by Leslie McKerns
www.freewebs.com/mckernsdevelopment
The business world is a strange place, filled with the lush potential and intoxicating beauty of a tropical jungle, and all the deadly elements that lie beneath. The Marketing Plan is your guide to navigating the jungle, steering you from strangling vines and undergrowth towards captivating waterfalls just right for quenching your thirst.
You have reached a pinnacle; your marketing plan is complete. Immediately you think - Am I missing something?
A complete marketing plan for strategic business growth includes the following essential elements:
1. The Marketing Plan – is a roadmap to Strategic Marketing and Business Development. Just as with any roadmap, you need milestones along the way. How else will you know if you are getting your business to grow in a way that meets your strategic plan?
a.) The Marketing Plan identifies your market and sub-markets. The Plan lists the geographic areas in which you are currently working and pinpoints all potential areas for future business expansion. The Marketing plan identifies the resources (human and capital) that you will need to reach those markets and achieve your strategic business goals at the one to five year stage.
b.) The Marketing Plan defines what your business is and what it is not. Who are you? What do you do? Why should clients care? This business image can be unified into a mission statement, a logo, a branding statement and a tagline.
c.) The Marketing Plan defines your resources in human and financial capital and projects a cost to do business. Who are our people? What are their saleable skills? What will it take to keep them? What do we own or need to own in order to produce our product or service? The Marketing Plan projects a cost of goods or services based upon needed resources, assigns a profitable cost and tracks potential for growth.
d.) The Marketing Plan defines expertise and expertise needed. The plan assesses how these needs will affect future growth – if you have these resources, and projects what will happen and how you will accommodate your business if you do not have these resources.
e.) The Marketing Plan defines your current contacts by category, firm, organization and person, defines future desired contacts and lists ways to capture these future contacts.
f.) The Marketing Plan identifies and examines your business competitors. What do your competitors do that you also do? How do they do it? What works? What do your competitors do that you are not currently doing, but could?
g.) The Marketing Plan differentiates your firm. Why do your customers need you? What service or solutions do you provide? What makes you different? How do you reach clients currently and how else might you reach them in the future?
2. A Marketing Plan is an essential part of your Business Plan and can be used at several stages: before a business is opened, when seeking financing for a business, when promoting the business to potential partners, when selling a business, when expanding a business and as a monthly or annual strategic business tool.
In Part Two you’ll learn the rest of the essential elements of the Marketing Plan – stick with it! In business, Stickiness counts.
McKerns Development, PR, Marketing, Business Development, works with professional firms and small business owners to increase visibility, promote their projects and services, reach the right customers and build business. For unique service packages, free resources and information about building your business visit http://www.freewebs.com/mckernsdevelopment
Leslie McKerns, BA, BS, AIA Allied, FL Licensed Designer, Professional Member Gold Coast Public Relations Council, Board Member of American Lung Association, is a publicist and business development specialist, a consistent contributor to major magazines and newspapers, and the Real Estate Editor of CitySmart magazine.
