The Marketing Plan
The Marketing Plan is the centre piece of your marketing efforts. First you should describe the purpose of the marketing plan. This is not the same for everyone. Are you just starting your business? Then you can write a marketing plan for the long term, where your coaching practice is central. But you can also write a marketing plan for a product/serviceintroduction. In that case the launch of the new product is central. Other marketing goals can be, for example: increasing the number of customers, enter a new market or a new customer-product combination.
Picking up the phone not sure this fits here, it is a little too early in the content flow, I think it reads better now to bring up the text – The Marketing Plan.
The Marketing Plan consist of several items:
SWOT analysis.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In this analysis you therefore set the main strengths and weaknesses of the company (internally) against the greatest opportunities and threats (externally).
Marketing target group.
You have to describe who your ideal customers are and what their needs are. Important points to describe are: – General Features – Describe your target groups in a few words. – Number of existing customers – Make an overview of the most important customers, in turnover or customer loyalty. – Number of potential customers – Visualize who can form your new target group.
Needs.
Find out what the needs of the target group are.
Marketing objectives.
Here you describe what you want to achieve. This concerns, for example, a certain turnover or competition. The objectives must be concrete and measurable. Formulate them as SMART objectives: Specific Measurable Acceptable Realistic Time bound
An example of a marketing objective is: Turnover from the target group ‘women between 65 and 75 years old’ increased by 10 percent in the third quarter of 2020.
Marketing strategy.
The marketing strategy describes the way in which you intend to achieve the objectives. Strategy is primarily aimed at gaining a competitive advantage by choosing the right target groups and using the right marketing tools.
Marketing tools
Which tools will you use to achieve the marketing objectives? Here come the four Ps from the marketing mix:
- Product
- Which product do you deliver? What is the added value for the customer?
- Price
- For what price do you offer your product? How do you come to that price? In which segment of the market are you with your price?
- Place
- Where do you offer your product (many outlets or exclusive distribution)? Do the business location and shop layout have their own identity to distinguish themselves from the competitors?
- Promotion
- How do you reach your customers? Which promotional tools do you use (, internet, direct mail, sampling, personal sales)?
This module has explored the Marketing Plan. The Marketing Plan consist of several topics. These topics are related to each other and with the right balance you will get a successful marketing plan. You must think about your strength and your unique selling points. Please be aware of the context that you operate in. Does your product/service have the right price, is it accessible in the right way, is it needed? How do the several topics of the Marketing Plan relate to each other? You need to know the voice of your customer and more important, the customer needs to know you.
Now that you have completed the module you should be able to:
- Explain the use of Marketing in your organization
- Describe a series of ways in which your coaching practice can weave marketing into daily basis.
- Be curious to want to learn more about marketing.