marketing strategy example business plan

We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

• Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

• Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

• Google Tag Manager
• Infographics
• Daily Infographics
• Popular Templates
• Accessibility
• Graphic Design
• Graphs and Charts
• Data Visualization
• Human Resources
• Beginner Guides

Blog Marketing What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

Written by: Sara McGuire Oct 26, 2023

A marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines your strategies to attract and convert your ideal customers as a part of your customer acquisition strategy. It’s a comprehensive document that details your:

• Target audience:  Who you’re trying to reach
• Marketing goals:  What you want to achieve
• Strategies and tactics:  How you’ll reach your goals
• Budget:  Resources you’ll allocate
• Metrics:  How you’ll measure success

In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about creating a marketing plan . If you need a little extra help, there are professionally designed marketing plan templates that’ll make the process much easier. So, let’s ditch the confusion and get started!

Click to jump ahead:

What is a marketing plan?

How to write a marketing plan , 9 marketing plan examples to inspire your growth strategy.

• Marketing plan v.s. business plan
• Types of marketing plans

Marketing plan FAQs

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for your products or services, which could be applicable for the coming year, quarter or month.  

Watch this quick, 13-minute video for more details on what a marketing plan is and how to make one yourself:

Typically, a marketing plan includes:

• An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals
• A description of your business’s current marketing position
• A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking
• A description of your business’s target market and customer needs
• A description of how you will measure marketing plan performance

For example, this marketing plan template provides a high-level overview of the business and competitors before diving deep into specific goals, KPIs and tactics:

Learning how to write a marketing plan forces you to think through the important steps that lead to an effective marketing strategy . And a well-defined plan will help you stay focused on your high-level marketing goals.

With Venngage’s extensive catalog of marketing plan templates, creating your marketing plan isn’t going to be hard or tedious. In fact, Venngage has plenty of helpful communications and design resources for marketers. If you’re ready to get started, sign up for  Venngage for Marketers   now. It’s free to register and start designing.

Whether you’re a team trying to set smarter marketing goals, a consultant trying to set your client in the right direction, or a one-person team hustling it out, Venngage for Marketers helps you get things done.

As mentioned above, the scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for.

For example, you could look for performance marketing agency to create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing strategy:

A typical outline of a marketing plan includes:

• Executive summary
• Goals and objectives
• User personas
• Competitor analysis/SWOT analysis
• Baseline metrics
• Marketing strategy
• Tracking guidelines

Below you will see in details how to write each section as well as some examples of how you can design each section in a marketing plan.

Let’s look at how to create a successful marketing plan (click to jump ahead):

• Write a simple executive summary
• Set metric-driven marketing goals
• Outline your user personas
• Research all of your competitors
• Set accurate key baselines & metrics
• Create an actionable marketing strategy
• Set tracking or reporting guidelines

1. Write a simple executive summary

Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.

One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well-written executive summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future plans, and other important contextual facts.

Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.

Include things like:

• Simple marketing goals
• High-level metrics
• Important company milestones
• Facts about your brand
• Employee anecdotes
• Future goals & plans

Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to keep it under three to four paragraphs.

Take a look at the executive summary in the marketing plan example below:

The executive summary is only two paragraphs long — short but effective.

The executive summary tells readers about the company’s growth, and how they are about to overtake one of their competitors. But there’s no mention of specific metrics or figures. That will be highlighted in the next section of the marketing plan.

An effective executive summary should have enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but not bog them down with specifics yet. That’s what the rest of your marketing plan is for!

The executive summary also sets the tone for your marketing plan. Think about what tone will fit your brand ? Friendly and humorous? Professional and reliable? Inspiring and visionary?

2. Set metric-driven marketing goals

After you perfect your executive summary, it’s time to outline your marketing goals.

(If you’ve never set data-driven goals like this before, it would be worth reading this growth strategy guide ).

This is one of the most important parts of the entire marketing plan, so be sure to take your time and be as clear as possible. Moreover, optimizing your marketing funnel is key. Employing effective funnel software can simplify operations and provide valuable customer insights. It facilitates lead tracking, conversion rate analysis, and efficient marketing optimization .

As a rule of thumb, be as specific as possible. The folks over at  VoyMedia  advise that you should set goals that impact website traffic, conversions, and customer success — and to use real numbers. Complement your goals with website optimization tools (e.g., A/B testing speed with Nostra – check Nostra AI review to learn more) to further improve conversions.

Avoid outlining vague goals like:

• Get more Twitter followers
• Write more articles
• Create more YouTube videos (like educational or Explainer videos )
• Increase retention rate
• Decrease bounce rate

Instead, identify  key performance metrics  (KPI) you want to impact and the percentage you want to increase them by.

Take a look at the goals page in the marketing plan example below:

They not only identify a specific metric in each of their goals, but they also set a timeline for when they will be increased.

The same vague goals listed earlier become much clearer when specific numbers and timelines are applied to them:

• Get 100 new Twitter followers per month
• Write 5 more articles per week
• Create 10 YouTube videos each year
• Increase retention rate by 15% by 2020
• Decrease bounce rate by 5% by Q1
• Create an online course  and get 1,000 new leads
• Focus more on local SEO strategies
• Conduct a monthly social media report to track progress

You can dive even deeper into your marketing goals if you want (generally, the more specific, the better). Here’s a marketing plan example that shows how to outline your growth goals:

3. Outline your user personas

Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of value.

Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.

You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get the right visitors.

Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your business solve customer problems?

Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.

Some ways to conduct user research are:

• Interviewing your users (either in person or on the phone)
• Conducting focus groups
• Researching other businesses in the same industry
• Surveying your audience

Then, you will need to compile your user data into a user persona  guide.

Take a look at how detailed this user persona template is below:

Taking the time to identify specific demographic traits, habits and goals will make it easier for you to cater your marketing plan to them.

Here’s how you can create a user persona guide:

The first thing you should add is a profile picture or icon for each user persona. It can help to put a face to your personas, so they seem more real.

Next, list demographic information like:

• Identifiers
• Activities/Hobbies

The user persona example above uses sliding scales to identify personality traits like introversion vs. extroversion and thinking vs. feeling. Identifying what type of personality your target users tend to have an influence on the messaging you use in your marketing content.

Meanwhile, this user persona guide identifies specific challenges the user faces each day:

But if you don’t want to go into such precise detail, you can stick to basic information, like in this marketing plan example:

Most businesses will have a few different types of target users. That’s why it’s pertinent to identify and create several different user personas . That way, you can better segment your marketing campaigns and set separate goals, if necessary.

Here’s a marketing plan example with a segmented user persona guide:

The important thing is for your team or client to have a clear picture of who their target user is and how they can appeal to their specific problems.

Start creating robust user personas using Venngage’s user persona guide .

4. Conduct an extensive competitor analysis

Next, on the marketing plan checklist, we have the competitor research section. This section will help you identify who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how you could carve yourself a place alongside them in your niche — and ideally, surpass them. It’s something you can learn to do with rank tracking software .

Competitor research is also incredibly important if you are starting a blog .

Typically, your competitor research should include:

• Who their marketing team is
• Who their leadership team is
• What their marketing strategy and strategic marketing plan are (this will probably revolve some reverse-engineering)
• What their sales strategy is (same deal)
• Social Media strategy (are they using discounting strategies such as coupon marketing to get conversions)
• Their market cap/financials
• Their yearly growth (you will probably need to use a marketing tool like Ahrefs to do this)
• The number of customers they have & their user personas

Also, take as deep a dive as you can into the strategies they use across their:

• Blog/Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Video marketing
• And any other marketing tactics they use

Research their strengths and weaknesses in all parts of their company, and you will find some great opportunities. Bookmark has a great guide to different marketing strategies for small businesses if you need some more information there.

You can use this simple SWOT analysis worksheet to quickly work through all parts of their strategy as well:

Click the template above to create a SWOT chart . Customize the template to your liking — no design know-how needed.

Since you have already done all the research beforehand, adding this information to your marketing plan shouldn’t be that hard.

In this marketing plan example, some high-level research is outlined for 3 competing brands:

But you could take a deeper dive into different facets of your competitors’ strategies. This marketing plan example analyses a competitor’s inbound marketing strategy :

It can also be helpful to divide your competitors into Primary and Secondary groups. For example, Apple’s primary competitor may be Dell for computers, but its secondary competitor could be a company that makes tablets.

Your most dangerous competitors may not even be in the same industry as you. Like the CEO of Netflix said, “Sleep is our competition.”

5. Set accurate key baselines & metrics

It’s pretty hard to plan for the future if you don’t know where your business stands right now.

Before we do anything at Venngage, we find the baselines so we can compare future results to something. We do it so much it’s almost like second nature now!

Setting baselines will allow you to more accurately track your progress. You will also be able to better analyze what worked and what didn’t work, so you can build a stronger strategy. It will definitely help them clearly understand your goals and strategy as well.

Here’s a marketing plan example where the baselines are visualized:

Another way to include baselines in your plan is with a simple chart, like in the marketing plan example below:

Because data can be intimidating to a lot of people, visualizing your data using charts and infographics will help demystify the information.

6. Create an actionable marketing strategy

After pulling all the contextual information and relevant metrics into your marketing plan, it’s time to break down your marketing strategy.

Once again, it’s easier to communicate your information to your team or clients using visuals .

Mind maps are an effective way to show how a strategy with many moving parts ties together. For example, this mind map shows how the four main components of a marketing strategy interact together:

You can also use a flow chart to map out your strategy by objectives:

However you choose to visualize your strategy, your team should know exactly what they need to do. This is not the time to keep your cards close to your chest.

Your strategy section may need to take up a few pages to explain, like in the marketing plan example below:

With all of this information, even someone from the development team will understand what the marketing team is working on.

This minimalistic marketing plan example uses color blocks to make the different parts of the strategy easy to scan:

Breaking your strategy down into tasks will make it easier to tackle.

Another important way to visualize your marketing strategy is to create a project roadmap. A project roadmap visualizes the timeline of your product with individual tasks. Our roadmap maker can help you with this.

For example, this project roadmap shows how tasks on both the marketing and web design side run parallel to each other:

A simple timeline can also be used in your marketing plan:

Or a mind map, if you want to include a ton of information in a more organized way:

Even a simple “Next, Now, Later” chart can help visualize your strategy:

7. Set tracking or reporting guidelines

Close your marketing plan with a brief explanation of how you plan to track or measure your results. This will save you a lot of frustration down the line by standardizing how you track results across your team.

Like the other sections of your marketing plan, you can choose how in-depth you want to go. But there need to be some clear guidelines on how to measure the progress and results of your marketing plan.

At the bare minimum, your results tracking guidelines should specify:

• What you plan to track
• How you plan to track results
• How often you plan to measure

But you can more add tracking guidelines to your marketing plan if you see the need to. You may also want to include a template that your team or client can follow,  for  client reporting ,  ensure that the right metrics are being tracked.

The marketing plan example below dedicates a whole page to tracking criteria:

Use a task tracker to track tasks and marketing results, and a checklist maker to note down tasks, important life events, or tracking your daily life.

Similarly, the marketing plan example below talks about tracking content marketing instead:

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy

Although often used interchangeably, the terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” do have some differences.

Simply speaking, a marketing strategy presents what the business will do in order to reach a certain goal. A marketing plan outlines the specific daily, weekly, monthly or yearly activities that the marketing strategy calls for. As a business, you can create a marketing proposal for the marketing strategies defined in your company’s marketing plan. There are various marketing proposal examples that you can look at to help with this.

A company’s extended marketing strategy can be like this:

Notice how it’s more general and doesn’t include the actual activities required to complete each strategy or the timeframe those marketing activities will take place. That kind of information is included in a marketing plan, like this marketing plan template which talks about the content strategy in detail:

1. Nonprofit marketing plan

Here’s a free nonprofit marketing plan example that is ideal for organizations with a comprehensive vision to share. It’s a simple plan that is incredibly effective. Not only does the plan outline the core values of the company, it also shares the ideal buyer persona.

Note how the branding is consistent throughout this example so there is no doubt which company is presenting this plan. The content plan is an added incentive for anyone viewing the document to go ahead and give the team the green light.

2. Social media marketing plan

Two-page marketing plan samples aren’t very common, but this free template proves how effective they are. There’s a dedicated section for business goals as well as for project planning.

The milestones for the marketing campaign are clearly laid out, which is a great way to show how organized this business strategy is.

3. Small business marketing plan

This marketing plan template is perfect for small businesses who set out to develop an overarching marketing strategy for the whole year:

Notice how this aligns pretty well with the marketing plan outline we discussed in previous sections.

In terms of specific tactics for the company’s marketing strategy, the template only discusses SEO strategy, but you can certainly expand on that section to discuss any other strategies — such as link building , that you would like to build out a complete marketing plan for.

4. Orange simple marketing proposal template

Marketing plans, like the sample below, are a great way to highlight what your business strategy and the proposal you wan to put forward to win potential customers.

5. One-page marketing plan

This one-page marketing plan example is great for showcasing marketing efforts in a persuasive presentation or to print out for an in-person meeting.

Note how the fact sheet breaks down the marketing budget as well as the key metrics for the organization. You can win over clients and partners with a plan like this.

6. Light company business fact sheet template

This one-page sample marketing plan clearly outlines the marketing objectives for the organization. It’s a simple but effective way to share a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

What really works with this example is that includes a mission statement, key contact information alongside all the key metrics.

7. Marketing media press kit template

This press kit marketing plan template is bright and unmistakable as belonging to the Cloud Nine marketing agency . The way the brand colors are used also helps diversify the layouts for each page, making the plan easier to read.

We like the way the marketing department has outlined the important facts about the organization. The bold and large numbers draw the eye and look impressive.

8. Professional marketing proposal template

Start your marketing campaign on a promising note with this marketing plan template. It’s short, sharp and to the point. The table of contents sets out the agenda, and there’s a page for the company overview and mission statement.

9. Social media marketing proposal template

A complete marketing plan example, like the one below, not only breaks down the business goals to be achieved but a whole lot more. Note how the terms and conditions and payment schedule are included, which makes this one of the most comprehensive marketing plans on our list.

Marketing plan vs. business plan

While both marketing plans and business plans are crucial documents for businesses, they serve distinct purposes and have different scopes. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

Business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines all aspects of your business, including:

• Mission and vision
• Products or services
• Target market
• Competition
• Management team
• Financial projections
• Marketing strategy (including a marketing plan)
• Operations plan

Marketing plan on the other hand, dives deep into the specific strategies and tactics related to your marketing efforts. It expands on the marketing section of a business plan by detailing:

• Specific marketing goals (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, sales)
• Target audience analysis (detailed understanding of their needs and behaviors)
• Product:  Features, benefits, positioning
• Price:  Pricing strategy, discounts
• Place:  Distribution channels (online, offline)
• Promotion:  Advertising, social media, content marketing, public relations
• Budget allocation for different marketing activities
• Metrics and measurement to track progress and success

In short, business plans paint the entire business picture, while marketing plans zoom in on the specific strategies used to reach your target audience and achieve marketing goals.

Types of marketing plans that can transform your business strategy

Let’s take a look at several types of marketing plans you can create, along with specific examples for each.

1. General marketing strategic plan / Annual marketing plan

This is a good example of a marketing plan that covers the overarching annual marketing strategy for a company:

Another good example would be this Starbucks marketing plan:

This one-page marketing plan example from coffee chain Starbucks has everything at a glance. The bold headers and subheadings make it easier to segment the sections so readers can focus on the area most relevant to them.

What we like about this example is how much it covers. From the ideal buyer persona to actional activities, as well as positioning and metrics, this marketing plan has it all.

Another marketing plan example that caught our eye is this one from Cengage. Although a bit text-heavy and traditional, it explains the various sections well. The clean layout makes this plan easy to read and absorb.

The last marketing plan example we would like to feature in this section is this one from Lush cosmetics.

It is a long one but it’s also very detailed. The plan outlines numerous areas, including the company mission, SWOT analysis , brand positioning, packaging, geographical criteria, and much more.

2. Content marketing plan

A content marketing plan highlights different strategies , campaigns or tactics you can use for your content to help your business reach its goals.

This one-page marketing plan example from Contently outlines a content strategy and workflow using simple colors and blocks. The bullet points detail more information but this plan can easily be understood at a glance, which makes it so effective.

For a more detailed content marketing plan example, take a look at this template which features an editorial calendar you can share with the whole team:

3. SEO marketing plan

Your SEO marketing plan highlights what you plan to do for your SEO marketing strategy . This could include tactics for website on-page optimization , off-page optimization using AI SEO , and link building using an SEO PowerSuite backlink API for quick backlink profile checks. Additionally, incorporating a rank tracker can help monitor keyword performance and track the impact of your optimization efforts.

This SEO marketing plan example discusses in detail the target audience of the business and the SEO plan laid out in different stages:

4. Social media marketing plan

Your social media marketing plan presents what you’ll do to reach your marketing goal through social media. This could include tactics specific to each social media channel that you own, recommendations on developing a new channel, specific campaigns you want to run, and so on, like how B2B channels use Linkedin to generate leads with automation tools and expand their customer base; or like making use of Twitter walls that could display live Twitter feeds from Twitter in real-time on digital screens.

For B2C brands, you can target Facebook and Instagram. Gain Instagram likes to build trust for your brand’s profile and post engaging content on both platforms. Leverage AI social media tools to automate and scale your content plan..

Edit this social media marketing plan example easily with Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor:

5. Demand generation marketing plan

This could cover your paid marketing strategy (which can include search ads, paid social media ads, traditional advertisements, etc.), email marketing strategy and more. Here’s an example:

What should marketing plans include?

Marketing plans should include:

• A detailed analysis of the target market and customer segments.
• Clear and achievable marketing objectives and goals.
• Strategies and tactics for product promotion and distribution.
• Budget allocation for various marketing activities.
• Timelines and milestones for the implementation of marketing strategies.
• Evaluation metrics and methods for tracking the success of the marketing plan.

What is an executive summary in a marketing plan and what is its main goal?

An executive summary in a marketing plan is a brief overview of the entire document, summarizing the key points, goals, and strategies. Its main goal is to provide readers with a quick understanding of the plan’s purpose and to entice them to read further.

What are the results when a marketing plan is effective?

When a marketing plan is effective, businesses can experience increased brand visibility, higher customer engagement , improved sales and revenue, and strengthened customer loyalty.

What is the first section of a marketing plan?

The first section of a marketing plan is typically the “Executive Summary,” which provides a concise overview of the entire plan, including the business’s goals and the strategies to achieve them.

Now that you have the basics for designing your own marketing plan, it’s time to get started:

More marketing design guides and templates:

• Marketing Infographics: The Definitive Guide [Includes Infographic Templates]
• 20+ Business Pitch Deck Templates to Win New Clients and Investors
• 20+ White Paper Examples [Design Guide + White Paper Templates]
• The Evolution of Marketing [Timeline Infographic]

Discover popular designs

Infographic maker

Brochure maker

White paper online

Newsletter creator

Flyer maker

Timeline maker

Letterhead maker

Mind map maker

Ebook maker

Knock knock. Who's there? 2022.

You’re just in time to hop on the more sales wagon. Learn how .

12 Marketing Strategy Examples, How to Create One + Tips

What is a marketing strategy?

Marketing strategies vs. marketing plans vs. marketing tactics , types of marketing strategies, how to create the most effective marketing strategies.

• Top 11 great marketing strategy examples and 1 you shouldn't follow

Top tips for creating successful marketing strategies

• Marketing strategies make it more likely that you'll reach your goals

Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or just starting out on your very first small business venture, every company in the world needs an effective marketing strategy to build brand awareness and drive new customers to its products and services. However, if you’ve never been involved in successful marketing strategies, creating one can be easier said than done.

The most effective marketing strategies consider every aspect of the marketing flow, from a thorough understanding of your audience personas to a clear-cut marketing budget and so much more; there’s a lot to cover in a company marketing strategy.

In this guide, we’re going to look at some of the best marketing strategies of all time and explain how you can utilize different types of marketing strategies to maximize your returns in no time.

Before we tell you how to compose an effective marketing strategy, you need to understand what a marketing strategy is and how it can help you improve your advertising.

In simple terms, business marketing strategies are a tool marketers use to outline their various campaigns and marketing models. It’s the how of how you’ll get customers interested in your products and services.

To create an effective marketing strategy, you need to do four things:

• Understand who buys your products or services (who are your customers?)
• Understand how to motivate these people to buy/continue to buy your products or services
• Understand who your competitors are and what they’re doing to achieve the same objectives
• Understand how to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and efforts.

You can do it too.

Like a marketing plan, your marketing strategy should cover the five “Ps” of marketing:

• Product – What you’re trying to sell
• Price – Profit margins, marketing budget, etc. 
• Place – What channels or platforms will you use? (For example, will you be advertising on social media, utilizing email marketing, or going offline?) Consider where your customers already spend their time for the optimal marketing locations. 
• Promotion – What are you trying to achieve? (Are you hoping to build your social media presence, increase brand perception, promote a new product, or something else?)
• People – Who is your target audience? What drives them? 

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be in a fantastic position to start building your company’s marketing strategy.

Although “marketing strategies” might seem relatively straightforward, there can often be some confusion when establishing whether you’re creating a marketing strategy, marketing plan, or marketing tactic. While all three of these marketing initiatives work together, they cover slightly different aspects and should not be used interchangeably.

Marketing plan

A marketing plan is an overview of all your marketing initiatives. This will include all the campaigns you intend to run over a set period of time, your goals and ambitions for the projects as a whole, and any research you’ve compiled to support these aims.

Marketing strategies

Marketing strategies at first glance appear very similar to the overarching marketing plan. However, the strategies will take a closer look at just a few select parts of the marketing plan.

For example, if your marketing plan is to promote a new product or service, you might have a strategy dedicated to how you’re going to use email marketing to support these broader goals. Every marketing plan will most likely produce several marketing strategies as part of the broader plan.

Marketing tactics

While the marketing plan and strategies are committed to explaining what you’re going to do, marketing tactics go deeper again and establish how you’re going to do it.

Using the above example, the marketing plan is to build awareness for a new product. The marketing strategy is how you’ll utilize email marketing as part of this. The marketing tactics will detail the specific actions you’ll take as part of the marketing campaign.

Now we understand some of the different marketing terms, it’s time to zone in on marketing strategies and how these work as part of your business plan.

There are numerous different types of marketing strategies you can use depending on your business needs. While we’re not going to cover every marketing strategy type today, these are some of the main ones that you’re likely to come across:

1. Social media marketing strategy 

Today, social media marketing is a huge part of any business’s marketing plan as it’s a hugely compelling way to drive traffic, build brand awareness, and take advantage of the social selling revelation that’s taking over online marketing. 

According to recent data, around 54% of social media users use social platforms to research brands and products, and 89% of consumers who follow a particular brand will purchase from that brand. 

With these figures, if you’re not utilizing an effective social media marketing strategy, you’re missing out on untold rewards.

2. Email marketing strategy

Anyone who’s ever told you “email is dead” is dead wrong. Capturing your customers’ emails and browsers should be an essential part of your marketing strategy and is an excellent way to continue a conversation with people who have expressed interest in your brand.

There are loads of email marketing tools available to help you in this area. However, you still need an effective email marketing strategy to produce consistent, compelling emails that convert readers into buyers. 

3. Inbound marketing strategy

An inbound marketing strategy is all about pulling customers in and driving traffic to your website or products. Rather than using “disruptive” marketing techniques (like TV advertising), inbound marketing is about lead generation using people who have shown interest in your products, services, or brand as a whole.

Email marketing can be a good example of an inbound marketing strategy. If someone has subscribed to your mailing list, chances are they’re at least somewhat interested in what you have to say. This enables you to take a softer approach to your marketing, as these leads are already more likely to become sales.

Another inbound marketing strategy could be blog posts. People will only see blog posts relevant to their search terms and interests, meaning they’ve expressed a need that at least somewhat relates to what you’re selling.

4. Content marketing strategy

A content marketing strategy is likely to overlap with an inbound marketing strategy, but it is more specific. With content marketing strategies, you focus on content creation that will draw people in and build interest.

This is likely to cover blog posts and white papers and can even overlap with your social media marketing.

Effectively, any part of your marketing campaigns that require content will require an effective content marketing strategy.

5. Editorial strategy

Taking an editorial approach is a particularly vital marketing strategy for advertising companies as it highlights the content formats, workflows, and channels you’ll be utilizing to hit your marketing goals.

It’s similar to the sort of marketing strategies you would expect to see in a news or media organization and can be essential for brand publishers or advertisers to keep their marketing efforts and ideas in focus.

6. Marketing communications strategy

Your marketing communications strategy should be primarily focused on your brand’s message and value proposition . It’s all about how you’re going to say what you need to say. 

For example, is your tone of voice serious or humorous? Are you marketing yourself as an expert in your industry? What is the message you want to get across?

7. Digital marketing strategy

Digital marketing probably doesn’t need much introduction… This marketing strategy will encompass all your online marketing, SEO , social media lead generation, performance marketing , and more…. Effectively, if it’s online, it should be covered by your digital marketing strategy. 

8. Internal marketing strategy

Although internal marketing will be less vital for SMBs, it can be a vital part of the marketing efforts for large companies. A good example of an internal marketing strategy would be an internal email that lets employees know they’re eligible to become shareholders or asks existing shareholders to support a new initiative.

Internal marketing can also cover more mundane issues, such as keeping staff up to date on any changes to the company, branding, or internal procedures.

9. Public relations strategy

If you’re in business, you’ll probably know how complicated PR strategies can be. Not only does getting PR right ensure you keep your customers happy, but it’s also vital for protecting your brand image in the eyes of your stakeholders, the media, and even governmental bodies or other influential institutions.

Any large business should have a dedicated PR team in charge of the brand’s public image. In addition to protecting it, good PR can also offer invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.

10. SEO strategy

SEO should form part of all the different marketing strategies. Still, you may find it beneficial to have some of your marketing efforts explicitly dedicated to SEO, as this is likely to be your primary source of lead generation.

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is pretty much what it says on the tin: the art of using keywords and phrases to boost your visibility when users search for relevant terms on the internet. Getting SEO right is arguably the best way to drive traffic to your website and should be front of mind in all your digital marketing and content marketing strategies.

Naturally, SEO goes beyond just keyword optimization and considers a plethora of other aspects to help you rise on those search engine results pages (SERPs). So, it’s a good idea to have at least one marketing team member dedicated to the latest SEO trends so you can rank #1 on Google.  

When it comes to strategic marketing strategies, there isn’t always a one-size-fits-all solution. Strategies can take many different forms, from word documents to flowcharts to slides… But although they can look different on the outside, the most effective marketing strategies will always have a few things in common.

If nothing else, your marketing strategy should cover the following questions:

Who are you trying to reach? 

For this section, you need to really get into the mind of your target audience. This includes building detailed buyer personas and user personas, with information including their demographics, age, location, employment status, interests, passions, pain points, and anything else you can think of. The more detail you can include in your target market research, the better you will understand and communicate with your audience. 

Where will you reach your potential customers? 

As part of your research into your target audience, you should also spend some time considering the places (online and offline) where they spend their time. For many businesses today, most of your marketing strategies will probably be focused on social media. Still, even once you’ve narrowed this down, it can also be valuable to create marketing strategies for the various social media platforms and any other marketing channels you would like to use. 

What action do you want people to take?

The answer to this question will fuel your Call - to - Action phrases and is essentially nailing down the goals of your entire marketing campaign. Do you want to drive more website traffic? Increase sales? Raise awareness for a new product? Get more followers on social media? Boost your search results rankings? Whatever your goals are, having them clearly laid out as part of your digital marketing strategy is essential. 

How will you inspire potential customers to take action?

The next question leads off this, and it’s about how you’re going to convince or inspire consumers to take the desired action. This could incorporate discount codes, summer sales, referral programs, or you could even let your brand, product, or service speak for itself if you’re just hoping to build awareness.

How will you measure success? 

If you have no KPIs or objective method for measuring the success of your marketing campaign, you really have no way of monitoring whether or not your campaigns are working! Having clear, measurable goals and precise targets you can see whether you’re hitting are essential for an effective marketing strategy. For eg, if your target is to get more followers on Instagram for your brand… It’s easy to see when you’re on track. However, you’ll want to dive deeper than this, with goals for conversions, weekly and monthly targets, etc.

Top 11 great marketing strategy examples and 1 you shouldn’t follow

Now you have an idea of what a marketing strategy is and how to write some of the best marketing strategies, we wanted to give you some great marketing strategies examples so you can see how these work in the real world.

These examples of marketing strategies of a business will provide you with plenty of inspiration for your own campaigns and help you ace the advertising industry. Plus, we’ve included a bonus example of when a marketing strategy didn’t quite go to plan… Take a look!

1. Spotify: offering an alternative user experience

Spotify is the go-to music streaming service for most people around the world, but what is it that makes them stand out?

Spotify’s key marketing efforts focus on how the brand is different from other services, providing users with the chance to discover new music with ease and even lets you filter tracks by mood as well as genre. The artificial intelligence in Spotify’s algorithms provides users with carefully curated, bespoke playlists that actually suit their tastes and manages to turn playing music or listening to a podcast into a whole new experience.

2. Nordstrom: Retargeting campaigns

Nordstrom is well-known for dominating when it comes to marketing, and this campaign was remarkably successful. Employing the latest retargeting technology and tactics, Nordstrom was able to dramatically boost its bottom line and reduce cart abandonment. This campaign primarily utilized abandoned cart emails alongside social media ads that were activated following a website visit from the user.   

3. GoPro: User-generated content

GoPro certainly isn’t the first – or the last – company to achieve success with a user-generated-content-led marketing strategy, but that doesn’t make it any less effective or worthy of inclusion in our list! As a brand dedicated to creating on-the-go, fast content, the product lends itself nicely to this marketing tactic, so GoPro can benefit from a “spectacular” Instagram feed without needing a huge budget to take the images itself. And what’s more, each user-generated image that ends up on the feed motivates others to snap pics and share their experiences.

4. Sephora: Loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are a bit of a tale as old as time for maximizing customer retention, but that doesn’t mean all loyalty programs are created equal. Sephora discovered the trick to innovative, inspiring loyalty programs with its tiered approach and generous rewards. These rewards provide plenty of incentive for users to buy and are a fantastic way of increasing word-of-mouth marketing.

5. Rainforest alliance: “Follow the Frog.”

These days, the top online stores all offer information about how they engage in sustainable practices, have cruelty-free manufacturing, and/or how they support charities and initiatives around the world. Rainforest Alliance’s “ Follow the Frog ” campaign tapped into this priority by offering B2B and B2C organizations the chance to demonstrate their commitment to the environment and sustainability with a green frog seal on their products and website. This became a well-known symbol that’s highly desirable to other brands in all industries.

6. Twitch: Niche-specific marketing

Many brands make the mistake of trying to market their product or service to a target audience that’s simply too broad. But that only leads to a confusing message and few real customers. Instead, follow the lead of the social streaming service, Twitch. This company wasted no time or money advertising to people who won’t be interested in what makes the brand unique… Instead, all its efforts went into establishing precisely who the niche market is and how to attract them.

