• The Business plan
• Marketing and Sales Planning
  • Marketing Strategy
    • Lincolnshire Research Observatory
  • Marketing Plan
    • Analysis of the Market
    • The Four and Seven P's
    • Developing a Pricing Strategy
    • What else should be in the Marketing Plan?
  • Forecasting and Planning your Sales
    • Existing Businesses
    • Creating a sales plan
  • Selling and Advertising
    • Advertising
    • Direct Marketing
    • Trade Shows and Exhibitions
  • Looking after your Customer
    • Use customer care to increase sales
    • How to deal with customer complaints
  • Marketing - Expert Advice
    • Does your sales approach close more doors than it opens?
    • How do I determine my marketing budget?
    • Making an exhibition of yourself
    • Marketing in the credit crunch
    • Why might your competitors be doing better than you?
• Financial Planning
• Complying with the law
• Employing for the first time
• Innovation
• Support Schemes
• Resource Efficiency
• Business Sectors

Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan is used as a basis for executing your marketing strategy.  It should describe how you will put your marketing strategy into practice.

It should set out clear objectives and list the actions you will take to achieve them. It ensures that your plan becomes reality by describing each action you will take.

It will describe the customers you have chosen to target, how you will reach them, how you will keep them happy once they have bought from you and how you will continue reviewing your operations to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

The plan should include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.

It should include:
An analysis of the marketplace|
A pricing strategy|

Many find the 4 or 7 'P's| a useful reminder of the issues to consider.

Once this is complete you can begin to forecast your sales|.