Strategic marketing is essential to the success of any business, and a good strategy doesn’t just happen by chance – it requires a well-considered marketing plan. Your marketing plan document will act as your roadmap as you implement your strategy, and ensure that you stay on track to market for your specific business goals.

Here at The Finn Group, we’ve already shared a series of posts taking you through your business plan document step-by-step, and we’ve included a post on your marketing strategy here as some background reading – click here to read this blog post now.

This series will dive deeper into how you should build out your marketing plan in detail, starting with the Marketing Plan Summary (also known as your Executive Summary).

Your summary will act as a succinct overview of your marketing plan, including how you will connect with your target audience, the research behind this, your intended major marketing activities and overall goals. Importantly, it will outline both the short-term and long-term marketing goals for your business – think of it as the “highlight reel” for the long-form document, and a summary that’s easy to follow.

Your summary may cover several paragraphs to a page, with each section clearly outlining the relevant specifics of the detailed marketing plan that will follow, starting with your introduction.

Marketing Plan Introduction

Following the key business information, your introduction will set the scene for your marketing executive summary and briefly pull together the core business function and how the marketing plan will support the growth and success of the business.

Your Business & Team Background

Without too much detail, share more about the business history and launch date, the structure (if it’s a company), general customer base and growth to date. Next, add in a summary of the current team – again, no extensive bios needed are required – take this opportunity to showcase the talent of the team as a whole.

Market Info

Outline the market and industry that your business fits into and is targeting, including the rate of growth, any market trends and significant competitors (this is where you’d include the main players that you want to differentiate yourself from). Is the market particularly vulnerable to a specific time of year or change in technology? This is where you’ll note these points.

Your Product and/or Service

Now it’s time to summarise what you’re selling, and how this product or service is unique to the market. If you’ve got a large product offering, include a high-level summary of the various product lines, and be sure to include any notable benefits or features. There are many reasons why a product will be successful in any given market – perhaps you offer lower prices than your competitors, or you service a market that has limited options aside from your business.

Your Customers & Communication

Include a mention of your target customers and how you access them. Alongside this, share how you promote your business to your target audience currently, for example – are you primarily an online-sales company using Instagram ads to reach your audience? This will have shaped your key marketing priorities and goals, and you should already have some idea of the most effective ways that you convert your marketing activities into customers.

Marketing Financials

Share the relevant financial details regarding your marketing activity, including your budgets and how you will track the success of your efforts. You may already have metrics on the cost per customer acquisition, and how much more you need to spend to meet your short and long-term goals.

Marketing Goals

Outline the overarching marketing goals and objectives for your business, and what strategies are critical to you meeting these goals. If you’re a new business owner, you may be taking this opportunity to overhaul the marketing strategy and therefore you may be setting up a fresh set of goals and outcomes for your marketing.

Once pulled together, the above sections will create a pertinent summary of how marketing will work hand-in-hand with your business. If you’re finding it tricky to pull all of this information together at once (this may be the case for new businesses where there isn’t enough history to work with), you might like to reverse-engineer this introduction piece and write it out once you’ve had time to flesh out each complete section first.

Remember, marketing all comes down to human behaviour, and finding the best ways to connect and retain the interest of your target market, and this marketing plan summary will showcase your market knowledge, commitment and intentions. In our next post in the series, we will look in detail at the business and team section of your marketing plan, and how to effectively communicate your background and expertise.