7. Nike: “Just Do It” – promoting values

We are all familiar with Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan , but have you ever given the marketing plan behind it any thought? Well, Nike used to be a brand dedicated to providing athleticwear to athletes… But they changed their model to appeal to the masses and put values first. The “Just Do It” and “*If you have a body, you’re an athlete” campaigns have been instrumental in Nike’s prolonged success by making everyone feel included and welcomed.

8. Chipotle: Fun contests

Contests are always an effective way to build brand awareness or promote a new product. Chipotle’s 2020 social media contest came at a perfect time and gave the audience a fun and unique way of interacting with the brand. The contest was called “Chipotle Royalty” and involved users posting a TikTok video explaining why their Chipotle order was the best. The prizes? A chance to win $10,000 and have their order become a permanent menu fixture. Definitely worth a video!

9. Red Bull: Putting identify before products

Similar to Nike’s values before products , Red Bull prioritizes experiences and identity of risk-taking front-and-center when it comes to marketing. With Red Bull sponsorships covering everything from Red Bull Stratos (seriously, take a look, it’s really cool) to rallycross racing to Formula One, and so much more, Red Bull had made its identity and brand persona clear… And ensures we won’t forget it any time soon! 

10. Starbucks: Making coffee into an experience and a lifestyle

Selling coffee certainly doesn’t sound like a unique endeavor, but Starbucks’ marketing team worked hard to create an experience that wasn’t just about the coffee. With an incredibly famous logo that can be spotted worldwide, Starbucks created a feeling of comfort, inclusion, and home that cannot be rivelled. Coschedule has an interesting, deep-dive article looking at Starbucks ‘ marketing strategy in more detail. 

11. AllBirds: Humorous, transparent, sustainable

Allbirds’ goal was to create “the world’s most comfortable shoe.” And while they did seem to manage this, it’s not why we’re highlighting their marketing strategy. This strategy really stands out because of the consistent tone of voice and values visible in every piece of marketing, every web page, and every interaction with the brand. The quirky and humorous voice is highly memorable and matches the values of transparency, sustainability, and comfort.

12. Segway: Failed to identify pain points

Now we’ve considered some of the best marketing strategies of all time, we also wanted to look at one brand that didn’t do quite so well. When Segway was first introduced, the idea was that it would replace walking as the primary A-to-B method and could go up to 12.5mph. The primary reason Segway failed is because people didn’t want to stop walking, running, or cycling (among others). So, the pain point the device was built to solve wasn’t really a pain point at all, and Segway offered little benefit to users. 

The lesson here? Do your target market research thoroughly , and don’t just build a product because you think it looks cool.

No matter how big or small your ad campaigns are, it’s essential to always support them with marketing strategies that summarize how you will convert browsers into consumers. To give you a head start at employing the best and most effective marketing techniques, ensure every strategy you create does the following:

Set specific goals

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based) goals are essential for an excellent marketing strategy. These will not only give you something to aim for, but they’ll also help you monitor your progress and hold you accountable.

Identify your target audience.

Correctly identifying your target audience, their passions, and their pain points is vital. As we learned from Segway, not having a thorough understanding of your audience and what they need/want is only ever going to be a recipe for disaster.

Identify your competition

There’s a lot to be learned from the competition. On the one hand, you can check on other businesses in your industry to see what they’re doing well and what their audience responds to. On the other hand, identifying your competition’s weaker points can be a brilliant springboard to help you find your unique selling proposition and help you stand out. 

Choose the most effective platform

There’s no point in shouting about your products in a location your customers never visit. As part of your market research, you should also investigate where your customers spend their time online and offline. Then, build a marketing strategy using the platforms and channels your customers are already using.

Marketing strategies make it more likely that you’ll reach your goals

You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to invest in an effective marketing strategy and reap the benefits. Even small businesses need marketing to build brand awareness and get people interested. After all, even with the best products in the world, nobody will buy them if they don’t know who you are!

As the famous quote goes, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” And the research backs this up, with 313% of marketers being more likely to report success when they have a documented marketing strategy than those without. 

So, don’t waste your precious time and money investing in poorly thought-out marketing campaigns. Instead, take the time to build a detailed plan and strategy with marketing tactics for success, and you’ll be sure to maximize your ROI in no time.

How do you create a marketing strategy?

Building a marketing strategy isn’t that different from writing a marketing plan… It’s just more detailed and niche than the overarching plan and focuses on one/two platforms at a time.

How do you write a marketing strategy example?

It’s worth (if you can) taking a look at some other successful marketing strategy examples from similar companies in your industry before writing your own if you’re not sure where to start. This will give you an idea of what has/hasn’t worked in the past and will enable you to cultivate a better strategy than the one before. Even if you can’t view the marketing strategy document, plenty of research is always necessary for any advertising campaign; the more information you have before you start, the better your marketing strategy will be.

What are the five marketing strategies?

The five “Ps” of marketing are Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People. These “Ps” are essential to quality marketing efforts and should all be covered in your marketing strategy example.

• What is a Marketing Plan, How to Write One & 5 Great Examples
• 30 Small Business Marketing Ideas You Need to Know & Use
• 10 Low-Cost Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Startups

I'm a content manager at sixads. I'm fiery about marketing, writing and traveling, so you can often find me scribbling away in some unknown corner of the world. If you want to know more ways to increase traffic and attract buyers to your online store get in touch with sixads on one of the channels bellow.

23 Best Shopify Apps to Increase Sales in 2023

Best email marketing tools for shopify, 40 best black friday quotes to win the sales in 2022.

6 Steps to Create an Outstanding Marketing Plan [Free Templates]

Published: July 23, 2024

Without planning, marketing can get messy. It’s hard to estimate budget for projects, hiring, and outsourcing over the course of a year — especially if you don't have a marketing plan, email schedule, or social media marketing plan template.

To make creating your plan easier, I've put together a list of what to include. I’ve also compiled a few different strategic marketing plan templates where you can easily fill in the blanks.

In this article, we're going to discuss:

• What should a marketing plan include?

Marketing Plan Timeline

How to create a marketing plan, hubspot’s free marketing plan template, one-page marketing plan template.

• Simple Marketing Plan Generated by AI

Strategy-specific Marketing Plan Templates

• Marketing Campaign Plan
• Digital Marketing Plan
• Product Marketing Plan
• Social Media Marketing Plan

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

What should a marketing plan include? [Marketing Plan Outline]

A marketing plan is a roadmap that businesses like yours use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period.

The marketing plan outline we discuss will help you create an effective plan that easily generates buy-in from stakeholders.

Download This Marketing Plan Outline for Free

Marketing plans can get quite granular depending on your industry and how big your digital presence is. This is true whether you're selling to consumers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B).

Despite these nuances, here are the essentials I’ve found should be present in every marketing plan or marketing planner template:

Business Summary

The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Strategies & How to Improve Your Digital Presence

5 Steps to Create an Outstanding Marketing Plan [Free Templates]

4 Clever Olympics Marketing Campaigns [+Top Takeaways]

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+ Examples]

50 Small Business Marketing Ideas for 2024

The 2024 State of Marketing & Trends Report: Data from 1400+ Global Marketers

Mastering Social Media for Nonprofit Promotion: Insights and New Data from Experts

The AIDA Model: A Proven Framework for Converting Strangers Into Customers

Demystifying Marketing's 6 Biggest Mixed Messages of 2024 with Jasper's Head of Enterprise Marketing

9 Pivotal Marketing Trends to Watch in 2024, According to Experts

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

• Product overview
• All features
• Latest feature release
• App integrations
• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• asana-intelligence icon Asana AI
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Capacity planning
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• Permissions
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Project intake
• Resource planning
• Product launches
• View all uses arrow-right icon

• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Marketing |
• How to create a winning marketing plan, ...

How to create a winning marketing plan, with 3 examples from world-class teams

A marketing plan helps leaders clearly visualize marketing strategies across channels, so they can ensure every campaign drives pipeline and revenue. In this article you’ll learn eight steps to create a winning marketing plan that brings business-critical goals to life, with examples from word-class teams.

To be successful as a marketer, you have to deliver the pipeline and the revenue.”

In other words—they need a well-crafted marketing plan.

Level up your marketing plan to drive revenue in 2024

Learn how to create the right marketing plan to hit your revenue targets in 2024. Hear best practices from marketing experts, including how to confidently set and hit business goals, socialize marketing plans, and move faster with clearer resourcing.

7 steps to build a comprehensive marketing plan

How do you build the right marketing plan to hit your revenue goals? Follow these eight steps for success:

1. Define your plan

First you need to define each specific component of your plan to ensure stakeholders are aligned on goals, deliverables, resources, and more. Ironing out these details early on ensures your plan supports the right business objectives, and that you have sufficient resources and time to get the job done. 

Get started by asking yourself the following questions: 

What resources do I need? 

What is the vision?

What is the value?

What is the goal?

Who is my audience?

What are my channels?

What is the timeline?

For example, imagine you’re creating an annual marketing plan to improve customer adoption and retention in the next fiscal year. Here’s how you could go through the questions above to ensure you’re ready to move forward with your plan: 

I will need support from the content team, web team, and email team to create targeted content for existing customers. One person on each team will need to be dedicated full-time to this initiative. To achieve this, the marketing team will need an additional $100K in budget and one new headcount. 

What is the vision?  

To create a positive experience for existing customers, address new customer needs, and encourage them to upgrade. We’ll do this by serving them how-to content, new feature updates, information about deals and pricing, and troubleshooting guides. 

According to the Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) , CEOs and go-to-market leaders report that more than 60% of their net-new revenue will come from existing customers in 2023. By retaining and building on the customers we have, we can maintain revenue growth over time. 

To decrease the customer churn rate from 30% to 10%, and increase upgrades from 20% to 30% in the next fiscal year. 

All existing customers. 

The main channel will be email. Supporting marketing channels include the website, blog, YouTube, and social media. 

The first half of the next fiscal year. 

One of the most important things to do as you create your marketing strategy is to identify your target audience . As with all marketing, you need to know who you’re marketing to. If you’re having a hard time determining who exactly your target audience is, try the bullseye targeting framework . The bullseye makes it easy for you to determine who your target audience is by industry, geography, company size, psychographics, demographics, and more.

2. Identify key metrics for success 

Now it’s time to define what key marketing metrics you’ll use to measure success. Your key metrics will help you measure and track the performance of your marketing activities. They’ll also help you understand how your efforts tie back to larger business goals. 

Once you establish key metrics, use a goal-setting framework—like objectives and key results (OKRs) or SMART goals —to fully flush out your marketing objectives. This ensures your targets are as specific as possible, with no ambiguity about what should be accomplished by when. 

Example: If a goal of your marketing plan is to increase email subscriptions and you follow the SMART goal framework (ensuring your objective is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) your goal might look like this: Increase email subscription rate from 10% to 20% in H1 . 

3. Research your competition 

It’s easy to get caught up in your company’s world, but there’s a lot of value in understanding your competitors . Knowing how they market themselves will help you find opportunities to make your company stand out and capture more market share.

Make sure you’re not duplicating your competitors’ efforts. If you discover a competitor has already executed your idea, then it might be time to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm new ways to differentiate yourself.  By looking at your competitors, you might be surprised at the type of inspiration and opportunities you’ll find.

To stay ahead of market trends, conduct a SWOT analysis for your marketing plan. A SWOT analysis helps you improve your plan by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Example: If your competitor launches a social media campaign identical to what you had planned, go back to the drawing board and see how you can build off their campaign. Ask yourself: How can we differentiate our campaign while still getting our message across? What are the weaknesses of their campaign that we can capitalize on? What angles did they not approach?

4. Integrate your marketing efforts

Here’s where the fun comes in. Let’s dive into the different components that go into building a successful marketing plan. You’ll want to make sure your marketing plan includes multiple supporting activities that all add up into a powerful marketing machine. Some marketing plan components include: 

Lead generation

Social media

Product marketing

Public relations

Analyst relations

Customer marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Conversational marketing

Knowing where your consumer base spends the most time is significant for nailing this step. You need to have a solid understanding of your target audience before integrating your marketing efforts. 

Example: If your target audience is executives that spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, focus your social media strategy around placing branded content on LinkedIn. 

5. Differentiate with creative content

Forty-nine percent of marketers say visual images are hugely important to their content strategy. In other words, a clear brand and creative strategy is an essential component to every marketing plan. As you craft your own creative strategy, here are some tips to keep in mind: 

Speak to your audience: When defining your creative strategy, think about your audience—what you want them to feel, think, and do when they see your marketing. Will your audience find your creative work relevant? If your audience can’t relate to your creative work, they won’t feel connected to the story you’re trying to tell. 

Think outside the box: Find innovative ways to engage your audience, whether through video, animations, or interactive graphics. Know what screens your creative work will live on, whether desktop, mobile, or tablet, and make sure they display beautifully and load quickly across every type of device. 

Tie everything back to CTAs: It’s easy to get caught up in the creative process, so it’s important to never lose sight of your ultimate goal: Get your audience to take action. Always find the best way to display strong Calls to Action (CTAs) in your creative work. We live in a visual world—make sure your creative content counts.

Streamline creative production:   Once you’ve established a strong creative strategy, the next step is to bring your strategy to life in the production stage. It’s vital to set up a strong framework for your creative production process to eliminate any unnecessary back and forth and potential bottlenecks. Consider establishing creative request forms , streamlining feedback and approval processes, and taking advantage of integrations that might make your designers’ lives easier.

Example: If your brand is fun and approachable, make sure that shows in your creative efforts. Create designs and CTAs that spark joy, offer entertainment, and alleviate the pressure in choosing a partner.

6. Operationalize your marketing plan

Turn your plan into action by making goals, deliverables, and timelines clear for every stakeholder—so teams stay accountable for getting work done. The best way to do this is by centralizing all the details of your marketing plan in one platform , so teams can access the information they need and connect campaign work back to company goals.  

With the right work management tool , you can: 

Set goals for every marketing activity, and connect campaign work to overarching marketing and business objectives so teams focus on revenue-driving projects. 

Centralize deliverables for your entire marketing plan in one project or portfolio .

Mark major milestones and visualize your plan as a timeline, Gantt chart, calendar, list, or Kanban board—without doing any extra work. 

Quickly loop in stakeholders with status updates so they’re always up to date on progress. This is extremely important if you have a global team to ensure efforts aren’t being duplicated. 

Use automations to seamlessly hand off work between teams, streamlining processes like content creation and reviews. 

Create dashboards to report on work and make sure projects are properly staffed , so campaigns stay on track. 

With everything housed in one spot, you can easily visualize the status of your entire marketing plan and keep work on track. Building an effective marketing plan is one thing, but how you operationalize it can be your secret to standout marketing.

Example: If your strategy focuses on increasing page views, connect all campaign work to an overarching OKR—like “we will double page views as measured by the amount of organic traffic on our blog.” By making that goal visible to all stakeholders, you help teams prioritize the right work. 

See marketing planning in action

With Asana, marketing teams can connect work, standardize processes, and automate workflows—all in one place.

7. Measure performance

Nearly three in four CMOs use revenue growth to measure success, so it’s no surprise that measuring performance is necessary. You established your key metrics in step two, and now it’s time to track and report on them in step eight.

Periodically measure your marketing efforts to find areas of improvement so you can optimize in real-time. There are always lessons to be learned when looking at data. You can discover trends, detect which marketing initiatives performed well, and course-correct what isn’t performing well. And when your plan is complete, you can apply these learnings to your next initiative for improved results. 

Example: Say you discover that long-form content is consistently bringing in 400% more page views than short-form content. As a result, you’ll want to focus on producing more long-form content in your next marketing plan.

Marketing plan examples from world-class teams

The best brands in the world bring their marketing plans to life every day. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these examples from successful marketing teams.

Autodesk grows site traffic 30% three years in a row

When the Autodesk team launched Redshift, it was initially a small business blog. The editorial team executed a successful marketing plan to expand it into a premier owned-media site, making it a destination for stories and videos about the future of making. 

The team scaled content production to support seven additional languages. By standardizing their content production workflow and centralizing all content conversations in one place, the editorial team now publishes 2X more content monthly. Read the case study to learn more about how Autodesk runs a well-oiled content machine. Trinny London perfects new customer acquisition 

In consumer industries, social media is crucial for building a community of people who feel an affinity with the brand—and Trinny London is no exception. As such, it was imperative that Trinny London’s ad spend was targeted to the correct audience. Using a work management tool, Trinny London was able to nail the process of creating, testing, and implementing ads on multiple social channels.

With the help of a centralized tool, Trinny London improved its ad spend and drove more likes and subscriptions on its YouTube page. Read the case study to learn more about how Trinny London capitalized on paid advertising and social media. 

Turn your marketing plan into marketing success 

A great marketing plan promotes clarity and accountability across teams—so every stakeholder knows what they’re responsible for, by when. Reading this article is the first step to achieving better team alignment, so you can ensure every marketing campaign contributes to your company’s bottom line. 

Use a free marketing plan template to get started

Once you’ve created your marketing strategy and are ready to operationalize your marketing plan, get started with one of our marketing templates . 

Our marketing templates can help you manage and track every aspect of your marketing plan, from creative requests to approval workflows. Centralize your entire marketing plan in one place, customize the roadmap, assign tasks, and build a timeline or calendar. 

Once you’ve operationalized your entire marketing plan with one of our templates, share it with your stakeholders so everyone can work together in the same tool. Your entire team will feel connected to the marketing plan, know what to prioritize, and see how their work contributes to your project objectives . Choose the best marketing template for your team:

Marketing project plan template

Marketing campaign plan template

Product marketing launch template

Editorial calendar template

Agency collaboration template

Creative requests template

Event planning template

GTM strategy template

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that outlines the different strategies your team will use to achieve organizational objectives. Rather than focusing solely on the end goal, a marketing plan maps every step you need to reach your destination—whether that’s driving pipeline for sales, nurturing your existing customer base, or something in-between. 

As a marketing leader, you know there’s never a shortage of great campaign and project ideas. A marketing plan gives you a framework to effectively prioritize work that aligns to overarching business goals—and then get that work done. Some elements of marketing plans include:

Current business plan

Mission statement  

Business goals

Target customers  

Competitive analysis 

Current marketing mix

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Marketing budget  

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

The purpose of a marketing plan is to grow your company’s consumer base and strengthen your brand, while aligning with your organization’s mission and vision . The plan should analyze the competitive landscape and industry trends, offer actionable insights to help you gain a competitive advantage, and document each step of your strategy—so you can see how your campaigns work together to drive overarching business goals. 

What is the difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy? 

A marketing plan contains many marketing strategies across different channels. In that way, marketing strategies contribute to your overall marketing plan, working together to reach your company’s overarching business goals.

For example, imagine you’re about to launch a new software product and the goal of your marketing plan is to drive downloads. Your marketing plan could include marketing strategies like creating top-of-funnel blog content and launching a social media campaign. 

What are different types of marketing plans? 

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, what your timeline is, or which facet of marketing you’re driving, you’ll need to create a different type of marketing plan. Some different types of marketing plans include, but aren’t limited to:

General marketing plan: A general marketing plan is typically an annual or quarterly marketing plan that details the overarching marketing strategies for the period. This type of marketing plan outlines marketing goals, the company’s mission, buyer personas, unique selling propositions, and more. A general marketing plan lays the foundation for other, more specific marketing plans that an organization may employ. 

Product launch marketing plan: A product launch marketing plan is a step-by-step plan for marketing a new product or expanding into a new market. It helps you build awareness and interest by targeting the right audience, with the right messaging, in the right timeframe—so potential customers are ready to buy your new offering right away. Nailing your product launch marketing plan can reinforce your overall brand and fast-track sales. For a step-by-step framework to organize all the moving pieces of a launch, check out our product marketing launch template .

Paid marketing plan: This plan includes all the paid strategies in your marketing plan, like pay-per-click, paid social media advertising, native advertising, and display advertising. It’s especially important to do audience research prior to launching your paid marketing plan to ensure you’re maximizing ROI. Consult with content strategists to ensure your ads align with your buyer personas so you know you’re showing ads to the right people. 

Content marketing plan: A content marketing plan outlines the different content strategies and campaigns you’ll use to promote your product or service. When putting together a content marketing plan, start by identifying your audience. Then use market research tools to get the best insights into what topics your target audience is most interested in.

SEO marketing plan: Your SEO marketing plan should work directly alongside your content marketing plan as you chart content that’s designed to rank in search results. While your content marketing plan should include all types of content, your SEO marketing plan will cover the top-of-funnel content that drives new users to your site. Planning search engine-friendly content is only one step in your SEO marketing plan. You’ll also need to include link-building and technical aspects in order to ensure your site and content are as optimized as possible.

Social media marketing plan: This plan will highlight the marketing strategies you plan to accomplish on social media. Like in any general or digital marketing plan , your social media strategy should identify your ideal customer base and determine how they engage on different social media platforms. From there, you can cater your social media content to your target audience.  

Related resources

How Asana drives impactful product launches in 3 steps

How Asana streamlines strategic planning with work management

Write better AI prompts: A 4-sentence framework

What is content marketing? A complete guide

• Build your business

Business Tools

• Profit Margin Calculator
• Business Name Generator
• Slogan Generator
• Traffic Calculator
• Ecommerce Statistics
• Ecommerce Wiki

Free business tools

Start a business and design the life you want – all in one place.

• © 2015-2024 Oberlo

10 Marketing Plan Examples to Inspire Your Campaigns

What do hiking a trail, driving to a friend’s house, and executing marketing campaigns all have in common? Each requires you to closely follow directions.

Directions are a critical part of our daily life. Used correctly, they can guide decision-making processes, make labor more efficient, and get where you want to go as quickly as possible. 

But failing to keep track of directions could cost you — and not just gas money. When it comes to marketing strategies, not having a clear goal tanks web traffic, dissipates brand interest, and costs companies across the United States a whopping $400 billion a year.

Designing a marketing plan is certainly no easy task, but it can be made easier with best practices, strategic tips, and concrete examples from successful businesses all over the world.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a strategic document that acts as a guide for marketing campaigns and strategies. These critical road maps detail where you are, where you’re going, and how you plan to get there.

The average marketing plan consists of seven major sections:

• Writing an executive summary
• Discussing the mission statement
• Listing marketing objectives
• Performing a SWOT analysis
• Completing market research
• Designing a market strategy
• Determining a budget

The more detailed a marketing plan is, the more efficient it will be at accomplishing its goals. 

As you might imagine, marketers who bother to write a concrete marketing plan enjoy several benefits :

• Organized marketers have a 674% higher chance of reporting success
• Marketers who set goals are 377% more successful than those who don’t

It’s clear that a successful marketing plan opens pathways to other forms of business success — although the process is underutilized at best. More than three out of four small business owners lack an overarching marketing plan if they don’t have a clear path of growth. Creating a holistic marketing plan is absolutely necessary to scale brands at any level of development.

10 marketing plan examples from every industry

It’s much simpler to design a plan of action when the groundwork already exists. Below are 10 marketing plans sourced from real companies and brands around the world, highlighting unique approaches to researching, crafting and implementing a marketing strategy . 

1. Contently

Popular SaaS Contently developed a visual marketing plan for developing future campaigns. The strategy depicts its plan in a “waterfall” format, with goals blending into methods of application that eventually lead to success metrics. Although far more casual than other examples on this list, the work provides an excellent overview of a marketing plan’s necessary components.

2. Visit Baton Rouge

The Baton Rouge area of Louisiana generates millions of dollars every year from tourism alone. The Visit Baton Rouge marketing plan was born from a need to better position the area and create long-term strategies for generating interest. This 38-page document goes into detail describing different destinations, events, and calendars, including recommended measurements for success.

Created by SaaS company HubSpot , this template includes a business summary, SWOT matrix, market strategy, budget, and other important aspects of a marketing plan. By filling it out, you can make informed decisions about your company’s positioning and your marketing in general.

4. Evernote

Evernote provides a comprehensive marketing plan template for businesses of any size. Create a plan that walks through overviews, timelines, research, personas, and all other elements of an airtight campaign. If desired, you can also implement this template into your Evernote account to start developing a marketing plan almost immediately.

5. University of Illinois

Even educational institutes need marketing plans. The University of Illinois created a very straightforward document that encapsulates its market context, research efforts, and current campaigns. Objectives and success metrics are completed in the third section, with about 40 pages overall. 

6. Monday.com

Monday.com is a project management platform providing in-house templates to all active users. This marketing plan offers various categories and subcategories that track project progress with data visualizations. Detailed objectives and KPIs can be identified in-app, including columns for a projected cost range.

Popular health and hygiene brand Lush released a comprehensive marketing plan walking through some products, positioning, and a marketing calendar for upcoming product releases. One of the highlights includes a detailed SWOT analysis with easy to read graphics. This is particularly helpful for brands in the personal care industry, among others.

8. Coca-Cola

Industry titan Coca-Cola released a strategy video that encompasses all seven elements of a holistic marketing plan. The proposal primarily explains the major content initiatives for the coming year, and focuses on how the brand’s initial ideas can be practically implemented into the existing strategy. 

9. Naperville Park District

Publicly funded recreational parks often have limited access to resources, which is why the Naperville Park District created a strategic marketing plan right at the beginning. This extremely detailed document walks through the company’s mission, situational analysis, strategy, and budget, on a micro-level.

10. Starbucks

Unlike the longform documents we’ve seen already, Starbucks takes a more concise approach. This six-page release details a strategy to elevate CX and brand ambassadors around the world. The marketing plan touches on individual strategies and tactics, as well as the methods used to ensure success. It’s important to note the detailed customer journey profiles that fit into a five-year strategy.

How to approach a marketing plan

Now that you know what a marketing plan looks like, it’s time to explore the initial stages of drafting and publishing your very first plan. Once you establish some basic starting points, a little research is all you need to get started.

Determine your goals

Directions simply don’t matter without an endpoint in mind. Craft some meaningful goals for your marketing campaign that envelop your brand’s values, objectives, and year-end plans. It’s best to use the SMART goal framework:

The more specific your goals are, the more effective your marketing plan will be.

Check your competitors

Staying abreast of your competitors and market share is critical in the early stages of a marketing plan. Using competitive analysis tools or an internal process, take some time to evaluate the approach that others are using — and how you can do better.

You might want to:

• Perform a competitive analysis
• Keep a close eye on industry news
• Browse competitor social media content

Keep in mind that it’s possible to hire freelancers to perform competitive analysis for you, depending on your needs and time constraints.

Identify your audience

Understanding your target market — including their goals, ages, values, and demographics — is the golden rule of marketing. This can be done several ways, either by using data, creating personas, or outlying features in a document.

It’s best to consider everything that may be relevant to your audience in the marketing plan, including how products can be positioned in a way that makes them relevant. For example, a customer with a degree in IT would be more interested in ads that speak to their experience and industry pain points.

If you don’t have a target audience in mind yet, consider using programs like Google Analytics or in-platform insights from Facebook to identify specific segments.

Craft final KPIs

The difference between a good marketing plan and a great marketing plan starts with key performance metrics (KPIs). These will be used to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and provide detailed information about what worked, what didn’t, and what you can change in the future.

Every marketing plan should rely on its own unique set of metrics, all fitted to individual needs. If you’re looking for specific examples, you might want to try:

• Raising the number of followers on a social media account
• Generating a certain amount of website leads 
• Achieving higher email open rates 

Keep in mind that your final metrics should adhere to the SMART method for best results.

Perform your revisions

The marketing plan is a living document and must be updated regularly to remain current. The average plan only has a shelf life of one to five years , on average, and should receive regular revisions in the meantime.

Take a closer look at your past goals, competitors, audience, and KPIs. Are any of these outdated or ill-aligned? What has changed for the company since its initial publication date? Make these adjustments accordingly (and hopefully with members of a team or committee).

Create marketing plans that guide your business well

It’s not enough to just write a marketing plan. In an increasingly competitive world of iron-clad strategies, marketing pros should take their time developing a plan that lasts. The above examples are a great place to start, especially as you craft an approach that is catered to your industry. 

Keep an eye on the growth of your business once your marketing plan hits the shelves. Continue to find new ways to optimize, refine, and otherwise make what you have even better than before. With an airtight marketing plan by your side, the possibilities are virtually limitless.

Want to learn more?

• How to Create a Killer Social Media Marketing Plan
• The Complete Guide to Getting Started With Influencer Marketing
• 7 of the Best Landing Page Examples to Learn From
• Instagram Marketing Tips to Shoot Up Your Sales

• General SEO
• Keyword Research
• On-Page SEO
• Link Building
• Technical SEO
• Enterprise SEO
• General Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Paid Marketing
• Video Marketing

How to Create a Winning Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps (with Examples)

• Linking websites 140

The number of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.

Having a marketing strategy is more crucial than ever. We’re swamped with new technologies, growth hacks, and “must-try” marketing tactics . A solid marketing strategy will help you to focus on things that really matter and execute them properly.

Let me repeat that in other words.

A marketing strategy helps you choose the right marketing tactics, like promoting your blog posts or creating an affiliate program. I need to make the distinction between strategy and tactics clear because you’ll often see people using these interchangeably.

In this article, you’ll learn how to develop a winning marketing strategy in five steps:

• Have your market research data ready
• Decide which segments you’ll target
• Appeal to your target market with proper positioning
• Choose a few brand codes to become distinctive
• Set strategic objectives for the year ahead

Let’s dive into it.

1. Have your market research data ready

It’s crucial to build your marketing strategy on data, not assumptions. You’re probably not developing and launching a product into the marketplace without market research —or at least you shouldn’t be.

Market research is an essential part of marketing and a topic on its own. I won’t go too deep into this, but I’ll provide options to get the needed data. Remember that even cheap, quick, and imperfect market research is better than no research at all.

Here’s what you should have before developing a marketing strategy:

• Qualitative market data
• Quantitative market data
• Market segmentation
• Competitive analysis

Feel free to go with what you deem enough at the moment. You can always come back to the research if you lack data for setting up the strategy. I’m aware that getting all the data right away is off-the-table for many new businesses.

a) Qualitative market data

Qualitative data tells you the “why” behind all your market research numbers. It’s essential for understanding your consumers as it digs into their views, experiences, motivations, and feelings.

Traditionally, the best way to get such data would be via focus groups and interviews.

Focus groups typically consist of five to ten people that represent your potential customers. The group should be moderated by a professional who knows which questions to ask and how to get reliable and in-depth insights. It’s a great option to get the data but not the cheapest in terms of money and time.

On the other hand, I would suggest you go out and interview your (potential) customers in any situation. Even better, observe them in places your product is purchased, consumed, or discussed. Take notes on this unfiltered and unbiased information. If you have a SaaS product, you can also record and analyze sessions  of your users.

Here’s an example excerpt from an interview-style survey we did with our customers a while back:

If you want to get some free and solid qualitative data quickly, look into how people talk about yours and competing products on social media, forums, Slack channels, and other online communities . It’s less reliable than conducting in-person interviews, but it’s still a fantastic qualitative data source.

Here’s an example of a quick search on Reddit for SEO tool discussions where our product almost always gets discussed:

b) Quantitative market data

Quantitative market data provides measurable information about your market. It answers “what, who, how much, and how many” questions to complement the “why” questions from qualitative data. The best and most used method for getting such data is conducting surveys.

