MARKETING PLAN

Basic marketing plan template

There are a variety of styles and formats used for marketing plans. The following section headings will help you organise your plan. The content of the plan is much more important than rigid adherence to a specific format.

Executive summary

The executive summary highlights the main goals and recommendations of the marketing plan. It should also briefly address budget requirements and how success will be measured.

Business overview

This section is sometimes referred to as the ‘situation analysis’ segment. In a typical marketing plan, it contains relevant background on the market, product, pricing, and distribution situations as well as on competitors. Assuming the planning process takes place at the end of a fiscal year, this section may be a recap of the business for the past 12 months. Consider describing your customer base, services required by your customers, and environmental factors affecting your operation. What effect have competitors had on your business? Have market trends or economic shifts affected business? Have governmental policy changes impacted on your business?

SWOT analysis

Some marketing plan templates include the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis in this segment. Others insert a separate segment devoted to the SWOT analysis. In the light of the business situation just described, you must now reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your operation, as well as opportunities and threats to be dealt with in the coming year.

Strengths / Weaknesses
Opportunities / Threats

Target market

How well do you know your target market? How well do you understand their information needs? Can you articulate what your clients and potential clients need as opposed to what you offer? Are there groups to whom you should be ‘promoting’ who are not yet ‘using’ your services? Are there ways to segment your market so that you can offer highly specialised products or services to various groups, reflecting their business priorities? What kind of products should be offered to a broad base of clients? Answering these questions will help you define your target market.

Goals

What does the organisation want to achieve? The goal statement(s) should be challenging and yet attainable. Is it important to increase the number of clients served. Which clients? Do you intend to provide more training programs? Sample goal statements might read like:

  • Establish stronger relationships with job seeker referral agencies within the first quarter of the financial year.
  • Improve computer skills for all job seekers.

Marketing strategies

In this section the marketing goals along with the strategies to achieve those objectives are listed. For the two goals suggested previously, strategies might include:

  • Provide a monthly e-newsletter on a trial basis for six months as a first step in increasing repeat business with an existing client base.
  • Increase the number of computer skills training sessions to job seekers by 10% over the course of the year.

Promotional plan

The promotional plan is a subset of the marketing plan. It outlines the promotional strategies that are going to be used to achieve the marketing goals. For example, if the marketing goal is to provide a monthly e-newsletter on a trial basis for six months as a first step in increasing repeat business with an existing client base, then the associated promotional strategy might be:

  • Distribute the e-newsletter to employers who have used our services within the last 18 months.

Promotional activities

A promotional activity is the vehicle that delivers the message to the target market. There are four main promotional vehicles:

  • Advertising
  • Personal selling
  • Promotion
  • Publicity

The four promotional vehicles, or promotional tools, can be used in any combination to achieve the overall marketing goals. This section of the marketing plan should specify the exact details of each promotional activity.

Implementation tactics

Tasks required to implement and monitor each strategy are listed in this section. With each task, indicate the person responsible for the task and a completion target date. Having a plan of action with specific tasks ensures that the details are clear and that specific persons are accountable. For example:

  • Establish stronger relationships with job seeker referral agencies within the first quarter of the financial year.

Task / Description / Person responsible / Completion date
1 / Meet with all staff to promote plan, including budget implications for six-month trial.
2 / Meet with web developer to set up
e-newsletter template and email distribution list. / ML / 15/1
3 / Work with web developer and designated content contributors from each area to define monthly content headings. / ML, JV / 22/1
4 / Schedule meeting with all members to promote trial. / ML / 30/1
5 / Launch trial e-newsletter. / All / 1/2
6 / Schedule mid-trial meeting for feedback and refinements. / JV / 8/2
7 / Assess trial results. / ML, JV / 15/2
8 / Launch customised e-newsletter to target clients. / JV / 18/2
9 / Review on quarterly basis / ML, JV / 1/4, 1/7, 1/10

Communication Strategies

How do you intend to communicate with all stakeholders (including internal and external). At what points during the implementation plan as well as review processes, and how will you ensure all stakeholders are aware of where the campaign is up to as well as if it has been successful?

Contingency Plan

Detail steps you will take if things do not go according to plan. Take into consideration, over budget, time lines not met, staff unable to complete responsibilities as per implementation plan.

Budget

How much will the activities defined above cost? Can you provide a revenue forecast? Explain the assumptions on which the forecast is based and consider various (best case, worst case) scenarios. Given that the profitability of most employment service delivery organisations relies on the successful placement of job seekers the cost of placing job seekers cannot outweigh the income generated. This component of the plan is extremely important.

Evaluation of results

What are the success criteria? How will you measure the success of the plan? By monitoring progress, you can judge the success of the marketing plan. If some of the strategies are not working out, try to determine why. Is the strategy flawed? Is there a problem with implementation or timing? How can you refocus and move on?

Connect Training Group: Version 1.1: May 20121