Strategy - Do you have a marketing plan?

If you were going to build a house, you would hope that the architect and builders were working together using architectural plans and blueprints as their guide. So why would trying to build a solid customer base or market share be any different?

You should know that a marketing plan is of monumental importance. Although we recognize that in many cases marketing plans get filed away in the closet until it's time to get a business loan, they're most effective when they act as a blueprint for all the marketing activities a company undertakes.

Here are some of the important points to consider in a marketing plan:

• Set out your marketing goals and objectives then align them with your overall business goals and strategy
• Set out a time frame for achieving those goals
• Identify a target market and segmentation strategy
• Define how you will position and differentiate your product
• Use competitor and industry analysis
• Identify current and proposed marketing methods
• Include marketing reports (historical and forecasts)
• Set the criteria against which the plan will be assessed for success or failure

The most important thing to remember about a marketing plan is that it is a work in progress, always needing to be reassessed and changed to adapt to the dynamic business environment.