You’ve likely filled customer surveys in various forms in the past. With the ability to conduct easy and scalable online surveys  these days, there’s really no excuse not to do them.

If you already have a solid customer base, email list, or social media following, distributing surveys is easy.

There are three things you need to pay attention to when creating a survey:

• Make sure that you either distribute it to people who qualify as your potential customers or add survey questions to qualify them as such.

• Ask the right questions. I’ll expand on this.

You should always know why you’re asking a specific question in the survey. Generally speaking, you’ll want to know this about the market:

• Demographic data like age or income.
• Attitudinal data, like if they agree/disagree with certain statements relevant to your niche. An example of this would be the following question using the Likert scale:

• Behavioral data about consumers’ preferences and satisfaction.

If you have the budget, you can hire an agency to conduct a survey on your behalf or buy consumer reports from research and advisory companies like Forrester. If not, it’s worth spending a little time Googling marketing research reports because some might be available for free.

c) Market segmentation

Your goal here is to create a grid that divides the whole market into customer segments that share behavioral traits like product needs. If those segments also share demographic data like age or income brackets, even better, but that doesn’t happen too often.

This is already an application of the data gathered in the previous steps.

Here’s what proper market segmentation might look like for an email marketing service provider:

Note that this example isn’t based on any proper research or actual numbers. It’s here for you to understand the logic behind it.

As you can see, each segment should be described by:

• A fitting name describing their common behavioral trait and/or product needs
• Size of the segment (people or companies)
• Annual value of the segment
• Your current market share in the segment

The most challenging part of segmentation is coming up with the grid itself. In other words, by which behavioral traits do you divide the market? You should get the best answers for this in your previous data research.

Don’t worry about data accuracy here. Use the data you have about the market, extrapolate from your representative samples in your quantitative research, and make a few guesses. These estimations are good enough for you to decide which segments you’ll want to target.

We’ll come back to your segments in the targeting part.

d) Competitive analysis

You’ll use competitive analysis in every step of developing your marketing strategy. While you’ll inevitably learn about competitors in your data research, it’s crucial to create a standalone overview of the competitor landscape.

A competitive analysis consists of these eight steps:

• Find your competitors
• Get background information
• Analyze competitors’ products and services
• Get familiar with their targeting and positioning
• Discover competitors’ distribution channels
• Dive into communication strategies
• Do some ghost shopping
• Conduct a SWOT analysis

Here’s a mockup of the SWOT analysis outcome for a fictional email marketing service provider:

This is from my competitive analysis guide , which includes a template to help you get this done efficiently. Go check it out if you haven’t done this analysis yet.

2. Decide which segments you’ll target

The second step in developing a marketing strategy is to decide which segments of the market you’ll go after. Or perhaps I should say which segments you’ll ignore as deciding what not to do is often the more important choice.

But first, let me explain the difference between terms that we marketers tend to use interchangeably:

• Target segment  - a specific market segment you decide to go after.
• Target market - all your target segments combined, they buy and use the products in the category.
• Target audience  - everyone who resonates with your marketing communications regardless of whether they buy the products. For example, technology fans likely belong to the target audience of Tesla, but only a few of them will ever buy the car.

If you’ve done a good job with your segmentation, your target segments tend to be pretty obvious and easy to choose.

To choose your target segments, ask yourself these six questions:

• Does your product align with what the segment wants?
• Does it bring you the most value if you increase your market share there?
• Do you have the sales and marketing resources to increase your market share there?
• How difficult is it going to be to increase your market share there?
• Does this segment influence any other segments? If so, how?
• What are the trade-offs if you shift your focus on new segments?

Your ideal target segments are those where you can make the most money given the resources available.

Keep in mind that some segments might influence the buying behavior of other segments. Those can be influential people in B2C or leading companies in your industry in B2B. Consider this spill-over value as well:

As you can see from my market segmentation example, two relatively small segments influence the buying behavior of a much larger segment. If you decided to go after the “pro small senders” and “pro big senders” segments, you’d get new customers from the “influenced small senders” segment without ever targeting it.

Regarding the last question about trade-offs, you also have to consider that some of your current customers will inevitably leave for competitors. If you decide to shift your focus and resources elsewhere, it will be easier for your competitors to poach those customers from you.

Most importantly, keep in mind that targeting everyone is rarely the best strategy. Answering those six questions should make it obvious.

3. Appeal to your target market with proper positioning

Positioning is how your target market should perceive your brand. It’s the intended brand image that consists of associations people have with your brand and products. Positioning allows you to differentiate from your competitors, and in some cases, even influence how the target market perceives your competitors.

For example, there’s a lot in this message:

‘Burger King vs. McDonalds’ and ‘Apple vs. Microsoft’ are just famous examples of using the “versus” positioning type. You can easily do this from the position of the smaller player too:

But you don’t always need to pick a fight. First, it’s not necessary to succeed, and second, you’ll sometimes be walking on thin ice that may lead to bad publicity:

This is from Techradar’s reaction  to Wix’s campaign where they positioned themselves against WordPress. A lot of marketing and web development influencers were not impressed either:

So wix sent dozens of people super expensive headphones, pretending they are from WordPress, with a personalized video warning me about their new anti-WP campaign. I still like WordPress though and it seems most of the WP community is having a good laugh. Thanks @WordPress 😆 pic.twitter.com/llpH7gNfvC — Wes Bos (@wesbos) April 6, 2021

The thing is that you can succeed by focusing on your brand and products only.

The power of positioning lies in consistently communicating the few associations throughout all of your marketing channels. If you fail to do this, the market will do the positioning job for you. That will seldom align with your desired brand image.

So how do you come up with the key attributes that define your communication?

Dive into three Cs of positioning to come up with the right message

When you think about positioning, you need to take into account these three aspects of it, also known as 3 Cs of positioning:

• Competitors

Well, you should know your own company. The rest lies in your market research data again.

Put all the data together and come up with messages that are:

• Relevant - does the target segment care?
• Clear - will they get it?
• Authentic - will they believe it?
• Unique - does it stand out from your competitors?
• Achievable - can you deliver what you claim?
• Sustainable - can you maintain that position indefinitely?

While this process seems easy on paper, it requires a lot of thinking and vetting of ideas.

For example, we don’t have a slogan, but we make sure to highlight these attributes throughout our communications:

• Being the best all-in-one SEO product
• Ease of use
• Makes you better at marketing and SEO

Our homepage  immediately tells you what we do and how you can benefit from that:

The SEO industry knows us for being a product-led company that continues to grow fast without a sales team, and we don’t shy away from emphasizing this position—often in somewhat unique ways:

You need to come up with something impactful and not some over-glorified brand purposes or missions that mean nothing to the brand or its customers. Starbucks is a bad example of this, in my opinion:

I’m sure that everyone buying an overpriced, average coffee thinks about how it inspires and nurtures their spirit…

You can tell I’m not a Starbucks fan, but even I can think of two better attributes that they could focus on instead—their availability and convenience. It’s somehow implied in the mission statement, but the focus lies elsewhere.

Have a position for each target segment

If you target multiple segments with different behaviors and needs, you’ll need to make sure that you communicate what they care about.

For example, SEO professionals, marketers, and even ‘regular’ website owners all use our product. But their needs are very different. Our positioning attributes work regardless of target segments, but we certainly need to adjust the nitty-gritty separately.

We reflect that on pages where different segments are likely to land.

We target the biggest segment, website owners, on our freemium product page . The copy is written for SEO beginners:

It also utilizes the “versus” positioning type:

On the other hand, our product page for Site Audit  targets more seasoned marketers and SEOs:

Here’s the interesting thing about this: Site Audit is a core tool in the freemium product. We’re simply addressing the same thing from two very different angles.

4. Choose a few brand codes to become distinctive

A brand code, aka distinctive asset, is anything that you use consistently in your communications. You can think about it as your sidekick to positioning.

The most common brand code is your logo and visual style. But that’s about it for most brands. It’s not enough to stand out and be distinctive in the mind of your target audience.

Your ultimate goal should be that your target audience recognizes your brand even without showing any logos:

Your brand codes should be unique, which makes you distinctive, and ideally famous, which enables your existing audience to connect the dots easily.

At Ahrefs, besides our logo and the color blue, we also have two more brand codes. The first is our custom font:

The second is our bearded guy mascot, often accompanied by a corgi:

There are no limits to your creativity. All that matters is that you choose something you want your brand to be associated with and use it consistently.

More examples of brand codes include your own emojis, gifs, unique words, taglines, or even the style you advertise. Just think about Mastercard’s “priceless” campaigns.

You can stand out by focusing on non-visual things too. We all know McDonald’s I’m lovin’ it jingle  as an example of an auditory brand code. But you can even have your own smell, as is the case for some hotels and luxury brands.

5. Set strategic objectives for the year ahead

You need clearly defined marketing objectives  to guide your marketing efforts and provide benchmarks for evaluation. It’s all that’s left to do for your strategy now.

Your marketing objectives should align with the widely-used SMART criteria:

• Specific  - clearly stating the desirable outcome, answers “who, what, when, how much, …”
• Measurable  - you must be able to track progress with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Achievable  - be bold with your goals, but also realistic; use current growth as a benchmark.
• Relevant - does the objective align with your overall marketing and business strategy?
• Timely  - set up a time frame for achieving the goal.

An example of such objective could be:

Grow Ahrefs Webmaster Tools’ verified global user base from 100,000 to 500,000 by the end of 2021.

You should have one or two marketing objectives for each of your target segments for the year ahead. That would be a part of your marketing plan .

Strive for a combination of short and long-term objectives. In other words, have objectives that directly translate into more profit and others that help with brand building.

As a general rule, the ideal balance between marketing spend on sales uplift, and brand building is roughly 40:60. It’s one of the most important marketing concepts to keep in mind.

There’s an entire publication  dedicated to this concept. The key takeaway is that brand building is proven to be the primary driver of long-term growth and success.

Here’s an example of a marketing objective with a brand-building KPI :

Increase brand awareness among webmasters in the US from 25% to 40% by the end of 2021.

• Marketing Objectives: How to Set Them Right (with Examples)
• 7 Marketing KPIs Actually Worth Tracking
• Planning for marketing planning: 14 steps to an effective presentation

Final thoughts

If you even remotely follow these steps to develop a viable marketing strategy, you’ll be better off than most marketers. Our industry seems somewhat fixated on pushing enticing “must-try” tactics as strategies. We can do better than that.

Look, if you come across a new cool marketing tactic  and it aligns with your strategy, sure, go ahead, give it a shot. But you’ll often find that it’s better to stick with your guns.

Even though creating a marketing strategy is around a third of what marketing entails—along with research and tactics— its output should be brief and easy to understand. It might take you weeks or even months to develop a great strategy, but you can distill that into a shortlist of target segments, positions, brand codes, and objectives.

Put simply: doing the research and strategy work sets you up for long-term success. Just revisit it once a year because your business, segments, competitors, and market dynamics evolve. Planning your marketing for the year ahead is also better with fresh data.

I need to give credit where credit is due.

Even though I studied marketing and have experience from strategic marketing positions, it was these four marketing masterminds who shaped my current marketing views the most:

Mark Ritson  - marketing professor, brand consultant, columnist, Mini MBA in Marketing  lecturer

Byron Sharp  - marketing professor and researcher, author of How Brands Grow

Peter Field  & Les Binet  - marketing effectiveness experts, authors of The Long and the Short of it: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies

This guide hugely drew inspiration from their articles, books, lectures, and talks I’ve studied over the years. If you want to become a better marketer who uses practices based on actual research, follow them and study their work.

Do you have any questions or remarks? Ping me on Twitter .

Don't bother with copy and paste.

Get this complete sample business plan as a free text document.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan

Start your own marketing strategy business plan

Cambridge Strategy Group

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">, opportunity.

The start up businesses in Cambridge are in need of a consulting firm that helps them decide how to market themselves and build themselves to a successful business. Research shows that many of these businesses fail since they don’t have the resources to make the right choices. Helping them keeps people employed and the economy going strong. 

The Cambridge Strategy Group (CSG), L.L.C. is dedicated to providing marketing and management consulting services to small and emerging businesses looking for opportunities to increase their potential for success. 

The target market is defined by the customer needs that create the market, the structural forces that govern operation within the market, and the attractiveness of the market based on strategic value, market size, market growth, and potential for profit.

Competition

There are many rivals in the Cambridge area that fall into 4 categories: segment rivals, market rivals, generic rivals, structural rivals.

The Cambridge Strategy Group is focused specifically on helping small and emerging businesses maximize their potential for success. 

Expectations

The market for Cambridge Strategy Group’s services is enormous. Initially, the three founding members intend to work part-time on this venture while maintaining full-time positions with other corporations. As we determine how best to enlarge our operations, we will consider expanding the business as defined in our strategy.

Financial Highlights by Year

Financing needed.

The three managing directors will contribute $115,000.  John Gordon is contributing $40,000, Todd Kuczaj will be contributing $40,000 and Ben Cordell will be contributing $35,000. 

Problem & Solution

Problem worth solving.

The new businesses in the area  were started by an entrepreneur with a solid idea, but little experience in creating the formal business strategies or marketing deliverables necessary to turn their idea into a successful business. With recent IPOs giving back much of their initial valuations, companies are now being forced to demonstrate profitable business models in order to maintain strong valuations. Venture capitalists need to focus on making their existing companies successful instead of simply prospecting for the next great idea. To accomplish this, founders need to effectively define and communicate their value propositions. Since this is not a core competency for many entrepreneurs, there is an opportunity to provide this skill set through outsourcing arrangements. Additionally, founders need experience in sales and marketing to exploit market opportunities and create early revenue wins. Finally, no business currently exists with dominant mind-share as a "small business consulting" firm.

Our Solution

The Cambridge Strategy Group is focused specifically on helping small and emerging businesses maximize their potential for success. We differentiate ourselves in the following ways:

• Focus on small business:   Our mission is to help small businesses of today become the leading corporations of tomorrow. Cambridge Strategy Group will attempt to own the words "small business" in the minds of our potential clients.
• Cost-effective personal interaction with local consultant presence: We will target new regions with local consultants, allowing us to personally interact with small businesses without needing to bring consultants to the region.
• A diverse network of consultants and alliance partners:   By relying on a nationally distributed talent base coordinated to work together remotely, we will be able to bring together a variety of skills to meet the needs of our clients.

Target Market

Market size & segments.

Market Segmentation

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS The following factors define the environment in which CSG hopes to succeed.

• Physical:  New businesses are being formed across the United States every day. Providing consulting services to these businesses will require local presence. North Carolina’s Triangle Area has recently been rated as one of the top three metropolitan areas for small businesses by Dun and Bradstreet’s  Entrepreneur  magazine.
• Legal:  The creation of the Limited Liability Company has made it very simple for new businesses to organize as formal business entities. Limited Liability Companies are ideal for small businesses as they avoid the double taxation characteristic of C Corporations, while providing limited liability for the company members.
• Economic:  Current economic conditions are continuing to challenge investors’ views regarding the potential for return. The market is no longer rewarding entrepreneurs solely on the strength of their ideas. Instead, business owners and Venture Capitalists are expected to show profitability before they will be allowed to reap the rewards of their hard work. While small business owners bring innovative ideas and possibly leadership qualities to their organization, they will need to rely upon skills from other disciplines, including marketing, to succeed.
• Social:  According to a Small Business Administration report, U.S. small business is at an all-time high  (The Facts About Small Business, 1999) "interest in owning or starting a small business has broken new records [between 1993 and 1998]." While recent stock market corrections may have frightened a segment of potential entrepreneurs, the opportunity for financial reward keeps many small business owners diligently chasing their dreams.
• Technological:  Recent advances in technology have greatly enhanced the ability for distributed teams to work together on common projects. The proliferation of the Internet facilitates data sharing and communication. Voice-over-IP technology reduces the cost of conversation between CSG members working across the country.

With these conditions in mind, CSG will concentrate on initially building clients in the North Carolina area before expanding into other areas. We will be concentrating on all businesses that employ less than 100 individuals. CSG will not segment its market to any greater degree since the company wants to build clients as quickly as possible. Therefore our market analysis chart below reflects this initial strategy.

Target Market 

The target market is defined by the customer needs that create the market, the structural forces that govern operation within the market, and the attractiveness of the market based on strategic value, market size, market growth, and potential for profit. Each of these areas is described below.

STRUCTURAL FACTORS Particular market forces affect the ability of the Cambridge Strategy Group to succeed. These forces are identified below:

• Buyer Power:  With almost 900,000 new businesses starting each year, there is ample demand for consulting services. If any particular business chooses to work with another consulting firm, there are still a large number of firms that can be targeted by CSG. Buyers have power in this market, but the size of the market makes it unlikely that buyer power will have any significant negative impact on the consulting firm.
• Threat of Conventional Competitors:  No other conventional competitor owns the idea of "small business consulting" in the minds of today’s business owners. A number of high-profile management and marketing consulting firms exist, yet most of these firms have a reputation for being expensive and much too theoretical for small business owners who have practical, short-term concerns. Still, there is potential for these firms to open distinct teams of consultants focused on this market place. These teams would have particular strength in an area where the competitors already have an established consulting presence, such as the major U.S. cities. By beginning our efforts in the Triangle Area of North Carolina, Cambridge Strategy Group will exploit an area that has a very strong market of small businesses, yet does not have many high-profile competitor offices outside of tax specialists. No smaller competitor has emerged in this area.

• Supplier Power:  Suppliers have minimal power over a consulting firm. The www.cambridgestrategy.net website URL as well as all of the Cambridge Strategy Group email addresses are owned by CSG. Our Web-hosting provider can be changed quickly in the event of any disruption of service. CSG intends to work with third party alliance partners to fulfill client projects. For example, CSG is in the process of entering into an agreement with a Web development firm. This supplier will provide website development for the www.cambridgestrategy.net website in exchange for first right of refusal for future client projects. Contractual stipulations have given the Group legal remedies to terminate the contract due to cost, quality, or time issues with the supplier. By crafting supplier contracts in a careful manner, we hope to limit our exposure to risk due to suppliers’ power.
• Threat of Substitutes:  Potential substitutes are a very real threat. Venture Capitalists could add more consulting services to their portfolio in order to have more points of contact with the new business. Additionally, non-profit groups such as the Council for Entrepreneurial Development offer basic business plan services, primarily focusing on pre-Angel businesses. Cambridge Strategy Group intends to form relationships with each of these potential substitutes. By working with Venture Capitalists, CSG is able to provide a set of core competencies in marketing and business strategy that complements the VCs funding and business model assessment competencies. Also, by becoming more involved with the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and other non-profit organizations, CSG will gain access to a number of firms who will be potential prospects for marketing consulting once they receive their initial funding.
• Threat of New Entrants:  This threat is significant as there are very few barriers to entry in a consulting market. Consulting firms do not normally have significant intellectual property that can be patented, and the requirements for creating these firms are minimal. Fortunately, the size of the new business market should sustain a number of firms in this area. The Cambridge Strategy Group will focus on gaining ownership of the idea "small business consulting" in the mind of the market. By owning that idea, CSG will minimize its exposure to new consulting firms with similar targets. Owning this idea is an expensive task that will have to start locally and move from one city to another as the company expands.

Current Alternatives

Competitors to the Cambridge Strategy Group fall into four categories:

• Segment Rivals:  Segment Rivals offer the exact same services as the Cambridge Strategy Group. These firms must focus exclusively on small businesses and offer marketing and/or management strategy services.
• Market Rivals:  There are a number of available Market Rivals who compete with the Cambridge Strategy Group while having slightly different business focuses. Examples of market rivals include start-up focused branches of Big Five Consulting Firms, Management Consulting Firms, and Venture Capitalists who also provide business services.
• Generic Rivals:  Generic Rivals represent alternative solutions. The main alternative to outsourcing work to a consulting firm is performing the work in-house.
• Structural Rivals:  Structural Rivals are the forces inherent in the market through which the firm must operate. These forces were described in the previous section entitled Target Market Analysis.

Our Advantages

Key Success Factors:   After exploring the opportunities and threats that permeate this market, the following Key Success Factors emerge as the requirements to be successful at providing marketing and management consulting services to small businesses.

• Local presence in a strong small business market;
• Affordable pricing structure/minimal costs;
• Clear value proposition, communicated into target market;
• Core competencies in marketing and strategy;
• Recognition as leading "small business consultants" or, no other firm claiming that title;
• Venture Capitalist relationships.

Keys to Success

UNIQUENESS OF SERVICES The Cambridge Strategy Group is focused specifically on helping small and emerging businesses maximize their potential for success. We combine Blue Chip training with small business experience and local presence. We differentiate ourselves in the following ways:

• Focus on small business.  We place our best people on small business customers. Our mission is to help small businesses of today become the leading corporations of tomorrow. Cambridge Strategy Group will attempt to own the words "small business" in the minds of our potential clients.
• Cost-effective personal interaction with local consultant presence. Personal interaction provides small businesses with a level of comfort not available with remote consultants. There may be many occasions where the small business founders may ask the consultant to simply "stop by," to react to a new development, or to answer a question. While this local presence and personal interaction is highly valued, business owners are often unable to afford the cost associated with bringing consultants to them from other areas.
• A diverse network of consultants and alliance partners.  Solving the unique problems that face small businesses today demands a wide range of skills and experiences. By relying on a nationally distributed talent base coordinated to work together remotely, Cambridge Strategy Group will be able to bring together the skills required by a particular client without incurring the expense of physically bringing all of the individuals together. In the book,  22 Immutable Laws of Marketing , authors Al Ries and Jack Trout note that being first in the customer’s mind is more important than being the overall leader. In the world of small business, this is particularly true. With 898,000 small businesses starting each year, there is a significant opportunity for a consulting firm such as Cambridge Strategy Group to become the "first" consulting firm dedicated exclusively to small businesses in the minds of a number of these potential clients.

Marketing & Sales

Marketing plan.

We have a number of ways to promote We will use a number of relationships to promote the Cambridge Strategy Group.

Through participation in the North Carolina Chapter of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, we will make contacts with key Venture Capitalists, small business founders, and small businesses resources in the area. Once we have helped our first few clients, we will then explore relationships with local newspapers. Participating in local chambers of commerce will also help us to get increased exposure. In every method of communication, we will constantly reinforce our differential advantage:

• Focus on helping small businesses start moving in the right direction;
• Practical, actionable, short-term marketing and business strategy help;
• Local presence for availability and minimization of costs;
• Broad skill base combining Fortune 500 training with small business experience.

The 20 projects averaging 200 hours each listed represents approximately two person-years of work. However, additional time must be included for finding new clients and building Venture Capitalist relationships. For this forecast to become a reality, it will require either: (a) additional consultants to join the firm or (b) some members of CSG to work full-time on group activities. Note that "projects" are not synonymous with "clients." Any given client may require multiple projects from CSG.

The Cambridge Strategy Group understands the importance of implementing the technological components of a small business as soon as possible in order to facilitate communication between the company and its clients, employees, and partners. Therefore, we offer assistance in email enablement as well as phone and fax set-up. CSG also offers expertise in constructing an Internet presence through Web development and Web hosting.

Milestones & Metrics

Milestones table.

Key Metrics

Our Key Metrics are: 

• Total clients per month 
• Average billing per engagement. 
• Repeat business vs. new business. 
• Facebook likes, Twitter follows. 

Ownership & Structure

The company is organized as a manager-managed Limited Liability Company. Initially, we will have three members with equal equity stakes in the company making all voting decisions. An executive director who is one of the managers will be identified to run meetings and provide some form of order to ongoing discussions. Additionally, we will hire consultants as needed to help our clients. Consultants will be paid on a per-deliverable basis.

Management Team

The CSG management team brings a broad range of industry experience and training from both energetic small firms and experienced industry leaders.

John B. Gordon, Executive Director: John has worked in marketing, business development, and corporate strategy for a number of small and large firms, including EMC Corporation, IBM Corporation, and Larscom, Incorporated. John’s participation on the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development, plus his experience providing consulting services to small businesses, catalyzed the formation of the Cambridge Strategy Group.

Todd D. Kuczaj, Managing Director: Todd has worked in Internet consulting, Web design/development, financial services, and media publications for a variety of companies, including a Big Five consulting firm, Integrated Information Systems Inc., SunAmerica Securities Inc., and the Foothills Sentinel. Todd currently functions as an experienced analyst for a Big Five consulting firm, working with Fortune 100 and Fortune e-50 firms to solve their business and technology issues.

Ben S. Cordell, Managing Director: Ben has worked in business development, account management, systems engineering, marketing, and product development positions at LifeServ and ONE Co. (formerly DC Systems). Ben currently functions as a corporate strategy specialist at LifeServ, discovering and developing merger, acquisition and strategic partnership opportunities.

The Cambridge Strategy Group will create an advisory board to bring insight into new areas including consulting management, finance and accounting, venture capital, and local media. The Founders of CSG have a number of contacts that could certainly provide useful guidance in our future operations. We will determine the value and compensation for the advisory board in future discussions.

Personnel Table

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

Key assumptions.

Below is a list of assumptions that define the short-term business model:

• Year 1 will  be spent preparing and learning how best to approach clients and building relationships with VCs;
• All managers will hold full-time positions with other companies;
• We will focus on business opportunities in NC until we create sufficient revenue to open foreign LLC’s in other states;
• year 1  financial model represents only three managers;
• All revenue is realized when a project is finished

Revenue by Month

Expenses by month, net profit (or loss) by year, use of funds.

Our Startup Expenses are: 

Start-up Expenses

Stationery etc.$100

Brochures$150

Insurance$200

Other$4,000

TOTAL START-UP EXPENSES$4,650

Sources of Funds

Our 3 owners will contribute to our startup: John Gordon is contributing 40,000, Todd Kuczaj is contributing 40,000, Ben Cordell contributed 35,000. The total from the owner investment is 115000

Projected Profit & Loss

Projected Balance Sheet

Projected Cash Flow Statement

The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.

Discover the world’s #1 plan building software

Three-Day LIVE Summit with 10+ Ecommerce Trailblazers.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content

A magazine for young entrepreneurs

The best advice in entrepreneurship

Subscribe for exclusive access, how to create a marketing plan in 2024 (template + examples).

Written by Jesse Sumrak | May 28, 2024

Comments -->

Get real-time frameworks, tools, and inspiration to start and build your business. Subscribe here

Marketing is an often misunderstood profession. Peers often stereotype marketing with massive budgets, loosey-goosey timelines, haphazard tactics, high-profile influencers, and Snapchat filters. In reality, modern marketing plans are more complex and orchestrated than a Premier League-winning football team.

Businesses have big goals to hit and fine margins to walk—and they need realistic, yet imaginative, marketing plans to make it happen. Sure, bigger companies can spend all willy-nilly hiring Taylor Swift for a commercial op and dropping a quarter million on Facebook advertising, but small businesses and startups have to get downright strategic with every dollar they spend.

If your business is trying to stretch every penny, you’ve come to the right place. This article will show you how to create a marketing plan in 2024 that actually works with a down-to-earth budget. We’ve included step-by-step actions, outlines, examples, and more to give you everything you need to take an idea to the market with laser precision.

Table of Contents

What is a marketing plan?

How to create a marketing plan

Marketing plan template

Marketing plan example

Marketing Plan FAQs

What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a documented roadmap for how you plan to drive awareness, sales, signups, attendance, or other marketing initiatives. It outlines your KPIs, budget, and timeline, dictating everything from the critical milestones to the nitty-gritty to-do items.

Marketing plans come in all shapes and sizes. You could build an overarching marketing plan to document and guide your entire department’s annual goals and strategies for the upcoming year. Or you might create a marketing plan detailing the launch strategy for the brand-new product release coming out next quarter. Big plans can even include small plans, just like an adorable collection of Russian nesting dolls.

Plans can be short, long, fat, or thin—just remember what your plan is trying to accomplish. If you’re trying to pitch an idea to a team of venture capitalists or a local bank, you might need a chunky document with accompanying spreadsheets and financial figures. However, if you’re trying to communicate the plan to your marketing team leads, you’ll want to skip straight to the point with tactics, deadlines, and deliverables.

Regardless of your use case, the next section will give you the building blocks you need to create a marketing plan that works.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

This section will show you the 7-step process to creating a marketing plan. Plans are fluid and versatile, so we don’t recommend filling out one of these with pen and paper—get your eraser ready because a marketing plan is never perfect from the get-go.

Here’s an overview of the 7-step process:

• Establish Your Marketing Goal
• Identify Your Audience and Competitors
• Set Your Marketing Budget
• Determine Your Deadline(s)
• Pick Your Marketing Channels and Tactics
• Outline the To-Do List and Make Assignments
• Track Performance and Review Analytics

Don’t worry too much about making it all nice and pretty right now. Later, you can use our provided marketing outline to copy, paste, and format a more articulated version for widespread distribution. For now, just focus on hashing out each section and answering the thought-provoking questions.

1. Establish Your Marketing Goal

Define exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to drive more sales? How much? What about recurring customers? How many? Do you need to increase brand awareness? To whom and by how much?

Work out the details of what you want to accomplish, why, and how you’re going to measure it. Establish your KPIs early on to measure the success of your marketing campaign. You’ll refer to these numbers throughout the rest of your marketing plan, so get specific.

For example, how many website visitors you’re trying to drive will affect your marketing budget, deadlines, and tactics. And if you’re targeting a specific demographic, you may need to engage different marketing teams to use the appropriate channels and messaging.

Fine-tune your marketing goal so that you can communicate it simply in a single sentence. For example: “The goal is to drive 25,000 key decision-makers to the new product page by the end of October with a limited marketing budget of $75,000.”

2. Identify Your Audience and Competitors

Explain who this campaign is targeting. If you’ve already built out your buyer personas, you’ll just plug in the persona appropriate to this campaign. However, if this is your first time thinking long and hard about your target audience, really get to know the person you’re marketing to.

Depending on your product, industry, and market, you’ll want to know demographics like:

• Marital status

These details help you identify a broad audience, but you’ll want to narrow it down with psychographics.

Psychographics dig deeper . They cover your audience’s:

• Influencers
• Shopping behaviors

Demographics explain the “who,” while psychographics explain the “why.”

Think about if you were trying to sell a baseball glove. How you market that glove is going to be very different depending on the buyer. Are your messaging and channels targeting a college athlete, recreational youngster, mom, dad, or low-income family? It’s hard to know what to say and how to say it unless you know who you’re talking to.

Don’t just gloss over this section. Without a target audience, you’ll be blindly throwing darts at a board—sure, some plans might work out, but it’ll come down less to strategy and more to sheer luck. A target audience and replicable formula make your success a science and not a game of Russian roulette.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to figure out who’s also targeted the same people. Competition research is a way to understand who you are up against for eyeballs, SEO rankings, and influence, but it also can serve as an opportunity to fill gaps in our needs that your competitors are missing.

One easy way to do this is to look at comment sections or reviews of similar companies in your industry. Look for:

• Frequent complaints about product design.
• Consistent issues with customer service.
• Ads or branding language that falls flat.
• If the competitor hasn’t made a product their customers are asking for.

By identifying your competitor’s weaknesses or gaps their missing with their customers, you’ll have a treasure trove of marketing copy to use in order to differentiate your business from the pack.

