How to write a marketing plan

How to write a Marketing Plan

Claire RichesTravel Waves Marketing

Introduction

• Who you are• Your business• Current Marketing Plan • What are you looking to learn today• Favourite holiday

• Travel Waves Marketing established Nov 2011 by Claire Riches

• Provide:– Strategic consultancy in

Travel & Tourism– Marketing services –

design, print, online, email, advertising

– PR– New business, product &

services launches

Objectives for sessionTo cover main steps to develop a marketing planTo review marketing tools to help in development of a marketing planTo provide formats to help you develop your Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan

Provides a road map for your business

Your marketing plan

• Allows you to look at:– The impact and results of past marketing activity– The market in which you operate– Your competition– Set future goals– Provide direction for your marketing efforts– Understand and support efforts to pursue new

initiatives

A typical marketing plan includes• Executive Summary• Situation analysis• Target market• Marketing objectives• Strategies• Plans• Tracking & evaluation

Executive Summary

• Complete this when you’ve finished your plan!

• The summary gives a quick overview of the main points of the plan

• Provides a synopsis of what you have done, what you plan to do and how you are going to get there

Current Marketing Situation

Conducting a Marketing Audit

• External– the economic environment– the competitive environment – your market environment

• Internal Review– Information about your business & performance

metrics– Previous campaign analysis– 80:20 rule

The Economic Environment - PEST• Political

– Government actions, local government

• Economic– Income levels, employment levels, rate of inflation, rate of economic

growth, customer confidence

• Social and Cultural– Demographics (population growth/distribution, age), lifestyles and

cultural values (changing beliefs, skills, family values)

• Technological– IT & internet

• Who are your competitors?• What reputation do they have?• What is their marketing like?• What are their key strengths and weaknesses?• What is the threat of new entrants?• Rivalry amongst current competitors?

Competitive Environment

The Market Environment

• Total market size growth and trends• Market characteristics, growth and trends• Prices• Products• Distribution channels• Customers/consumers• Industry practices

Internal Audit

• Sales• Profit margins• Costs• Market size & market share• Effectiveness of marketing mix • Review of your past marketing efforts• 80:20 rule

Conducting a SWOT Analysis

Target Markets

Target Markets

Create a Pen Portrait

Marketing Objectives

Marketing Objectives

• Clear - They should be an unambiguous statement of what needs to be done

• Quantified - The predicted outcome of each activity should be quantified, so that its performance can be monitored.

• Focused – Don’t be tempted to proliferate activities beyond the numbers which you can control & manage

• Realistic - They should be achievable • Agreed - Those who are to implement them should be

committed to them, and agree that they can do them

SMART Objectives

• Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers per month

• Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan

• Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money

• Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable and seem to be out of reach

• Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months

• To increase the average spend by customers by 10%• 10% increase in occupancy• To attract xx new customers per month• Increase midweek overnight stays from xx to xx• Improve shoulder season occupancy by 20%• Grow local business offer• Encourage locals to use facilities restaurant,

afternoon tea & morning coffee• Wedding market

Marketing Objectives

Marketing Strategies

• Product – what you offer and how it meets your customers needs. What more can you offer to attract more customers

• Pricing – what is your policy to match the competition, undercut them, or charge a premium price for a quality product and service

• Place - how and where you sell• Promotion - how you reach your customers and

potential customers

Marketing Strategies

Planning how much it's going to cost

• Basic Marketing Activities: those that need to be done for you to be in business such as newsletters, fresh content on your website, social media etc. Allocate a monthly budget to cover these.

• Promotional Marketing: these activities often have higher costs as they need to be created and produced – brochures, flyers, print materials are typical expenses here. Get estimates for these items to give you an idea of what you need to build into your budget.

• Marketing Projects: these are things like trade shows, website re-design, media campaigns. These items change from year to year so it is important to look at what you have spent in the past, get estimates for the upcoming year and build them into your plan.

Marketing Plan

• Awareness• New Customers• Customer loyalty• Conversion• Engagement• Market – Media - Message

Marketing Plan - Tactics

• Advertising– Awareness– New product or service launch– New customers– High cost– Measurability?– Repetition needed

Marketing Plan - Tactics

• Online– 80% of searches for travel– Website• Content• Images• Contact • Sign up

– Traffic• PPC - Pay Per Click • SEO

Marketing Plan - Tactics

• Customer loyalty– Recognition– Repeat bookings– Newsletters– Loyalty programmes

Marketing Plan - Tactics

• Social Media– Free?– Facebook– Twitter– Tripadvisor

Marketing Plan - Tactics

• PR– Target press your target customers read– Press trips– FAM trips

Marketing Plan - Tactics

• Seasonality– Opportunities by season– Date driven promotions & events– Calendar of 2014 dates & events

www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/2014

Marketing Plan - Tactics

Marketing Plan

Evaluation of activity

• Ask new customers how they heard about you when they book

• Use response codes where you can on activity to track results

• Set unique telephone numbers on flyers and emails.

• Track your website performance using analytics tools - the great thing with on-line activity is that it’s now far easier to measure marketing results.

• Did you reach your goal? • Was the marketing campaign successful? • Were you able to determine Return on

Investment? • Did your efforts result in Conversion?– i.e were we able to convert an inquirer to a visitor?

• Can you use your database to survey, capture additional information or to establish a Customer Relationship Management program?

Evaluation of activity

In Summary

• A typical marketing plan includes– Executive Summary– Situation analysis– Target market– Marketing objectives– Strategies– Plans– Tracking & evaluation

Templates

• CIM Template• Word template

To find out more contact:

Claire Riches07515 663 835

claire@travelwaves.co.ukwww.travelwaves.co.uk

Marketing Plan