Marketers, PR professionals, advertisers: they all create plans to help implement the best campaign and to conduct the best practices. Every professional and every team will have a varying definition of what should be included in an effective and successful marketing plan, but here are some basics that should definitely not be absent:
- An Introduction (or Executive Summary): This section can include things like the company mission, the company’s overall objective, and the reason for implementing and even creating this plan. Additionally, this will include a summary of the plan. Many people suggest (or even require, for themselves or students) that this summary be created last. While I see the value in that, if you are creating the plan for your company and with a team whom you’ve discussed the plan with in the past, creating a summary outline, or even the entire summary itself, can be done in the beginning. The only reason for creating the summary last, that I can gather, is to make it easier to account for any changes you’ve made along the way and to ensure all aspects of the marketing plan are included.
- Objectives/Goals: This section will cover the plan’s objectives and goals, as its title suggests. These should differ from the mission of the company or the overall goal listed in the introduction, but they should also be related to and created from those components. If the plan’s objectives are not in line with the company’s goals and objectives, the plan is useless and should n0t be implemented. What point is there in partaking in marketing activities if it does nothing for the company? Even if the company’s goal is to help the community, it is essentially helping the company in return with PR, investments, etc. Ensure these objectives and goals are in line with the company goals.
- Strategies/Tactics: These are not the same thing, but they are related. Just as the objectives and goals should relate to the company goals, the strategies ought to relate to the objective and goals. From there, you can create your tactics that help you to achieve your desired strategic points; ensure that the tactics you implement stem from the strategies you create. Just remember, if you implement tactics that have nothing to do with the company goals, you may be wasting your time.
- Budget: This is somewhat common sense, but unless you have oodles of disposable income in your marketing budget and money is of no concern, a budget is vital. This is where you present your ideas to executives, where you ask for buy-in and support, and where you can define the areas where you will need to hire outside or additional help.
- Timeline: Create an in-depth and detailed list of events and time frames for the tactics laid out in the plan so you can know when to implement.
- Measurements of Success/Results: This is a crucial component to the marketing plan (and any business plan, for that matter) that will allow you to create a benchmark for each tactic to measure success. While success is not required for each tactic to be successful, you do need to measure the plan’s results and effects to see where you can improve next time. Moreover, it gives you a snapshot of how you did this time around.
Overall, remember that a professional, successful, and overall beneficial marketing plan is one that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, relevant, and timely. Do your research and make sure that you create a plan that makes sense for you and for your customers, because, no matter how much you like your plan, it is the response of your buyers and audience that matter.