3. Set Your Marketing Budget

Marketing plans need budget constraints. Without a cap, plans could hypothetically include:

• 60-second Super Bowl commercial
• Cristiano Ronaldo as a celebrity endorser
• Billboard advertisements along the entirety of Route 66

For most startups, that’s just not a possibility.

And it’s not where the magic happens. Powerful marketing plans turn tiny marketing budgets into impressive ROI. They prioritize the right channels, messaging, and tactics to stretch every dollar to the max.

Decide beforehand how much budget you’ll need to allocate to meet the goals you set in Step 1. When push comes to shove, you may need to throw additional money at the campaign later to get it across the finish line, but stay strong and do your best to create a marketing plan that works with the budget constraints.

Tight on budget but full on creativity? Check out our Small Business Marketing Guide: From Scratch to Success .

4. Determine Your Deadline(s)

Deadlines create the boundaries to your marketing campaign—you can’t have a plan without them. No deadlines mean there’s a never-ending period to achieve your objective, and it’s probably not a good idea to have a 20-year free pass to accomplish that sales goal you set.

Set your deadline. Be realistic, but also be ambitious. The faster you achieve this goal, the faster you can move on to the next one—and each progressive goal should be moving your business forward.

Establish the final deadline for achieving your primary KPI. Then, set the necessary milestones along the journey. For example, you might set milestones for launching different aspects of your campaign, such as hosting 4 webinars, publishing 10 supporting blog posts, or earning a callout in 2 prime news outlets.

Finally, set the start date for when you’ll need to get the ball rolling to meet your deadlines. Don’t assume it’s ASAP—you might have a few weeks to get your ducks in a row instead of immediately heading off into a chaotic marketing battle.

5. Pick Your Marketing Channels and Tactics

This is arguably the funnest part of creating a marketing plan. This is the step where you get to choose the channels, tactics, and deliverables. The right channels and tactics will vary depending on your audience and product or service, but here are the most popular ones to consider:

• Email Marketing: Email marketing is one of the tried-and-true tactics of the digital marketing world. It generates an average ROI of $40 for every $1 invested —you can’t get much more bang for your buck than that. (Check out our complete email masterclass to learn how to conquer this lucrative channel.)
• Social Media Marketing: Whether you’re running organic strategies or targeted paid campaigns , social media marketing is an excellent modern-day tactic for reaching consumers where they’re most comfortable: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, or TikTok.
• PPC Marketing: Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing lets you run advertising campaigns on search engine pages and other websites across the internet. It’s a competitive way to get your content in front of the right eyeballs.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing paired with a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is a long-term tactic that can drive organic traffic (read: free) to your website for years to come.

And do you know what all these channels have in common? They each give you the ability to monitor your results and track your progress to prove if a channel is worth your time and money. Unlike traditional outbound advertising and its estimated impressions and influence, you know exactly what you’re getting with these digital marketing strategies.

6. Outline the To-Do List and Make Assignments

Here’s where you get into the nitty-gritty of your marketing plan. Step 6 is where you’ll outline everything that needs to get done:

• Launch meeting
• Recurring meetings and syncs
• Creative assets
• Promotional channels
• Post-mortems

And that’s just the start. Outline everything that needs to happen to make your plan a reality. Once you know what needs to happen, it’s time to start making assignments. Someone needs to be responsible for every deliverable.

Here’s where you may run into roadblocks. You may discover that your creative team is overwhelmed and won’t be able to handle the creative requests until later, or you may find that other email campaigns or social media advertisements are the top priority.

If that’s the case, go back to Step 4 to revisit your timeline. Make adjustments to ensure there’s bandwidth available to make your marketing plan a reality.

7. Track Performance and Review Analytics

No marketing plan will go off without a hitch. That’s why you need your ear to the ground to understand what’s working. Through analytic tools, you can understand if your marketing plan’s target audience, messaging, or creative needs adjusting. Thankfully, most digital tactics allow you to do this on the fly.

Make sure you familiarize yourself with these basic marketing analytics tools:

• Facebook Ads Manager
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Semrush or Ahrefs for SEO

For more on analytics, read our marketing metrics guide .

Marketing Plan Template (Copy/Paste)

Marketing Plan Template: [Name of Project]

Marketing Plan Example (Filled Out)

Here’s a fake content marketing plan example for a fictitious shoe company.

Marketing Plan Template: [Project Zeus Running Collection]

Marketing Goal Drive $200,000 in sales for the new Zeus running collection within the first 4 months of launch day.

Target Audience The primary audience is 35 to 50-year-old male recreational runners who tend to run 30-40 miles a week at an average page of 8:00-10:00 minutes per mile. They’re not overly competitive, but they like to race 5K and 10K races occasionally throughout the year and are always trying to beat their personal best. Many have experienced mild injuries over the last few years that the Zeus Running Collection can help alleviate.

Marketing Budget We have a budget of $40,000 for the initial launch period. If we can prove out the Zeus Running Collection, we’ll allocate additional budget after the first 4 months.

• Launch Day: June 1
• Marketing Assets Ready to Go: May 28
• Pre-Launch Teaser: May 24
• Creative Assets Finished: May 21
• Product Beta Tester Reviews Submitted: May 10
• Written Content Creation Period: April 12 – May 7
• Enlist Beta Testers: April 12
• Project Kickoff Meeting: April 5

Marketing Tactics

• Social Media Marketing: Target runners on Instagram and Facebook with paid ads featuring our endorsed runner racing in the shoe.
• Email Marketing: Email existing customers with a 15% off discount code on the new Zeus Running Collection. Email prospects with a link to the product breakdown page with a code for free shipping.

Responsibilities and Assignments

• Lizzy K: Creative assets
• Mark B: Blog post announcement + product page
• Spencer S: Beta tester outreach
• Larry G: Email and social media marketing campaigns
• Carly M: Project manager

Do I need to write a marketing plan for everything?

As stated earlier, marketing plans can come in all shapes and sizes. But that doesn't mean you need one for every single Facebook ad or whitepaper your team creates. The best marketing plans serve as a source of truth for your team to reach a goal. Within the marketing plan, you should have enough wiggle room to adjust your strategy and tactics. Marketing is an art and science, so there are bound to be surprises once you start executing your plan.

How do I know if my marketing plan is a success?

One of the most common mistakes marketers make is creating a seemingly perfect marketing plan and then going off script as soon as there's a sign of trouble or distraction. Using the SMART goal method (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound) is a simple way to ensure your marketing plan is applicable. Every marketing plan should be a success, whether you hit your goal or not, because you'll learn something new about your customer, tactics, and business throughout the process.

Who should make a marketing plan?

If you're reading this article, ideally you. A marketing manager or marketing team member typically writes marketing plans, but marketing strategy should start at an enterprise level. The more people understand the marketing plan for your business, the more you can work together (not in silos) to achieve a common goal. You'll see this happen in larger organizations where the marketing team works plan that the product or sales team have no idea about.

Plan It Out—Make It Happen

Every great campaign starts with an even better plan. Don’t leave your startup’s success up to chance—give it all the thought and attention you can.

With the right plan in place, you won’t be crossing your fingers on launch day or during the quarterly review. You’ll be sitting confidently, knowing that everything is running according to plan.

Need a high-level plan for your startup? We got you covered with our foundr+. Get access for $1. .

About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

Related Posts

5 Ways Personalization in eCommerce Can Enhance Customer Experience

Engaging Your Audience with Social Media Quizzes and Polls

Email Marketing Automation: Tools and Strategies for 2024

How to Find Influencers: 6 Ways to Discover Your Perfect Brand Advocate

What Is UGC and Why It’s a Must-Have for Your Brand

Ad Expert Phoenix Ha on How to Make Creative Ads without Breaking Your Budget

14 Punchy TikTok Marketing Strategies to Amplify Your Growth

How to Grow Your YouTube Channel and Gain Subscribers Quickly

How to Get More Views on Snapchat with These 12 Tactics

12 Instagram Growth Hacks For More Engaged Followers (Without Running Ads)

Create Viral Infographics That Boost Your Organic Traffic

How to Create a Video Sales Letter (Tips and Tricks from a 7-Figure Copywriter)

How to Write a Sales Email That Converts in 2024

What Is a Media Kit: How to Make One in 2024 (With Examples)

Namestorming: How to Choose a Brand Name in 20 Minutes or Less

FREE TRAINING FROM LEGIT FOUNDERS

Actionable Strategies for Starting & Growing Any Business.

How to Write a Marketing Plan

By Joe Weller | March 28, 2024

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

A  marketing plan is a guide for achieving marketing initiatives on a set timeline. It includes analysis of a company's target audience, competitors, and market sector. Teams can build an organized strategy with that information to reach their goals.  

Inside this article you’ll find a detailed, step-by-step guide to writing a marketing plan, with a free, downloadable  marketing starter kit for beginners .

A  marketing plan includes analysis of the target audience, the competitors, and the market so that teams can determine the best strategy for achieving their goals. The plan’s length and detail depend on the company's size and the scope of the marketing project. A marketing plan is useful for all types of marketing, including digital, social media, new product, small business, B2C, and B2B. Follow the steps below to write a comprehensive marketing plan. 

1. Prepare for Success 

Before you begin writing your marketing plan, set yourself up for success by conducting thorough market research and assembling a team with diverse skills in marketing strategy, content creation, digital marketing, and data analysis. Be sure to consult all your team members as you progress through these steps. It might also be helpful to assign leaders to complete different sections of the plan, depending on their areas of expertise. For example, you might assign the market analysis section to a team member with strong analytical skills and experience in data analysis.  

2. Use a Marketing Plan Template

Download a free  marketing plan template  to ensure consistency and thoroughness in your final marketing plan.

For more template options, see this collection of  free marketing plan templates and examples.

3. Identify Your Target Customers

To identify target customers for your marketing plan, collect information about their location, demographics (such as age, gender, and income), interests, values, and purchasing behaviors. This knowledge enables you to focus your marketing goals and tactics to meet their specific needs and preferences.

A  customer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer that provides valuable insights for strategic decision-making. Use one of these  customer persona templates  to craft a detailed profile of your ideal customer.   

4. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is an important part of any marketing plan, because it helps identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to the market environment. To start, divide a page into four quadrants and label each as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, brainstorm with your team to fill in each section. Be as honest and specific as possible, considering factors such as market trends, competition, and your own resources and capabilities. This information will allow the team to capitalize on strengths, prepare for challenges, and make sound strategic decisions throughout the marketing plan. 

See this collection of  marketing plan SWOT analysis templates  for additional guidance.   

5. Conduct a Market Analysis 

A  market analysis is an assessment of a market's size, growth, trends, customer segments, and competitor dynamics. Include it in your marketing plan to provide critical insights for strategic decision-making, helping to tailor products to customer needs, differentiate from competitors, and identify new opportunities. 

To conduct a market analysis for your marketing plan, determine each of the following factors:    

• Market Size: This is the total potential sales that a particular product or service can achieve within a defined market. Determine the market size by estimating the number of potential buyers for a particular service and multiplying that by the estimated number of purchases over a specific timeframe. (Number of Target Customers) x (Number of Purchases in a Given Time) = Market Size Imagine your company sells wireless headphones, and you estimate that the average consumer purchases a new pair every two years. If your market includes 1 million target customers, and assuming each customer buys one pair of headphones every two years, the calculation for annual market size would be as follows: (1 million target customers) x (0.5 purchases per year) = 500,000 pairs of wireless headphones per year   
• Market Growth Rate:  This measures the change in a market’s size over a specific time period and is typically expressed as a percentage. To determine the market growth rate, use the following formula: [(Current Market Size − Previous Market Size​) ÷ Previous Market Size] × 100% = Growth Rate For example, if the market for wireless headphones was worth $1 billion last year and is worth $1.1 billion this year, the market growth rate would be as follows: [($1.1 Billion – $1 Billion) ÷  $1 Billion] x 100% = 10%  

Market Share:  This is the percentage of total sales in an industry generated by a particular company over a period of time. It provides a benchmark for assessing performance relative to competitors. Use this formula for calculating market share: (Company’s Revenue ÷ Total Industry Revenue) x 100% = Market Share  

Tip:  Keep in mind that the market size, share, and growth rate are all estimates. It’s impossible to be exact. To obtain the most accurate numbers, review the latest industry reports and seek insight from experts.  

• Market Demand:  This is the amount of a product or service a consumer is willing to purchase and how much they are willing to pay for it. To determine market demand in a market analysis, begin by conducting comprehensive research on consumer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns related to your product or service. Use tools such as surveys, SEO analytics, and interviews to gather data on potential customer interest and willingness to pay, and analyze competitor pricing and offerings.  
• Market Trends:  This is the growth or decline direction of a product or service’s price over a specific timeframe. To identify a market trend, monitor industry developments, consumer behavior, and technological advancements over time. Review industry reports and expert analyses to understand broader market movements and future projections. Summarize these observations and include them in your plan to highlight the direction in which the market is heading.        

Market Segments:  The broader market includes specific groups, categorized by shared characteristics. Generally, there are four types of market segments: geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. In your marketing plan, detail how you'll target each segment by adapting your strategies to their unique characteristics. This targeted approach ensures more effective engagement with each segment.   

• Competitor Analysis:  A competitor analysis involves examining your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, market positioning, product offerings, and marketing strategies. Describe how you'll conduct a comprehensive evaluation of key competitors by analyzing their market share, pricing, distribution channels, and promotional tactics. For more guidance, try downloading this competitor analysis template. Use it to identify areas where your rivals succeed and why. Their strengths indicate areas for improvement, while their weaknesses indicate opportunities.  

6. List Your SMART Goals 

Include SMART goals in your marketing plan to ensure that objectives are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound, providing a clear direction for strategic actions and performance evaluation. Start by identifying key performance areas that align with your overall business strategy. Then, for each goal, apply the SMART framework. 

Here are two examples of SMART marketing goals:   

• By Q4 end, increase search results page (SERP) position from 14th to the top three for keywords pertaining to our brand and lead to more organic traffic. 
• Increase social media following, reach, and engagement by 25 percent in six months and 50 percent in one year.

Learn more about SMART goals and find a customizable  SMART goals worksheet  in this comprehensive  guide to writing SMART goals . 

7. Create a Marketing Strategy

A  marketing strategy is the plan for achieving your SMART goals.   

“A marketing plan should include strategic and tactical elements,” says Gayle Kalvert, Founder and CEO at  Creo Collective , a full-service marketing agency. “From a strategic standpoint, it is critical that the marketing plan aligns to the overall goals of the organization. Tactically, what initiatives will the marketing team execute, and why? Tactics with no strategy lead to spotty results and poor-quality leads.”

Use one of these  marketing strategy templates to get started. A successful marketing strategy will include the following elements: 

7a. Customer Buying Cycle

The  customer buying cycle is the path a potential customer follows from first having exposure to a product or service to becoming an advocate for it. Understanding this process allows marketers to effectively target communications and strategies at each stage in their marketing plan. 

Pro Tip: “Consider your persona’s buyer's journey and ensure marketing has a role at each stage of the journey, especially after the close,” says Kalvert. “That is when customers can become advocates, sources of referral, and great subjects for marketing content for future buyers.”

7b. Unique Selling Proposition

A  unique selling proposition (USP) is a specific benefit or advantage that sets your product or service apart from the competitors. By including a USP in a marketing plan, you help ensure that the team communicates why customers should choose your offering over others. 

For example, Google’s USP is its powerful and accurate search algorithm that delivers relevant search results faster and more efficiently than its competitors.

7c. Branding 

Branding is the development of a unique identity, image, and experience for a company. Marketers convey a brand through messaging, tone, logo, colors, and web design. The marketing strategy needs to align with the company’s brand in order to maintain consistency in messaging and experience, which ultimately builds customer trust.

7d. Marketing Mix A marketing mix refers to the set of actions that a company takes to promote its brand or product in the market, typically encapsulated by the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Go through each of these steps when including the marketing mix in your strategy:  

• Product: Describe the product and the problem it solves for your target customers. What makes your product or service different from the competition? Why is it special? 
• Price: Explain how much your target customer is willing to pay for the product or service based on its real and perceived value. What do your competitors charge for a similar product? Will you run any seasonal promotions or discounts? 
• Place:  Describe where your product or service will be available for purchase by your target customers. Will you sell it online, through retail partners, or both? How will you manage logistics and supply chain to ensure your product is accessible to your target market?
• Promotion:  Detail the strategies you will use to communicate your product’s value to consumers. This includes advertising, public relations, social media marketing, email campaigns, sales promotions, and direct marketing tactics.    

7e. Channels 

Identify the specific mediums and platforms — or  channels — where you’ll share your message to your target audience. These should include distribution channels, communication channels, and engagement channels. 

As you list them, explain how they will be used to effectively reach and engage with your target audience. For example, if you’re marketing a new fitness app, one distribution channel would be a direct download from the App Store to reach fitness enthusiasts directly on their smartphones. An engagement channel could be an in-app community feature for users where they can share progress.

Here is a brief list of popular marketing channels:  

• Affiliate marketing
• Email marketing
• Social media
• Website marketing

7f. Tactics Tactics are the specific actions you will take to reach the goals outlined in your strategy. They cover everything from the creation and distribution of marketing materials to the scheduling of campaigns to the platforms used for advertising and engagement.  Detail the specific actions and tools you will use to execute your marketing strategy, along with timelines, responsibilities, and budget allocations for each activity. This includes specifying the exact steps for product promotion, customer engagement, content creation, digital marketing efforts, and any other methods chosen to reach and convert your target audience. “Equally as important as using data is to build in time and resources to be flexible,” says Kalvert. “The marketing landscape is evolving at such a rapid pace. Tactics that worked last year may not work this year. Be open to experimenting with new tactics and adjusting your approach based on feedback and results.”

8. Determine the Budget 

Start by estimating the costs associated with each tactic and channel outlined in your strategy, taking into account factors such as content creation, platform fees, and personnel costs. Next, prioritize spending based on the expected ROI for each tactic. Finally, document the budget in a clear, detailed format within your marketing plan, including an itemized list of costs for each tactic, total expenditure, and a contingency fund.

For more resources and help estimating marketing project costs, take a look at this collection of helpful free  marketing plan budget templates . 

9. Create a Calendar

Create a calendar to schedule and track deliverables. Include time for brainstorming, planning, executing, and analyzing results. List objectives, start dates, end dates, due dates, and responsible parties. Keep the calendar in a central location so that team members can easily access it.

10. List Marketing Tools and Technology

List any marketing tools or technologies your team will use to help achieve their goals. These can include email marketing software, blogging software, social media management software, or any other programs you plan to use.

11. Identify Metrics and KPIs

Identify the metrics for measuring and tracking your marketing goals. Metrics and KPIs eliminate ambiguity so that you can accurately measure progress. Select indicators that directly reflect the success of your marketing objectives, such as conversion rates, website traffic, lead generation, and customer acquisition costs.

12. Write an Executive Summary

Once you’ve completed all the sections in your marketing plan document, return to the first section to write the executive summary. Completing this section last ensures that you have a thorough understanding of all key elements before summarizing them. 

Concisely highlight the main objectives, target market, and key strategies of the plan, providing a snapshot of the market analysis and expected outcomes. Outline the budget, resources required, and the metrics for measuring success. This section serves as a compelling overview, enticing stakeholders to delve into the plan.

For more detailed information on executive summaries, see this guide to  writing an effective executive summary.  You can also download a helpful template from this collection of  free executive summary templates

Marketing Starter Kit for Beginners

Download Marketing Starter Kit for Beginners

Get everything you need for creating a marketing plan with this free, downloadable marketing plan starter kit. The kit includes an executive summary template, a customer persona worksheet, a SWOT analysis template, a competitor analysis template, a SMART goals worksheet, a marketing strategy template, and a calendar template with a budget tracker, all in one easy-to-download file.

In this kit, you’ll find the following:  

• An  executive summary template  for Microsoft Word to help you introduce the content of your marketing plan.    
• A  customer persona worksheet  for Microsoft Word to collect information about your ideal customer.  
• A  SWOT analysis template for Microsoft Word to guide strategic decision-making based on the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 
• A  competitor analysis template  for Microsoft Word to help you compare and evaluate your competitors. 
• A  SMART goals worksheet  for Microsoft Word to ensure each marketing objective follows SMART guidelines. 
• A  marketing strategy template  for Microsoft Word to outline the plan for achieving your goals. 
• A  calendar template with budget tracker  for Excel where you can organize, track, and manage marketing deliverables and their costs. 
• A  marketing plan template for Microsoft Word  to ensure consistency and thoroughness in your final marketing plan.

Master Your Marketing Plan with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

The best marketing teams know the importance of effective campaign management, consistent creative operations, and powerful event logistics -- and Smartsheet helps you deliver on all three so you can be more effective and achieve more. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Improve your marketing efforts and deliver best-in-class campaigns.

38 Marketing Plan Examples, Samples, & Templates To Outline Your Own Plan

Looking to create a marketing plan ? Here are 38 marketing plan examples from real-life brands and hypothetical companies to help you map out your goals , strategies , and successes.

The following marketing plan samples break down the outlines from these plans. The intent here is to help you select the components and elements that will make the most sense in your own marketing plan as you discover their actual use in these examples. Enjoy!

Recommended Reading: Marketing Strategy Examples and Marketing Plan Template: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, & Google Docs Templates

1. Visit Baton Rouge Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Example  – Visit Baton Rouge

Visit Baton Rouge put together this marketing plan to increase awareness of and visitation to the Greater Baton Rouge area.

Marketing Plan Elements Outline:

• Situation analysis (including SWOT and target audience)
• Overall goals
• Leisure marketing
• Meetings and conventions marketing
• Destination sales
• Destination services
• Special projects and events
• Recommended evaluation
• Event calendar

2. Naperville Park District Strategic Marketing Plan Example

Strategic Marketing Plan Example – Naperville Park District

Naperville Park District’s strategic marketing plan spans multiple departments – from sales to PR – to promote a consistent brand image and increase revenue.

• Introduction
• Our organization
• Situational analysis
• Strategy and tactics
• Public relations plan
• Marketing budget challenges

3. Wisconsin Public Library Systems Marketing Cohort Marketing Plan Template

Marketing Plan Template for Libraries  – Wisconsin Public Library Systems Marketing Cohort

Wisconsin Public Library published a template for libraries to use to plan, execute, and monitor their marketing activities.

• Research your audience
• Segment into target markets
• Ask targets what they want/need
• Identify products and services
• Identify your competition
• Set measurable goals
• Write and implement the marketing plan
• Get feedback
• Improve steps

4. The Creative Café, Charleston, South Carolina Marketing Plan

This is a marketing plan example for cafe’s, including their vision, mission, and efforts. Here is what’s included in The Creative Cafe’s marketing plan:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Situational Analysis
• Marketing Strategy/ Program
• Financial Data/ Projections
• Implementation & Contingency Plan

5. University Of Illinois Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Example  – University Of Illinois

The University of Illinois’ marketing plan offers a high-level overview of key strategies to increase student interest and admissions.

• Important context: population definitions and admissions funnel stages
• Upcoming market research efforts
• Strategic plan: objectives, detailed marketing programs, and success metrics

6. Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan  – Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network

Massachusetts’ Small Business Development Center has created a marketing plan to help small businesses map out and execute their efforts.

• Mission statement
• Product/service
• Distribution
• Promotional strategy
• Competition
• Action plan

7. SharpSheets Tutoring Marketing Plan

Here we can see an example of a marketing plan that suggests the implementation of a tutoring business. It goes through all of the concrete resources that your business needs, so you can provide services for students.

A tutoring business includes:

• Marketing Analysis
• Branding & Positioning
• Marketing Channels
• Sales Channels

8. Business.com Small Business Marketing Plan Template

Small Business Marketing Plan Template (direct Word document download)  – Business.com

This downloadable template from Business.com lets business owners fill in their own information to create a marketing plan.

• Executive summary
• Company overview and mission
• Marketing team
• Target market
• Go-to-market strategy
• Marketing goals
• Marketing action plan
• Tools and resources
• Marketing budgets and expenses

9. CoSchedule Marketing Strategy Template

Marketing Strategy: How to Plan Yours in 12 Steps With a Template  – CoSchedule

CoSchedule’s template includes a handy guide that walks businesses through the steps they need to create a successful marketing strategy.

• Marketing strategy steps
• SWOT analysis
• Marketing persona
• Competitive analysis
• Marketing budget
• Brand voice
• Marketing funnel
• Marketing channels
• Marketing tactics
• Marketing metrics and KPIs
• Marketing calendar
• Marketing execution
• Marketing strategy example

10. Evernote Marketing Plan Template

Marketing Plan Template  – Evernote

Evernote’s marketing plan template allows business owners to jot down their marketing ideas and store them in one central place.

• Goals and objectives
• Buyer personas
• Performance

11. Red Rocks Community College, Small Bakery Marketing Plan

Throughout this marketing plan, the small bakery “Cup of Cake Café” reviews their main missions of product quality and strong innovations.

Their marketing plan also included these features:

• Product Description
• Target Market & Consumer Profile
• Marketing Mix
• Action Plan
• Measurement & Monitoring

12. Dream Team Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Example  – Dream Team via Contently

Dream Team’s marketing plan walks businesses through the steps to plan and execute a marketing strategy for a book.

• Business objective
• Key metrics
• Ultimate business goal
• Process and workflow
• Creating, publishing, and optimizing

13. Contently Content Strategy Waterfall Example

Content Strategy Waterfall Example  – Contently

Contently’s template specifically tackles content marketing with its waterfall method and highlights critical questions brands should be asking themselves.

• Content objectives and KPIs
• Target audience
• Key channels
• Channel strategy

14. AddThis Marketing Plan Template

Marketing Plan Template  – AddThis

AddThis gives business owners access to a Google Doc they can duplicate and edit to include their own information.

• Situation analysis
• Marketing objectives and performance
• Pricing strategy
• Distribution strategy
• Promotion strategy

15. Palo Alto Software Sample Plan

Sample Plan  – Palo Alto Software

Palo Alto automatically creates a default business plan outline for companies that use its software. Owners can drag and drop their own details and ideas into the document.

• Opportunity
• Financial plan
• Optional appendix

16. Houghton Mifflin Company Sample Marketing Plan

Sample Marketing Plan  – Houghton Mifflin Company

Houghton Mifflin’s marketing plan walks business owners through the marketing strategy of a hypothetical company to see how they can implement key sections.

• Environmental analysis
• Marketing objectives
• Marketing strategies
• Marketing implementation
• Evaluation and control

17. Smartsheet Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Example  – Smartsheet

Smartsheet’s template is a comprehensive document that business owners can work through in their own time with handy prompts and fillable boxes.

• Vision statement
• Core capabilities
• Marketing strategy
• Performance standards and measurement methods
• Financial summary

18. HubSpot Marketing Plan Template Generator

Marketing Plan Template Generator  – HubSpot

HubSpot’s marketing template generator takes business owners through the critical steps involved in creating a successful plan.

• Main initiatives
• Initiative goals
• Planning ahead

19. Uber Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Sample  – Uber

This unofficial marketing plan for Uber shows how the rideshare brand could map out its marketing strategies for the year ahead.

• Competitors
• Organizational structure
• Positioning
• Market research

20. Dell Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan of Dell  – Marketing Mixx

Marketing Mixx’s unofficial marketing plan for Dell maps out how the company could increase its market share and maintain positive sales growth.

• Industry trends
• Annual marketing budget
• Strengths and weaknesses

21. Serena Capital SaaS Marketing Plan Template

SaaS Marketing Plan  – Serena Capital

Serena Capital’s marketing template aims to help SaaS founders build their marketing plan alongside a detailed step-by-step roadmap.

• Define your key goals
• Define your KPIs
• Audit your acquisition channels
• Build your global action plan
• Formalize your content plan
• Estimate your budget
• Validate your plan

22. Smart Insights Digital Marketing Plan Template

Digital Marketing Plan Example  – Smart Insights

Smart Insights offers a downloadable structured plan that business owners can work through to highlight their goals and put action points in place.

• Plan a digital marketing strategy
• Grow your audience
• Encourage brand interactions and leads
• Increase online and offline sales
• Build customer loyalty and advocacy

23. NerdyMind Sample Internet Marketing Plan

A Sample Internet Marketing Plan  – NerdyMind

NerdyMind has put together a sample marketing plan that outlines what business owners should focus on each month.

• Discovery and on-site optimization
• Build digital marketing channels
• Maintenance mode

24. Coca-Cola Content 2020 Initiative Strategy Example

Initiative Strategy Example  – Coca-Cola

This illustrated video showcases how Coca-Cola transitioned from an advertising strategy to a content marketing strategy with a detailed plan.

• Identifying key stories
• Developing liquid content
• Applying the 70/20/10 investment principles
• Researching liquid content
• Applying the dollar multiplier to the iteration

25. Dunkin Donuts Marketing Plan Sample

Marketing Plan Sample  – Dunkin Donuts

In this unofficial marketing plan published by Ivory Research, a marketing researcher lays out an example of how the company could double its number of stores in the U.S.

• Company overview
• Situation analysis (SWOT)
• Strategy and segmentation, targeting and positioning
• Tactics and action
• Conclusion/Recommendation

26. McDonald’s Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Example  – McDonald’s

In this unofficial marketing plan sample published from Ivypanda, business analysts dissect the marketing approach of the global fast-food chain.

• Business mission
• External situation analysis
• Internal marketing audit
• Core strategy
• Marketing mix
• Organization and implementation
• Reference list

27. FedEx Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Example  – FedEx

A business analyst identifies how FedEx could run its marketing to increase awareness and market share in this unofficial marketing plan.

• Internal environment
• Segmentation
• Product and pricing
• Ground support acquisitions
• Customer analysis
• External environment
• Problem statement
• Alternatives and solutions evaluation

28. Adidas Marketing Plan Example

Marketing Plan Sample  – Adidas

In an unofficial marketing plan by IvyPanda, marketers outline a strategy sportswear brand Adidas can use to launch its new product, Adidas Score.

• Microenvironment
• Organization, implementation, and control

29. Disruptive Advertising Marketing Plan Sample

Marketing Plan Sample  – Disruptive Advertising

Disruptive’s marketing plan sample walks business owners through a marketing template for a hypothetical business looking to scale its efforts.

• Products and services
• Vision and mission statements
• Research and analysis
• Competitive advantage

30. Forbes Marketing Plan Template

Marketing Plan Template  – Forbes

Business publisher Forbes has put together a step-by-step guide to creating a successful marketing plan for brands of all sizes.

• Target customers
• Unique selling proposition
• Pricing and positioning strategy
• Distribution plan
• Your offers
• Marketing materials
• Online marketing strategy
• Conversion strategy
• Joint ventures and partnerships
• Referral strategy
• Retention strategy
• Financial projections

31. Vital Design Marketing Plan Template

Marketing Plan Template  – Vital Design

Vital Design’s marketing plan sample provides access to several marketing templates alongside a guide to creating a successful marketing plan.

• Business information
• Introduction and goals
• Buying cycle
• Measurements and KPIs
• Marketing strategy and tactics

32. QuickMBA Marketing Plan Outline

Marketing Plan Outline  – QuickMBA

QuickMBA’s marketing plan outline is a simple guide of the necessary sections brands should include in their marketing plan.

