A marketing plan assists you in the evaluation of the market potential for your products
and services so that you can develop strategies to take advantage of the potential. There
are seven main components to a complete plan:
1. Research and analysis is the process of gathering information regarding the
potential market for your products and services. It allows you to evaluate
strengths and weaknesses and in the identification of a target market.
2. Setting marketing and financial goals and objectives will assist you in developing
appropriate metrics necessary to evaluate your efforts.
3. Marketing mix describes the specific strategies needed to penetrate the target
market, get them to spend money, and to get them to come back to your
enterprise. These strategies include covering the 4P’s of marketing (product,
price, place, and promotion).
4. Developing a marketing budget will provide a roadmap for your marketing
expenditures.
5. It will be important to monitor customer response in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of your marketing plan. This will let you know when adjustments
need to be made.
4
6. A contingency plan is a must in describing possible adjustments needed if your
tactics are either more or less effective than planned.
7. A punch list for your marketing plan can help you summarize the tasks necessary
to put your plan in action.