A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines the advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It is an operational document that outlines an advertising strategy that an organization will implement to generate leads and reach its target market. A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. It is a place to document the process of defining and implementing a marketing strategy and creating a roadmap for future marketing efforts.
A marketing plan includes a description of the current marketing position of a business, a discussion of the target market, and a description of the marketing mix that a business will use to achieve its marketing goals. The functions and components of a marketing plan include market research to support pricing decisions and new market entries, tailored messaging that targets certain demographics and geographic areas, platform selection for product and service promotion, and metrics that measure the results of marketing efforts and their reporting timelines.
A marketing plan has a formal structure but can be used as a formal or informal document, which makes it very flexible. It contains some historical data, future predictions, and methods or strategies to achieve the marketing objectives. A marketing plan is based on a companys overall marketing strategy and serves as a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period.