• The challenge
• Competitor analysis
• Market segmentation
• Alternative marketing strategies
• Selected marketing strategy
• Short and long-term projections

33. Nancy And Kivi Nonprofit Marketing Plan Template

Nonprofit Marketing Plan Template  – Nancy And Kivi

This marketing plan template provides the key sections a non-profit might need in its marketing plan.

• Benchmarks and measures
• Target audiences
• Calls to action
• Framing the message

34. BizAmmo One-Page Marketing Plan Template

One-Page Marketing Plan  – BizAmmo

BizAmmo’s one-pager provides a bite-sized template that brands can use to fill in their information to create a personalized marketing plan.

• Monthly tactics

35. BusinessTown Sample Multichannel Marketing Plan

Multi-channel Marketing Plan Example  – BusinessTown

BusinessTown’s sample marketing plan helps brands map their strategies for several channels. It includes hints and tips for each section.

• Build relationships
• Marketing plan

36. Chief Outsiders’ Go-To-Market Plan Steps

Go-To-Market Plan Steps   – Chief Outsiders

In this plan, a growth acceleration expert highlights the fundamental steps needed in a marketing plan for a company that’s ready to go to market.

• Growth gear
• Remember your old role
• Stay on top of industry trends
• Stay on message

37. Lush New Market Marketing Plan Sample

New Market Marketing Plan  – Lush Cosmetics

Lush Cosmetics’ comprehensive marketing plan deep dives into every aspect of the brand as it attempts to grow its customer base in Portugal.

• Cosmetics market
• Values, mission, and vision
• Marketing model
• Values matrix
• Calendar and budget
• Control and update

38. Content Marketing Institute One-Page Content Marketing Plan Example

Content Marketing One-Page Plan  – Content Marketing Institute

The Content Marketing Institute simplifies the marketing plan process by walking business owners through creating a one-page plan to fit their needs.

How Do I Create A Marketing Plan?

Create a marketing plan by first laying out your goals and objectives – what do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? Then, identify your audience and the channels you will use, and build a marketing calendar to outline when you’ll execute critical tasks and strategies.

Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Check out this easy guide to create a winning marketing plan !

What Are 5 Examples Of Marketing?

Marketing is everywhere. This article  highlights five successful marketing examples and why they work so well.

What Are The 4 Main Components Of A Marketing Plan?

The four main components of a marketing plan are:

• SWOT or situational analysis
• Competitor and audience research

There are other elements you can include depending on your aims and the type of business you run. For example, you might include an executive summary, a values matrix, a budget, and your biggest challenges.

What Are The 5 Elements Of A Marketing Plan?

The 5 elements of a marketing plan are:

•  SWOT or situational analysis
• Metrics and success

These are the primary elements that every marketing plan needs, but you can add more information, including budgets, challenges, key stakeholders, and an executive summary.

• Start free trial

EXPAND YOUR REACH WITH SHOPIFY

Reach customers with email, SEO, targeted ads, and social media.

3 Marketing Plan Examples To Inspire Your Business

With real-world marketing plan examples, learn how to outline your business’s promotional strategies and goals.

Picture this: You’ve developed What Was I Saying, a new smartphone app to help those who lose their train of thought mid-sentence. To prepare for launch and jumpstart your marketing efforts, you ask your team to line up social media influencers and buy ads; you also task the engineering team with submitting your product to the App Store.

But the launch date arrives and there aren’t any marketing campaigns to be found. The influencers are silent, the ads appear on the wrong sites, and the app isn’t available for download. It turns out the timeline was unclear and no one was on the same page during preparation. 

A formal timeline and clear marketing goals could have prevented this miscommunication. For businesses, detailed marketing plans provide the framework for communication and execution. 

Read on for some marketing plan examples to inspire building your own marketing plan.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a comprehensive outline of the promotional strategies and goals a business hopes to achieve within a specific timeframe. Marketing leaders build these plans and use them to communicate priorities and new initiatives to relevant team members. 

A successful marketing plan includes all of the marketing objectives your team aims to meet as well as the details your team needs to begin building marketing campaigns—including information about marketing budgets, marketing mix, and marketing channels. Depending on your goals, your plan may involve all available channels or focus on just a few. For example, if you run a clothing brand that partnered with an Instagram influencer on a capsule collection, you might prioritize a social media marketing plan to take advantage of your collaborator’s audience. 

These plans may also include timelines and spending priorities. A foundation of market research supports successful marketing plans, meaning demographic insights and competitive analysis shape the marketing planning process.

Marketing strategies vs.marketing plans

While both marketing strategies and marketing plans are necessary to meet key performance indicators (KPIs), the two are not the same. 

• Marketing strategy: the overall efforts you take to position your business, wherein the marketing goals you set ladder up to company-wide initiatives.
• Marketing plan: the specific steps you’ll take to achieve your business objectives within a specific timeframe.

For example, to increase traffic to your ecommerce site, your marketing strategy might be to run ads on social media platforms where your content has performed well organically. Your marketing plan would include the steps needed to bring that social media campaign to life—including a paid marketing plan for when to run ads and for how long.

3 marketing plan examples

Great jones.

A comprehensive marketing plan includes research, goals, and an overview of the company’s newest marketing initiatives. Marketing plans typically follow a standard structure, but their contents are unique to each company. Consider the following examples to see how several Shopify merchants created plans to support their own business goals:

Known for its colorful enamel cookware, Shopify merchant Great Jones launched its first product line in 2018. As a new, rapidly growing company, the Great Jones team embraced experimentation and adaptation as core components of its marketing strategy. 

Great Jones CEO Sierra Tishgart explains that a detailed marketing plan helps the team focus its creative efforts: “It’s really helpful to have the structure of goals while also recognizing that we’re a young creative brand.”

Great Jones’s cast-iron Dutch ovens are designed to last a lifetime, but Sierra says this makes it difficult to attract repeat customers—once you’ve purchased one, you probably don’t need another. Recent customers represent a significant portion of the company’s email subscribers and social media followers, so the team adjusted its annual marketing plan to appeal to this audience by incorporating a gift-giving program. To support this marketing strategy, it implemented marketing tactics that added appropriate language to email copy and formed a partnership with the gift-giving platform Zola. It also added an option to include a personal note to the gift recipient. 

Key components of this successful marketing plan example

This creative marketing plan example was informed by the Great Jones team’s: 

• Deep understanding of their products and target audience
• Ability to identify the right marketing channels for their detailed marketing programs

Sabai 

Crafted in the US, Sabai is a modern, eco-friendly furniture retailer. Its founder and CEO, Phantila Phataraprasit, says consumer research helped her company craft a digital marketing strategy that resonated with its audience. Sabai’s team defines its target audience as “individuals who are passionate about sustainability and the well-being of our planet, particularly those juggling busy lives and family responsibilities.” 

Phantila emphasized Sabai’s commitment to understanding customers: “Data analytics is pivotal in shaping our marketing decisions. By continuously measuring web, email, and social media analytics on a monthly, weekly, quarterly, and yearly basis, we gain deep insights into our customers’ preferences and behaviors.”

Insights gained from customer data inspired Sabai to develop a new program called Repair Don’t Replace . “We meticulously considered every touchpoint to create a program that resonated with our audience’s commitment to sustainability and practicality,” Phantila says. Sabai designed the Repair Don’t Replace initiative to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and deepen relationships with customers committed to an eco-friendly lifestyle.

This creative marketing plan example was informed by the Sabai team’s: 

• Nuanced insights into customer behavior via marketing data analytics
• Drive to stay true to the brand’s mission statement

ALOHA 

Plant-based protein bar brand ALOHA is committed to providing easy access to nutritious food. Its VP of brand and content, Julia Shapiro, described the competitive consumer packaged goods sector as one of the brand’s biggest challenges. The ALOHA team used in-depth market and competitive analysis to build an effective marketing plan that made the product stand out.

“In a rapidly changing category, research allows us to keep an ear to the ground, tracking shopping, eating, and media consumption habits,” Julia says. 

The ALOHA team used multiple market research techniques in its competitive analysis—including customer surveys, category surveys, and focus groups —to sharpen its assessment of the competitive landscape. 

“We conduct[ed] primary research of the broader category to gain a better understanding of the different shopper segments and how and where we might reach them,” Julia adds. “This allowed us to learn things we wouldn’t otherwise learn through our own shoppers, helping to lay out a path for growth and expansion.” 

To complete its research, the marketing team conducted a SWOT analysis , which focused on the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. “Our SWOT helped us to better understand the options shoppers are faced with and why they might choose one brand over another, including ours,” Julia says.

Combining the insights from these market research efforts helped the team develop a differentiation strategy to market its new product. “The recent launch of our Paʻakai bar is a great example of a campaign success story,” Julia says. “The Paʻakai is our second special edition bar and was created using ingredients from local farms in Hawaiʻi, including macadamia nuts and 100% pure Hawaiian sea salt. Ten percent of proceeds from this bar also goes to our local non-profit partner, to help fund education programs in Hawaiʻi. This bar represents what people have come to expect from ALOHA: providing healthy food with top-quality ingredients while using business as a force for good.” 

• Market research tactics
• SWOT analysis 

💡Ready to create a marketing plan for your business? Download a free marketing plan template to get started today. 

Marketing plan example FAQ

What is the difference between a marketing plan and a business plan.

Marketing plans outline a business’s goals and different marketing strategies for product promotion. Marketing teams use them to make decisions and plan marketing activities. Business plans , on the other hand, cover the entire organization’s strategic direction. These plans include broad business strategy goals as well as product development programs and financial projections. Company leaders often present business plans to external stakeholders and investors.

What makes a good and effective marketing plan?

A winning marketing plan provides all the information your team needs to start promoting your product. Effective plans establish clear marketing goals and provide the steps to follow to achieve them. The best examples include specific success metrics that derive from a solid foundation of consumer and market research.

How do you prepare a marketing plan?

To create a marketing plan, start by researching your target market. Select a set of specific, measurable goals that support your overall business initiatives. Determine the digital marketing mix you will use to achieve your goals and write out an implementation plan. To jumpstart the process, consider reviewing a sample marketing plan or downloading a free marketing plan template .

Keep up with the latest from Shopify

Get free ecommerce tips, inspiration, and resources delivered directly to your inbox.

By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.

popular posts

The point of sale for every sale.

Subscribe to our blog and get free ecommerce tips, inspiration, and resources delivered directly to your inbox.

Unsubscribe anytime. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.

Learn on the go. Try Shopify for free, and explore all the tools you need to start, run, and grow your business.

Try Shopify for free, no credit card required.

Strategic Marketing Plan Template & Examples

Imagine setting out to climb Mt. Everest guided only by intuition. You wouldn’t make it very far without a detailed plan (and an experienced sherpa) to guide the way. 

Marketing may not be an extreme sport with life-or-death consequences, but you’ve got big goals to reach nonetheless. And your team’s success relies on a lot more than gut instinct. 

That’s why a strategic marketing plan is a must, no matter your industry. Think of it as the roadmap that gets your business where it needs to go each and every year. 

Drafting your first marketing plan can feel intimidating, but don’t worry. We’ll walk you through the basics, show you what a strategic marketing plan looks like, and even give you a couple of free templates to get started. Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is a strategic marketing plan?

Essential elements of a strategic marketing plan, free marketing plan templates and examples.

Let’s start from square one and define what a strategic marketing plan is. 

A strategic marketing plan is a formal document that guides your team’s marketing efforts throughout the year. It maps your annual marketing goals to your company’s overall business objectives, while also outlining how you’ll spend your yearly marketing budget.

A good marketing plan clearly outlines:

• Your target market and key competitors
• Major goals for the year and how they’ll help you get ahead
• Key results that serve as indicators for success
• How you’ll use your money and resources to meet your goals 

Keep in mind that your plan may vary based on your industry and goals. Length and format don’t matter as much as the details you include. Do your research, and make it as easy as possible for company leaders to understand how your strategic marketing plan helps business grow.

What’s the difference between a marketing strategy vs. marketing plan?

A marketing strategy details how you’ll execute a piece of your marketing plan with a specific tactical goal in mind. You might do this by launching an email or social media campaign, publishing a blog series, offering a special promo, or hosting a live event. 

A marketing plan , on the other hand, is the high-level framework that drives all your marketing strategies. It’s a big-picture look at the who, what, and why behind your marketing goals, with a focus on tying them to larger organizational objectives. 

No two marketing plans are exactly the same, but they do share some common threads. Here are 6 important elements you’ll want to identify and research before you build out your next strategic marketing plan.

• Business objectives

Everything you do as a marketing team should support your company’s overall strategy and goals. So summarize your organization’s business objectives, and let it serve as your marketing plan’s true north. Your team and stakeholders should be able to clearly see how the marketing strategies and goals you outline in your plan align with your company’s top priorities.  

• SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis breaks down your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This enables you to assess both the internal and external factors that influence your success so you can build targeted strategies that close gaps and drive results. 

• Strengths and weaknesses : Take stock of your organization’s inner workings. Where does your team or company really shine? What’s working well, and what needs to be improved? Do you have any resource limitations?
• Opportunities and threats : Now look outward to consider your market and competition. Where do you have a chance to push ahead? Where are you struggling to keep up? Are there any market changes to consider?
• Market research

Research is the core of any marketing plan because it’s what you’ll use to shape your goals and strategy. Don’t be afraid to dive deep into the details here. A well-researched marketing plan is worth the time invested. 

Focusing your research energy on these areas will equip you with a solid base for smart marketing decisions.

It’s important to understand major movements in the industry you’re marketing to so you have a feel for the pulse of the market. Thoroughly research the industry your organization works in, and be sure to report on the general climate, as well as any noteworthy happenings. If your company serves any subindustries, don’t forget to include them in your analysis too. 

Target market

Marketing to the masses rarely pays off. That’s why narrowing down your target audience is a must for any marketing plan. Consider it the filter you run every marketing strategy through. 

The more specific you can get, the better. Answering questions like these can help you paint a clear picture of your ideal buyer so you know how to focus your resources for a bigger impact on the people you want to reach.

• What are your ideal buyer’s key demographics (e.g., age, location, job title)?
• What do they care about (e.g., interests, values)?
• What are their biggest challenges or pain points? 
• Where does your ideal buyer hang out (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn, industry conferences or events)?

Competitive analysis

It’s also important to understand who and what you’re up against when it comes to attracting your perfect buyer. Identify the key players in your space, and give a brief rundown of what they’re doing to win. This groundwork will make it easier to see how to differentiate yourself from the competition. 

• Strategic marketing goals

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to talk strategy. Outline your strategic marketing goals for the year, and briefly explain how these strategies support company-wide goals. Use a gantt chart to establish a timeline for each goal and monitor results along the way. This is an easy way to set expectations and keep your team and stakeholders in the loop.

• Key marketing metrics

Metrics are where the rubber meets the road in your marketing plan. Use your market research to define specific KPIs or key marketing metrics that will serve as your measure for success. This will help you track progress so you know if you need to change course mid-project to ensure you hit your strategic marketing goals.

• Marketing channels

Marketing channels are the vehicles you’ll use to reach your target audience and grow your brand. Choose your channels wisely based on where you expect to get the most bang for your marketing buck. Briefly explain the purpose of each channel and how it supports your overall marketing strategy and business goals. 

Want to build a more detailed plan for each marketing channel so you can bring your ideas to life? Check out our free social media strategy plan and editorial content plan templates for more information on planning by channel. 

Marketing budget

Establishing a monthly budget for your marketing plan—and tracking it along the way—helps you maximize ROI and identify wasted spend before it drains your marketing dollars. 

Start by listing any ongoing expenses you have so you know what you can afford to spend on new initiatives. Then do your best to estimate any new costs you expect in the coming year. Don’t forget to account for any new hires, freelance workers, or third-party agencies you might need to rely on to get the work done. 

Not sure where to start? We’ve got you! Here are a few examples of how you might structure a marketing plan so you can easily start writing your own. 

Your marketing plan may shake out differently depending on the industry you work in or the goals you’re focused on. Use these marketing plan templates and samples as a guide to jumpstart the process and come up with a marketing plan structure that works for you. 

Google Docs marketing plan template and example

The most common way to create a marketing plan is simply to write it out as a text document. This format enables you to freely elaborate on any research findings you gathered during discovery, while also making a clear case for the marketing goals you’ve set for the year.

We put together a free Google Docs marketing plan template to help you save time so you can get your planning process off the ground faster. This marketing plan example is perfect for documenting and sharing the full scope of your strategic marketing plan with your team and stakeholders.

Here’s a basic breakdown of what the Google Docs marketing plan template covers:

• Company mission

Save a copy of the template to your Google Drive or download it as a Word document, and customize it to fit your own strategic marketing plan needs.  ‍

Use template in Google Docs

Gantt chart marketing plan template and examples

A plan’s no good if you set it and forget it. That’s where a gantt chart comes in handy. Use this free gantt chart marketing plan template to track your strategic marketing plan all the way to success. 

A gantt chart is a great way to lay your marketing plan out in a simple, visual timeline that’s easy to update as work progresses. It gives you a high-level view of your plan’s major goals and strategies, while enabling you to collaborate on and share your plan with your team and stakeholders.

How you use a gantt chart to put your plan into action is up to you. Build a timeline for the tasks you need to complete as you develop your marketing plan, like the example below. 

Once you’ve fleshed out the details of your marketing plan, you can use a gantt chart to define and track your strategic marketing goals. For example, you could break your marketing plan down by quarter to show when specific objectives will come into play and update progress as you close in on your goal. Here’s how that might look.

Use template in TeamGantt

Ready to build a strategic marketing plan of your own? 

We’ve created a free marketing plan template for you in TeamGantt so you can jump right in!

Customizing the template is quick and easy, thanks to TeamGantt’s drag and drop simplicity. And since everything’s online, your whole team can collaborate on activities in real time.

Here are a few pointers to help you get the most out of our free TeamGantt strategic marketing plan template.

Drag and drop tasks to schedule your plan

Configuring your marketing plan is as easy as dragging and dropping tasks—or entire task groups—into their new rightful place. Click and drag the edges of each taskbar to set a new task duration. 

Communicate with comments 

Collaboration is easy with TeamGantt's discussion feature . Share documents and chat with your team directly from a task’s Comments section. Use Notes to communicate important information—like goals, target audience, and budget—at the project level. 

Have a more formal marketing plan document? Attach the file or link to your project so everyone has easy access to it.

Share a copy with stakeholders

Plans are meant to be shared, so we made it easy to keep even the most inquisitive stakeholders in the loop. Export your plan to a printer-friendly PDF , or share a view-only link to your project so stakeholders can see your marketing plan progress in real time. 

Sign up for a free TeamGantt account today , and save time on project setup with this free marketing plan template!

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Building Your Business
• Becoming an Owner
• Business Plans

How To Write a Marketing Strategy for Your Business Plan

Potential investors want to see how you plan to sell

Alyssa Gregory is an entrepreneur, writer, and marketer with 20 years of experience in the business world. She is the founder of the Small Business Bonfire, a community for entrepreneurs, and has authored more than 2,500 articles for The Balance and other popular small business websites.

How Marketing Strategy Fits Into Your Business Plan

The 4 ps: product, promotion, price, and place, 7 tips for writing a marketing strategy, the bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).

Bulent Ince / E+ Collection / Getty Images

A marketing strategy is important for all businesses because it clearly outlines how they'll find new customers and promote their products and services to ultimately achieve more sales. You can use the marketing strategy as a stand-alone tool, as part of a marketing plan, or as part of a business plan, all with slightly different components.

Let's focus on some marketing strategy examples for your business plan. 

• A solid marketing strategy addresses the four Ps: product, promotion, price, and place.
• Your success can depend on understanding your clients’ needs and being flexible enough to find a way to meet them.
• Keep your budget in mind. You can only do what you can afford to do, and you should plan for accommodating periodic shortfalls.

The marketing strategy section of your business plan builds upon the market analysis section . The marketing strategy outlines where your business fits into the market and how you'll price, promote, and sell your product or service. It can also act as a source of important information for potential investors who are analyzing your business.

You can break down the key information in the marketing strategy section using the 4 Ps of marketing concept: product, promotion, price, and place.

Product can refer to either a physical product or a service that you plan on offering. Some of the product areas that fall into this section include:

• Related products or services
• Functionality

Promotion covers the various aspects of how you plan on marketing your product or service. The areas you should address include:

• Advertising
• Marketing budget
• Promotional strategy
• Publicity and public relations
• Sales force
• Sales promotion

This addresses the way you plan on pricing your product or service. The aspects of pricing you should address are:

• Bundling (if you have related products/services)
• Pricing flexibility
• Pricing strategy
• Retail price
• Seasonal price (if applicable)
• Wholesale (volume) price

Also known as distribution, this part is all about the delivery of your product or service to your customers. Some areas you should cover include:

• Distribution centers
• Distribution channels
• Inventory management
• Order processing
• Transportation
• Warehousing

Keep seven things in mind as you write the marketing strategy section of your business plan to make it as effective and relevant as possible.

Show How Unique You Are

The foundation of your marketing strategy should be your unique selling proposition (USP). This is the statement that outlines what differentiates you from everyone else in the market. Create your USP first, then build upon it by relating it to each of the 4 Ps.

The common thread through each part of your marketing strategy should be how your business solves a problem or meets a need better than anyone else.

Know Your Customers/Clients

The information you include in your marketing strategy should incorporate all the research you conducted in your market analysis . Make sure you have a clear idea of who your ideal customers or clients are, what they like, what they need, and what they expect. This will make your marketing strategy more accurate and applicable to your target audience.

Be Flexible

The 4 Ps of marketing work well for physical products, but you may have to tweak them a bit for services. For example, you might use your website instead of a physical location for the place section. Your website should also be a part of your promotion section, as should any social media platforms that you participate in.

Do Your Research

When you’re determining your pricing, you should have plenty of data to back up your decision when you're determining your pricing. Include industry reports, competitor ads, and comparisons that demonstrate the research you conducted and how you came to the conclusion that you're pricing your product or service correctly.

Use Visuals

As in other sections of your business plan, using charts, graphs, and images to illustrate your facts can make them easier for your audience to absorb and understand. Is your pricing right at the median of the industry? Are you planning to use a four-step distribution process?

Use visual aids to drive your point home.

Remember Your Budget

You'll outline the financial analysis of your company in another section of your business plan but keep those numbers in mind as you write your marketing strategy. Your marketing process may look good by itself, but you'll have a difficult time meeting your goals unless you tie it directly to your financial status.

Include Your Collateral

You should include samples as exhibits if you're going to talk about your marketing collateral in your marketing section. These might include brochures, fact sheets, videos, and photos.

Your marketing strategy is your overall plan for how you're going to make your business profitable. Larger enterprises might have different strategies for various arms of their operations. Sole proprietors carry the weight of a single plan on their own. But addressing all these components will increase your odds of success in any case.

What are the four types of marketing strategies?

Many consider the four Ps to be the basic types of marketing strategies, but others focus on four possible ways you can reach clients and consumers: search engine optimization, paid advertising, content marketing, and sales.

What are the seven Cs of marketing?

The seven Cs organize your marketing strategy. They can vary depending on who you talk to and the nature of your business, but you can tailor yours to best meet your goals and needs. Most include customer, consistency, creativity, and communication. Some include other factors, such as convenience, competition, credibility, culture, and change.

American Marketing Association. " The Four Ps of Marketing ."

Notes Learning. " 7 Cs of Marketing ."

OBC. " The 7 Cs of Marketing: How to Apply Them ."

• Design for Business
• Most Recent
• Presentations
• Infographics
• Data Visualizations
• Forms and Surveys
• Video & Animation
• Case Studies
• Digital Marketing
• Design Inspiration
• Visual Thinking
• Product Updates
• Visme Webinars
• Artificial Intelligence

Create a Marketing Plan [+20 Free Templates]

Written by: Mahnoor Sheikh

In this article, you'll find a step-by-step guide on how to create a  marketing plan that will work for almost every kind of business. We've also included 20+ free marketing plan templates throughout the post to help you get started on the right foot.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit marketing plan templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:

Want to skip the tutorial? Create your marketing plan right away with Visme. Use ready-made marketing plan templates , download them as a PDF or share online.

Better yet, use Visme's AI Document Generator to create a fully designed marketing plan that aligns with your content. Prompt the generator with what you’re looking for, choose one of the styles and let the AI do its magic. Afterward, you can customize and finalize as you wish.

Table of Contents

What is a marketing plan, types of marketing plans, 10 marketing plan templates to get you started, why your business needs a marketing plan, how to create a marketing plan, marketing plan examples, marketing plan faqs.

A marketing plan is a roadmap that helps you set goals, understand your target audience and optimize the impact of your marketing campaigns.

• There are several types of marketing plans depending on the objective. Some examples include social media marketing, influencer marketing, video marketing, and email marketing.
• Your business needs a marketing plan to understand your business, align marketing goals with business goals, ensure everyone is on the same page, stay focused on what’s important and make better decisions.
• Learn how to develop a marketing plan in 7 steps, starting with the executive summary and ending with a digital document ready to share with a live Visme link.
• Discover 20 ready-to-use templates for different marketing plan types and get started straight away.

In simple words, it helps you get a clearer view of the what, why and how of all your marketing activities.

A good marketing plan also helps you communicate the “big” strategy and the different tactics involved to your marketing team . Last but not least, it lets you track the success of your campaigns.

A marketing plan should ideally include:

• Your long-term and short-term marketing goals
• A description of your target audience or buyer persona
• One or more high-level marketing strategies and tactics

Take a look at this one-page marketing plan template as an example.

Create your Marketing Plan with this easy-to-edit template! Edit and Download

If your plan is more detailed, you can also consider including:

• An overview of the current market situation
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Any budget or financial considerations
• An execution timeline or roadmap

A marketing plan is usually presented as a PDF document, but you can also whip up a more creative version of it. For example, you can create an infographic , presentation and even an interactive web page to share your plan.

Or you can create a single-page marketing plan similar to the one above.

Scroll down to the end of this post to access seven full marketing plan templates.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

Marketing plans and business plans are both essential pieces of business strategy, but their purpose is different. The terms are often used interchangeably or together: marketing business plan. But each plan is different and here's what sets them apart.

Business plans cover a business's overall strategy, from the branding strategy to the company-wide marketing strategies. A marketing plan solely concentrates on a specific marketing strategy or a branch of the overall department.

For example, one marketing plan can be for digital marketing strategies, while another can be for billboards. Likewise, a marketing plan can be for a single campaign, covering all marketing channels.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy and a marketing plan are key pieces in the company’s marketing puzzle. However, they serve different purposes.

A marketing strategy is the overall framework guiding a company's marketing efforts. It outlines how your organization will position itself in the market, target ideal customers, and create value for them. A marketing strategy is often long-term and forms the foundation for all your marketing activities.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap for organizing, executing and tracking your marketing strategy within a specific timeframe. It provides a step-by-step guide for achieving specific objectives, such as increasing sales, improving brand awareness, or entering new markets.

Simply put, a marketing plan translates your strategy into actionable steps with timelines for implementation and metrics for measuring success.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Just as there are several types of marketing strategies, there are numerous types of marketing plans. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plan

Quarterly and annual marketing plans are high-level plans for all the marketing activities that will happen in the next quarter or year. From this overarching plan, your team will create smaller, more detailed plans according to specific strategies. These could be daily, weekly or monthly marketing plans.

Social Media Marketing Plan

Social media marketing plans highlight the goal and objective of a brand’s activities on social media that are geared toward marketing. This plan includes campaign information, repurposing guidelines across social media channels and who’s in the social media team.

Content Marketing Plan

A content marketing plan outlines all the content pillars for the brand and what content types need to be created for each pillar. Any content marketing strategies planned out for the brand’s content are detailed in the plan, along with a roadmap and goals.

New Product Launch Plan

In a new product launch plan, the pages lay out all the steps toward a successful launch. Separated into pre-launch, launch and post-launch, the different teams will know what they need to do to complete the plan’s objectives.

Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans are specifically geared toward brand growth. This plan document lays out all the strategies to undertake in order to grow the brand name online, locally or some other way.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing plans concentrate on outlining all steps to implement an influencer strategy. Sections include the list of potential or chosen influencers and what will be asked and expected of them to reach the plan’s goals.

Market Penetration Marketing Plan

A market penetration marketing plan highlights all the activities involved in marketing existing products to existing customers.

This marketing strategy is considered the most popular in business models. Some examples include discounts on favorite products or new features and updates.

Market Development Marketing Plan

In market development plans, existing products are marketed to new customers and niches. These strategies focus on business objectives like developing distribution channels and increasing brand awareness.

Product/Service Development Marketing Plan

Product development plans outline the activities dealing with marketing new products to existing customers. These marketing plans include examples such as product launches and market insertion plans.

Diversification Marketing Plan

In diversification, marketing plans focus on strategies to launch and promote new products or services to new markets and customers. These marketing plans are on the ambitious side.

Need help putting together a full marketing plan?

Here is our handpicked collection of 10 marketing plan templates for various types of businesses.

Pick the one that best fits your industry and start customizing it in the Visme editor right away. Replace the colors, fonts, text, images, icons and more with a few clicks. Use the dynamic fields option to edit repeating content across slides and create more efficient templates for your team with custom dynamic fields.

You can also tap into a free library of stock photos and add animated characters, illustrations and gestures for advanced customization.

If you’re still on the fence about using Visme for your marketing plans, look at what one of our users has to say:

“I feel that for anyone who wants to improve efficiency and effectiveness at the workplace, VISME gives you the extra edge to take things forward.

It's an apt tool for quickly converting your thought process into a unique communication.” - Autumn | Finance Manager

1. Real Estate Marketing Plan Template

This tailored marketing plan template is perfect for all kinds of real estate and property businesses, complete with a professional “About” section and SWOT analysis.

It has a modern feel to it with a clean layout and corporate color scheme. You can easily switch it out for your own brand colors if you want.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan Template

A good social media strategy needs a marketing plan of its own, which is why this template is a must-have for any business trying to win at this game.

Customize this social media marketing plan template to lay out your goals for the next year or quarter, and outline the key points of your strategy for each social channel.

Add a dose of interactivity by creating a clickable menu or building an interactive table of contents. Interactive plans make a positive impression on team members and stakeholders, improving work satisfaction and productivity.

3. Digital Marketing Plan Template

Create your Marketing Plan with this easy-to-edit template. Edit and Download

Create an actionable marketing plan covering your digital channels with this detailed template.

This digital marketing plan has a classy design and layout, and features key headings like an executive summary, a SWOT analysis, key performance indicators and even a nice table of contents.

4. Product Marketing Plan Template

Creating an effective product marketing plan requires in-depth research of your target market, company strengths and weaknesses, as well as an effective marketing plan design.

This product marketing plan template covers all those basics, along with a detailed budget planner that you can edit with your own financial data.

5. Personal Marketing Plan Template

Hiring someone to help build a powerful personal brand?

This personal marketing plan example is perfect for that purpose. It’s a simple, three-page document with a professional resume detailing skills and experience, followed by a goals page.

6. Marketing Plan Presentation Template

This marketing plan presentation template is a great way to share your marketing goals, SWOT, strategy, timeline, deliverables and more with your team and the management.

