How to Build Your Marketing Plan

Posted: Dec 28, 2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 715 | Bookmark and Share

The best way to ensure that something will be successful is to plan it out first. The same is true with marketing campaigns. A solid and comprehensive marketing plan should always be created before you ever send your marketing campaign to the market. Here is a 6-step approach to constructing a fool-proof marketing plan.



  1. Segment your market. If your product or service appeals to a lot of different types of consumers, then one marketing campaign will not work for everyone who purchases your products or services. Markets can be segmented according to demographics, psychographics, geographics, behavioral/usage, and consumer benefit. It is up to you to decide which method is most appropriate for your market. Keep in mind that you can combine segmentation approaches if it makes sense for your product.

  2. Select a target market. After you have segmented your market, you must choose a particular segment as your target market. A target market is the specific group of customers toward which you direct your marketing efforts. Bear in mind that the smaller and more definite your target market, the easier it will be to tailor your marketing campaign.

  3. Develop a consumer buying decision process model. Understanding the behavior and decision-making process of your consumers is integral in molding your marketing campaign. Knowing the steps that consumers go through before they purchase your product will help you determine what you should do to comfort them and encourage their decision to buy.

  4. Create a marketing mix. The marketing mix is the foundation to your marketing plan. The four aspects of your marketing mix are product, price, promotion, and place (4 P's). Product, obviously, is what you are going to sell. Price is how much you are going to sell it for. Promotion is how you are going to advertise and promote your product. And place is how and where you are going to distribute your product to consumers.

  5. Determine a positioning strategy. A positioning strategy is how you want your product to be viewed by consumers relative to your competition. This is important so you can figure out how to customize your marketing campaign. For example, if your positioning strategy is "a fast and cheap alternative," then running a luxurious ad campaign will not accurately reflect your product.

  6. Predict changes in environmental forces. Environmental forces are anything that can impact your product's future success. The six main types of environmental forces are economic, natural, competitive, socio-cultural, political/legal, and technological. All of these forces can effect the success of your product and marketing campaign, so it is important to plan for them.


These are the six main components to a thorough marketing plan. After composing all the aspects of a marketing plan, you should know exactly how to compile an effective marketing campaign.

(ArticlesBase SC #700121)

Rate this Article
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 1 vote(s)
    Feedback
    RSS
    Print
    Email
    Re-Publish

    Source:  http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/how-to-build-your-marketing-plan-700121.html

    Article Tags:

    Marketing

    ,

    plan

    ,

    Target Market

    ,

    campaign

    ,

    Marketing Mix

    ,

    Segmentation

    ,

    Positioning Strategy

    ,

    Environmental Forces

    Learn About Combining a Business Plan and A Marketing Plan

    What's the difference between a business plan and a marketing plan? Tim Berry discusses how they fit together. (03:45)

    How to Understand the Marketing Plan

    No company can go about the market without a proper plan, so what does it need? A marketing plan! Learn about what it is and how to put it together! (05:07)

    Google Search Wiki and your Online Marketing Plans

    Oscar Pico, Senior Natural Search Specialist, Google Search Wiki and effect on online marketing plans. (04:37)

    How to Write a Marketing Plan

    Learn how to Write a Marketing Plan in this easy to follow step by step tutorial. (01:35)

    How to Market Books with Bookmarks

    Book Marketing Plan. In this episode Dale Beaumont goes into a unique and low cost strategy for marketing your book that can be very effective. (08:26)

    Business executives are often perplexed by the continuous expansion of society's expectations of corporations. For example, in the corporate world, numerous laws and extensive government regulation affect virtually every aspect of business activities. They touch "almost every business decision ranging from the production of goods and services to their packaging, distribution, marketing, and service"

    By: Andrew Sandon l Marketing l Nov 27, 2006 l Views: 11,793

    Businesses that give great emphasis to their sales and marketing strategies have a better edge of success even if they are just ordinary. A product or service that is better than the ordinary in terms of quality might be able to survive the market even without a good marketing strategy, but the combination of good marketing and product quality, especially with a reasonable price, is a sure hit. However, ordinary products where poor marketing strategy is employed will have difficulty penetrating

    By: andre l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 09, 2010
    Rob Larson

    Everyone's goal is to rank in the top 10 of Google for a particular keyword. I will show you how to do this by using this simple, yet highly effective tool to get ranked fast and high in Google. It's quick and it's something everyone needs to know.

    By: Rob Larson l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 07, 2010 l Views: 4

    Make the most of your marketing and sales efforts by integrating 20 great ways to use Promotional products, branded apparel and corporate gifts.

