Describe the current situation

To get started on your marketing plan, you need to analyze your products or services, your distribution network, and your competitors. You will also want to look at the current financial situation for the products and the results of any previous marketing efforts. Some find it helpful to perform a SWOT analysis in this section of their marketing plan. A SWOT analysis charts out a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

I recommend: You can download a SWOT Analysis template from BusinessBalls.com to get started on your situation analysis.

Research and analyze your market

Good market research will create a strong foundation for your marketing plan. While there can be a lot of "trial and error" in marketing, it is always important to make educated decisions. Market research will help you do this. Analyze your target market and break it into segments. Next, research the demographics of the segments you will target. For consumers, include the gender, marital status, age range, education, level, etc. If you are targeting a business, include the company size, job titles of decision makers and annual revenues of the businesses you want to target. You will also want to research the market needs, trends, and growth as part of your market research.

I recommend: Finding information for the situational analysis can be a daunting task.  I prefer to use the information available from the Census Bureau to find demographics for my target market. The US Department of Commerce also has a helpful market research seach tool.

Describe where you want to be

Next, you'll want to list some objectives for your marketing efforts. These objectives generally fall into two categories: Marketing Objectives and Financial Objectives. Financial objectives focus on the profits that will result from your marketing strategy. "Earn $500,000 in profits" would be a financial objective. Marketing objectives tend to be more abstract than financial objectives. A marketing objective may be to improve customer retention.

I recommend: Marketing Plan Pro has many examples of marketing plans that may give you ideas for your own marketing objectives. 

Describe how you will get there

Finally, you're ready to develop the meat of your marketing plan. In this section you'll want to be specific on what you will do to achieve your objectives and who is responsible for accomplishing them. You will also want to include sales forecasts and a marketing budget for your products.

I recommend: For help with creating your budget, forecasts, and action plan, I recommend the marketing plan template available from Marketing Plan Success.