A Marketing Plan is sometimes called a marketing strategy, in essence it is an action plan of what it is you are going to do to promote your business. Like any SMART goal it is a written plan that states the marketing goals and the objectives to be achieved over a specified period of time.
So if you are currently in business or looking to set up a training company or starting out in freelance training, the one thing you need is a clear plan – well in fact two plans… a business plan (a simple one page plan will do) and a marketing plan.
A marketing plan looks at three factors:
Jumping straight to step (2) or three is a waste of time without REALLY understanding (1) – where is your business now (are you now)? What do you do? Who do you do it with? For how much?
We need to follow some sound principles…
Knowledge -> Understanding -> Action
We need Knowledge of where we are – we need to understand or make sence of this in order to take appropriate Action
A Marketing Plan Template (example)
Executive Summary – What is the plan about – one or two simple paragraphs
Business Overview
– What do you do – be specific (to say you run management training courses is too vague)
Target market – who do you do it do/ with? The narrower & more specific the better
Vision – what do you want to be ?
Mission – Why are you in business? what is your purpose?
Current Analysis – where are you now ? what do you do? who to? for how much?
External Analysis – What is happening in the environment in which you are, or want to operate?
Conduct a PEST/ PESTLE analysis
Internal Analysis
Conduct a PRIMO-F analysis
Use the PESTLE & PRIMO-F data to complete a comprehensive SWOT analysis. Use this to consider where you are, where are you going and how are you going to get there?
Marketing Strategies – your plan
Consider what approaches (strategies) are required to achieve your desired goals. Look at:
Implementation Plan
What needs to be done. What actions.. by who… by when
Resourcing requirements
This template will work equally well for a coaching or consulting company.
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