Marketing Plan - Strategy
Strategy
Describe how you plan to utilize
a marketing strategy.
Promotion
How will you promote your business, products or
services? How will you get your customer’s attention?
Advertising: What
type of media will you use and how often? Why did
you select this media over other methods?
How will you maximize
your promotional budget? Have you evaluated whether
this is the lowest cost method versus the most effect
method?
Do you plan to
use other advertising venues, such as referrals,
word of mouth, trade shows, dealer incentives, and
catalogs? How will you find these other methods,
what is the cost associated with them?
What image do you
want your business to project to your customers?
What other promotional
materials will you need? Do you need to have these
materials created by a third-party, such as logo
creations by a graphic artist. Other promotional
materials may include business cards, letterhead,
brochures, newsletters, store signage, even interior
design to a facility.
Promotional
Budget
How much should you budget for the promotional items?
Break your budget into two categories, the promotional
materials you’ll purchase prior to the business
starting and the ongoing materials needed.
Pricing
Explain how you determined your pricing structure
for your goods or services. You can’t always price
your goods lower than the competition (if you expect
to make any money). So how do you determine if your
prices are competitive and in-line with what the
customer will tolerate? Are you competitive with
customer service, quality of goods or services,
how does your prices compare to the competition?
Consider your competitive
analysis table – how does the pricing strategy fit
into the competitive analysis? Does it create advantages
or disadvantages when compared to your competition?
Are your customers
sensitive to pricing policies – does it effect their
buying decisions?
What are your policies
for customer service and extending credit?
Proposed
Location
If your business is just starting up, you may not
have a location selected already. This is a great
time to consider possible locations and evaluate
which will best suit your needs. Some businesses
are able to start out of a home; others require
a retail space, a small office space, or a machine
shop.
The Operational
Plan section of the business plan
is where you describe your physical needs. In this
sections, describe how your location will affect
your customers.
Will your customers
come to your location? Is your location important
to you customer?
Is the location
convenient to your customer?
Do you offer parking
spaces for customers?
Is the location
consistent with your image?
Does the location
provide what customers want and meet their expectations?
Are you located
near by competition? Is it better for you to be
near them (like car dealers or fast-food restaurants)
or distant (like convenience-food stores)?
Distribution
Channels
How will you sell your products or services?
Retail
Direct (mail order,
Web, catalog)
Wholesale
Through your own
dedicated sales force
Through third party
agents
Independent representatives
Bid on contracts
Sales
Forecast
Once you’ve completed a detailed description of
your products, services, customers, markets, and
marketing plans, you need to provide the numbers
to support your plan. Include a sales forecast spreadsheet
to prepare a month-by-month projection. Your forecast
should be based on your research into sales forecasts,
your marketing strategies, your market research,
and industry data, if available.
Your forecast should
include two sets of numbers 1) a "best guess",
which is what you really expect, and 2) a "worst
case" low estimate that you are confident you
can reach no matter what happens.
Keep all your notes
on research and assumptions. You’ll use these sales
forecasts and all subsequent spreadsheets in the
plan. You may need your supporting data when you
make presentations to funding sources.
Back to more Business
Plan for a Startup Business
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