Marketing plans are not really fun to write and they don’t often get read in detail, but without them you wouldn’t think through every question that might be thrown at you and be prepared to answer them on the fly. This post is really a high-level outline I’ve used in the past. So, without further ado:

The Executive Summary

This is the one part that the executive team might actually read, so make sure it’s well written and brief. If it’s more than a page, it’s probably too long. Sometimes I add a bullet list at the bottom of the summary called “Main Objectives” which lists the goals. I follow that with another bullet list entitled “Keys To Success”, which is a list of strategies at match up to each goal.  The real purpose here is to create an overview of the goals and strategy while pointing to supporting details that can be found in the body of the document. Which is why a short table of contents should follow …

The Table of Contents

As the name suggests. You might need sub-bullets depending on how involved your plan is:

1. The State of The Market
2. The State of The Brand
3. Plan Goals
4. Marketing Strategy
5. Tactical Plan
6. Budget
7. Metrics & Controls

The State of The Market
Markets are constantly changing, the goal of this section is to define the current market, how it’s changed, and where it’s going relative to your brand. This begins with an update of the competitive landscape, a review of market segments, and information about their purchasing behaviors. Ultimately this is an overview of internal reporting and market research from the past year.

In this section you’ll also have a chance to review your existing product lines:

• how they are positioned in the market relative to competitive products,
• how they are distributed,
• how they are priced,
• provide information about which products are the most/least profitable,
• and allude to where market opportunities exist.

It might help to think about articulating the state of the 4 P’s (product, placement, price, promotion) as you write this section.

The State of The Brand aka The SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

If you haven’t already read my previous post on the SWOT Analysis Model, now’s a good time to check it out. In this section of the plan you’ll want to focus on the opportunities and threats areas of the swot model, while building on the competitive landscape information you presented above. The goal here is to highlight where the opportunities are, what requirements come with the opportunities, and what you must avoid along the way.

Plan Goals

This is where you go on the record and state what goals you think are attainable based on the above information and discuss the possible means of achieving that goal.

Marketing Strategy

If you haven’t already read my previous post on strategy tools, now would be a good time to check it out. Now that you’ve set some goals, this is where you present your plan on how you’re going to meet them. You don’t have to get into all the details quite yet, but you should support the rational behind your strategy decisions, and what kinds of tactical steps will be required to support them.

Tactical Plan

In many ways, this is the real meat of the presentation because it’s where you share the details of how you’re going to support your strategy through a series of tactical steps. Each tactic must be associated with information about resources required, projected outcomes, and contingencies. In order to provide a convincing presentation you may have to do research, budgeting, and resource planning. I recommend presenting a version of the strategy arc from the exercise I mentioned above.

Budget

This is the flip side of the written plan, where all the expenses are accounted for. The budget should tie in well to your strategy arc and tactics to demonstrate how your plan is phased out to respect organizational cash flow and other budget requirements. In essence, this is a profit and loss statement with each month shown along with quarterly and year end totals. How you assign line items really depends on your specific organization’s needs. Similarly, adding key performance indicators (KPI) into the sheet as well can give the management team additional perspective.

Metrics & Controls

In this final section, you’ll outline what processes are in place to insure that things are going according to plan and what happens if things get off track.