FREE COOKIES!

Well, not really, but I didn't want you to leave before you could read about all the juicy advice I'm going to give you about creating a marketing plan for a small business.  You're probably asking yourself, "can advice be juicy?"...I don't know, but if it could be, this advice would DEFINTELY be juicy.

We recently decided to write a marketing plan for our business...well, actually it was decided FOR us, but that's information for later.  So, having absolutely no experience in writing a marketing plan, my first step was to head to the library for some free advice.  I stood in front of the business section staring at all the books, certain that I could find the one book that would contain the piece of crucial information I needed.  Many, many books later, and, after searching for a shopping cart and finding none, I staggered to my car and headed home for a night of reading.  I won't tell you what happened next because it's embarassing, but three days later I woke up, disoriented and gasping for air.  After getting out from under the pile of books that was smothering me, I sat myself down in front of my computer, armed with information that was just bursting to get out. 

A marketing plan is basically a list of things that your company will do in the near future (usually 1 to 2 years) to help get the word out about your product or service so you can get people to BUY it.  All this information, of course should be presented in a nice little package, complete with cover pages, lots of pictures and maybe a little graph here and there if you can swing it. 

A marketing plan contains 10 essential elements:

1. Vision Statement
2. Company Description
3. Product Description
4. Target Customer
5. Brand Positioning Statement
6. Brand Positioning Strategy
7. Market Competition
8. Marketing Strategy
9. Pricing and Distribution Strategy
10. Executive Summary

Vision Statement - One or two sentences that encompass all that your company is or wants to be.  Here is a site of examples of famous vision statements:  http://www.samples-help.org.uk/
Company Description - A paragraph or two, describing your company and what it's all about. 
Product Description - A paragraph or two describing the product(s) and/or service(s) you sell and why they're so great.
Target Customer - This section should be about a page, can contain graphs or pictures and should state WHO your customer is - what type of person/business buys your product.  You may want to include age groups, business types, etc. 
Brand Positioning Statement - This section should contain a short statement or two that says it all.  Not easy to put into few words!  Here's a helpful site to get you started: http://www.smbmarketingguide.com/brand-strategy/branding-101-how-to-write-a-positioning-statement/
Brand Positioning Strategy - This section should contain three essential elements:  market, brand and competitors.  It answers the question, how will you position your brand in the marketplace?  This should contain a more in-depth description of your target market, maybe throw in a few statistics here and there, what your brand is and who your competitors are.  A good site to have a look at:  http://www.how-to-branding.com/
Market Competition - This section should directly list any local or national competition for your product(s).  Name dropping and direct comparison of your product(s) to your competitor's product(s) is a necessary component here.
Marketing Strategy - This is the CRUX of your whole marketing plan and should be at least two or three pages.  It should be a strategic list of everything your company will do to directly or indirectly market your product(s) so you can get the word out and get people to BUY it.  This can include such things as radio/television ads, social media, public relations, community/local events, partnerships, etc. List everything you can possibly think of.
Pricing and Distribution - This is a few paragraphs of how much your product costs and how you plan on distributing it to your current/future customers.
Executive Summary - This can be a couple of paragraphs with statements that summarize the most important elements of your marketing plan. 

Also, if your marketing plan is for internal use only, you may want to add a section on Company Strengths and Weaknesses for your own benefit.  Otherwise, company strengths can be incorporated into the 'Company' section at the beginning of the plan. Nobody likes weaknesses, so leave it out...you're not weak, you're strong...never let them see you sweat (can you guess who's ad slogan?)

So I hope all this juicy advice will serve you well, but if you need help, get thyself to the library.