You can easily get the slides printed later and share the copies with your team. Edit this marketing plan presentation online in Visme and create a slideshow that's powerful and effective.

7. Retail Marketing Plan Presentation Template

Here is another marketing plan presentation template you can use. This presentation template is especially relevant and useful if you're in the retail business.

Customize this marketing plan template online and download it in PDF or PowerPoint format, or save the slides separately in image format. You can also present this presentation online using a link — no downloads needed!

8. Restaurant Marketing Plan Template

Designing a marketing plan doesn’t have to be daunting. With this template, you can create a comprehensive marketing plan for your food business, whether it’s a small cafe, a big fancy restaurant or a fast food joint.

This marketing plan example features stock photos of food that you can replace with your own. Additionally, you can edit any images with the AI Edit Tools to remove backgrounds or unwanted objects or upscale/unblur less than perfect photos.

This template also has a versatile design that can be tailored to your own brand style and even an entirely different industry.

9. Content Marketing Plan Template

Content is a key element of inbound marketing. This content marketing plan template is carefully designed to match the needs of SaaS and other businesses that want to focus on taking their content strategy to the next level.

If your marketing goals are to drive traffic, generate leads and grow sales through publishing insightful content , this marketing plan will help you organize your editorial calendar.

Take advantage of the fact that you’re already logged in to Visme, and use the resources at your disposal to execute a content marketing plan.

Design blog graphics, infographic visuals, social media content and videos right inside your Visme editor. Share and schedule posts to social media directly from the integrated social media calendar .

10. Marketing Plan Infographic Template

If you're not looking to create a detailed or formal document with several pages, this to-the-point marketing plan infographic template is a great pick.

It's a quick way to share the marketing plan for a one-off project and contains all the necessary details.

I’ve already mentioned how a marketing plan can help you better understand your company’s marketing goals and how to achieve them, but that’s not where the benefits end.

A well-researched marketing plan can help you:

• Understand your business. Conducting thorough research on current market conditions and where your company stands can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business, as well as new opportunities.
• Align marketing goals with business goals. Without a plan, it can be easy to lose your sense of direction. A marketing plan helps you ensure that your marketing goals are aligned with the vision, mission statement and goals of your business.
• Ensure everyone is on the same page. Having a working document of your marketing makes it easier for not just your team, but also the entire company to work together towards a common goal.
• Stay focused on what’s important. A marketing plan is a constant reminder of your goals and strategies, which keeps you from getting sidetracked.
• Make better decisions. Planning ahead of time can prevent you from making hasty decisions when difficult situations arise.

Hey marketers! Need to create scroll-stopping visual content fast?

• Transform your visual content with Visme’s easy-to-use content creation platform
• Produce beautiful, effective marketing content quickly even without an extensive design skillset
• Inspire your sales team to create their own content with branded templates for easy customization

Sign up. It’s free.

There’s no one way of creating a marketing plan, but there are some key components that should go inside a winning one. Follow the steps below to create an effective marketing plan.

1. Start with an executive summary.

The executive summary usually goes at the beginning of your marketing plan. It’s basically a short summary or brief overview of your company and the key takeaways from the entire marketing plan.

Here’s an executive summary template you can edit and use for your own business.

The template above is a great example of an executive summary that highlights the key function of a business and the purpose of its marketing plan.

You can also include company achievements and future plans for your business in your summary.

Remember, your executive summary should be concise and to the point. Instead of boring your readers to sleep, it should grab their attention and get them excited about the rest of the plan.

2. State your company’s mission, vision and values.

Before you dive into all the marketing stuff, it’s a good idea to revisit your company’s values, vision and mission. This helps put all the information inside your marketing plan into perspective.

It answers the question of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Here’s a neat mission, vision and values template to edit and use.

For anyone who reads your marketing plan, this section is important to educate them about the ultimate aim of your business so they can make better sense of your marketing goals, activities and future plans.

3. Identify the market and competition.

The next step is to build a marketing plan is back it up with solid research.

This is often achieved by analyzing your current market situation with a market analysis , by studying your competition and most importantly, looking into your own company’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here’s a market share template that can help you visualize that information and share it with your colleagues and stakeholders.

You can customize this template according to your own brand colors and input your own information. Use it on its own as part of a marketing plan or in a report or presentation .

Here’s another cool design to help you present your market research. Use this SWOT analysis template to highlight your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Instead of adding a boring table that no one wants to read, use a well-designed SWOT like the one above to draw attention to your research.

Here's another worksheet-style SWOT analysis template that you can print out and fill, or edit using Visme before adding to your marketing plan document or presentation.

You can also conduct a SWOT analysis of your competitors, which takes us to another key component of your market research — the competitor analysis .

Studying your competition is crucial to the success of your business. You need to know what they’re doing, what’s working for them and how you can do it better.

Here are a few things to research about your competitors:

• Their marketing and leadership team
• Their growth and financials
• Their best-selling products or services
• Their top-performing blog posts (use a tool like Ahrefs or SiteChecker to do this)
• Their video marketing strategy
• Their social media marketing strategy

Here's a competitive analysis template you can use and add to your marketing plan.

A template like the one above can help you organize and visualize important information about your competitors. In turn, this can help you identify opportunities and set goals.

4. Define your target customer.

Differentiating the target audience and the target market will help you better understand the position of your business within the market. Therefore, it’s important to identify who your buyer or ideal customer is so you can create more informed and tailored marketing strategies.

Naturally, the target customer for every business is different. But the goal is the same — to increase customer awareness.

You may also have more than one kind of customer. For example, a clothing store could be making products for both teens and older women at the same time.

Check out this target audience template to visualize your various customer segments. Use it to better understand your potential customers' attitudes and habits.

You can edit this template and use it as part of your marketing plan layout or presentation. It’s a great way to present the different types of your audience in a way that’s easy to understand.

The pie chart helps identify which chunk makes the bigger part of your customer base so you can focus most of your marketing efforts in that area.

If you’re looking for a more creative approach, take a look at the buyer persona template below.

This infographic template is a fun way to visualize your buyer’s demographic details, habits and goals, i.e.,  whether they're interested in online learning options like digital marketing courses or if they prefer in-person.

Another cool way to create a customer persona is to design it like a resume . This is useful for adding more information in one page without cluttering up the design.

Here’s a resume-style customer persona template you can edit.

This type of buyer persona design makes use of icons and data widgets , like progress bars.

In the end, the goal of creating a buyer persona is to better organize and understand key information about your customer. Use the template that works best for your business.

5. Outline your marketing goals.

In this part of the marketing plan, you need to specify what you aim to achieve.

Outline your marketing goals and objectives, and make sure you use actual numbers instead of writing vague statements.

For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic , mention the exact target so you can track to see if you achieved it or not.

Here’s a marketing goals template you can use as part of your marketing plan.

Remember to create SMART goals for your marketing plan and strategy. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

In the template above, notice how the target is defined as a percentage. You can also add a deadline to your marketing goal to make it time-bound.

If you want to share your marketing goals in an infographic format, here’s another template you can edit and use for your own company.

The template above is a more detailed goals infographic with three different phases, which makes it ideal for SaaS companies and mobile apps.

6. Present your marketing strategy.

Now comes the good stuff. In this step, write down one or more marketing strategies and the tactics to execute for each one. Make sure you include:

• How to do it
• The channels to use

This is best presented visually so the entire team can understand each step. You can divide your activities into stages, and present them using a marketing strategy template like the one below.

Another way to present your marketing strategy is by attaching deadlines to it. This can be easily done using a timeline or a Gantt chart .

Another way to present your marketing strategy is with the help of a roadmap. A roadmap outlines the tactics involved in your overall marketing strategy, and can be designed to look similar to a Gantt chart.

Here's a marketing roadmap template you can use for your own business.

If you want to do things differently, you can also use an infographic to visualize your marketing strategy.

An infographic is eye-catching and can be added to any of your presentations and reports. You can even share it on its own with your marketing team or other colleagues.

Here’s a marketing infographic template that divides your execution strategy into four phases.

Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download

Another way to visualize your marketing strategy is with the help of a mind map. Mind maps are great for providing your team with an overview of the different elements that are involved in your marketing strategy.

Here's a mind map template that shows how this can be done for a Twitter content marketing strategy.

You can easily build mind maps using our mind map maker .

Keep in mind that your marketing strategy should be actionable and detailed. Explain each step clearly and don’t leave out any information just for the sake of design.

7. Define your marketing budget.

Last but not least, detail your marketing budget considerations in your marketing plan.

This is important so you don’t lose sight of the financial aspect of things during execution and implementation. After all, marketing is costly and there are tons of hidden expenses involved.  You need a budget template to lay out your financial projections.

Here’s an editable marketing budget template you can use.

Including a detailed marketing budget also helps in hiring the right staff and choosing between paid resources so you don’t exceed a certain amount.

You’re probably wondering: What does a marketing plan look like? In this section, we’ll share 5 real-life examples of marketing plans from companies.

1. Visit Baton Rouge

Image Source

This marketing plan is an example of how to create a well-structured and eye-catching marketing plan. The plan has a sophisticated design adorned with captivating images and a rich blend of bright colors.

The proposed marketing plan starts with a situational analysis and review of the previous year. The following pages take a deep dive into key sections, like

• SWOT analysis
• Target Audience
• Overall goals
• Different marketing strategies

Each of the different marketing strategies has individual goals, strategies and detailed plans of action. Additionally, the plan features a comprehensive event calendar and evaluation criteria. This makes it easier for the marketing team to stay organized, implement and track progress.

2. Safe Haven Family Shelter

If you're looking for a template for a marketing plan that will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization, this is a perfect example. Although created by a non-profit, it can be adapted for startups and growing businesses.

This comprehensive plan includes everything you need to get started, from SMART marketing goals and deadlines to action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages and metrics.

This marketing plan example follows a simple format. The content is mostly presented in a list and tabular format, making it well-organized and easy to scan. Readers quickly grasp the organization's strategic direction for its upcoming marketing initiatives.

3. University of Illinois

This detailed marketing plan example is encased in a document format with a bold, eye-catching design. The stunning image and energetic orange color on the cover page immediately grab attention and communicate the brand's dynamic personality. This comprehensive market plan example from the University of Illinois has three key sections.

• Section I provides context on population definitions, admissions funnel stages and core knowledge of the students informing their strategy.
• Section II captures upcoming market research efforts that will inform future strategy.
• Section III takes a deep dive into their strategic plan. This includes objectives, detailed marketing programs to achieve those objectives, and success metrics.

We love that the plan effectively dissects the high-level components of its overall strategy and pairs them with concrete, actionable marketing tactics. Another standout feature is that the pages are filled with compelling visuals, engaging copy and informative graphs and maps that convey their strategic vision and roadmap for marketing efforts.

4. Wright County Economic Development

One of the standout features of the plan is its ease of readability. The sections are clearly organized, allowing readers to quickly scan and identify the most relevant information. It contains key sections, including partners, goals and marketing initiatives—attraction, retention and community relations.

Additionally, the plan offers a thorough breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative, a crucial detail for upper-level management and stakeholders. This feature makes it easier for decision-makers to understand the financial implications of the proposed plan and allocate resources accordingly.

Overall, Wright County Economic Development's plan serves as a valuable example for marketers looking to develop a practical and effective marketing plan.

5. Visit Oxnard

Being a leisure and lifestyle business, Visit Oxnard infuses captivating designs and vibrant photos that showcase the beauty and excitement of landscapes, landmarks, adventure and resorts. Their innovative plan puts a spin on traditional tourism marketing by focusing on the business side of travel.

This marketing plan example begins with a marketing plan overview, company overview, mission, and goals. Then it dives deeper into the framework and approach the company will take to continue on a positive path forward to economic recovery and growth. Other key sections highlighted in the plan include

• Market Research and Findings
• Customer Personas
• Diverse Offerings
• Earned Media
• Owned Media
• Industry Relations and more

This approach by Visit Oxnard demonstrates how creating actionable marketing plans can help forward-thinking companies capitalize on untapped opportunities.

Still not convinced about the use of marketing plans for your business? Here are some frequently asked questions that can help you make a final decision.

Q. What Is a Marketing Plan Template?

A marketing plan template is a customizable document with placeholder content that can help you get started quickly. Creating a marketing plan from scratch takes too much time. Using a template not only sets up you for faster designing but it also inspires creativity.

Beautiful internal communications inspire delight in coworkers, making it more enjoyable to check off lists and follow processes. Marketing plans on plain white documents just get lost in email threads. Visme marketing plan templates are the solution.

Q. What Is an Executive Summary in a Marketing Plan?

The executive summary in a marketing plan is a superpowered table of contents. In an executive summary page or slide, you share the notable points to be discussed in the subsequent content of the plan in question. An executive summary is comparable to the Quick Read section at the top of our articles.

Q. What Is a Top-Down Marketing Strategy?

A top-down marketing strategy is a traditional strategy with a broad target and brand messaging. Think of the marketing funnel and how at the top it’s wide open. Top down marketing strategies work up there, catching as many people as possible with a message that appeals to a wide audience.

Q. What Is a Bottom-Up Marketing Strategy?

A bottom-up marketing strategy is a targeted strategy for a product or service that meets the needs of a specific audience. Bottom-up marketing strategies are more common in small businesses and startups that don’t yet have large audiences.

Q. What Are the 4 C’s of a Marketing Plan?

The 4C’s of marketing are:

• Customer: The most important factor in a marketing strategy. It’s essential to know what the customer needs and wants.
• Cost: Includes all expenses related to marketing and selling products and services for the company.
• Convenience: The customer shopping experience must be as simple as possible for the client.
• Communication: Includes all interactions between the brand and the consumer. Brand touchpoints are excellent communication opportunities.

These four are called the "marketing mix. Another marketing mix you should know is the 4 Ps or the Four Principles of Marketing .

Q. What Makes a Good Marketing Plan?

For a marketing plan to be good, it doesn’t take much. But for a marketing plan to be great, make sure you check off this checklist:

• Develop targeting and positioning assessments for the strategy and give clear guidance in the marketing plan as to how the messaging will be targeted in marketing copy.
• Share clear promotional tactics per channel, touchpoint or activity. Explain how to repurpose marketing content with intent and tailor promotions to their destination.
• Include a scope assessment and a simple scope management plan for the marketing strategies in the marketing plan.
• Keep the marketing plan document alive by updating and referencing it during the strategy’s lifecycle. Be ready for pivots and changes in the scope.
• Turn your marketing plan into an online digital experience that no one needs to download, print or keep in storage. Visme has an endless array of features to help you create the most engaging business communication.

Q. What Is the Most Important Part of a Marketing Plan?

The most important part of a marketing plan is the targeted consumer, specifically their needs and wants. The entirety of your marketing plan serves the purpose of how your company will use marketing strategies to sell solutions to the customer.

Q. How Can I Make a Marketing Plan With My Team?

With Visme, you can create marketing plans collaboratively in a number of ways. Brainstorm and strategize the plan together in the infinite whiteboard and then design together in the editor. The Visme whiteboard can have multiple pages to control brainstorming iterations and organize meeting results.

Invite members to the whiteboard or workspace by clicking the person+ icon on the top right. They’ll need to have their own Visme account to access the editor or whiteboard you’re inviting them to.

You can also use the workflow feature to assign entire projects or specific tasks to different team members and work on a project together. Keep track of what’s being worked on, leave feedback comments and support each other through the process.

Q. Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan: What’s the Difference?

A marketing strategy is a document or plan that outlines how your organization will deal with market positioning, ICPs and other strategic aspects of a marketing scheme. They can be long- or short-term strategies that form the foundation of all marketing activities.

Marketing plans, on the other hand, are detailed roadmaps that organize how to execute and track a marketing strategy. They provide a guide to achieving the outlined objectives. Marketing plans turn your strategy into an actionable, step-by-step timeline and a foundation for measuring success.

Create a Winning Marketing Plan for Your Business

For most businesses, operating without a solid marketing plan results in ineffective campaigns, reduced ROI and unexpected costs. And nobody wants that.

A custom marketing plan helps you align your marketing objectives and activities with your overall business goals and brings entire teams together on the same page.

Ready to create a professional marketing plan of your own? Get started from scratch or choose one of our marketing plan templates today.

Create effective marketing plans that makes you stand out using Visme

Trusted by leading brands

Recommended content for you:

Create Stunning Content!

Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

About the Author

Mahnoor Sheikh is the content marketing manager at Visme. She has years of experience in content strategy and execution, SEO copywriting and graphic design. She is also the founder of MASH Content and is passionate about tea, kittens and traveling with her husband. Get in touch with her on LinkedIn .

MARKETING PLAN GENERATOR

This high-level template will help you outline your annual marketing strategy, identify your most important initiatives, and track the right metrics all year long. Tell us a little about your marketing goals and you’ll receive a 12-month plan in less than 10 minutes.

Press enter/arrow keys (or swipe on mobile) to continue

You smart planner, you. We're so excited to help you create a marketing plan that will drive big results!

Let's start by getting acquainted. What's your name?

Awesome. it's great to meet you .

We'll be diving into some questions about your company, what you do there, and what your team's goals are for this year. These questions will help us customize your plan to fit your company's exact needs. If you're not 100% sure how to answer a question, that's okay. Just put in a quick answer for now — you can always go back in and edit your answers later.

Where do you work?

Very cool how many employees work at your company .

A written mission helps align your team around common goals. Patagonia's mission is to "build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." Want another example? Click here.

What's your company 's mission?

Just add a few words outlining your direction. You can always change this answer later.

Sounds like a great place to be . What exactly do you do at your company ?

74% of marketers say that converting leads into customers is their company's top priority over the next 12 months.

State of Inbound 2016

What's your team's main focus this year?

What key objectives do you want to achieve? Remember: You can always come back and change this answer later.

Select up to 3 initiatives your team should prioritize this year to help carry out that focus:

(Scroll for more options)

• Build Brand Awareness
• Close Deals
• Create a High-Quality Pipeline
• Create Content
• Create Paid Advertisement Program
• Decrease Churn
• Decrease Customer Acquisition Cost
• Define or Update Personas
• Differentiate Brand From Competitors
• Diversify Promotion Efforts
• Grow Event Attendance
• Grow International Brand
• Grow Paid Users
• Grow Revenue
• Grow Social Media Reach
• Improve Customer NPS
• Improve Lead Quality
• Improve Sales Rep Productivity
• Increase Clickthrough Rate
• Increase Conversion Rate
• Increase Leads
• Increase Product Adoption
• Increase Traffic
• Introduce New Product/Service
• Optimize Sales Cycle
• Recruit Top Talent
• Scale Company Culture
• Shorten Sales Cycle
• Unify Products/Services

What are your goals for these initiatives?

Example: Grow lead generation by 1,000 leads per month

( Enter options on previous slide to view content )

Which initiatives would you consider for a future year?

Now that you have your top priorities in place, it’s time to select 1-3 initiatives that, while valuable, will only distract you from achieving this year’s goals. These could be considered later on, but for now, you don’t have the resources in place to focus on them.

Well, would you look at that! You're almost finished. That wasn't so hard, was it?

One final thing: How do we get in touch to discuss your goals for next year?

We're committed to your privacy. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information, check out our Privacy Policy .

What is in the Marketing Plan Template?

HubSpot's marketing plan generator offers a template displaying your company's mission, strategy, and initiatives following the information entered in the tool while also identifying future opportunities. The project planner tool delivers a 12-month marketing plan template dividing actions for your team into initiatives, measurement metrics, and goals. This free resource for your business can be downloaded as a CSV file and shared with your team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the marketing plan template generator do.

The Marketing Plan Generator uses the information you provide about your marketing goals to create a personalized 12-month plan that will help your business reach new heights of success.

How Does the Marketing Plan Template Generator Work?

As a marketing plan software, it uses the answers you provide in the assessment to generate your company marketing priorities for the year to come. It identifies relevant initiatives to prioritize following the goals entered and delivers a practical template.

Why is a Marketing Plan Important?

Developing a marketing plan is crucial as it allows you to determine what to focus on by setting clear objectives. It also helps in managing resources better and maximize the impact of every marketing action. This is in a nutshell why you need a marketing plan.

When Do You Need to Use a Marketing Plan?

When your product is ready to be marketed, which is most likely right now as you are reading these lines! Instead of an example, why not spend some time taking our MPTG assessment and discover what you can do today to improve your marketing?

Back to top

More hubspot tools.

• Make My Persona
• Blog Idea Generator
• Website Grader
• Email Signature Generator
• Business Templates

18 Powerful Marketing Strategies To Grow Business Faster [+ Examples]

The best marketing strategies of all time are always about the basics of human behavior.

After all, if you’re not able to understand the psyche of your potential customers, no amount of ad spend can save your business.

Marketing is the most important part of growing a business—and if you’re looking for a marketing strategy that is truly potent, there are two things you should know:

• What are the best marketing tactics; and,
• How these marketing methods work best.

In this blog post, we have explained 18 powerful marketing strategies that can help any business get off the ground and reach its potential customers.

We have also shared easy tips for executing these marketing initiatives and, more importantly, 10 awesome marketing examples that have worked wonders for companies around the world.

Table of Contents

What Is a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy is a plan that covers how a company positions its brand image and products or services in the market, how it reaches new customers or clients, how much it spends on marketing each year or quarter, where it focuses more on distribution of organic content and paid ad spend, and other such key decisions that influence the overall marketing of the company.

A good marketing strategy is a mix of inbound and outbound strategies. Inbound marketing involves creating and distributing helpful content that people can find organically. And outbound marketing involves pushing promotional messages to a wide audience in the hope of reaching potential customers. 

The marketing strategy of any company is perhaps its most important asset since it impacts how, when, and where customers discover the company and its products or services, and what image the customers form in their mind about the company and its offerings.

Hey there! Come, explore the art of seamless automation with EngageBay. Elevate your marketing, sales, and support with perfect workflows. Start your journey to growth – sign up for a free account now.

The Four Ps of Marketing Strategy: How To Create an Effective Marketing Strategy

The ‘four Ps of marketing strategy’ are often referred to as the pillars of developing a marketing strategy, as they implement all factors needed to market a product successfully. 

The four P’s include key factors such as marketing to the right market, understanding what the customer wants, and also understanding why a product or marketing plan fails to meet these wants, among many other crucial influences.

Here are the four Ps of creating a marketing strategy:

Let us now understand each of these four factors in depth.

The product forms the crux of any company.  In order to understand the market and develop a marketing strategy, it is important to answer the most fundamental question — who needs your product, why would they need it, and how would they use it?

By understanding this aspect of a product, you will gain a new perspective on how to target your customer better and how to stand out from your competitors. An important responsibility of a marketing professional is to understand the quality and characteristics of a product and deliver it exactly as it is to the customer. 

One key facet of marketing strategy is understanding the lifecycle of a product and having a plan in place to tackle challenges faced at each phase of the product. 

The price factor is the set amount a customer is willing to invest in your product or service. Determining the right price amount can be tricky.

A marketer must always consider various factors such as raw material costs, retail markup, competitor prices, etc., and most importantly, evaluate the product according to its real value.

Although this valuation is largely based on diversified factors, some companies might value their product higher to narrow the target to a higher economic crowd, while some brands might prove the product lower to appeal to a larger crowd.

Place as a marketing strategy is nothing but the ‘marketplace’ where all the magic happens. The decision to know where best to sell your product is key to the marketing strategic plan. 

Whether your product is primarily going to be sold online or in brick-and-mortar outlets, it is important to understand which playfield works best for your product.

For instance, if you are a luxury brand focused on major skin care lines, the best way to display your product would be through physical shops where customers can test and try your products. 

Also, the ideal outlet would be established luxury outlets such as Sephora. The term place also represents marketing your product through the right channel to garner the attention of the right audience.  

The goal of any marketing strategy is to reach the target audience. ‘Place’ helps guide your marketing plan in the right direction and helps achieve this goal.

Read also: Master the Art of Small Business Growth — An 8-Step Journey to Success

Lastly, promotion.

Promotion is the final step and an important one when it comes to marketing strategies. Promotion is essentially letting the world know about your product, communicated effectively. 

The promotion also helps consumers understand your product and how your product stands apart from your competitors. This component is multifaceted, not just adhering to advertising as one channel. Marketing plans such as public relations, advertising through the right channels, affiliate marketing , and an overall independent media marketing strategy are needed for a robust marketing game. 

Promotion and place are important aspects of getting your product out there.  Quite obviously, they go hand in hand.  Both are needed to be in sync to reach the target audience at the right time. 

A good marketing strategy example would be how ‘promotion’ influences or pushes a customer toward a purchase at an online store. This is especially true when it involves promotion on social media and the traffic it drives to the brand’s website or landing pages.

Another great way to promote your products online is by creating interactive flipbooks and sharing them with your customers.

Read also: Get Noticed — 16 Creative Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Enhance Your Email Marketing

Want to make your emails more impactful? Check out our beautiful, easy-to-customize marketing email templates . Designed to boost engagement, these templates from EngageBay will help your emails stand out. Just customize the images, headings, and CTAs for your brand, and hit send in a few minutes!

Browse the Template Library

Powerful Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Business Faster

All small businesses want a low-budget marketing plan . The problem, however, is determining which of the successful small business marketing strategies offer the highest ROI.

That’s why we are sharing a list of high-ROI marketing strategies that you can and should steal from the industry today.

1. Set a Goal and a Budget

Every business needs a direction. Every marketing campaign needs to start with a marketing goal and a budget.

This is perhaps the only free marketing strategy in the world.

Without a marketing goal and a budget, it becomes exceptionally difficult to determine whether or not your campaign was successful.

Plus, according to CoSchedule’s roundup of 2018 digital marketing statistics , marketers who set goals for their campaigns are 429% more likely to report success .

A s Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers says, this makes sense because:

“Goal-setting eliminates subjective perceptions of reality, making success objectively measurable. In that context, success isn’t a vague idea; it becomes demonstrable.”

Let’s take a look at a few tips for setting your marketing campaign goal and budget:

• Choose 1-5 KPIs to measure.  The most popular KPIs to measure include qualified leads , traffic, and direct revenue.
• Set a realistic budget.  The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends that you spend 7-8% of total revenue on your marketing campaigns.
• Focus on the process, not the goal.  Once your goal is set, create a process for achieving it and use your KPIs to measure and continually improve that process.

2. Build Your Influence

The most successful marketing campaigns help you achieve the highest ROI. Once you build your influence, you can use many more powerful marketing strategies.

With influencer marketing  delivering ROI as high as $6.50 for every $1 spent , it’s quickly become one of the most effective marketing strategies for a small business.

This explains why influencers are finding their way into many social media promotional strategies used by small businesses.

To create a successful influencer marketing campaign, Entrepreneur contributor Murray Newlands recommends the following steps:

• Select your KPIs
• Focus on the social media channels where your target market is most present
• Find a credible influencer
• Plan your publishing schedule
• Consistently improve and measure your outcomes

3. Leveraging Employees as Thought Leaders

Alternatively, you could always create influencers from your own employees. Often referred to as thought leadership, social selling and employee advocacy are becoming more popular with companies who want to amplify their brand message. 

Going beyond simply resharing corporate posts, employee advocacy allows each one of your employees to become brand ambassadors and social sellers, sharing the content that makes the most sense for their individual industries while promoting your company — a good content marketing strategy.

In fact, according to LinkedIn , Salespeople who are using social media to sell are 51% more likely to hit their sales quotas over their less social-savvy peers—and they would know. LinkedIn was responsible for nearly 95% of conversions coming from employee advocacy posts in 2021. 

4. Champion One Social Channel

With the undeniable potential of social media marketing as a small business marketing strategy, it can be tempting to try and find success on as many social platforms as possible.

But, as B2C and B2B marketing strategy guru Neil Patel says, it’s best to focus on one social channel at a time :

“Jumping in head first and attempting to manage, say, four or five different channels can be overwhelming, and you’re unlikely to kill it at any strategy. Even if you’re a savvy marketer, you simply can’t devote the necessary time to extract the full potential of any single channel.”

To become a champion of one social media platform, the team at Social Media Marketo recommends a 12-step process:

Image Source

5. Build Rapport Through Email

With 59% of marketers claiming that email is their most effective marketing channel for revenue generation, this is one effective inbound marketing strategy that you don’t want to ignore.

If you haven’t started building your email list, Social Triggers founder Derek Halpern recommends a few tips for getting started:

• Create a long-term content strategy to drive organic traffic to your website
• Create multiple opt-in offers
• Utilize an email list popup form
• Add a banner with an invitation to subscribe to your email list

If you want customizable email templates to charm your customers, check out EngageBay’s 1,000+ free HTML email templates . You can also use our email signature generator to create a professional email sign-off with links, banners, and call-to-actions.

Read also: Master Email Marketing Automation Strategy — Tips & Examples

6. Blog Strategically

When done correctly, starting a blog is one of the absolute best ways to drive targeted traffic to your website.

In fact, marketers who effectively utilize blogs tend to get 67% more leads than those who do not. But that’s only if you’re doing it right.

To succeed with blogging, you should:

• Find your niche. Choosing a niche is one of the hardest but most important considerations before you start a blog, whether you’re looking to write reviews, sell products online , or general topics.
• Focus on quality over quantity. One long-form, comprehensive post (1,500+ words) is worth 5x a brief, non-informative post.
• Develop a promotion strategy before writing.  Many expert content marketers recommend spending 20% of your time on content creation and 80% on promotion.
• Create evergreen content. When you create evergreen content (and update that content when necessary), your content assets compound their impact over time.
• Use photo editing tools like Instasize to curate your content.
• Promote your blog.  Create a list of influencers that resonate with your product and start an outreach campaign using powerful outreach tools , requesting them directly or indirectly link back or speak about your blog.
• Design is everything. The way your blog looks can either pull in or push away potential readers, so consider using professionally made templates to create your blog.

7. Conduct Research That Impacts Your SEO

With 70-80% of modern-day consumers ignoring ads altogether, ranking for targeted keywords has never been more important.

To rank in SERPs for keywords that can drive high-quality leads , there are a few simple tips that you should follow:

• Focus on low-competition, long-tail keywords. If you own a wedding business, you’re not going to compete with David’s Bridal for the keyword “wedding dress.” Instead, you should focus your efforts on low-competition, long-tail keywords that are relevant to your audience.
• Utilize tools like SE Ranking , SEMRush , or KWFinder . While it may be tempting to use Google’s Keyword Planner, it’s been proven that they hide many low-competition keywords to increase ad spend. A marketing tool like SEMRush and/or KWFinder makes it incredibly easy to find high-ROI keywords that can drive high-quality leads to your website.

8. Teach Others

As Forbes contributor Brian Sutter says, “ Teach, don’t sell …”

“The idea of teaching instead of selling seems to turn marketing on its head, and yet it’s at the core of content marketing. ‘Teach, don’t sell’ is exactly what makes content marketing different from advertising.”

This is a concept that far too many modern-day marketers misunderstand. And it’s why many businesses struggle to differentiate their message through content marketing.

To ensure you’re teaching your audience the right way, Sutter recommends that you:

• Don’t include CTAs that ask readers to buy something in every piece of content
• Focus on your potential customer and what they want to know, not what you want to tell them
• Be generous with the content you offer

Read also: 14 Creative Social Media Contest and Giveaways Ideas That Work

9. Survey, Listen, and Learn

Marketing research plays a crucial role in the success of your small business marketing strategies. After all, if you don’t know the audience you’re marketing to, it’s going to be difficult to communicate with them effectively.

