Next to creating a top-notch product or service marketing is a critical part of home business success. There is no way to understand your business to buy from you without a marketer. Without clients or clients you have no business.

A marketing plan is a business document that outlines your marketing strategy and tactics. It typically focuses on a specific time period (i.e the next 12 months) and covers various marketing-related details such as cost targets and action steps.

But just like your business plan a marketing plan is not a static file. As your business grows and new and changing marketing trends develop it needs to change and evolve. Especially in today’s fast-changing world you need to stay up-to-date on the best ways to enter and participate in the market.

Purpose of a Marketing Plan

Many business owners develop a marketing plan and then set it aside. However your marketing plan is a roadmap that gives you direction to achieve your business goals. Results need to be frequently referenced and evaluated.

While some small business owners include their marketing plan as part of their overall business plan as marketing is critical to success it is advisable to develop a comprehensive and detailed marketing plan on your own. If you don’t want the mini plan as part of the business plan you can Attach your full marketing plan to the business plan as an appendix to the business plan.

Benefits to a Marketing Plan

The importance of a detailed marketing plan cannot be overemphasized. Marketing Plan:

  • Know who your market is. It’s easier to find clients and clients if you know who they are.
  • Help you craft marketing messages that will yield results. Marketing is about knowing what your product or service can do to help your target market. Your marketing messages need to directly represent your market.
  • Provide focus and direction. Your marketing options are extensive including email social media ads guest blogging direct mail campaigns and more. With so many marketing options you need a plan to determine the best course of action for your business.

How to Create Your Marketing Plan

A typical small business marketing plan covers many elements including describing competitors’ needs for the product or service you offer as well as strengths and weaknesses from the market perspective of the business and its competitors.

A marketing plan is a tool you need to use every day to help you achieve your marketing and profit goals. When you develop a marketing plan you need to focus on what you need to understand and enter the market. Basic knowledge includes:

1. Details about the current state of your business. What is your product or service? What are your current jobs and challenges in generating new clients and new clients? what problems you might have next year such as moving house (when you can’t work) or new laws Could this affect the way you do business?

2. Who is your target market? Who are the most likely buyers of what you offer? Even if everyone can benefit from your product or service the answer shouldn’t be everyone.

To help you define your market identify how your product or service can help people then find out who needs that solution. There may be multiple groups within your target market often called market segments (specializing in a specific niche or group). For example if Your business helps people lose weight. Your target market may be moms who want to lose baby weight and baby boomers who want to improve their health.

Knowing your market and its needs helps you create market-specific messages and place them where people can see them for greater efficiency. For example if your weight loss ad is in a mom-facing location (mom blog) and talking to her directly (Lose Your Your Baby weight! ).

3. What are your goals during the planning period? Define your goals such as growing your email list by x or finding x new customers in the next year. It is important that you are able to measure the effectiveness of your marketing plan by developing quantifiable goals.

Depending on your business measuring marketing effectiveness can be difficult. For example if you have items for sale on Amazon it can be hard to know if your social media or email marketing is generating more sales. But you can measure how many people responded (clicked) from those options.

4. What marketing strategy will you use to reach your market and goals? Let your target market be your guide in deciding which marketing strategy to use. Where is your market meeting place? How do you get them to view your business? For example if your market spends a lot of time Facebook You might consider having a Facebook fan page or group or maybe invest in Facebook ads. If you’re a service business serving other businesses you may want to write articles for a newsletter or magazine targeting the same industry.

5. How much does it cost? This is where you budget for your marketing plan. There are many free marketing strategies although they take time which is an expense. Will you be doing family gatherings or one-on-one consultations and if so how much will the travel postage cost to purchase invitations? Support materials etc.? Will you pay for advertising or mailing list services? All places to spend money in your home business marketing are a priority as long as you spend your money wisely and get a return on your investment.

6. How will you execute your marketing plan? Planning is fairly easy. Executing the plan is more challenging. How will you integrate your marketing strategy into your daily business activities?

If you were doing social media would you use a social media management tool or hire a social media manager? Do you blog or create content to share on other sites like article marketing? If so how often will you publish or deliver content?

You need to do something every day to keep your business ahead of the market. You are more likely to do so if you have a plan and incorporate that plan into your schedule.

Keep Your Marketing Plan up to Date

Just like a business plan a marketing plan is a living document. Analyzing your results and adjusting or changing your marketing strategy is an important task in keeping your marketing plan up-to-date and fulfilling its purpose of helping to achieve your business goals.

Many factors can affect your marketing results and choices including market conditions the need for pricing questions for your product or service and new marketing methods (i.e new social media platforms). It’s important that you understand all of this and adjust your marketing plan accordingly.

Studying your data such as website analytics sales numbers and trends will give you clues about what’s working and what’s not.