marketing plan marketing roadmap

Use our easy marketing plan template

Every business that wants to survive or grow needs a marketing plan, so we have created an easy marketing plan template for you to use. A marketing plan acts as a roadmap for your business, indicating where you are aiming to be, and how you intend to get there. If your company objectives are your intended objectives, then the marketing plan is the route you intend to follow to reach your goal.

Whether you are new to marketing or if your company has been established for a while you should create a documented marketing plan. The marketing plan doesn’t need to be complicated; in fact if you are a smaller organisation you should try to keep it as simple as possible. We’ve created a simple marketing plan template to help you get started.

A marketing plan is essentially a written document (in any format: Word, Powerpoint or just handwritten notes) that explains how you are planning to grow your business. You may find that you need a written marketing plan for your business if you are applying for funding from your bank.

Why use a marketing plan template?

There are lots of marketing plan templates available online, and ours uses a simple grid format which is easy to use (you can download it here). This template gives you a good starting point to get your marketing planning started. It’s much easier to create a business document when you have a guide to follow, and our template is built out of years of experience helping businesses with their marketing. We’ve kept it simple as this template is for small organisations that are writing their marketing plan for the first time. If you need something a bit more sophisticated get in touch and we can help you.

Use the template to prompt your thinking and document your decisions. It’s a Google Doc so you can download it, edit it and save it to personalise the template to your business. If the thought of creating a marketing plan is a daunting task, then don’t try to do everything in one go. Make a start using our template, then add to it as you go.

Tailor the marketing plan template to your business

Creating a marketing plan isn’t a test. Every business is different, with their own target markets, objectives and resources. A marketing plan needs to be unique to your organisation’s circumstances.

This should be a document that you will come back to regularly to update, based on what has or hasn’t worked for your business, or as other factors change. You will find that as your business grows your marketing plan will become more sophisticated. Initially however it is important that you’re not over ambitious as a plan without action is a waste of time.

Define your marketing objectives

Think about what you want to achieve for your business over the coming months and divide that into three month phases.

In the first quarter your objective might be to get the foundations in place and raise awareness of your business, the second quarter to obtain a certain level of sales or gain a certain number of clients. In the months thereafter you might want to combine new sales/new customer targets and retain existing customers or increase the average spend of each customer. Consider whether you need to achieve a certain level of sales to cover your costs, and what that means in terms of income targets.

Decide which objectives are important in each quarter so that you know what you are trying to achieve. The marketing objectives and pace of growth will be different for each and every business, so settle on something that is achievable for you.

If you want a greater level of detail in your marketing plan then you can create a plan on a month by month basis and take into account any seasonal highs and lows, for instance if you are planning any special Christmas sales activity.

Define your target markets

Hardly anything in this world appeals to everyone, and it is really important to get a clearer picture of who your target audience(s) is/are so that you know who you are trying to reach with your marketing activity. Define them based on their demographics (age, location, gender) and their interests or behaviours. The better you understand your target market, the more effectively you can target them.  We’ve written more about identifying your target markets here.

Decide on marketing activity

Once you are happy with your objectives, your plan should explain how you will achieve them. Many new businesses set themselves a goal to get the foundations in place within the initial months – creating their branding, setting up a website or social media profiles, or getting some print materials created.

At the same time you may want to be getting ready for the next phase of your plan, such as collecting customer details so that you can send out a regular email newsletter to generate sales. Align your marketing activities with your objectives for each quarter or monthly period.

So now you have the essentials of your marketing plan in place. You know what marketing activity you will be doing and when.

Set a marketing budget

You can market your business on a shoestring, but inevitably some things will incur costs, such as buying a domain name for your website, or if you want to use a professional designer for your branding. Do some research to identify how much these are likely to cost and include those costs in your plan. Total it up, add some contingency and there’s your marketing budget for the year.

You may want to have some additional marketing activity planned just in case your business needs it – either because you are growing faster than anticipated, or if you are struggling to make sales.

Knowing what has worked

Before you start it is worth identifying how you will know if your marketing activity has been successful. What measurement will you put in place? Any online advertising can be easily tracked, but other (particularly offline/traditional) marketing is harder to quantify.

The easiest way to work out what has worked is to ask your customers where they heard about you. If, for instance, nobody mentions the ad you placed in the local paper, then you know that it wasn’t worth spending the money on that again next time. If you have access to social media analytics or Google Analytics then put some time aside to delve into the detail and evaluate what is working for your business.

Build your marketing plan

Create your plan month by month (or by quarter if you are only just starting out) and decide what your focus will be. This will be your objective for the period.

For instance, is your focus on raising awareness of your offer, increasing average customer spend, or improving conversion on your website? It’s important to decide on priorities as you can spread effort and budget too thinly by trying to achieve all at the same time.

Decide on any promotional offers (eg discounts or incentives), which channels you will use to reach prospects and customers on, and when this phase of marketing activity will take place.

If your focus is on other aspects of marketing (aside from marketing communications) make a note of that too in your plan. For instance, will you be investing in your website, improving your processes or integrating some new Marketing Tech? All marketing activity whether visible to customers or behind the scenes will take time and effort so it is important to plan your marketing priorities carefully so that you don’t launch a new website in a key sales period.

Planning gives us the opportunity to anticipate and prepare for key business periods, so creating a documented marketing plan is an important way to iron out peaks and troughs and enable you to focus on what will deliver a return on investment for your business.

Deliver your plan

Now it is time to put your plans into action and do what you have promised to do. Try to stick to your goals and commit some time to marketing your business.

If you are planning promotional activity you will need to work at least two months in advance (so if Christmas sales activity starts in October, you should start preparing your promotional communications at the beginning of August to make sure they are all set up and ready to go in time). Whilst planning is important it is also realistic to adjust your plans should circumstances change. For instance if a new competitor enters the market or if unexpected conditions arise (global pandemic anyone?).

Put a reminder in your calendar to review your marketing plan every three, six or at very least every 12 months. Update it with notes about what has or hasn’t worked, and make changes to the coming months based on that knowledge.

If you have the flexibility and budget it is worth testing a few different approaches to marketing to see what gives you the best results. Big brands are particularly good at evaluating each campaign and feeding that insight into their next marketing activity, so steal that approach and apply it to your business.

If you need any help getting to grips with your marketing plan, then get in touch – we’d be happy to help.