One of the best ways to perform market research is through the use of surveys. To get the most out of this successful marketing strategy, Survey Monkey  recommends that you:

• Define your marketing objectives for the research
• Set timelines
• Segment your audience to determine who receives which survey
• Use proven tools that allow you to collect and analyze data

10. Re-examine Your Landing Pages

One small business marketing tactic that can immediately impact conversions is the focus of your landing pages .

While most conversion experts are quick to recommend that you should always start your B2B marketing campaign with a dedicated landing page, many fail to mention the importance of focusing on a single goal.

For your landing page to succeed, your focus should be on getting your readers to take a single action. After all, if you have 20 links on your landing page, your attention ratio is 5%. With one link, that ratio is 100%.

This simple act of focusing on getting your readers to take one action on each page can do wonders for your conversion rates.

If you aren’t using landing pages to help sell your products or services, you could be missing out on countless potential customers.

11. Stand for Something

A recent McCann study found that 42%  of American consumers believe that brands and companies are less truthful today than they were two decades ago.

Translation: Almost half of all consumers don’t trust modern-day businesses.

With this in mind, standing for something that’s important to both you and your target audience can become a huge differentiation factor. Take, for example, the ALS ice bucket challenge that went viral and raised $220 million for the ALS Association.

Here are a few ways you can do it:

• Sponsor a charitable event
• Join forces with your employees and customers for a fundraising event
• Donate your product/service to a charity event

Read also: Creative Event Marketing Ideas to Get People Excited

12. Leverage Social Media Advertising

Social media and mobile marketing have certainly changed the game as far as how modern-day marketing works.

But while many small businesses focus their efforts on the free and low-cost marketing opportunities that social media platforms offer, ads have also proven effective in driving ROI.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook dominates the world of social media advertising, as over 93% of marketers use some form of Facebook ads in their social media marketing strategy. 

To get the most out of your Facebook ad campaign, there are a few things you’ll want to focus on:

• Ensure that you’re creating an attractive offer
• Track the right KPIs
• Utilize attractive images and/or videos
• Set clear, measurable goals

Or, consider using an ad tool, such as HubSpot’s CRM , to get accurate analytics on your social media ads and determine which ones have the best ROI.

13. Leverage Google’s Local Offerings

As a small business, local Search Engine Optimization can make or break your business.

And while determining the driving forces behind which local businesses rank highest in Google is still somewhat of a mystery, the below graphic from Moz breaks it down in an easy-to-understand way:

By focusing on optimizing local SEO for the above factors, you can quickly position yourself for success in the SERPs.

14. Prioritize Retention

It’s hard to debate the importance of customer retention to the long-term success of your small business.

The probability of selling to an existing customer is approximately 65% , and that of selling to a new customer is about 10-15%. To ensure that more of your customers continue to purchase from you, growth marketer Sujan Patel recommends that you focus on improving your onboarding process .

To do it, Patel says that you should:

• Establish the point where you’re losing customers and focus your efforts there first
• Define your customers’ definition of success and help them achieve it
• Help your customers achieve quick wins
• Create evergreen resources

Read also: 14 Small Business Marketing Truths No One Bluntly Tells You

15. Woo Your Audience

Storytelling is a powerful tool for any marketer. It can drive up conversion rates by as much as 400%. While it can be difficult to measure, there’s little doubt that storytelling can effectively market your business and attract loyal customers.

To do that, Forbes contributor Mike Kappel recommends these essential tips for business storytelling :

• Determine the parameters (who, what, when, where)
• Be completely authentic
• Determine the outcome
• Be consistent
• Allow customers to become part of the story

Read also: Experiential Marketing Ideas for ‘Next Level’ Brand Campaigns

16. Explore Partnerships

Exploring and utilizing partnerships with other small businesses can exponentially boost your business’s revenue potential.

As Entrepreneur contributor Web Smith  points out:

“You can survive alone, but you’ll only really thrive when you plug into the community around you.”

To develop effective partnerships, Smith recommends that you:

• Be upfront about your business
• Ask the right questions
• Focus on partnership opportunities that can be mutually beneficial

17. Enable Your Audience to Get to Know, Like, and Trust You

Webinars have become a go-to marketing strategy for tech businesses with a good digital presence.

However, small businesses that are not so tech-savvy are missing out. With webinars being noted as among the top 5 most successful marketing strategies, you need to take advantage of this trend.

Amy Porterfield uses webinars as a critical component in building her customer base. She says webinars help her audience get to know, like, and trust her.

To borrow from Forbes Contributor Ashley Stahl, a webinar host should :

• Focus on creating amazing content
• Choose a time that’s convenient for your target audience
• Prepare, prepare, prepare

18. Promote a Free Consultation

While it will undoubtedly vary by industry, the conversion rate of offering free consultations makes it one of the most effective small business marketing strategies trending today.

In fact, in some cases, even medical businesses have seen conversion rates as high as 75% when they offer free consultations. Let’s take a look at a few tips to raise the likelihood of turning a lead into a customer through your free consultation:

• Focus on helping the customer and creating a quick win for them
• Ask targeted questions
• Show them why and how you can help them

A free demo goes a long way in clarifying the customer’s doubts and building trust.

19. Bonus Strategy: Write a Column

Writing a column for well-known publications that share your target audience is a great way to drive traffic to your website and generate brand recognition/brand awareness.

Josh Steimle, for example , writes for publications like Forbes, which has provided great leads for his business.

This tactic, which is also known as guest posting , can also help you develop partnerships with businesses and website owners that share your target market.

To succeed with this strategy, Copyblogger  recommends that you:

• Focus on the needs of the editor and column you intend to write for
• Create amazing content
• Become a go-to resource
• Don’t be overly promotional — focus on providing value instead

Marketing Done Right: 10 Amazing Examples of Marketing Strategies

Now that we have seen the four pillars of marketing, we have curated marketing strategy examples with different perspectives to have a deeper understanding of how to develop a marketing strategy.

Keeping It Real: Examples of Marketing Strategies From Big Brands

Let’s hear it from the big brands, shall we?

1. Spotify: Customizing User Experience

Today, the well-known music app Spotify is synonymous with music listening. But, how did this Swedish brand become a huge hit globally among so many streaming music services?

The answer is user experience. Spotify opened a new avenue to listeners by providing a tool to customize their experience with playlists, filtering by genre, and choosing music based on their mood.

Sports also uses AI to understand the user’s listening habits and curate a specific playlist based on these habits to their taste.

This unique approach to an elevated user experience is an effective marketing strategy that has made Spotify a global leader in the music streaming industry.

2. Nike: By You for You

What better way to market your product than your customers themselves?

That is exactly what Nike did with the ‘Nike By You’ social media marketing campaign.  In this innovative approach to developing a marketing strategy, Nike increased 22 % of their revenue through this campaign alone. 

In Nike By You (2015), customers were the designers for the new Nike dunk low. But this approach has been extended today to all their products today.

By allowing a customer to have a unique experience of customizing their own shoes, Nike has provided a fine example of the marketing strategy by making the customer the driver of the campaign.

Nike has used technology to its fullest advantage and focussed on customer-oriented themes to drive the brand’s marketing strategies.

3. GoPro: User-Generated Marketing Campaign

GoPro is a staple name when it comes to mountaineers, athletes, adrenaline junkies, and pretty much anyone who’s on an adventure-seeker. This is due to the unique product, the GoPro camera itself, and the quality of the content it produces.

The best testimony of a product is the user-generated content for the product itself. Now GoPro cameras are popular in recent times due to the number of ordinary people, without filmmaking backgrounds, using them to create stunning content, with great cinematography.

GoPro sought to implement this particular marketing strategy to promote its product on social media. 

With the videos submitted by users themselves, the videos are shared on social media, which inspires more people to shoot stunning videos and post their own content.

 Hence this positive cycle has increased sales and recognition for GoPro and its stunning products. User-generated content for the win!

4. McDonald’s: The ‘Glocal’ Campaign

McDonald’s is everyone’s favorite fast food chain.

We all love it!

But how does McD ensure we all stay lovin’ it?  McDonald’s social media marketing strategy has been well-received globally due to its adaptability to local cuisines. 

As part of their ‘Glocal’ campaign, they have introduced local dishes as part of their extended menus in international outlets.  For example, in the middle east region, McArabia has a specialty ‘McShawarma’ dish, which has been quite a success in local marketing.

This type of localized marketing strategy has helped McDonald’s appeal to a local audience while growing globally as the world’s favorite fast-food chain.

5. Sephora: Winning with Loyalty

Sephora, a well-known cosmetic giant, used the most powerful marketing strategy to its advantage, customer loyalty.  With a well-planned marketing strategic plan, they introduced a loyalty program with different classes of divisions based on points.

Known as the ‘beauty insider’, based on the annual spending of a customer, they are divided into three primary categories.  The highest bracket is extremely lucrative to customers with high-quality incentives and discounts.

This concept of encouraging customers to spend more on their brand in order to get enticing rewards in return has made Sephora successful today.

Small to Success: Small Business Marketing Examples That Made It Big

We know big brands have the resources to pull off some of the best marketing strategies. 

That said, what about small businesses?

1. $1 to $1 Million Success Story: The Grilled Cheese Truck

The grilled cheese truck is a simple small business idea of a food truck serving grilled cheese sandwiches.  The company was initially started in Los Angeles in 2009 and soon expanded across additional markets all over the country.

This B2C food truck became an overnight success with a rapid expansion to three additional markets across two states due to its extensive social media marketing efforts. 

By this quarter of 2014, the company was churning out almost $1 million in sales. 

  Key Notes: The Marketing Strategy Implemented

• Extensive Social media marketing with a steady loyal following to increase visibility.
• Using Social Media to announce locations, discounts, and events. 
• Strategic partnerships with local businesses to increase brand awareness across different regions

2. Impactful Influencer Marketing: My Makeup Brush Set

My Makeup Brush Set, initially a small branch of AN commerce, offers professional makeup brushes at an affordable price range.  Founded in 2014, this brand and concept has steadily grown but failed to reach the most important audience, pool-millennial women.

To target this particular audience profile, they specifically tailored their social media campaigns to teenage girls. Unique, appealing content, creative video marketing efforts, and a direct response campaign were  introduced to increase their visibility. 

They also, very smartly, partnered with key influencers to drive their marketing campaigns even further.  The result – their sales increased manifold and they were able to expand their business to further states and globally. 

Key Notes: The Marketing Strategy Implemented

• Tying with key influencers and staying on trend made the theme known to a wider global audience, both offline and online. 
• With creative videos and targeted ads, specific to a set target profile (women aged 18-35), they were able to increase their revenue and sales exponentially.
• With the help of ‘email marketing’, the brand was constantly in touch with customers and was able to market offers and exclusive promotions, to further strengthen its marketing stronghold.

3. The Cat’s out of the Bag: Content Marketing and Saddleback Leather

Saddleback Leather- a premium leather bag company was already a household name in a few years after its inception. 

But with the advent of the internet, the brand released a strong social media presence that was needed to expand and keep the revenue flowing. With beautiful products to display and promote, a graphical representation wasn’t simply enough.

To tie in with its secure social media presence, the brand started a substantial and steady’ content marketing campaign. Now, content marketing does not mean constant updating and long blog posts. 

Quality, engaging content is needed to be a hit with customers.  Saddleback Leather knew this trick and has done a great job pioneering content marketing to engage with potential customers.

Not only is the content great and attractive, but it also showcases the beauty of its products brilliantly. 

• Strategic content marketing plan that showcases their products with high-quality and engaging content.
• Providing lifetime guarantee for their quality products to build a steady but strong and loyal customer base.
• Using eCommerce to further strengthen their sales and marketing drive.

4. Simple Idea, Unique Execution: John’s Crazy Socks

Who would’ve thought that the simple idea of selling socks could one day make it to Forbes?

John Cronin did!

Started in 2016, John’s Crazy Socks was initially started to raise funds for Down’s syndrome awareness.

But what made this brand a success is how the social media marketing was focused on building a community who could relate to the back story and were inspired to buy the products.  Their tagline ‘Socks that make a difference’ resonated with thousands across the country and eventually around the globe.

To capitalize on this ripple effect, they steadily introduced new creative promotions to encourage new buyers to make the purchase.  

• What made John’s Crazy Socks a crazy night success story is the social media influence and constant engagement with the community of like-minded people itself.
• Paired with social media marketing strategy was the creative promotion such as the ‘sock of the month’ which made the brand even more popular
• A personalized thank you note for each customer addresses a humane touch and strengthens the bond between the customer and the brand, making it unforgettable. 

5. Smartly Tattly: Tattly’s Smart Marketing Strategy

Businesses today, small and big, are constantly facing challenges with competition, market saturation and so many choices for consumers in this digital era. Standing out from the competition is quite challenging and requires a colossal amount of effort.

Tattly, a unique temporary tattoo company, came up with different strategies to make a mark and stand out. Temporary tattoos are often focused on children. But Tattly sought to change the narrative by introducing aesthetic, and beautifully illustrated temporary tattoos for adults as well. 

By branching out in this manner, they were able to expand their brand profile to a much wider audience.  Apart from this proposition they also had a strong content marketing campaign to do the heavy lifting for the beans in terms of furthering their brand awareness.

The role of temporary tattoos for adults is still a niche and Tattly capitalized on this aspect and focussed their marketing efforts on this. 

• Expanding brand awareness and knowledge on temporary tattoos through extensive content marketing
• Using social media campaigns to market to the right audiences, thus further on the reach globally
• Strategic partnerships with artists globally to create unique tattoo designs and market them in the right way.

In this blog post, we have shared with you 18 (actually, 19) of the best marketing strategies of all time. We sincerely hope that you have enjoyed reading and learning from them.

Do you know any other digital marketing strategy not listed here that has proven to work for businesses? If YES, do let us know about it in the comments section below.

Also, please share this post with your colleagues and friends who might find these online marketing strategies helpful too. If you need a free marketing software, remember that EngageBay is designed for novice marketers and small businesses.

This all-in-one email marketing, landing page builder, and customer support software is free to use for a small number of contacts, and super affordable when you scale.

1. What’s a marketing strategy?

Think of it as your business’s game plan for reaching potential customers. It’s all about figuring out who to target, what you want to achieve, and how you’ll reach them across different channels.

2. How do you create a marketing strategy?

Start by researching your market and competitors. Then, set clear goals and track your progress. Choose the marketing methods that resonate with your target audience and fit your budget. Finally, put a timeline together and get moving!

3. Marketing strategy vs plan: What’s the difference?

The strategy is the big picture – your “why” and “what” you want to achieve. The plan dives into the specifics – the “how” you’ll get there, step-by-step.

4. What is a marketing strategist?

They’re the masterminds behind the marketing plan! They research the market, identify who to target, and choose the best tactics to reach your goals. They also keep an eye on how things are going and adjust the plan as needed.

About The Author

Vinay Koshy

4 thoughts on “18 powerful marketing strategies to grow business faster [+ examples]”.

Those are some really great strategies. Better start working hard on those strategies. Thanks

Wow, you have mentioned some of the best marketing strategies..Gonna try some

This article is a goldmine of marketing wisdom. It succinctly presents 18 powerful strategies that can elevate any marketing campaign. Each tip is a gem of insight, offering actionable advice to boost brand visibility and engagement. A must-read for marketers seeking to drive success and stand out in today’s competitive landscape.

It’s uncommon to come around a post that is actually both entertaining as well as informative. You have actually nailed it!

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

15+ Marketing Strategy Examples to Inspire Your Next Campaign

Kristen dahlin.

• November 10, 2022

Table of Contents

Introduction

Marketing Strategy isn’t just about having a website or posting on social media!

It’s a comprehensive plan based on data and customer insights that guide your marketing efforts. Well-planned, good marketing strategies can develop your brand and help you consistently present it across marketing channels.

In this blog we’ll examine real-world marketing strategies examples. We will break down each strategy to show why it works and what the key takeaways are. We have taken examples of content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, paid ads, and more. 

Whether you’re a solopreneur, a startup founder, a seasoned CMO — or somewhere in between — you’ll get actionable insights and clarity to improve your marketing from mere tactics to effective strategies. 

Continue reading to get answers to some of the common marketing strategy questions: 

• Can I skip the strategy and start posting pics on my Instagram channel?
• Does a strategy matter if I have a great product?
• How does a marketing strategy help me sell?
• Isn’t social media enough for marketing?

What is a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy tells you who your ideal customers are, what makes you special, and how to tell them about it. It also picks the best ways to reach people and track results — all while watching your budget. With a good plan, you can share the same message everywhere your customers are, like social media, email, forums, events, or trade shows. Looking at marketing strategy examples of other businesses can give you ideas for your own strategy.

Nine reasons why you need a Marketing Strategy

One may think that marketing strategies are only for big companies. This isn’t true. Having a clear marketing strategy is crucial for your success, no matter your size. Here’s why:

• Focus your resources – You’re juggling multiple roles. Good marketing strategies help you prioritize marketing efforts. Focus on high-impact activities to deliver the best results while saving you time, energy, and money.
• Stand out in a crowded market – A strategy defines your unique selling points, helping you differentiate from competitors and attract your ideal customers.
• Make informed decisions – When new opportunities arise, examples of marketing strategies act as filters. They help you quickly assess whether something aligns with your goals or is a distraction (a.k.a. the new shiny object).
• Build a consistent brand – A strategy ensures your messaging remains consistent across all channels, building trust and recognition with your audience.
• Attract the right customers – A strategy helps you identify and target your ideal clients, leading to better conversions and customer retention.
• Scale your business – A strategy provides a scalable framework. As you grow, it helps you expand your marketing efforts effectively. It ensures teams remain aligned.
• Measure what matters – By setting clear objectives, you can track progress and adjust your approach. This prevents wasting effort on tactics that don’t work for your business.
• Adapt to changes – Markets evolve rapidly. Examples of flexible marketing strategies help you pivot quickly when needed without losing sight of your long-term goals.
• Guide to your marketing plan – A strategy forms the foundation for your marketing plan. It ensures your tactical activities align with your overarching business goals.

Let’s talk more about some examples of marketing strategies to help you learn how you can make the best use of them!

16 Inspiring Marketing Strategy Examples from Top Brands

Successful businesses customize their marketing strategies to their specific needs. Studying examples of successful marketing strategies gives us insights into what may work and what may not. We’ve curated 16 top-brand marketing strategies for your reference.

These examples won’t apply directly to your business, as they target different business marketing goals. Instead, use them as inspiration. To create an effective mix of marketing strategies, consider how to adapt these ideas to your unique strengths, audience (ICP), and budget. 

1. Marriott’s Marketing Strategy Example – Influencer Partnerships

Marriott is the world’s largest hotel chain by room count. It has established a strong market position. To maintain that position and to advance new features and offerings to its guests, the company needs to connect with its audience. One way of connecting with your audience is to partner with people (a.k.a. influencers) who are already influential with that audience.

Marriott’s Marketing Strategy showed us how it is done with an influencer partnership marketing campaign. They partnered with YouTube star Jeana Smith ( @PrankVsPrank ) to celebrate one million check-ins on their mobile app.

They didn’t simply announce the milestone. They threw a huge party for their one-millionth mobile check-in guest at the hotel in Los Angeles. Aside from making that guest’s night much more special, teaming up with Jeana Smith ensured that millions of PrankVsPrank subscribers experienced the special night. This way, Marriott integrated the influencer partnership with a significant brand milestone.

Key Takeaway: Influencer Partnerships are more than simply attaching famous names to your brand. Create an experience that people will want to relate to. Direct endorsements will look like advertisements.

Actionable Tips from Marriott Marketing Strategy Examples. When implementing an influencer marketing strategy, remember these points:

• Identify the right-fit influencers. Their audience persona should match your target audience, and their content and values need to align with your business ethos.
• It’s ok to start small. Begin with low-cost collaborations like social media mentions or product reviews. You can also try user-generated video content (UGC) later.
• Create unique experiences. Offer exclusive events or behind-the-scenes access to influencers. Celebrate milestones together.
• Focus on value. Develop content that benefits the influencer’s audience, not just your brand.
• Measure results. Track website traffic, engagement, and conversion metrics.

PRO TIP: Influencer marketing isn’t exclusive to large corporations. Small businesses and startups can partner with local or domain-specific micro-influencers for targeted impact. Start simple with influencer marketing. Here are some of the tactics that have worked for us at Tailwind:

• Exchange social media mentions with relevant influencers
• Reference influencers in your blog posts or newsletters
• Comment on and share influencers’ content regularly

2. Apple’s Marketing Strategy Example – Cause Marketing

Apple is an innovator in consumer electronics known for iPhones, Macs, and seamless ecosystem integration. With its massive scale of operations, even a small change in processes can have a notable global impact. One such initiative is integrating sustainability into its business.

This has proven to be a key differentiator in the marketing strategy examples we chose. However, Apple’s marketing strategy isn’t just about putting a green label on products or listing eco-friendly features. For instance, they’ve committed to carbon neutrality across their entire business by 2030, including their supply chain and product life cycle. 

They are master storytellers, and this works as a great marketing strategy. They tell stories about the impact, like how they will reduce 75% of all emissions by 2030.

This humor-laced Apple video (“2030 Status | Mother Nature | Apple”) from 2023 has had close to five million views:

They’re not just talking about it; they’re taking concrete steps:

• Using recycled materials in products
• Investing in renewable energy for their facilities
• Creating a $200 million Restore Fund in 2021 to remove carbon from the atmosphere, with an additional top-up of the same amount announced later

Key Takeaways: Apple’s communication style makes for an excellent marketing strategy. The approach goes beyond surface-level “green marketing.”

Actionable Tips from Apple Marketing Strategy Examples. Start by identifying social or environmental issues that align with your brand values and business operations. Then, look for ways to address these issues throughout your business:

• In product design – Can you use more sustainable materials? Reduce packaging?
• In manufacturing – How can you minimize waste and energy use?
• In distribution – Can you optimize logistics to reduce carbon emissions?

Once you’ve made these changes, focus on communicating the concrete impact. Use specific metrics and relatable comparisons instead of generic statements such as “We use recyclable materials.” Tell the story of the impact. Many successful D2C companies have used behind-the-scenes UGC-style videos to tell their audience about the impact, be it environmental or social.

3. Zara’s Marketing Strategy Example – Market Segmentation and Product Positioning

Zara is an international fast-fashion retailer from Spain. It is known to spend little on traditional marketing. 

Instead, Zara focuses on market segmentation and product positioning using the BCG matrix. The BCG (Boston Consulting Group) Matrix helps companies assess product positioning and audience impact. It uses two factors: market growth rate and relative market share.

Each quadrant of the BCG matrix refers to a product category sold by Zara. The most valuable are “stars” — items with high market share and growth rate. Using data, Zara finds out which products fit each category and how they impact its customers. Instead of directly advertising to their audience, they place products exactly where they need to be at in-person stores.

This approach attracts customers to products instead of pushy sales messages and advertisements.

Key Takeaways: This is a textbook marketing strategy example of how it isn’t always about who spends the most on advertising. It’s important to understand what your product means to each part of your audience. Use both qualitative and quantitative techniques to collect insights. Have an understanding of the geographic spread of your customers by segment to target them effectively.

PRO TIP: Pay attention to the language your customers use to describe your products and why they buy from you. Check online reviews and comments. Remember: People buy from people who speak the same language. This marketing strategy will help you in search engine optimization, paid ads, and social media marketing.

4. Amazon’s Marketing Strategy Example – Interactive Advertising

Amazon started as an online bookstore. Today it is a leading global e-commerce and cloud computing company known for its vast product selection, innovative services, customer-centric approach, and fast shipping.

Amazon e-commerce has been investing in more interactive and immersive advertising formats, such as augmented reality (AR) and shoppable video ads. Customers can virtually “try on” products. For example, Amazon’s AR view feature lets customers use their mobile phones to visualize how certain products look in their own space before making a purchase. 

Key Takeaways: Make interested buyers feel closer to the products. Depending on your offering, offer free trials or samples.

Actionable Tips from Amazon Marketing Strategy Examples: Use technology to reduce purchase barriers by answering customer questions and reducing uncertainties around product fit. Use relevant tech applications, interactive demos, and videos. If you are in the restaurant business, read more about creating a restaurant marketing plan .

5. Etsy’s Marketing Strategy Example – Empowering Reseller Partners

Etsy is an e-commerce platform for handmade, vintage, and craft supplies, focusing on unique and personalized items.

Etsy understands the power of digital marketing channels — particularly email — to engage its audience. It believes in more value and no spam. In fact, Etsy offers an entire field guide to email marketing to educate its sellers on best practices for engaging with their customers. This marketing strategy allows Etsy to leverage the individual efforts of its creator community and capture the many niches of its larger audience.

Key Takeaways: Etsy teaches its creators how to use email marketing effectively, which improves overall website traffic. 

Actionable Tips from Etsy Marketing Strategy Examples: You too, can use this Etsy Marketing Strategy . Educate your customers and reseller partners (if you have any) with valuable emails. Include helpful tips, interesting insights, or exclusive offers. Avoid sending spam — especially purely promotional content. Read our guide on how to get started on email marketing .

PRO TIP: Make “ helpfulness” the core theme of your marketing strategy. From TikTok to Instagram to Pinterest and email, people love getting information that will make their lives easier or solve their problems. When your brand does that, you will become a go-to source for your audience, and sales will follow.

Here’s an example of a TikTok post from our ‘Marketing 101’ series, which addresses basic marketing questions:

We realized that our own favorite posts on the “For You” results page were all helpful/actionable tips. So we developed a series of TikToks covering marketing basics.

If paid ads are part of your marketing strategy, don’t forget to reuse organic social content that performs well in your ads campaigns!

6. Airbnb’s Marketing Strategy Example – UGC Marketing

Airbnb is a global online platform that connects travelers with hosts offering short-term home rentals worldwide. Airbnb offers unique stays and rich experiences.

Airbnb encourages guests and hosts to share their unique stay experiences, which can range from heartwarming encounters to cultural exchanges. Airbnb’s marketing strategy focuses on authentic, user-generated content (UGC2) rather than a collage of polished property images. This makes the travel experiences more relatable and inspiring for potential guests. 

Here is one such example (“What a Difference a Day Makes | Countryside”):

Airbnb also uses user-generated content in its social media ads. By showing real people enjoying their stays, Airbnb creates an emotional link with potential guests.

By the way, did you know that showing an ad to a past website visitor is a lot cheaper than showing an ad to a fresh audience? This is called “ads retargeting”. Airbnb uses this marketing strategy. If users have visited the website but have not yet made a reservation, the company can retarget content to those users to encourage them to make their first reservation.

Key Takeaways: Airbnb doesn’t just collect UGC. It curates it to tell its brand story. 

Actionable Tips from Airbnb Marketing Strategy Examples: UGC reduces the need for heavily edited and expensive promotional content. Use it as customer testimonials on your landing pages, paid ads, and social media channels. Use ad retargeting to re-engage website visitors who haven’t converted. Keep users involved with your brand beyond the initial purchase or interaction.

PRO TIP: If your potential customers are on TikTok, consider Tiktok Spark Ads . These enable you to easily advertise existing User Generated Content (UGC) created about your company by other TikTokers! You can als read more on marketing plan examples around tourism businesses.

7. Glossier’s Marketing Strategy Example – Authentic Social Media Content

Glossier, founded by Emily Weiss in 2014, is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty & cosmetics brand. 

The startup challenged traditional beauty standards and norms through innovative marketing and product offerings. For example, many brands in the same space rely on heavily edited images for social media and ads. But Glossier opts for a more realistic approach, featuring real people in their everyday lives. Their tagline, “Beauty products inspired by real-life”, is reflected in their content strategy, too. Their ethos of “Skin First. Makeup Second™” helps them connect with their target audience.

Actionable Tips from Glossier Marketing Strategy Examples:

• Be realistic and relatable: Heavily edited and picture-perfect imagery looks like an advertisement. People run away from ads.
• Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC): Glossier reposts customer content, turning satisfied customers into micro-influencers. This strategy drives online sales and traffic.
• Have a Content-Creator Mindset: Glossier publishes interviews, tutorials, and beauty tips, maintaining its roots as a content creator. Early on, it focused on one channel: Instagram. This allowed it to gain 13,000 followers before launching its first product! 

PRO TIP: Instead of trying to be present on all the social media platforms all the time, focus on one distribution platform when you start — say Linkedin or Instagram. Read more about our views on Instagram Strategy that really work, and start building your social capital. At the same time, remember these Don’ts for your social media marketing strategy .

8. Disney’s Marketing Strategy Example – Transform Pain Points with Gamification

Disney is an iconic entertainment giant with a vast portfolio spanning movies, TV, streaming services, theme parks, consumer products, and digital media.

One of Disney’s marketing strategies is the “Play Disney Parks” mobile app. It enhances the overall theme park experience for visitors. The app offers a variety of interactive features, puzzles, trivia, and games that park visitors can access while waiting in the queues, transforming “wait time into playtime.”

Key Takeaways: This Disney Marketing Strategy Example shows us how we should find ways to make typically unenjoyable aspects of your service (like waiting or form fill-up) more engaging. 

Actionable Tips from Disney Marketing Strategy Examples: Search for a SaaS product that allows you to gamify your customers’ interaction with you on your website. The aim of the gamification is to enhance, not distract, your users from your main product or service and you from your core operations. The gamification should feel like a natural extension of your brand experience.

9. Balenciaga’s Marketing Strategy Example – Meme Baiting

Balenciaga is considered a very expensive luxury fashion brand. Naturally, one of its challenges is to target a wider audience beyond its traditional wealthy clientele.

One of the Balenciaga Marketing Strategies that worked was “meme-baiting”. Balenciaga has deliberately created products that are intentionally absurd, unconventional, and “meme-worthy” in nature. They are priced unbelievably high. These outrageous, seemingly nonsensical products are designed to spark conversations, memes, and social media engagement around the brand.

For example, look at this Balenciaga’s $1290 “t-shirt shirt”:

People started sharing about it online. The more people saw this outrageously expensive ridiculous product, the more popular the campaign became. Quickly, many people became willing to spend upwards of a thousand dollars! Why? Because people spend money on things that give them online attention through exclusivity (and bragging rights).

Key Takeaways: The brand understands that any engagement, whether positive or negative, can still drive awareness and keep Balenciaga top-of-mind among consumers.

Actionable Tips from Balenciaga Marketing Strategy Examples: Occasionally, create content that’s surprising or counterintuitive within your industry. Try meme-driven content or a self-ridiculing video that indirectly praises your product or services. Encourage user-generated content and discussions. The engagement loop will increase its reach on the platform. Read more on how to get started with your Social Media Marketing Strategy .

10. Sephora’s Marketing Strategy Example: Micro-influencer collaborations

Sephora is a leading global beauty retailer. It offers a wide range of high-quality cosmetics, skincare, and fragrance products. It is known for its wide range of brands and interactive store experiences in the beauty industry.

