Wk 4: How to write a simple marketing plan

So...... how do I write a marketing plan?

You are not the only one asking that question! So here is something to help you.

 The Seven-Sentence Guerrilla Marketing Strategy 

According to Conrad Levinson in his book Guerilla Marketing, you should never go into business without a simple marketing plan. The book proposes to create one with seven simple sentences, here is how: 

1. The purpose of the marketing: What is the action you want your prospect to take. (Go tour website, call your business, visit your store, etc.) 
2. How you will achieve that purpose: Competitive advantage and benefits. 
3. Your target market or markets. 
4. The marketing weapons you will use. 
5. Your niche and your position and what you will stand for. 
6. The identity of your business. 
7. Your budget, this one should be expressed as a percentage of your projected gross revenues.  

Here is an example for practical application given by the book for a company called Freedom Press that is intending to sell books about freelancing: 

1. The purpose of Freedom Press marketing is to motivate people to order the book online or by mail so as to sell the maximum number of books at the lowest possible selling cost per book.  
2. This will be accomplished by positioning the books as being so valuable to freelancers that they are guaranteed to be worth more to the reader than their selling price. 
3. The target market will be people who are or plan to be engaged in freelance earning activities. 
4. The marketing tools we plan to use include classified advertising in magazines, newspaper, and online, direct mail, sales at seminars, publicity in newspapers, and on radio and tv, direct sales’ calls to bookstores, weekly postings in online bulletin boards oriented to freelancers, website linked to many other services to serve freelancers.  
5. The niche that Freedom Press occupies is a business that provides valuable information for freelancers.  
6. Our identity will be one of expertise, readability, and quick response to customer requests.  
7. 30% of sales will be allocated to marketing. 

 

Follow this very simplified way to get started with a marketing plan and it will provide direction and will make your team and customers gain trust in you and your company. Let me know what you think below and get to writing!