How to Build a Successful Marketing Plan

Every business, small or large, will be more successful with a business plan. And the key component of a business plan is the marketing plan. A good marketing plan summarizes the who, what, where, when, and how much questions of company marketing and sales activities for the planning year:

A good plan answers the who, what, where, when, and how much about a company's marketing and sales activities for the planning year: Who are the target buyers? What is our unique position in the market? Where will we implement our marketing spending plans? Where will marketing spending occur? How much sales, spending, and profits will we achieve?

When putting together a successful marketing plan, you must include a publicity component with an outline of the tactics that you intend to pursue. Your publicity plan will sharpen your focus by focusing on approaches that fit both your needs and bankroll. The central question when putting together a publicity campaign is how much will you spend? Start your budget by including the identifiable, fixed expenditures.

Outline the specific steps that you intend to take to publicize your business. Each campaign requires an individual plan that is specifically designed for that campaign. A must have expenditure that will pay for itself is a toll free number for your customers or clients to contact you.

Plan implementation for a media campaign outlines the type of task you will accomplish at certain time intervals, starting nine months before the formal introduction of your product or service and continuing after the business is introduced.

Activities for nine months prior to the introduction of your product or service focus on writing articles, designing brochures, newsletters and promotional displays and scheduling speaking engagements.

Before you write your articles, research which newsletters, website or other places you want your articles to appear. Once you know your audience you are targeting, you can write your articles specifically for them.

Six months prior to introduction of your product or service, you may choose to:

· Distribute camera ready articles to the newspapers in your area as well as niche publications with the audience you are targeting.

· Send at least 100 press releases to generate coverage by media that focus on business.

· Send 100 press releases to syndicated radio and TV shows that focus on business.

· Send your press release via PR newswire that reaches over 25,000 media outlets.

· Place articles and press releases in newsletters, ezines and other internet outlets.

· Prepare flyers and brochures

Three months before introduction:

A key activity in the final three months will be designing and distributing your media kit. Customize your media kit for your different audiences, such as members of the press, potential clients, educators etc.

· Your media kit should contain:

· Your logo on the kit package

· A news release about your product or service

· A list of interview questions

· A photo

· Reviews and article about your product or service

· Your contact information

Other activities that you should accomplish in the final three months of pre-introduction campaign:

· Place thirty phone calls daily to secure media interviews with the aim of having daily media interviews run.

· Place articles in newsletters and periodicals to get even more timely coverage

· Mail 100 initial press release packages with testimonials, flyers and reply post cards.

· Update and maintain a website to include current information on publicity, speaking engagements and events.

In the final thirty days prior to introducing your product or service, you should complete your plans for the actual launch of your business product or service. Print three fold brochures that were designed previously and distribute them at speaking engagements and in response to telephone and web site inquiries.

The flurry of activity leading up to your introduction continues with these possible activities:

· Do a morning drive radio tour interview, which consist of twenty individual interviews that reach twenty radio stations nationwide.

· Give a 1 hour teleprint press conference with fifteen print reporters.

· Send media kits and possible samples to 300 chambers of commerce.

· Send 100 media kits to educators and entrepreneurial schools

· Collect comments, personal anecdotes and endorsements from customers and clients.

Your job is far from over after the product or service is launched or introduced. You will need to constantly keep your business in the public eye. Here are some suggestions:

· Publish a monthly newsletter.

· Place stories in other newsletters

· Collect comments from customers/clients.

· Update and distribute brochures.

· Update your website on a daily basis.

· Identify and exploit market niche.

Your PR campaign will cost more than you expect. Allocate 10% of your annual budget to marketing and earmark a large portion of it to publicity.