Marketing plan

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan  is a document that defines the advertising strategy that a company or brand will follow in a specific period of time.
The marketing plan defines the strategies, budget and KPIs of the marketing actions that will be carried out, as well as the objectives that are intended to be achieved with them.
It encompasses all the advertising strategies that will be carried out in a specific period of time, as well as the audience segmentation, the media to be used, the budget and the prediction of results that are expected to be achieved with them.

 

   

Índice

  1. Importance of the marketing plan
  2. What a marketing plan should contain
  3. The online marketing plan

Importance of the marketing plan

Creating a marketing plan is vital to be able to structure and coordinate all the actions that a company intends to carry out in a given period, as well as to define the objectives that are intended to be achieved, the channels that are going to be used, the budget allocated to each action, and how to measure and optimize performance.

What a marketing plan should contain

Although there is no specific model when creating a marketing plan, generally it should contain at least the following phases:

Market research

The initial pillar of the marketing plan is to know the market situation, the growth possibilities or the trends of the moment in order to define the strategies to follow.

Target audiences

Trying to find out what type of audience to target will help define the segmentation and the language to follow in the different marketing actions. The creation of one or more buyer personas is a great tool at this point in the plan.  

Brand positioning

What is the perception that the public has of the brand with respect to other competitors in the market to, from here, try to improve it.

Competitive analysis

An in-depth analysis of the competition will help the brand to know the advantages, weaknesses and differential characteristics with respect to direct competition, as well as establish new strategies or lines of business.

Goals

The marketing plan must establish the objectives that are being achieved. It is often said that they must be SMART objectives, that is, that they meet the following characteristics:

  • Specific:  Specific objectives must be established to be achieved.

  • Measurable:  It must be possible to measure whether each action has managed to achieve the objective for which it was designed.

  • Achievable:  Objectives must be established that can be achieved in a given period of time.

  • Realistic:  They must be objectives that are reasonably within reach of the brand or company.

  • Temporary:  A period of time must be established to analyze whether the objectives set by the plan have been met.

Media planning

It will define the channels to use to attract users or potential customers, guide them through the conversion funnel and increase sales. It can contain traditional media strategies such as TV or Radio, to online marketing channels such as PPC, SEO, social media, email marketing, etc.

Budget

The marketing plan establishes the budget that will be allocated to the marketing strategy, as well as its distribution across the various channels.

Metrics and KPIs 

The marketing plan will also establish the key metrics to analyze whether the actions have been successful or whether one or more changes must be made to the advertising strategy.

The online marketing plan 

With the growing importance that online advertising has obtained , it is common to create a specific marketing plan for digital channels. The philosophy is the same as in the traditional marketing plan, only it will focus on the online channels available when defining strategies.