    By: Thrive Promotional Products l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 07, 2010 l Views: 5

    If your main dream would be to generate cash online, via CPA or any affiliate program for that matter,one simple and easy cash making idea would be to begin by simply modeling yourself on someone who has already experienced the same type of success you require, and then copy them. There isn't a need to try to re-invent the wheel from scratch when you can simply follow someone else's proven path to success.

    By: Tyson Bradshaw l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 06, 2010 l Views: 10
    Joan Mansbach

    The consumer experience has never been more important. Making that connection comes from creating a positive experience that then creates a memory; giving the customer a reason to want to return to your store, purchase your product. All too often retailers forget the importance of engaging the consumer. There are so many ways to bond the customer to the brand without spending lots of money.

    By: Joan Mansbach l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 06, 2010 l Views: 3

    There is no point in having a business without having customers to buy your products. One of the elements required in your progress is Traffic.

    By: Shasi l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 06, 2010 l Views: 2
    Andrew Gallagher

    Providing a straightforward and real outline for becoming financially free. No fluff, nothing but facts on how to grow take-home pay and be free to be where you want and when you want, without a boss telling you when, where, and how high, as your life is on a clock.

    By: Andrew Gallagher l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 06, 2010 l Views: 7

    Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategy to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. This strategy depends on bringing together lots of pieces of information about customers and market trends in order to sell and market products and services more effectively.

    By: Dr.L.Lakshmi l Marketing > Marketing Tips l Feb 05, 2010 l Views: 6
    Nick Tart

    Nearly everyone has things around their house that they don't use. At the same time, a lot of people are moving into their first home and have nothing. Wouldn't it be great if there were some way to connect these two types of people? This is the concept that Julie and Steve Lins developed with their site, SentFromEbove.com...

    By: Nick Tart l News and Society > Causes and Organizations l Feb 03, 2009 l Views: 21
    Nick Tart

    You hear all the time how businesses are striving to 'go green' and how you should purchase appliances that that will help your home 'go green.' But what does this even mean? If you turn off the lights when you leave a room or shut off the water while you brush your teeth...

    By: Nick Tart l News and Society > Environment l Jan 19, 2009 l Views: 61
    Nick Tart

    Since their introduction in the mid 1990s, CFLs (compact flourescent lamps) have generated lots of discussion and debate in light bulb aisles across the world. Yes there is a lot of hype behind them, but CFLs truly are an incredible technology...

    By: Nick Tart l Home Improvement > DIY l Jan 19, 2009 l Views: 802
    Nick Tart

    Thousands of organizations and businesses are going the extra mile and spending the extra dollar to buy utility-scale energy from renewable resources. So much so that the United States E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) compiles a quarterly list of the top green power companies from their Green Power Partnership program...

    By: Nick Tart l News and Society > Causes and Organizations l Jan 19, 2009 l Views: 362
    Nick Tart

    Green energy, or greenergy, is a term used to describe all methods of creating energy that are environmentally friendly and non-polluting. Therefore may provide a solution to the ever-present dilemma of pollution and global warming. Scientists and entrepreneurs alike have developed many forms of green energy...

    By: Nick Tart l News and Society > Environment l Jan 19, 2009 l Views: 45
    Nick Tart

    WOW! Seven-hundred billion dollars. Enough money to cover every square inch of the 102 floors of the Empire State Building with $100 bills, 280 times. Enough money to buy every person in America over the age of one a brand new iPhone G3, 5 times. Enough money to provide every single person in Africa with two meals a day for 140 days. Did America really make 700 billion dollars worth of mistakes...

    By: Nick Tart l News and Society > Economics l Jan 15, 2009 l Views: 13
    Nick Tart

    Life insurance is considered to be the cornerstone of solid financial planning. Investments and savings plans are important to long-term financial success, but death is a lot less predictable and always inevitable. So life insurance is necessary to solving the financial dilemmas you leave behind. Life insurance can help solve some of the following...

    By: Nick Tart l Finance > Insurance l Jan 15, 2009 l Views: 9
    Nick Tart

    For many people, constantly shuttering in the shadow of debt has become a way of life. It may seem as though their debt is never ending and their dream of being debt-free is unattainable. For these people, there is no better solution than a debt consolidation program...

    By: Nick Tart l Finance > Debt Consolidation l Jan 15, 2009 l Views: 13

    Add new Comment

     
    * Required fields
    Author Box
    Articles Categories
    All Categories
    0