Your Marketing Plan

Introduction
Until a plan is written down, it is little more than a set of ideas. Writing your
marketing plans makes you commit to it, makes it more organised and is something
that you can refer to, action and measure against.
Check out our step-by-step guide to thinking about and writing an effective
marketing plan.

1. Start with the end in mind

Set specific objectives: for example, winning new customers, retaining existing
customers, increasing order sizes or selling new products.
Make sure you think about the implications of your marketing plan for the rest of
your business – for example, production / capacity, training requirements and cash
flow.
Try and put together some basic, realistic sales forecasts and budgets.

2. Develop your ‘Customer Avatar’

To make your marketing effective, you need to
have a clear idea of your ideal target customer.
This description is sometimes known as a
‘customer avatar’.
If you plan to sell to individuals, how would
you describe them? Describe them by
gender, age, marital status, occupation,
income, location, how many children they
have and anything else that may be useful. If you plan
to sell to businesses, think about company size, sector, location and
what sort of person in the business you are targeting (Office Manager, Accounts
Department, Managing Director etc).
Think about the things that affect their buying decision: what, when, how and why
they buy.
• Describe your market and the characteristics and size of each market
segment; what are the key market trends?

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• Describe your ideal customer. Are they individuals or businesses? Consider
age, gender, shopping habits, social etc. For businesses, consider size,
industry, location, job title etc.
• Where are your customers based?
• What prompts or motivates your customers to buy your products or services?
• What might trigger a potential customer to think of you – this can help you
think about where to do your marketing and the message you give.
• Have you sold your product/services to customers already or do you have
customers waiting to buy? If so, try and describe them in detail.
• Think about the profitability and sales potential of different groups of
customers (known as market segments) and of different products or activities.

FREE WORKSHEET DOWNLOAD: Download our customer avatar worksheet with

examples at www.agilemarketing.agency/syob

3. Your Product or Service ‘Before & After Grid’

Be clear on your products and services. Don’t try
and be all things to all people. When marketing
your product or service, think about the benefits
not the features. For example, if you are selling
firewood, you are selling the warmth (or
decorative effect!), not the wood.
• Describe your product or service using
as many trigger keywords as possible.
• If you think about features, think ‘so what’?
Always ask the extra question: ‘Which means that?’. For
example, I am a garden maintenance company and cut your lawn? So what?
Which means that…you get your weekend back with more free time.
• Think about the benefits and value of people buying your product or service.
Facts are great but appealing to peoples’ emotion is better. I cut your grass so
you can spend more time with your family enjoying the garden.
• Think about ‘pain points’ – how will you improve their life or business? Often
it is useful to put this down as a ‘before and after’ list.
• List some key action words about what you do to solve your customers’
problems (these are useful for your marketing copy and keywords for your
website and search engine optimisation).

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• Think about the profitability and sales potential of different groups of
customers (market segments) and of different products or activities. Most
companies make 80% of their profit from 20% of their products.
• Produce a ‘before and after grid’ in terms of haves, feelings and emotions –
for example; before – you have to cut the grass, after, you do not have to cut
the grass themselves. Before, you feel stressed, after, you feel relaxed. Before,
you never have time at the weekend to be with your family, after, your family
life is better and happier. Selling, more free time, being relaxed and being
happier is far more powerful than just offering to cut the grass!
• Avoid thinking about Unique Selling Propositions (USP) which are inward
looking. From your ‘before and after grid’, you can produce a ‘benefits and
value statement’ which focuses on the impact you have on your customer.

FREE WORKSHEET DOWNLOAD: Download our before and after grid and sample
value statement (with examples) at: www.agilemarketing.agency/syob

4. Marketing Research
Try and do some basic marketing research - if you know which ‘niche’ you want to
target, carrying out marketing research enables you to build up a customer profile,
which can be used to guide future marketing activity.
• Ask some potential customers basic questions about what they think about
when deciding to buy
• Research what customers think and value, such as product features, quality,
service and image. It is not just about price.
• Look for factual evidence, information and data online or using your local
library or business support agencies (such as your Chamber of Commerce).
• Check that there is sufficient customer demand in your target area to sustain
your business.
• Most importantly, when you get started, get as much customer feedback as
possible.

5. Communicating with and reaching your customers

Think carefully about how you are going to promote your business and deliver your
products or services. Consider the points below:

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• When writing marketing materials, you should always use YOU in your
text…never refer to ‘them’ or ‘our customers’ otherwise the person reading
the text does not identify with what you are saying. Using ‘you’ makes it more
personal and more effective. Try reading some blogs and tips on writing
marketing copy and effective headlines.
• Consider how you can communicate with your customers – what publications
do they read? Can you use the local parish magazines? Do you have a mailing
list or e-mail list? Advertising is often too expensive but can work if it is very
targeted. Download our free list of ‘73 tools to communicate with customers’
for ideas of the different methods of communication.
• Consider how you are going to deliver your product or service to your
customers (known as distribution channels). Will you sell direct, through
retailers, online or via a shop?
• Think about what messages you are going to give your
potential customers in order to engage them and
encourage them to buy (remember have, feel,
emotions)
• How will you measure customer satisfaction?
• What marketing methods will you use to reach your
potential customers? Consider both online and
traditional marketing methods.
• Identify customers' buying cycles so you can time
your marketing activities – are they seasonal? Are
they time-sensitive based on some other factor?

FREE DOWNLOAD: Download our free list of ‘73 tools to communicate with
customers’ at: www.agilemarketing.agency/syob

6. Pricing and Costing

Think carefully about how you are going to price your product or service in the
marketplace. Remember, it is not always about the price and some of the most
successful companies are the most expensive!
If possible, you should ask some potential customers or existing customers their
views on price – are they very price sensitive or is it quality that matters more?
When thinking about pricing, you should consider:

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• How you will price each product or service?
o Market pricing – pricing similar to competitors
o Penetration pricing - gaining market share through very low margins
o Cost plus pricing - adding a margin to your production cost

7. Competitor Analysis
• Who are your competitors and how many
are there?
• List your direct and indirect competitors
and look at what they do in terms of
their products, their marketing activities
and their marketing messages.
• Consider why people will choose to buy
from you rather than your competitors.
• Think about your ‘benefits and value statement’ and how your
products and services compare to those of your competitors.
• What do you competitors do well? Can you do better?

FREE DOWNLOAD: Download our free ‘Competitor Worksheet’ at:

www.agilemarketing.agency/syob

8. Pulling this together as a simple Marketing Plan

A single page marketing plan that is regularly updated and used is far better than a
30-page plan that is left in the cupboard. In the last few pages, we have covered a lot
to think about and hopefully, you have now looked at your customer, your product
and your marketing communications.
Now it is time to pull this information together into a simple marketing plan.
Our simple, one-page marketing plan helps you to summarise:
• Who your customers are
• What is most important to them
• Your marketing objectives
• The key actions to get you there

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By completing this simple plan, it will help you to set some
goals and activities which you can actually get on with.
You can then revisit your plan to see what worked (and
what did not!) and update it.
It is then a matter of ‘rinse and repeat’…pick what
worked from your plan, set some new actions and then
continue to refine and improve your marketing.
MORE FREE DOWNLOADS:
• Single-page marketing plan template
• Marketing Calendar

Download these at: www.agilemarketing.agency/syob

‘Marketing is a journey, not a destination’

Online Resources
< Insert Top 10 Marketing Startup Resources >

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