Example Of Business Strategy Plan – Imagine starting to climb Mt. Everest, guided only by intuition. Without a detailed plan (and an experienced Sherpa), you wouldn’t get very far.
Marketing may not be a life-or-death extreme sport, but you still have big goals to achieve. And your team’s success depends on much more than gut feeling.
Example Of Business Strategy Plan
That’s why a strategic marketing plan is a must, regardless of your industry. Think of it as an action plan that gets your business where it needs to be every year.
The Top 7 Business Plan Examples To Inspire Your Own (2023)
Creating your first marketing plan can seem daunting, but don’t worry. We’ll walk you through the basics, show you what a strategic marketing plan looks like, and even give you a few free templates to get you started. Here’s what we cover:
A strategic marketing plan is the official document that guides your team’s marketing efforts throughout the year. It maps your annual marketing goals to your company’s overall business goals, while also detailing how you’ll spend your annual marketing budget.
Keep in mind that your plan may vary depending on your industry and goals. Length and format are not as important as the details you include. Do your research and make it as easy as possible for business leaders to understand how your strategic marketing plan will help the business grow.
Details how to execute a portion of your marketing plan with a specific tactical objective in mind. You can do this by launching an email or social media campaign, publishing a blog series, offering a special promotion, or hosting a live event.
Marketing Plan Templates With Guide
, on the other hand, is a high-level framework that guides all of your marketing strategies. It’s a big picture of the who, what and why behind your marketing goals, with a focus on linking them to larger organizational goals.
No two marketing plans are exactly alike, but they share some common threads. Here are 6 important elements you’ll want to identify and research before creating your next strategic marketing plan.
Everything you do as a marketing team should support your company’s overall strategy and goals. So, summarize your organization’s business goals and let that be the real bottom line of your marketing plan. Your team and stakeholders should clearly see how the marketing strategies and goals outlined in your plan align with your company’s top priorities.
A SWOT analysis breaks down your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This allows you to assess both the internal and external factors that affect your success so you can create targeted strategies that close gaps and deliver results.
Business Goals With Examples For 2023
Research is the core of any marketing plan, as you use it to shape your goals and strategy. Don’t be afraid to dive into the details here. A well-researched marketing plan is worth the time invested.
Focusing your research on these areas will give you a solid foundation for making smart marketing decisions.
In order to feel the pulse of the market, it is important to understand the big movements in the industry you are marketing to. Thoroughly research the industry your organization operates in and be sure to report on the general climate and any notable events. If your company serves any sub-industries, don’t forget to include them in your analysis as well.
Marketing to the masses rarely pays off. Therefore, narrowing your target audience is a must for any marketing plan. Think of it as a filter through which you pass every marketing strategy.
Strategic Planning Models And Tools For The Customer Focused Business
The more specific you can get, the better. Answering questions like these can help you create a clear picture of your ideal buyer so you can focus your resources to have a greater impact on the people you want to reach.
It’s also important to understand who and what you’re up against if you want to attract your perfect buyer. Identify the key players in your space and outline what they will do to win. This preliminary work helps to better understand how to stand out from the competition.
Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to talk strategy. Describe your strategic marketing goals for the year and briefly explain how these strategies support company-wide goals. Use a Gantt chart to create a timeline for each goal and track results. It’s an easy way to set expectations and keep your team and stakeholders informed.
Metrics are where the rubber hits in your marketing plan. Use your market research to define specific KPIs or key marketing metrics that will measure your success. This helps you track progress so you know if you need to change course mid-project to ensure you’re meeting your strategic marketing goals.
The Marketing Strategy Process
Marketing channels are the tools you use to reach your target audience and grow your brand. Choose your channels wisely based on where you expect to get the most bang for your marketing buck. Briefly explain the purpose of each channel and how it supports your overall marketing strategy and business goals.
Do you want to create a more detailed plan for each marketing channel so that you can bring your ideas to life? To learn more about planning by channel, check out our free Social Media Strategy Plan and Editorial Content Plan templates.
Creating a monthly budget for your marketing plan and tracking it will help you maximize ROI and identify wasted spend before it eats away at your marketing dollars.
Start by listing all your current expenses so you know what you can spend on new initiatives. Then, do your best to estimate the new costs expected in the coming year. Don’t forget to consider new hires, freelancers or third-party agencies you may need to rely on to get the job done.
How To Develop An It Strategic Plan
Not sure where to start? We have you! Here are some examples of how you can build a marketing plan so you can easily start creating your own.
Your marketing plan may vary depending on the industry or goals you focus on. Use these marketing plan templates and samples as a guide to start the process and find the right marketing plan structure for you.
The most common way to create a marketing plan is to simply write it out as a text document. This format allows you to freely specify the research results collected during discovery, while also clearly justifying the marketing goals set for the year.
We’ve put together a free Google Docs marketing plan template to help you save time so you can jumpstart your planning process. This sample marketing plan is perfect for documenting and sharing the full scope of your strategic marketing plan with your team and stakeholders.
Pricing Strategy Guide: 14 Types And Examples
Save a copy of the template to your Google Drive or download it as a Word document and customize it to fit the needs of your strategic marketing plan.
A plan is no good if you set it and forget it. This is where a gantt chart comes in handy. Use this free Gantt chart marketing plan template to track your strategic marketing plan to success.
A Gantt chart is a great way to organize your marketing plan into a simple visual timeline that’s easy to update as work progresses. This gives you a high-level view of your plan’s key goals and strategies, while allowing you to collaborate and share your plan with your team and stakeholders.
How you use the Gantt chart to implement your plan is up to you. As you develop your marketing plan, create a schedule of tasks that need to be completed, as in the example below.
Nonprofit Strategic Planning: Guided Roadmap Example
Once you’ve fleshed out the details of your marketing plan, you can use a Gantt chart to define and track your strategic marketing goals. For example, you can break down your marketing plan by quarter to show when specific goals come into play and update your progress when you reach your goal. Here’s what it might look like.
Customizing the template is quick and easy thanks to drag-and-drop simplicity. And because everything is online, your entire team can collaborate on activities in real time.
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of our free strategic marketing plan template.
Configuring a marketing plan is as easy as dragging and dropping tasks or entire workgroups to the right new location. Click and drag the edges of each task bar to set the duration of the new task.
Business Development Strategy Plan Examples In Ms Word
Collaboration is easy thanks to the chat function. Share documents and chat with your team directly from the task
Do you have a more formal marketing plan document? Embed a file or link to your project so that everyone can easily access it.
Plans are meant to be shared, so we’ve made it easy to keep even the most curious of stakeholders informed. Export your plan to a printer-friendly PDF format or share a view-only link to your project so stakeholders can see the progress of your marketing plan in real time.
Sign up for a free account today and save time on your project