp Marketing Plan Template is a powerful and customizable tool that can help teams plan and execute successful marketing strategies. This template simplifies the process of coordinating and planning your marketing efforts , allowing you to easily create an overview of your campaigns and track progress and results.

This template includes helpful sections that allow you to fill in deadlines, statuses, effort levels, impact tags, and more. It also provides real-time collaboration features so teams can easily track tasks and ensure they’re all on the same page.

Plus, this template is completely customizable based on your team’s specific needs. Add or remove any sections you need and organize your marketing plan in whatever way works best for you.

The ClickUp Marketing Plan Template is perfect for entrepreneurs, small businesses, or large companies who need an easy-to-use and comprehensive tool to organize their marketing strategies.

As a bonus, it pairs well with many of our more specific templates included on this list.

Effective marketing requires deep insights into your clients’ needs and preferences. That’s why the ClickUp Agency Client Health Tracker from Zenpilot Template is such a valuable tool for businesses. This customizable template allows agencies to track the health of their customer relationships, making it easy to manage client info and ensure that marketing efforts align with client needs.

With the ClickUp Agency Client Health Tracker, agencies can track a range of important marketing analytics , including client satisfaction levels and feedback. Armed with this information, businesses can tailor their content marketing strategy to better meet the needs of their clients.

By understanding each client’s unique preferences, businesses can create targeted campaigns that drive engagement, deliver value, and ultimately drive customer satisfaction.

Looking to get your marketing strategy off the ground—like, right now?

The Quick Start Marketing Template has been meticulously crafted to expedite your initiation into ClickUp, ensuring a seamless and efficient experience.

This particular template is equipped with an array of features that are indispensable for executing an effective marketing strategy. It includes a comprehensive marketing plan, well-structured campaigns, a content calendar for systematic planning, an asset library for easy resource management, and a team wiki to promote knowledge sharing among team members.

Take the reins of your marketing efforts and amplify your brand’s resonance today with this holistic toolset.

ClickUp serves as an all-encompassing project management tool, which enables you to strategize, coordinate, and collaborate on your projects within a singular platform. The software’s fully customizable nature empowers you to tailor every facet of your content workflow to your specific needs and preferences.

Amongst the plethora of ready-to-use templates, one that particularly excels at content planning is the ClickUp Content Management Template . Its flexibility and customizability make it a top choice for managing your unique content workflow—even if it spreads across marketing channels.

This template comes equipped with a comprehensive content calendar, facilitating seamless tracking of your content across various channels such as blogs, social media platforms, websites, or emails. A standout feature is its provision of separate calendar views for each channel.

The Content Management Template offers extensive insights into every stage of content creation and management. From receiving initial requests and constructing a detailed plan with pertinent documents to managing an editorial calendar and delivering the final content—this template has it all covered.

Let this template work as your ultimate hub for creating and managing content across multiple marketing channels, with the added advantage of having dedicated calendar views for each channel.

The ClickUp Content Production Scaling Template provides a tactical insight into the strategies employed by ClickUp’s own content team on how they successfully scaled their blog content production.

While the template primarily focuses on blog content, its versatile production workflow can be adapted for any content type. Content scaling is a highly strategic approach, favored for its effectiveness in enhancing organic traffic, lead generation, brand visibility, revenue, and much more.

And this template facilitates the continuous creation of relevant content, positioning your brand as a dependable source of information. This asset is perfect for writers, editors, or content teams looking to architect their scalable production process in their marketing strategies.

For a deeper understanding of the eight steps outlined in this template, refer to our content production scaling blog ! This will enable you to strategize effectively and navigate the template with professional proficiency.

Need a comprehensive tool for managing campaigns and promotions that provides all the necessary resources for planning, tracking, and executing your marketing initiatives?

Look no further than the ClickUp Campaign & Promotion Template . This digital marketing plan template acts as your centralized hub and facilitates a complete workflow that begins with request intake, transitions into planning with campaign brief documents, moves on to project execution with subtasks, and culminates in running the marketing plan campaign.

This template simplifies this process by consolidating the planning, execution, and monitoring of your campaigns into a single platform. Utilizing our template will enable you to:

• Structure promotional projects using task lists, timelines, and assignees
• Monitor progress via automated workflows, promoting efficient team collaboration
• Evaluate performance using customizable reporting tools
• Facilitate data-driven decision-making in on central place

Whether your objective is launching a new product to a target market or executing a special promotion, this marketing template provides the ideal template to ensure seamless and effective implementation.

With so much happening in the world today, your company needs something special to get and hold people’s attention.

Big, spectacular events are perfect for doing just this. They allow you to stand in the spotlight for a moment and get your message across in a way that’s likely to stick with people for longer than any Facebook ad or blog post could ever hope to. 

However, planning these events can take months. You’ll need coordination between multiple teams, marketing planning software , and maybe even outside contractors to pull it off.

