A marketing plan is essential for any business organization. They assist not only in the financial aspect of the business but also in the organization’s long-term sustainability. Some easily dismiss the effects of marketing, but marketing had a heavy role in building the world’s most successful conglomerates, and continues to play a big part in business functions today.

• How a Business Plan Can Help Small Business Owners
• How to Create a Startup Business Plan in 8 Easy Steps

To help you create your own business marketing plan, here are some tips as well as some examples (in PDF format) to guide you.

Marketing Plan for Small Business

Sample Marketing Business Plan Example

Business Marketing Plan Contents Example

Business Marketing Plan Presentation Example

Tips in Creating a Marketing Plan

Aside from using the examples we provided as a handy reference, we also listed down some tips to help you create an effective business marketing plan. Take note that the tips we provided are essential to assist you in formulating better analysis for your future marketing endeavors and activities.

1. Identify your customers

Two of the most important components of a general marketing plan are identifying the customers and identifying the competitors. But before we proceed in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the competition, we should first look at the customers. The customers or clients are basically the lifeblood of any business organization which solely relies on profit for sustainability.

Without customers making a purchase, companies would go bankrupt and would not be able to recover from the costs they incurred in producing a product or service.

Identifying customers is not difficult, but it’s not a walk in the park either. Demographics is involved in identifying the right customers for the product you are selling.

Randomly picking out a market segment or age group is not beneficial to the business organization in any way. Rather, the company would be spending and using the resources on the wrong market. Although the target market is not your only source of income, the bulk or majority of your revenues (around 70–80%) will be coming from the target market. You may also check out strategic marketing plan examples.

Take note that your target market should also easily afford your products and should fit the functionality of your products. There is no point selling high-end sports cars or automobiles to teenagers having no independent source of income. Teenagers can easily drive a vehicle, but the law does not allow minors to drive in any capacity. You might be interested in restaurant marketing plan examples.

Teenagers driving around in public highways where 10-wheeler trucks are also located is never a plausible idea. Accidents will definitely occur and the cost of damage will be enormous.

The same example applies for selling high-end laptops to infants (babies from two months to one year old).

Although toddlers (one to four years old) can start to identify and use the basic functions of a laptop, an infant unfortunately cannot. Infants would easily destroy the laptops in a matter of hours, and laptops are never cheap products. It would be groundbreaking if laptops with infant technology is made available in the market, but unfortunately that technology does not exist yet. You may also see marketing strategy plan examples.

2. Identify your competitors

After identifying your customers, you should then identify your competitors.

Business organizations want to have less competitors as much as possible, but less competitors result in a monopoly or duopoly and is prohibited by most democratic governments in the world. Healthy competition should be observed, and the main beneficiaries of healthy competition are the consumers. It gives them a variety of options to choose from wherein they are not forced by companies to purchase products. You may also see marketing strategies for small businesses.

Identifying competitors is not limited to direct competitors only, as indirect competitors also need to be identified and analyzed by your organization if you will be creating a business marketing plan. Identifying indirect competitors is beneficial especially if you are selling products that are new to the market. You may also like event marketing plan examples.

Obviously, you don’t have competitors to compare your products to so you create an analysis on your indirect competitors. Take for example, your company pioneering in the manufacturing and selling of hologram smartphones. Currently, no other smartphone brands are selling holograms, so you identify Apple, Samsung, HTC, Oppo, and Sony, and their current line of products as your indirect competitors. You may also check out product marketing plan examples.

Identifying competitors will help you improve your product. You may not immediately make the changes to your product, but you have the necessary information and data to do so once you have the available resources.

Modifying your current line of products is costly, and will also require a long process since raw materials need to be purchased and the final design or specifications will still need to be approved by top executives of the company or business organization. If you have already created a simple analysis of your products to that of your competitors, you can start creating modifications to your products.

Take note that newer technology may be used by competitors on their new line of products, so make sure to identify new possible technology that you can incorporate to your products. New technology will create a competitive advantage for your business as well as convenience for your target market. You may also see marketing project plan examples.

3. Develop a marketing strategy

After identifying your main customers as well identifying your direct and indirect competitors, you can now formulate marketing strategies based on the previous information. There are numerous marketing strategies, and you can switch from using traditional to digital forms of marketing strategies without hurting the overall performance of your products.

One of the traditional marketing strategies you can use is the printing and distribution of flyers and posters. If you have enough resources, you can also utilize simple billboards. Elegant flyers and perfect posters have been used for the longest time. Even today, the effectiveness of flyers and posters cannot be understated. They are low-cost marketing materials that can reach numerous market segments, not just your own target market.

