1. What is a Marketing Plan?
A marketing plan is a road map that provides direction for your marketing strategy – What to do and why you are doing it
A marketing plan is the practical application of your marketing strategy
A marketing plan details what you want to accomplish and helps you meet your objectives
A marketing plan can be part of a larger business plan but can also be used as a stand alone piece without a larger business plan

2. What is a Marketing Plan?
Tracks costs and measures value
Helps with focus
Charts marketing strategies
Serves as a handbook
Captures your thinking on paper
Reflects a the big picture
Becomes a document to build on

3. Do I Need a Marketing Plan?
If you build it, they wont necessarily come
Your opinion or the opinion of a friend or family member is not a strong enough basis to launch a business/project
Would you go on a trip to a destination without knowing how to get there?
Marketing plans are crucial for obtaining investment!

4. Where Do I Start? Evaluate where you are now.
What is your product/service/project?
How are you positioned in the market?
How do your customers see you?
What is you vision?
Do you have a mission statement?
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT)

5. The Plan: Getting Started
Research
Who are your customers?
Where are your markets?
Who are your competitors?
What type of marketing activities are your competitors engaged in?
Current trends
How will you pay for marketing?
Current situation – what do you do now? What works? What does not work?

6. Marketing Plan Template
There are many different ways to write a marketing plan
1000’s of templates available online
Free document templates and paid business planning “wizard” software
There is no right or wrong way to write a marketing plan but there are some best practices to keep in mind

7. #1 The Business About your business Who are you?
History of your business
Product/Services/Projects
Brand manifesto ( a public declaration of principles and intentions)
Core intentions of you business

8. #2 Vision
Where do you see your business in 3, 5, 10 years down the road?
Articulate your dreams and hopes in the future
Your vision is your inspiration and framework for your marketing plan
Your vision does not detail how you are going to get where you are going but it sets the direction you are going in.

9. #3 Mission Statement Why does your business exist?
Mission statements are as varies as the businesses they describe
What they all have in common, however, is a broad description of business capabilities, customer focus, activities and make –up
Mission statement is your present state and a vision statement is your future
Every business should have a mission statement and is a crucial component of your marketing plan
It ensures everyone is “on the same page”

10. #4 Year in Review Sales history Marketing initiatives
Marketing conversions
Marketing conversion overview
It is important to collect data for future planning.
Your marketing plan is a living and breathing document

11. #5 SWOT Analysis
The SWOT is a powerful tool used to understand you marketing strengths and weaknesses
It also assists in identifying opportunities and threats that you may face
Uncover opportunities that you are well placed to take advantage of
Understanding weaknesses helps manage and eliminate threats that would otherwise catch you off guard
Apply the SWOT to you and your competitors
Facilitates a marketing strategy that will distinguish you from your competitors
Help identify promising new customers

12. A) Strengths - internal
What advantages to you have?
What do you offer better than others?
What unique or low cost resources do you have access to?
What do customers and competitors perceive as your strengths?

13. B) Weaknesses - internal
What can you improve?
What marketing and business practices should you avoid?
What do customers and competitors perceive as your weaknesses?

14. C) Opportunities - external
What positive opportunities are you facing now?
What are the interesting trends that you can take advantage of?

15. D) Threats - external What obstacles do you face?
What is your competition doing?
Are the specifications to your sector in regard to how you market your product and services changing?
Can you weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

16. #6 SWOT Analysis Overview
Recap and examination of the internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats determine the appropriate course of action
Action may include:
Communications standards policy
Product diversification
Marketing strategy that captures a particular target market

17. #7 Measurable Objectives
Increase sales over year prior
Expansion of target market
Pricing incentives (discounts, bundles)
Introduce new product offering
Create new collateral
Concentration on existing customers
Re-brand
Your marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment in which you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy.
For example, suppose your business objectives include increasing visitation by 10 percent over the next year. Your marketing objectives might include targeting a promising or emerging new market segment to help achieve this growth.
As with any strategic initiative a marketing plan should start with objectives. Your marketing objectives will guide your entire marketing initiative and be used for evaluation. Without objectives you may get off-track and will not know when you have reached your ultimate goal.
Your objectives often focus on your specific target market(s). Objectives must:
• Be measurable in quantitative terms, such as number of visitors, sales volume, and so forth. By having quantitative
objectives, you will have a clear target to strive toward and will know when the objective has been achieved.
• Be framed within a specific time period.
• Be outcome based. In other words, what is the end result you are looking for?

18. #8 Market and Brand Position
Transform your passion into a position
Be a big fish in a small pond
Perceptual location of where your product/service/project fits in the marketplace
Identify your greatest strength and use it to position and define your product/service/project
Effective positioning puts you front of mind to potential customers
Key elements to positioning: price, value, quality, service, distribution, packaging

19. #9 Market Share
What is the size is the market for you product/service/project offering?
Identify your current market share over a specified time period
Define the potential market share your plan aspires to over a specified time period
To calculate your market share: your sales divided by total sales of your industry over a specified time period
This metric is an indication of your relative competitiveness

20. #10 Target Market
Group of customers you are directing your marketing efforts toward
A well defined target market is critical in your marketing strategy
Key segmentation of target markets
Geographic
Demographic
Psychographic (lifestyles)
Behavioural (occasions, loyalty)
Primary and secondary target markets

21. #11 Marketing Objectives and Strategies
Creating experiential events and brand leveraging programs
Great special events and activities engage the consumer creating an emotional connection with a brand. Oceanview Garden Centre and Landscaping will produce special events that are integrated into the marketing plan which will create long lasting memories with the target market.
Oceanview Garden Centre and Landscaping will engage the consumer by placing gardening lifestyle experiences face-to-face with the target market in a manner which reinforces the Oceanview brand experience.
Strategies
Connect art and culture to the Oceanview brand – Artists by Nature
Show local art in retail areas
Live acoustic performances by local singer/song writers
On-site treasure hunts for children
Painting contests inspired by nature
Educational field trips for schools
Moonlight garden parties
Saturday BBQ’s
Halloween pumpkin carving

22. #12 The Marketing Mix The 4 P’s of Marketing
Product – detailed description of your product/service/project
Promotion – tactics of your marketing plan. Getting your product/service/project known. The nuts and bolts of the marketing plan
Price – How much does it cost?
Placement – distribution and location

23. #13 Critical Path/Project Management
Schedule and manage your marketing plan
Identify key tasks and when they must be executed
Identify interdependencies
Many tools available to employ tasks and schedule activities
Outlook, Excel spread sheets, word docs, Marcato, Base Camp

24. #14 Budget
All marketing plans will be subject to your marketing budget
Although this will be the last page of your plan it is the first thing you should consider
SWOT analysis should serve as a useful tool in determining what you can afford and what low cost opportunities are available to you