That’s where the ClickUp Event Marketing Plan Template comes into play.

This digital marketing plan template template is the place for your team to plan your next big event. It includes tasks, budgets, and deadlines, along with multiple views, to help you track what needs to get done and who’s responsible for it across your marketing team.

Plus, this template is completely customizable if you need extra space for something more detailed—considering things like market research information, your marketing budget, or key performance indicators.

Bonus: Marketing tools for startups !

The ClickUp OKR Folder Template serves as an exhaustive planning instrument, crafted specifically to aid individuals and teams in establishing and accomplishing their objectives.

It incorporates a Planning Cadence that delineates the foundational structure for formulating OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Additionally, the template has OKR Lists that deconstruct goals into manageable tasks and continually track progression.

This systematic approach ensures teams maintain focus and direction throughout the year, ulitmately enhancing their potential for success. The digital marketing plan template is ideal to track your marketing activities to your marketing goals and metrics.

Detailing your marketing tactics is crucial—but having the numbers to back up your marketing budget or how your OKRs will help your digital marketing team reach your target audience more efficiently is crucial.

If you’re in the early stages of planning your marketing campaign or project, the ClickUp Marketing Plan Template is a fantastic resource to begin with. This customizable, user-friendly template is designed to expedite the development of your marketing plan.

Easily keep track of marketing initiatives, prioritize tasks, monitor targets, and document results.

A meticulously crafted marketing plan can be the deciding factor between success and failure in attaining your business objectives. This is why ClickUp made this template a comprehensive tool aimed at assisting you in planning, tracking, and optimizing your marketing campaigns in a singular location.

Utilizing this template allows you to:

• Establish attainable marketing objectives
• Organize tasks into actionable steps toward achieving these goals
• Monitor progress using integrated metrics and analytics

Say goodbye to disorganized spreadsheets and multiple tools. This marketing template offers the transparency and command you require to elevate your marketing endeavors to unprecedented heights.

Every good strategy needs a detailed plan, but do you need something to provide more details about how you’ll get it done?

If you want to market your product or service, you’ll need a marketing action plan to turn your ideas into actual marketing ROI . And a marketing action plan is a detailed document outlining the strategies and tactics a business will use to promote and sell its products or services.

It typically includes a target market analysis, business goals and objectives, pricing information, and any other pertinent information that may help execute the plan successfully.

ClickUp’s Marketing Action Plan Template has been designed to help you create a fully fleshed-out marketing strategy, even if you’ve never done this before.

It achieves this by running you through the main things you’ll need to understand and formulate before you can create your plan. These include:

• Defining your marketing goal s: Understand what the ultimate goal of your digital marketing plan
• Knowing your customers : Do target market and target audience research to understand what your customers are looking for, where they can be reached, and what kind of advertising might work best for them
• Auditing your current practices : Learn from what you’ve done in the past, both good and bad, to create an even better marketing strategy going forward in this marketing plan template
• Itemizing your plan : List every task that needs to be done for your strategy to succeed
• Reviewing and polishing : See if you’ve missed anything by running it by a colleague

Plus, once you itemize your plan, use ClickUp’s project management software to export those tasks and share them with your team so people can get to work realizing your marketing strategy.

It’s really that easy, and all you need to get started is this marketing plan template at the link below.

With social media marketing, consistency is key to hit your marketing goals. But creating multiple relevant posts across different distribution channels is easier said than done. The pain points and social media strategy that works on LinkedIn might not fare so well on Facebook or Instagram.

That’s why the ClickUp Social Media Template was created.

This powerful tool tracks planned posts across multiple social media platforms so you’re constantly reaching your ideal target audience on the right social media channel. Plus, since you house all of your planned content in one place, it’s easier for social media marketing or other digital marketing team members to see if you have any gaps in your social media calendar. 

For instance, instead of assuming that someone else was working on the New Year’s Eve post this year, your team can see that there are no current plans on this template and fix the omission. Get your social media content calendar in order with the template below.

Although they broadly have the same goal, it can sometimes feel like sales and marketing teams live in different worlds. They have their own metrics, strategies, and processes to help the company sell more.

However, when these departments aren’t in sync, you’re missing out on an opportunity to truly leverage the power of your entire team toward your sales and marketing goals.

That’s why the ClickUp Sales and Marketing Plan Template was created. It provides a single platform for both departments to work from, allowing easier collaboration and better alignment of business objectives—whether it’s sharing market research, providing detailed insights into your content marketing strategy, or simply outlining your marketing plans to connect with sales.

This template includes sections for sales goals, marketing plans, campaign results, and more. This way, it’s clear what roles each department plays in the grand scheme of things.

For instance, your sales team probably frequently interacts with target customers and knows what pitches work best with which demographics. Your marketing team can use that knowledge to not only market better but also to identify leads that are more likely to convert.