Additionally, you can be creative on the designs of your flyers and posters, and there is no limit on the designs you incorporate as long as they can easily catch the attention of your market.

If you have extra funds, you can always go for digital billboards but be prepared to shell out a large amount since billboards are very expensive. But with billboards, your product can be seen by everyone. Even if you only use a simple design in the billboard, it immediately attracts the attention of hundreds of individuals per second (depending on the location).

Curiosity will then arise from each passerby in which will mostly result in them going directly to your store and inquire, or better, make a purchase of your product.

Traditional marketing methods are still effective today but digital marketing strategies meanwhile have basically taken over marketing in the today’s fast-paced business environment. Using websites and social media are the go-to marketing tools used by all types of business organizations and corporations. Websites are a given as they list down and present company information, as well as announcements for both customers and stakeholders.

Social media, on the other hand, has become a powerful marketing tool that can easily make or break a business. There are various social media platforms around, and the great thing is that most of them are free. Thus, business organizations can maximize on their functionality without having to spend a single cent. Since most consumers are online these days, companies can easily reach them through social media.

Those witty punch lines and sales pitches found in posters can now be used in social media, at a much cheaper and affordable cost.

Executive Summary for Business Marketing Plan Example

Marketing and Pricing Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Tips Outline Example

Business Marketing Plan SWOT Analysis Example

Marketing Ads Deployed by Successful Companies

Here is a list of recent marketing advertisements created by successful companies. Thanks to technology, you can now easily create ads and post them online for free. Creating an advertisement is a great way to get your product across different market segments.

1. Adidas

Calling all creators. The sportswear giant brings together its most popular endorsers to deliver a message on creativity and individualism in an ad entitled “Calling All Creators.” Although the ad relies on star power than delivering the actual message, it still hits hard on the theme of being unique and creating your own personal style. The ad assembles the best in sports, music, and fashion. You may also see apartment marketing plan examples.

Living legend Lionel Messi, basketball superstars Damian Lillard and Kristaps Porzingis, current MVP James Harden, baseball hero Carlos Correa, football icon Aaron Rodgers, Grammy winner Pharell Williams, fashion designer Alexander Wang, and supermodel Karlie Kloss all make an appearance in this amazing ad. You may also like personal marketing plan examples.

2. Netflix

The guy realizes something and chases his girl in the airport before she leaves for good. He then catches up with her, they stare, and they both know what they want to hear from each other. But this is not a romantic movie, this is an ad for the world’s number one video streaming app Netflix. You may also check out integrated marketing plan examples.

Instead of the guy confessing his feelings and girl deciding not to board the plane despite spending thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket, the guy asks for the girl’s Netflix password. A perfect ending to an ad that you thought you’d end in a romantic cliche. You may also see law firm marketing plan examples.

3. Doritos/Mountain Dew

Popular snack brand Doritos and soft drink Mountain Dew teamed up in probably the most spectacular ad in recent memory. The ad featured a rap battle of sorts with Game of Thrones actor and two-time Emmy winner Peter Dinklage squaring off against Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman. You might be interested in making marketing plans that work.

The former lip-synced to Busta Rhymes’s “Look At Me Now” while munching on Doritos while the latter lip-synced to Missy Elliot’s “Get Ur Freak On” while slurping on some ice cold Mountain Dew.

If you’re an avid Game of Thrones fan, you may have noticed the “ice and fire” vibe of the entire commercial. (Spoiler alert) It may also be a foreshadowing of Dinklage’s character as the show enters its last season in 2019.

4. Tide

Winona Ryder wasn’t the only actor who had a career renaissance thanks to the 80’s horror tribute Stranger Things (also produced by Netflix by the way).

Doors have now reopened for David Harbour as well, who will also portray the popular comic book character Hellboy in the 2019 film reboot of the same name. But before he reprises his role as Chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things or will be introduced as Hellboy, he portrayed around 10 versions of himself in this entertaining ad for laundry detergent Tide. You may also see digital marketing plan examples.

The ad combines different portions of product ads (cars, jewelry, beer, etc.) with Harbour all appearing in each portion and saying it is a Tide ad.

Monthly Plan for Marketing Plan Example

Simple Five Year Marketing Plan Example

Template for Marketing Mission Goals Example

Clean Executive Summary for Business Plan Example

We hope you found this article to be informative as you will be creating your own business marketing plan.