Marketing Plan

Why Your Marketing Plan is Important

Your marketing plan details your products and/or services, pricing and promotions plans.

It is important since ideally it proves you 1) have a solid plan for reaching new customers, and 2) can attain new customers profitably (i.e., the customer acquisition cost is significantly less than the customer lifetime value).

What to Include

The Marketing Plan section of your plan has three sub-sections: Products, Services & Pricing, Promotions Plan and Distribution Plan.

Products, Services & Pricing

Here you should list each of your key products, detail their features and benefits and discuss their pricing (are they priced competitively or are they high-priced (premium) or low-priced (discount).

If your product/service is a restaurant or cafe, provide details on your menu items.

Promotions Plan

Here you should discuss which of the promotional tactics you will use to attract new customers and how.

For example, if radio advertising is a tactic you will employ, detail the radio shows on which you will have ads. Likewise, if you plan to advertise in trade journals, detail which ones you will target.

Distribution Plan

If you operate a retail store and/or an online store, and your storefront is the only way in which customers can buy from you, you do not have to complete this section of your plan.

However, if customers can buy from you via other methods (e.g., other retailers, distributors, etc.), detail these methods here. In such cases, you have two customers (your distribution partners and your end-customers/users) and you need to be sure you can satisfy the needs of both.