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You should. Without an annual marketing plan, things can get messy — and it’s nearly impossible to put a number on the budget you’ll need to secure for the projects, hiring, and outsourcing you’ll encounter over the course of a year if you don’t have a plan.
→ Download Now: Free Marketing Plan Template
To make your plan’s creation easier, we’ve put together a list of what to include in your plan and a few different planning templates where you can easily fill in the blanks.
To start, let’s dive into how to create a marketing plan and then take a look at what a high-level marketing plan has inside.
In this article, we’re going to discuss:
What a High-Level Marketing Plan Includes
How to Create a Marketing Plan
Marketing Plan Templates You Can Use
Simplified Marketing Plan Template
Plus — Social Media Plan Templates
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Free Marketing Plan Template
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Hi 👋 What’s your name?
First Name
John
Last Name
Smith
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Email Address
john@smith.com
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Phone Number
111 222 3333
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Company
HubSpot
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www.hubspot.com
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Marketing Plan Outline
Marketing plans can get quite granular to reflect the industry you’re in, whether you’re selling to consumers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B), and how big your digital presence is. Nonetheless, here are the elements every effective marketing plan includes:
- Business Summary
marketing plan business summary templateIn a marketing plan, your Business Summary is exactly what it sounds like: a summary of the organization. This includes:
The company name
Where it’s headquartered
Its mission statement
- Business Initiatives
marketing plan business initiatives templateThe Business Initiatives element of a marketing plan helps you segment the various goals of your department. Be careful not to include big-picture company initiatives, which you’d normally find in a business plan. This section of your marketing plan should outline the projects that are specific to marketing. You’ll also describe the goals of those projects and how those goals will be measured. - Customer Analysis
marketing plan customer analysis templateHere’s where you’ll conduct some basic market research. If your company has already done a thorough market research study, this section of your marketing plan might be easier to put together.
Ultimately, this element of your marketing plan will help you describe the industry you’re selling to and your buyer persona. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional description of your ideal customer, focusing on traits like:
Age
Location
Title
Goals
Personal challenges
Pains
Triggering events
- Competitor Analysis
marketing plan competitive analysis templateYour buyer persona has choices when it comes to solving their problems, choices in both the types of solutions they consider and the providers that can administer those solutions. In your market research, you should consider your competition, what they do well, and where the gaps are that you can potentially fill. This can include:
Positioning
Market share
Offerings
Pricing
- SWOT Analysis
marketing plan SWOT analysis templateYour marketing plan’s Business Summary also includes a SWOT analysis, which stands for the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Be patient with your business’s SWOT analysis; you’ll write most of it based on your market research from the sections above and your strategy below. - Market Strategy
marketing plan market strategy templateYour Market Strategy uses the information included in the above sections to describe how your company should approach the market. What will your business offer your buyer personas that your competitors aren’t already offering them?
In a full-length marketing plan, this section can contain the “seven Ps of marketing”:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
People
Process
Physical Evidence
(You’ll learn more about these seven sub-components inside our free marketing plan template, which you can download below.)
- Budget
marketing plan Budget templateDon’t mistake the Budget element of your marketing plan with your product’s price or other company financials. Your budget describes how much money the business has allotted the marketing team to pursue the initiatives and goals outlined in the elements above.
Depending on how many individual expenses you have, you should consider itemizing this budget by what specifically you’ll spend your budget on. Example marketing expenses include:
Outsourcing costs to a marketing agency and/or other providers
Marketing software
Paid promotions
Events (those you’ll host and/or attend)
- Marketing Channels
marketing plan marketing channels templateLastly, your marketing plan will include a list of your marketing channels. While your company might promote the product itself using certain ad space, your marketing channels are where you’ll publish the content that educates your buyers, generates leads, and spreads awareness of your brand.
If you publish (or intend to publish) on social media, this is the place to talk about it. Use the Marketing Channels section of your marketing plan to map out which social networks you want to launch a business page on, what you’ll use this social network for, and how you’ll measure your success on this network. Part of this section’s purpose is to prove to your superiors, both inside and outside the marketing department, that these channels will serve to grow the business.
Businesses with extensive social media presences might even consider elaborating on their social strategy in a separate social media plan template.
- Financial Projections
Knowing the budget and doing analysis on the marketing channels you want to invest in, you should be able to come up with a plan for how much budget to invest in which tactics based on expected ROI. From there, you’ll be able to come up with financial projections for the year. These won’t be 100% accurate but can help with executive planning.
How to Create a Marketing Plan
Conduct a situation analysis.
Define your target audience.
Write SMART goals.
Analyze your tactics.
Set your budget.
- Conduct a situation analysis.
Before you can get started with your marketing plan, you have to know your current situation.
What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? Conducting a basic SWOT analysis is the first step to creating a marketing plan.
Additionally, you should also have an understanding of the current market. How do you compare to your competitors? Doing a competitor analysis should help you with this step.
Think about how other products are better than yours. Plus, consider the gaps in a competitor’s approach. What a
