Article: This section will include basic information about your product or service, and will provide a general summary of the entire document in a paragraph or two. Writing this first can help you broadly overview the more detailed sections you are about to write. This is helpful to give your employees, advisors, and colleagues and overview of your plan. The next section will use your research to describe your target market. This does not need to be complex, and simple, bulleted steps will work fine. You can begin by describing the demographics of your market (include age, gender, and location, or occupation if relevant), and then describe their preferences relating to the products or services you offer. This section should be no longer than a page. Here, you will list all the marketing goals for your company in the upcoming year. Remember to apply the SMART acronym to setting your goals -- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. A SMART goal would be "Grow overall sales to public sector customers by 10% before the end of 2016" This section answers the "how" of your plan, and it will outline your overall strategy for marketing. Your goal here is to focus on your Unique Selling Proposition (or USP) which is the main advantage your business has. This should be more clear after brainstorming and planning your marketing plan. Your strategy will sell your USP.. In this section you want to describe how you will reach customers (attending trade shows, radio ads, cold calls, online advertising), and the general approach you will use to convince them. Here, you will want to focus on what you identified your customers needs to be, and how your USP can help them meet their needs. The key in this section is to be as specific as possible. In this section you will want to include the total amount of money you have to spend as well as how those dollars will be spent. It is best to divide your expenses into categories, and list the total amount spent per category. For example, you may spend $5,000 travelling to trade shows, $5,000 on radio ads, $200, on flyers, $1,000 on a new promotion, and $2,000 on optimizing your website. Don't anticipate that your plan will go off without a hitch. Most marketing specialists recommend that a business revisits its marketing plan at least once every year. This will help you review what's been accomplished, assess how things may continue to progress based on current information, and determine whether any changes need to be made to your marketing plan. Be objective with your annual reviews. If something isn't working or if someone isn't performing up to your company's standards, you may need to discuss why things aren't working or why an employee isn't meeting his tasks. Or, you may need to rethink your company's entire marketing plan if things are really going off the track. This is where it may be helpful and worth the cost to hire an independent consultant. A consultant can review your plan and assess its success or failure, and may be able to help you restructure your plan as needed.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Start with an Executive Summary. Describe your target market. List your goals. Identify your marketing strategy. Write the budget. Maintain an annual plan (at least).