8/13/2019 Sinisa Zaric - Marketing Plan

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Marketing Plan Sample Outline

There are a variety of styles and formats used for marketing plans. The followingsection headings will help you organize your plan. The content of the plan ismuch more important than rigid adherence to a specific format.

I. Executive Summary

The Executive Summary highlights the main goals and recommendations of themarketing plan. It should also briefly address budget requirements and howsuccess will be measured.

II. Business Overview

This section is sometime referred to as the Situation nalysis segment. In atypical marketing plan! it contains relevant background on the market! product!pricing! and distribution situations as well as on competitors. Information "enterscan describe their business in these terms as well. ssuming the planningprocess takes place at the end of a fiscal year! this section may be a recap of thebusiness for the past #$ months. "onsider describing your customer base!services required by your customers! and environmental factors affecting youroperation. %es! Information "enters have competition. &ow has the Internet

affected your business' re other departments loading content for their use'Include any hard or anecdotal data on ()I available to you! as well asinformation on the Information "enter*s impact on the business.

Some marketing plan templates include the S+)T ,Strengths! +eaknesses!)pportunities! Threats- nalysis in this segment. )thers insert a separatesegment devoted to the S+)T nalysis. In the light of the business situation ustdescribed! you must now reflect on strengths and weaknesses of your operation!as well as opportunities and threats to be dealt with in the coming year.

III. Target Market

&ow well do you know your target market' &ow well do you understand theirinformation needs' "an you articulate what your customers and potentialcustomers need as opposed to what you offer' re there groups to whom youshould be /selling0 who are not now /buying0 your services' re there ways tosegment your market so that you can offer highly specialized products andservices to various groups! reflecting their business priorities' +hat kind of

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products should be offered to a broad base of users' nswering these questionswill help you define your target market.

IV. Gals

+hat do you want to achieve' The goal statement,s- should be challenging andyet! attainable. Is it important to increase the number of departments served'+hich departments' 1o you intend to provide more training programs' Samplegoal statements might read2

#. Establish relationship with 3egal and (egulatory 1epartments in first quarter.$. (educe staff time spent on call4in! ad hoc requests for help with Internet

searching

V. Marketing Strategies

&ere strategies and programs are outlined which will help us reach the goalsoutlined above. 5or the two goals suggested previously! strategies might read asfollows2#. 6rovide daily news delivery for all persons in 3egal and (egulatory

1epartments on trial basis for $ weeks as first step in increasing business

with these departments.$. Increase the number of Internet training sessions by #78 over the course of

the year.

VI. Implementatin Tactics

Tasks required to implement and monitor each strategy are listed in this section.+ith each task! the person responsible for the task! and a completion target dateare indicated. &aving a plan of action with specific tasks ensures that the detailsare clear and that specific persons are accountable. 5or example2

#. 1aily news delivery trial for 3egal 9 (egulatory 1epartments

Task 1escription6erson

(esponsible

"ompletion 1ate

a-

:eet with 1epartment 1irectors to promote plan!including budget implications for departmentsfollowing trial.

:.3. #

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