Get your marketing and sales departments on the same page today with our Sales and Marketing Plan Template.

A well-thought-out marketing plan can bring multiple benefits to your business, including:

• Increased brand awareness : A strong digital marketing strategy can help you reach new customers and make more people aware of your brand, while collecting market research for future projects
• Improved customer engagement : By creating targeted and relevant content for your audience, you can engage with them on a deeper level and build stronger relationships
• Higher conversions : With a clear marketing strategy in place, you can attract more qualified leads and convert them into paying customers
• Better market positioning: A solid marketing strategy can help you stand out from your competitors and establish your brand as a leader in the industry
• Increased ROI : By tracking your marketing goals and efforts and refining your digital marketing strategy, you can see a higher return on your investment
• Enhanced teamwork and communication : With a marketing plan in place, all team members can be on the same page and work towards common goals, leading to better collaboration and communication

Now that you understand the importance of having a strong marketing strategy, here are some tips for writing and implementing an effective marketing plan:

• Define your business goals : Determine what you want to achieve through your marketing efforts, whether it’s increasing sales, improving brand awareness or launching a new product
• Identify your target audience : Understand who your ideal customers are and what their needs and preferences are. This will help you create targeted and relevant marketing campaigns
• Conduct a SWOT analysis : Evaluate your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to identify areas where you can improve and capitalize on potential opportunities with effective SWOT analysis
• Set a marketing budget : Determine how much you can realistically spend on marketing activities and allocate resources accordingly to reach your marketing goals
• Choose your marketing channels : Based on your target audience and business goals, select the most effective marketing channels to reach them
• Create a timeline and deadlines : Set specific timelines for each marketing campaign or activity to ensure that everything is completed in a timely manner
• Track and measure results : Continuously monitor the success of your marketing efforts and make adjustments as needed to improve performance.
• Communicate and collaborate with your team : Keep all team members informed and involved in the marketing process to ensure that everyone is working towards the same marketing objectives
• Regularly review and update your plan : As your business evolves, so should your marketing plan. Continuously review and update it to stay relevant and effective

Maximize Your Team’s Marketing Efforts With Marketing Plan Templates

No matter the size of your business, marketing success can be achieved with a well-thought-out plan. With ClickUp’s suite of powerful and easy-to-use templates, you’ll have everything you need to create an effective strategy.

Make it easier to meet all your goals, whether it’s marketing your product or onboarding your new client .  From content planning and event marketing to sales and website project management , these templates provide the tools needed for any digital marketer or entrepreneur looking to make their mark in the world today. 

So don’t wait another minute—get started on upgrading your team’s marketing capabilities with ClickUp.

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Marketing Strategy Business Plan

Marketing is one of the key components of any business organization. Without marketing, companies would never succeed and will definite go bankrupt in a span of months. The importance of a marketing plan cannot be understated, that is the reason why marketing plans are formulated by both small enterprises and large corporations.

• 9+ Project Action Plan Examples
• 13+ Museum Strategic Plan Examples

To help you create your own marketing strategy business plan, we have provided some tips on how to write one as well as examples (in PDF format) you can use as a reference.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

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What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a document that identifies and analyzes what marketing tools the company should use to achieve maximum profitability. A simple marketing plan incorporates all campaigns that will be used, in which the said campaigns will also be monitored and measured. A marketing plan is also involved in the following functions:

• Create market research to support pricing decisions and new product lines
• Disseminate the main message of the product to demographics and geographic areas
• Choose from numerous platforms to promote products and services (i.e. digital, radio, Internet, magazines, television, print media, or a combination of those platforms)
• Set up results metrics and reporting timelines

Marketing plans and marketing strategies are often used interchangeably. This is because a marketing plan cannot exist if there is no strategy (or strategies) that is implemented in the said plan. There are instances where a marketing plan and marketing strategy can be merged, although it is more applicable for smaller companies since they only run very few marketing campaigns in a year.

But take note that marketing plan outlines the the company’s marketing activities while the strategy is only a tool that is being used to achieve the goals of the marketing plan.

When creating a marketing plan, the value proposition of the business should be considered and the plan should have a set time period. When identifying a target audience, market research is often used. Market research is also used to identify which marketing channel should be used (for example, online ads, radio, social media, and TV advertising spots).

The general marketing plan also describes the overall marketing strategy and lists down the rationale for each marketing decision. Additionally, the plan should also focus on the creation, timing and placement of specific campaigns, and how the outcome of those campaigns will be measured.

For a marketing plan to be properly executed, the marketing plan should be adjusted at any point and at any time based on the results. For example, if your digital ads are performing better than it was initially expected, the budget for digital ads can be increased to fund the platform that is performing at a more effective rate. You may also see simple business plan examples .

Marketing leaders often face the challenge of ensuring every platform has sufficient time to show results, a challenge in today’s fast-paced digital world.

Going back to the digital ads example, digital marketing shows results in near real-time, while traditional television ads still undergo a long process before it can be aired, which results in a longer time for results to be collated and analyzed. You may also like business plan examples .

A marketing plan would fall under the category of “promotion” in a traditional marketing mix model. Promotion is one of the Four P’s of Marketing   (a term coined by famous American professor Neil Borden), together with product, price, and place.

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Tips in Creating a Marketing Strategy Business Plan

Here are some tips in creating a marketing strategy business plan. Remember to incorporate the tips listed below to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing plan.

1. Situation analysis

You first need to determine the position of your business before you start developing a plan. Your company might want to move into a new market segment but you are still meeting your financial goals on your current market. Remember that any marketing plan will not be of help if your employees or untrained.

Most of the data you create for your situation analysis is mostly found in your company reports. If the said information is not available, you can always conduct a SWOT analysis to identify potential issues. You should be clear on what makes your company stand out from the competition.

2. Define the ideal customer

No business owner in his right mind will say that “everyone is my client” and “I cater to all types of markets.” Demographics is very important in determining the ideal customer base of a company. Not all market segments purchase the same products. For example, senior citizens are not the ideal market for smartphone manufacturers. You may also see business plan examples .

Similarly, teenagers aging 12 to 16 years old should not be the target market of antibiotic medicine for life-threatening diseases. It should be priority for you to do research first to identify your target market or ideal customer. Once you have identified your ideal customer or market segment, define how your products solve a need in that group. You may also like importance of business plan .

3. Establish marketing goals

The end goal of marketing should be sales. You should list down how your marketing efforts will improve revenues. For example, you can give discounts to customers who have already purchased your products more than once, or give out gift certificates to your loyal customers. Set a time frame so that you can be specific in the goals you want to achieve.

4. Select marketing tools

Your marketing tools will determine how you deal with your customers or clients. Choose from digital or traditional marketing methods, but you can always choose both although it will be more expensive on your end. Also, keep in touch with your customers via professional email , postal letter, or phone call/text.

5. Budget funds

Every commodity costs money. That is the reason why you should establish a budget for each marketing strategy you create. You should also monitor results to determine the effectiveness of the strategies you formulated, and do not hesitate to adjust the budget if you feel some marketing campaigns are not working in your favor.

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Components of a Marketing Strategy Business Plan

Before you start writing your marketing strategy business plan , make sure to incorporate the components listed below. They are essential to the success of your marketing plan.

1. Market research

Research is the backbone of any marketing plan. There are numerous online resources where you can gather important information for your strategy business plan (consumer buying habits, market size, market growth or decline, current trends, etc.). You may also see how to make a business plan .

2. Target market

The target market is essentially the demographic of customers where you will be selling your product. But take note that selling to a single market segment will not be advantageous to your business. Diversify your portfolio to fit multiple market segments. You may also like business plan outline with examples .

3. Positioning

Positioning is the perception of your product or brand in the marketplace. Basically, your business will never profit if you position yourself in an identical way as your competitors. Take priority in developing your company’s brand and clearly communicate to your target market on how you want your business to be perceived. You may also check out maintenance strategy plan examples .

4. Competitive analysis

Identify your competitors and analyze how your products provide a competitive advantage. Competitive analysis and positioning are similar as you will developing a brand that will give an an edge against your competitors.

To create an effective competitive analysis, you should answer these questions: “What are the prices of the products your competitors are selling?” “To which market segment are they catering to?” “What are the distinct features of their products or services?” “How long have they been in the industry?” “What technology are they implementing in their products?” You might be interested in networking strategy plan examples .

5. Market strategy

Revenue goals is the ultimate professional goal of market strategy. Identify and apply methods that you think will reach your customers in the most accessible and convenient way possible, and the methods should always translate to revenues for your business. You can choose from traditional or digital methods, or you can implement both in your market strategy.

As similar to almost all types of business activities, budget is needed to maintain a market strategy business plan. A sizable budget is not mandatory though, as you just need to be smart on how you handle your resources. A budget action plan or schedule is also beneficial as you budget your marketing activities.

Metrics is very helpful in tracking the results of your marketing activities. One software you can use is Google Analytics. This software tracks website visits, the demographics of your website visitors as well as their location, and other visitor information. The great thing about Google Analytics is that the free version does not hold back on the functionality which is very beneficial if you can’t afford the paid version. You may also see website strategy plan examples .

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Creating a marketing strategy business plan should be on the top of your priority list when identifying and analyzing the marketing activities of your company. A business, either a small enterprise or large corporation, will not be able to last in the industry it’s operating if it does not implement an effective marketing strategy business plan.

We hope you found this article to be informative as well as helpful when you will be making your own marketing strategy business plan. We have also provided some examples in PDF format for your reference.

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