Their #SephoraSquad influencer program is an inspiring marketing strategy example. Instead of chasing celebrities with millions of followers, Sephora built a network of beauty enthusiasts with smaller but highly engaged followings. They select a group of diverse influencers annually, providing them with exclusive products, behind-the-scenes access, and opportunities to create content. Around 68 members were selected from 16,000+ applications in 2023!

Here is a video with a #SephoraSquad member, Ashley West: 

Key Takeaway: Influence isn’t just about numbers — it’s about trust and engagement. A micro-influencer with high engagement is often more valuable than a macro-influencer with low engagement.

11. Nordstrom’s Marketing Strategy Example – Social Media Retargeting

Nordstrom is a high-end department store, celebrated for fashion-forward collections and exceptional customer service.

Nordstrom saw the opportunity to integrate its two social media platforms (Instagram and Pinterest) to help sell its products in-store and online. The same content was shared on both platforms. 

The strategy they chose is called Retargeting — a way of showing visitors content on social media or your website based on the content they had previously seen on your website.

Nordstrom understood their customers’ journey from discovery on social media to purchase. They designed the journey to improve the chances of a visitor or customer returning for more later.

For example, many audiences seek inspiration on social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to help them find what interests them. If they come across a brand’s content while browsing social media, they may search for it later in an organic traffic channel like Google. And if search ads are part of your marketing budget, you can capture the people who are searching for terms related to your brand.

Key Takeaways: What makes this marketing strategy example stand out is platform integration, online-to-offline redirection, and multi-touchpoint engagement.

Actionable Tips from Nordstrom’s Marketing Strategy Examples: Meet your target audience where they spend time. Invest effort in understanding your customers’ online search journey across multiple platforms. 

PRO TIP: Don’t limit your retargeting efforts to social media. Integrate your strategy with search engine marketing to capture users who discover your brand on social platforms and later search for related terms. This multi-channel approach can significantly increase your conversion rates.

12. Starbucks Marketing Strategy Example: Data-driven Personalization

Starbucks is a global coffee shop chain known for its premium coffee, diverse menu, and distinctive brand experience. 

Starbucks’ marketing strategy goes beyond personalizing a customer’s cup with their name. They’ve created a data-driven ecosystem that delivers highly tailored experiences at scale. 

The core of Starbucks’ marketing strategy is its mobile app and rewards program. It’s not just a digital loyalty card; it’s a personalized marketing channel. Starbucks leverages customer data from the app, such as purchase history and preferences, to offer personalized product recommendations and targeted offers.

They send targeted offers based on customers’ usual order times and locations. They also use push notifications to alert customers about new products they’re likely to enjoy based on past purchases. 

But there’s more to these marketing strategy examples. This data helps in the backend operations, too — especially their product development and inventory management teams. For instance, they might introduce a new drink flavor in stores where customers have shown a preference for similar tastes. You can see regular Instagram posts on new launches:

Key Takeaway: Effective personalization is about creating a customer experience across the entire customer journey. The broad activities include:

• Collect and analyze customer data from multiple channels and touchpoints
• Segment your audience (ICP) based on behavior, preferences, and demographics
• Test different personalization strategies and continuously refine them based on results

13. Allbirds Marketing Strategy Example – Cause Marketing with Impact Reporting

Allbirds is a sustainable footwear brand known for comfort, eco-friendly materials, and minimalist design.

Like many other companies using the sustainability theme, they use it too. Their motto is: “ Reducing the carbon footprint of our products is at the heart of everything we do. ” 

However, they do something differently: They share regular reports on their sustainability initiatives. This shows what they did and the impact of their initiatives, promoting transparency and building trust with environmentally conscious consumers.

Actionable Steps from Allbirds Marketing Strategy Example: If you are using the Cause Marketing strategy (environment or social), regularly update about the progress you have made. If possible, quantify it. Similarly, if your product/service makes a real difference in users’ lives, highlight this through video or text testimonials.

14. Dior’s Marketing Strategy Example – Diverse Influencer Campaign

Dior is a luxury fashion house from France, part of the largest luxury group in the world, LVMH. To celebrate the launch of Dior’s Forever Foundation product line, the company decided to present an ambassador for each of the 67 new foundation shades.

They chose influencers to be these ambassadors, and they created content that was later shared on Dior’s social media channels. The campaign launched with the goal of representing the world’s diversity.

When considering all the influencers together, the impact of 67 Shades of Dior campaign was: 

• Total audience reach: 2.66 million
• Impressions: 1.85 million
• Engagements: 591,000

One surprising fact about this Instagram Influencer marketing campaign was that 72% of the generated content was repurposed on owned channels and used as shoppable assets.

Key Takeaways: 67 Shades of Dior connected emotionally with a large audience. Engaging audiences with real-world social issues is a powerful marketing strategy. Dior was able to reach a wider audience that could relate to their new products.

Actionable Tips from Dior’s Marketing Strategy Examples: If your marketing budget allows for it, use multiple influencers to represent different customer segments. In general, embrace diversity in your campaigns, be it display ads or user-generated video content.

15. BuzzFeed’s Marketing Strategy Example – User-Driven Content Customization

BuzzFeed is a digital media company known for news, entertainment, and commerce content.

Their clever marketing strategy lets you pick exactly what you want to read. Love cooking? There’s a newsletter for that. Fashion enthusiast? They’ve got you covered. News junkie? You’re all set. You decide what lands in your inbox and how often. For example, “Buzzfeed Shopping” newsletter has 3 updates per week. This is a marketing strategy example demonstrating the effectiveness of user-driven email content optimization.

BuzzFeed’s marketing strategy segments its audience by interests — particularly in email campaigns. They offer users choices in newsletter content and frequency. Users can select from various newsletter options, such as shopping, cooking recipes, style tips, news, and learning courses. This approach (a) delivers content users want, and (b) enables targeted, effective promotions. 

Key Takeaways: Delivering relevant content to diverse audiences is challenging. BuzzFeed solved this by letting users choose content categories. This method allows BuzzFeed to learn about audience preferences and cater to various niches within its readership. Actionable Tips from Buzzfeed’s Marketing Strategy Example: For small businesses, email marketing can seem daunting but is valuable. Consider using AI-powered email copywriting tools to write part or all of the content for you. Tailwind’s Ghostwriter includes a full suite of AI-powered email copywriting.

16. Twitch Marketing Strategy Example – Using FOMO

Twitch is a live video streaming platform popular for gaming, e-sports, and creative content. Twitch has positioned itself as “ the ultimate influencer marketing based service ”.

The live, real-time nature of Twitch content can generate a sense of urgency and scarcity. The platform has an in-built FOMO element (Fear Of Missing Out). Twitch-exclusive content creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity. Viewers know they can’t find this content elsewhere, encouraging them to engage regularly with your brand on the platform. 

Brands can leverage features like limited-time offers, flash sales, and countdown timers to drive immediate action. Twitch also enables brands to create interactive experiences through features like chat, polls, and mini-games. This approach increases audience participation and engagement.

Key Takeaways: FOMO drives engagement and action in marketing. It creates urgency, encouraging quick decisions. In product platforms, limited-time offers or exclusive features can spark interest. For outreach and email, time-sensitive content or special invitations can increase open rates and conversions. FOMO motivates customers to act promptly.

PRO TIP: When building your marketing strategy, think about ways to increase FOMO for your audience. This is especially effective for Bottom of the Funnel campaigns like sales or special offers. Don’t be shy to remind your audience that time is running out!

At Tailwind, our marketing team includes a “last chance” message whenever we have a special offer. We have tested the results over time, and offers that include this kind of urgency always perform better than those that don’t.

“ I used to hate adding urgency to our marketing campaigns ,” says Susan Moeller, Tailwind’s marketing director. “ But our data has convinced me that keeping an eye on FOMO is good for our bottom line. Now, it’s a big part of our marketing strategy .”

Here is a sample image:

How to Measure the Success of Your Marketing Strategy

Measuring the success of a marketing strategy tells you what works and what doesn’t. You can then decide where to put your time, energy, and money. Internally, you can justify marketing spend and prove ROI to stakeholders. Here’s a series of questions you need to ask yourself to create a system of measuring the success of your marketing strategy:

1. What’s the first step in measuring marketing strategy success?

Start with clear, specific goals tied to business objectives. For example, “Increase qualified leads using organic traffic by 30% next quarter” is better than “Improve lead generation.” This specificity of lead type, source, increase %, and timeline makes measurement more straightforward and actionable.

2. How does one choose the right metrics to track?

Metrics help you decide if you need to do more or less of any activity to reach your goals. For example, if your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is $200 and customer lifetime value (CLV) is $1200, you can increase ad spend on acquiring customers. The right metrics give you a comprehensive view of marketing performance across various channels and stages.

3. What are the key metrics businesses should consider?

There are many. Each business must decide on its own list of relevant metrics. Focus on customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), return on ad spend (ROAS), and organic traffic growth. Also, track engagement rates, lead quality, and sales cycle length. Here is a list of metrics to track social media performance .

4. How do you balance short-term metrics with long-term strategy?

Set both short-term and long-term KPIs. Monitor immediate results like click-through rates and leads, and track how long the customer stays or how frequently the customer uses your product or service over time.

5. How often should businesses review these metrics?

Review high-level metrics monthly and granular data weekly. This balance allows for timely adjustments without getting lost in daily fluctuations. Conduct quarterly deep dives to assess overall strategy effectiveness. Compare month-over-month (MoM) and quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) data, paying attention to seasonal and festive trends, as well as industry benchmarks.

6. What tools are recommended for tracking these metrics?

Each business needs to decide on the tech stack for tracking marketing metrics. For website data, use Google Analytics and Google Search Console, native analytics for social platforms, and CRM systems for sales data. If you are a large enterprise, use data visualization tools like Power BI or Tableau.

7. What are the common mistakes in measuring marketing success?

Focusing on vanity metrics such as likes and social media followers. Followers and future buyers may not be the same. If your buyers are from the US, tracking overall site traffic (including non-US countries) can mislead you. Don’t overlook qualitative data. Customer surveys, reviews, testimonials, and social media comments can provide valuable insights into sentiment and brand perception. Ensure that you’re measuring true causation, not just correlation. 

The key is to start simple. Remember: progress matters more than perfection. You can iterate as your understanding evolves.

Marketing Strategy vs Marketing Plan vs Marketing Tactics

Many marketers confuse marketing strategy, plans, and tactics. Let’s understand the differences.

A marketing strategy is your high-level approach to achieving business goals through marketing. It outlines who you’re targeting (a.k.a. ICP), what makes you unique, and how you’ll position yourself in the market.

A marketing plan is more detailed. It’s the roadmap for executing your strategy. It includes specific campaigns, timelines, and budgets. It includes specific and measurable goals, timeframes, budget, distribution channels, and key metrics to measure.

Marketing tactics are specific actions within a strategy, designed to achieve short-term goals.  They’re the day-to-day individual marketing activities like creating social media posts or running ads. Other activities may include content creation (blog posts, videos, podcasts), email campaigns and webinars.

Let’s take an example of how these three work together. Let’s say your strategy is to position your software as the most user-friendly solution for small businesses. Your plan might include a content marketing campaign showcasing ease of use. Tactics would be writing blog posts, creating how-to videos, and sharing user testimonials. Think of them this way:

• The strategy is the “why” and “who.”
• The plan is the “what” and “when.”
• The tactics are the “how.”

If you want to know more about how to create a marketing plan, check out our 30-Minute Marketing Plan . It’s a quick and practical guide to get you started on building an effective marketing plan.

Final Thoughts: Build Your Own Marketing Strategy!

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution in marketing. The marketing strategy examples we have shared with you should guide you in creating your own marketing strategy.

To choose your marketing channels, you need to figure out where your audience spends time. Don’t be afraid to start simple. Refer to our 80:20 rule of content strategy when you start. Your marketing strategies can evolve as your business grows and you gain more insights about your market and customers.

If you’re looking to make the process of setting up your marketing campaign even easier, consider using social media management tools like Tailwind to help you schedule and optimize your content for your audience!

Related Posts

36 Pinterest Influencers To Follow

The best way to gain experience and avoid pitfalls – is to learn from someone else. With Pinterest standing at

Pinterest Content Best Practices — from Pinterest’s UK Team

As part of Tailwind’s ongoing Partnership with Pinterest, we recently got to sit down with Michelle Pinchard, Pinterest Strategic Partner

Tailwind vs. Hootsuite

Easy as 1, 2, 3: Back-to-School Marketing on Pinterest

Latest post.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Find out about great deals on Tailwind plans, new blog posts, and invitation only events. Subscribe to our emails today. 

Share this post with your friends

MARKETING INSIGHTS

Marketing plan template: step-by-step guide plus examples

• Merav Kanat
• Feb 21, 2021
• 12 min read

If you have a business you want to promote, there are so many directions you can go with your marketing efforts - build your own website , post on social media, send out email blasts and more. With a plethora of both free and paid options for promoting your business online, marketing has become easy and accessible for everyone.

Still, it’s no secret that marketing requires time and money. You’ll need to use your resources wisely if you want to scale efficiently and have a high return on investment. For that reason, it’s wise to avoid haphazard promotional efforts, and come up with a marketing plan: a cohesive operation that aligns all your marketing efforts and directly ties back to your business’s goals.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to create a marketing plan - including a template you can use to write your own. By outlining your objectives as a company, defining your KPIs , and then unifying your marketing strategies accordingly, this type of plan streamlines your promotional efforts and yields results.

Start building your online presence with Wix .

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a roadmap that helps you manage, implement and track your various marketing efforts. In other words, it’s a structured framework that links together all your marketing activities into a single, cohesive operation.

Typically, a marketing plan takes the form of a report that gives an overview of your marketing strategy for the upcoming year, quarter or month. The report defines your company’s goals over a given period of time, and clearly outlines the steps you’ll need to take to achieve them. It's an essential part of any SMBs marketing efforts.

Here’s just a taste of what a marketing plan includes:

An analysis of your competitors and your stance in the market

A description of your target audience and their needs

Your company’s unique selling proposition

An overview of your marketing and advertising goals

A timeline of the various tasks that need to be completed

The key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’ll be tracking to measure success

Creating a marketing plan is the most efficient way to generate demand for your product. Whether you’re running an online T-shirt store, working as a business consultant, or launching a blog for moms, mapping out your strategy in advance will help you drive people through the marketing funnel and get customers.

Types of marketing plans

Before we dive into the specific elements of a marketing plan template, let’s briefly touch on the different types of marketing plans, which can vary depending on your company. They include:

Annual, quarterly or monthly marketing plan: Marketing plans are typically annual, but they can be quarterly or monthly depending on your business’s goals. This type of plan will highlight all your promotional activities within the specified period of time.

New product launch marketing plan: This is a specific type of marketing plan that focuses on the strategies and tactics you’ll use to promote a particular product.

Social media marketing plan: This kind of marketing plan provides a comprehensive outline of your goals, channels, and tactics for promoting your business on social media.

Content marketing plan: Similarly, this type of plan provides a comprehensive outline of your various content marketing strategies and goals.

Media marketing plan: This focuses on building a strategy using all media types: owned media (your own website, app or email marketing tools), paid media (advertising campaigns), and earned media ( word of mouth marketing , organic traffic, viral content) to support an integrated marketing approach.

In this article, we’ll talk about the broadest type of marketing plan. This will outline all of your small business marketing efforts and help you map out a clear strategy.

Using this marketing plan as a guide, you can then create more specific plans - such as a content marketing or social media marketing plan - based on the areas you want to focus on.

How to create a marketing plan in 7 steps

Analyze your market and competition

Research your target audience

Set goals and KPIs

Write a unique selling proposition

Choose strategic marketing channels

Brief your team

Monitor your analytics

01. Analyze your market and competition

The first step in writing a marketing plan is to identify your competitors. This is important so that you know who you’ll be marketing against, and how you can outshine them with your promotional strategy.

Take into account that different competitors will be stronger in different areas. Your biggest competitor on social media, for instance, might be different from your competitor with the best SEO.

With that in mind, do a SWOT analysis of your competition. Using this acronym - which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats - gives you a systematic way to identify your competitors’ performance in your field:

Strengths: What are the competitors’ advantages in the industry? What are they excelling in?

Weaknesses: What could this company be doing better? What processes of theirs could be improved?

Opportunities: Are there any new trends or upcoming events that are relevant to your industry? Identify them, and seize the marketing opportunity before your competition does.

Threats: Are there external factors such as new government regulations, declining customer interest, or industry shifts that are threats to your competitors’ success? If so, find a way to navigate these threats and avoid making the same mistakes as your competition.

Even if you’ve already done a SWOT analysis in the past, it’s important to reassess the playing field as you write your marketing plan. In particular, anticipate whether anything new is about to happen in the coming year or quarter, such as a change in government policy or the emergence of a new competitor in your market.

And, of course, keep an eye out for niches your competitors haven’t gotten to yet. For instance, if you’re selling products to new moms, a SWOT analysis might reveal that none of your competitors are creating products for new dads. In this case, that would be an opportunity for you to expand your audience, attract new customers, and grow your revenue.

As you create your SWOT analysis, use this free SWOT analysis template to guide you, and make it a part of your marketing plan:

02. Research your target audience

Just as you research your competitors, you’ll need to look into your target audience . This is the specific group of people at which your product or service is aimed - and, as such, they’re the primary audience of your marketing strategy.

If you’re unsure of who your target audience is, there are a few different ways to gather this information. First, think about which needs your product fulfills and which types of people it caters to. You can also use your SWOT analysis to point you in the right direction. Look at competitors’ websites, blogs and social media channels to determine the types of people they’re marketing to.

To hone in on your audience even further, analyze your existing customers to understand which kinds of people you’ve attracted in the past. Talk to your current and potential customers as much as you can. Get their feedback, use focus groups, and analyze the data to figure out their shared behaviors and characteristics:

Age: Does your product seek to address the needs of people of a certain age - for example, older adults or millennials?

Location: Are your target customers within a specific country or region? Where are they, and what languages do they speak?

Spending power: How much money are your target customers able to spend? Are they seeking out luxury, or could money be an issue when deciding whether to purchase?

Stage of life: Can you identify your target customers based on their stage of life, such as new parents, college students or retirees?

Hobbies and career: Can you group them based on certain hobbies, career paths, or other lifestyle interests?

Track this information in an orderly way by creating buyer personas , or detailed descriptions of specific types of customers. Each buyer persona should reflect both existing or potential customers, based on the factors above: demographics, location, job title and more.

Be sure to include this information at the beginning of your marketing plan, side-by-side your SWOT analysis, to provide a thorough assessment of the market in which your company is operating. Ultimately, these various audience types will represent customer segments - groups of people you can target with different marketing materials depending on their interests.

03. Set your goals and KPIs

Next, set your business’s goals. What do you want to achieve next quarter? How about by the end of this year? 5 years from now?

The more ambitious the goal, the more time, effort and money you should dedicate to it. Determine each goal, and break it down into small steps, either by month, quarter or year, depending on your time frame. Not only will this help you build a clear timeline, but it will also help you allocate your budget.

Once you divide up your big goals into small goals, consider how to measure them. In other words, how will you know whether you’re meeting your goals, or falling short?

This is where KPIs - key performance indicators - come into play. Essentially, KPIs are the specific metrics used to monitor your progress in achieving your goals.

For instance, if you want to create an active online forum for pop music creators, then your KPIs should be site visits, your number of active visitors, and your number of returning visitors. Your position in Google search results for niche keywords, such as “pop music creator” or “music production software,” would also be a relevant KPI.

Whichever KPIs you choose, include them in your marketing plan alongside your goals and write down the metrics you’ll use to measure your success. For example, if your KPI is to make more sales, you might want to track metrics like lead generation and conversion rate .

By checking your achievements every quarter compared to your KPIs, you’ll learn about the pace and abilities of your businesses. If you achieve your KPIs relatively easily, you can set more ambitious goals. On the other hand, if you’re falling short of your KPIs, you might consider recruiting more people to help you get there.

04. Write a unique selling proposition

If you were to give a 30-second marketing spiel to a potential customer, what would you say? Come up with a statement that would appeal to your target audience’s interests and increase demand for your business.

If you’re already a market leader that offers high-quality products, you can claim that you’re “the best solution for” a particular need. On the other hand, if you’re still a relatively small player in the market, you can position yourself as being innovative and groundbreaking - the brand that offers fresh, modern solutions. Many smaller businesses tend to find that creative, funny, or even unorthodox branding gives them the attention boost they need from their audience.

When targeting multiple audiences, you may find it challenging to create a single message that resonates with everyone. One tip for attracting many types of customers at the same time is to create slightly different messages for each buyer persona. Going back to the product lines for new moms and dads, you may find that you need to split your messaging between a few different customer types:

New moms: Target them with the message that they need high-quality products for their babies.

New moms who want their spouse to be involved in childcare: Target them with a new message that they’d have more time to relax if their spouse also used the product.

New dads: Target them with a different message that these products can help them become good fathers and supportive partners.

Be sure to record this messaging in your marketing plan so that you can use it throughout your various promotional efforts.

05. Choose strategic marketing channels

Once you come up with your core messages, decide which marketing strategies you’ll use to spread the word. There’s an abundance of options here, both paid and free. Some popular paid channels include:

Social media ads (Facebook, Instagram and more)

Online ads on other sites

Press releases

Partnerships with other companies

Outreach marketing

Guerilla marketing

Email campaigns

Offline media such as magazine, billboard and radio ads

Facebook ads are a particularly effective option because they reach almost every type of audience and can be targeted based on demographics and interests. They’re fairly simple to make, especially if you already have a Facebook business page. And, depending on your website platform, you can even create Facebook ads directly through your site .

Paid channels are a reliable choice, but it’s also worthwhile to couple these efforts with free promotional options as well. These take a little more time to develop, but they’re also a valuable way to get more exposure and build a loyal audience. They include popular inbound marketing tactics such as:

Website SEO

Creating company social media pages

Being active in online forums and Facebook groups

When choosing what channels to use, it’s important to think about which ones will actually reach your target audience. If you’re marketing to elderly folks, for instance, then Instagram ads may not be the way to go.

Similarly, build a strategy for the timeline of your campaigns. Take into account any holidays and other special events, such as elections or the Super Bowl, that you can use to your advantage when crafting marketing content.

And remember - not all your campaigns will be planned in advance. You’ll need to set aside budget for on-the-fly campaigns, also known as real-time marketing (RTM). This involves taking advantage of precious opportunities like global events and new internet trends. For instance, the January 2021 Bernie Sanders meme was a great chance for companies to get easy attention, earn free media coverage, and go viral. Ikea even used the meme to promote its folding chair and oven mitts.

Pro tip: Once you’ve established the right channels and timeline, you may be eager to launch your campaigns right away - especially if unexpected marketing opportunities arise. Resist the temptation until you’re absolutely sure your product is ready, with at least 85% positive feedback from users. Asking for a second chance will cost you much more than nailing a great impression the first time around.

06. Brief your team

One of the main reasons to create a marketing plan is to develop a unified operation that your whole marketing department can participate in. For this reason, it’s critical that you keep everyone in the loop.

Update your marketing team, as well as the suppliers that create the marketing materials for you. The best way to ensure everyone is aligned is to create a marketing brief - a one-page document that summarizes the market research, company goals, messaging, and action items established in your plan.

You can use the marketing brief template below to create a quick, efficient overview of your plan. It includes guiding questions to help you analyze your competitors, determine your target audience, identify your KPIs, and craft a compelling company message. Fill out this document, and share it with anyone who works with you so that they’re on the same page about your strategy and goals:

07. Monitor your analytics

Once you start implementing your marketing campaigns, you’ll need to closely monitor the results. To ensure your strategy is effective, continuously track your KPIs and see how the numbers stack up against your goals. That will allow you to adapt the marketing plan based on the goals you’re achieving and those you aren’t. Customer analytics can help you in this process.

There are two places to monitor analytics: Google Analytics and your website.

Google Analytics can easily be connected to your company website, and it’s a helpful way to track your site visitors and evaluate the performance of marketing campaigns.

Wix Analytics is another useful tool that provides a comprehensive analysis of your performance, and it’s conveniently located within the Wix website dashboard. This tool allows you to create custom audiences based on their demographics, geographic location, or other defining features, and you can access it directly from your website.

Using these two tools, look at the data. If the numbers indicate that you aren’t meeting your objectives, brainstorm action items for how to improve. If, for instance, you notice that some of your website visitors are located in Europe, try creating a multilingual website; it may just help convert them into customers. Likewise, if you’re getting traffic to your website or blog but are lacking in conversions, try creating content campaigns around specific products.

Don’t be discouraged if, after two quarters, you aren’t reaching your goals. This happens to the best of us, and it’s simply an indicator that you’ll need to refine your marketing plan and go back to Step 1.

Marketing plan template

Now that you know how to create a marketing plan, use this marketing plan template to walk you through the process. It’s free for download and use, and can easily be adapted for any business.

Marketing plan examples

While the marketing plan template above provides you with everything you need, it may also be helpful to look at other examples for inspiration. If you’re seeking additional resources, use these marketing plan examples to guide you:

01. Marketing Plan Template from SBA

The Small Business Administration provides a highly detailed marketing plan template that can be downloaded as a PDF and easily adapted to suit your company. The plan covers all the must-haves, like an explanation of your products and an analysis of your target market, but it supplements those with finer details like location analysis and product packaging.

02. Marketing Plan Template Generator from HubSpot

Unlike most marketing plan examples, this isn’t a file that you print out and fill in. Instead, it’s an online generator - a fill-in-the-blank template that walks you through the creation process page-by-page. The generator feels almost like an AI bot, asking you to fill in your name and then replying “Awesome! It’s great to meet you, [Name]!” This is a great way to make the marketing plan process more dynamic and fun.

03. Marketing Plan Microsoft Word Template from More Business

The advantage of More Business’s marketing plan template is that it’s downloadable for Microsoft Word, allowing you to fill in each section directly on the document. The document not only contains different strategies that you can use to inspire your own marketing efforts, but it also comes with examples of tables and charts for your marketing plan.

04. One-Page Marketing Plan Template from SmartSheet

This template is available for download on Microsoft Word, Google Docs and SmartSheet, but we particularly like that it’s available as an Excel version. As a one-pager, it’s short and sweet - ideal for getting your marketing plan started without getting lost in too much detail from the beginning. It’s a helpful sheet for brainstorming, or for summarizing your marketing plan once it’s complete.

05. Marketing Plan Slide Deck Template from Slidesgo

This marketing plan template comes in yet another format - an attractive slide deck that’s downloadable for both PowerPoint and Google Slides. This includes all the essentials, but in a more visual format, making it a useful asset for turning your marketing plan into a presentation.

Related Posts

What is the marketing funnel and how does it work?

Marketing automation and how it can boost your business

Best marketing automation software of 2024

Was this article helpful?

How to write a marketing plan for your small business

11-minute read

Catriona Smith

• post on Facebook (Opens in New Tab)
• post on Twitter (Opens in New Tab)
• post on LinkedIn (Opens in New Tab)

A marketing plan will help you reach customers and promote your products or services.

Read our guide to writing a marketing plan for your business and download a free marketing plan template to get you started. We’ll cover:

What is a marketing plan?

• How to write a marketing plan
• How to develop a go-to-market strategy
• Marketing ideas for hair and beauty businesses
• Marketing ideas for trades businesses
• Marketing ideas for cleaners
• How to market your business on a budget

A marketing plan is a document that lets you establish and track your marketing strategy (or strategies) over a period of time.

Let’s say you want to launch a new product or service. While some businesses might develop these first and then consider marketing as an afterthought, a marketing plan helps you make marketing part of the entire process – and make smarter decisions along the way.

You could have a marketing plan that details the overarching marketing strategy for your business, or you might have individual marketing plans outlining different strategies for different goals.

Write a marketing plan that’s concise, easy-to-read, and compelling to help get people on board with your strategy – whether they’re team members or investors.

But how to create a marketing strategy in the first place? And what should be included in a marketing plan?

Marketing plan template

Whether you run your business on your own or have a team of people helping, a marketing plan gets you thinking about growth objectives and helps you come up with the best ways to achieve them.

Download your free, editable marketing plan template to create your own marketing plan.

How to write a marketing plan – step-by-step

Follow these marketing plan steps to turn your ideas into action – and start growing your business.

1. Work out your goal(s)

It doesn’t matter whether you call it your mission, your goal or your objective. You should define what you want to achieve before planning how to get there.

You can do this by developing your marketing goals based on your overall business objectives.

The best way to approach this is to have SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This makes sure you know where you’re going and, importantly, when you’ve achieved your aims.

Once you have your goals, you can work backwards to create more manageable steps and small goals to reach your main goal.

For example, if you run a vegan café one of your objectives might be to get more people to try vegan dishes. So, your marketing goal would be to increase footfall to your café – which should have an impact on your sales. From there, you can come up with specific numbers that you can measure over time.

2. Who are you targeting?

Some people won’t be interested in your product or service, despite all the money and time you spend trying to attract them. That makes targeting the right audience essential – and a key question to answer in your marketing plan.

You should think along the lines of age, gender, location, how much money they earn and any other demographics you think could be important.

In the vegan café example, younger people may be more likely to go vegan . So you could build a customer persona around someone who’s grown up eating meat but is becoming more interested in vegetarianism and veganism. Where does that person live? What would attract them to your café?

This can get psychological as you work out what marketing and messaging your target audience will respond to.

3. Research and analyse

You’re not working in a vacuum. You have competitors – they may be bigger or have more experience in the market, so you should detail what they’re currently doing with their marketing.

This will help you identify winning strategies that you might be able to replicate. But it’ll also help you understand the differences between your competitor’s marketing mission and what you hope to achieve – helping to plug the gap between the two businesses.

Read more: How to do competitor analysis

Another vital part of a marketing plan is a SWOT analysis . SWOT stands for:

• opportunities

You should do a SWOT analysis based on your marketing goals. You can complete this as a grid with four boxes, filling it in with bullet points for each section.

Your detailed market research should also include industry trends and opportunities for your business to stand out.

To help you gather your research, you could try:

• customer surveys
• focus groups
• pricing analysis

Our guide to pricing a product has more information on setting the right price to make money.

4. Explain your strategy

This is the section where you explain the strategies and initiatives you’re going to use to reach your goals. It’s also a good point to note down what makes your business stand out from your competitors – these are your unique selling points (USPs).

Have a think about which marketing channels best suit your aims. Here are some examples of different marketing channels:

• your website
• social media
• email marketing
• content marketing (think brand content , blogs and search engine optimisation, or SEO for short, and videos )
• word-of-mouth marketing
• pay-per-click (PPC for short)
• print advertising
• billboard advertising

Digital marketing is a key tool in today’s modern world. Trends and best practices can change frequently, so it’s important to keep up to date with the latest industry developments .

As part of your marketing planning process, you should think about the messaging you’re putting across through your marketing channels to attract customers. What problems are you solving for your target audience? What’s different about your product or service? And how do existing customers rate you?

Our ultimate guide to marketing your business includes everything you need to know about advertising and channels you can use to promote your business.

5. Measuring performance

You won’t know if your strategy’s working if you’re not measuring performance. This goes back to the numbers mentioned in point one.

Lots of businesses use key performance indicators – or KPIs – to measure the effectiveness of their marketing. You might also hear these called ‘metrics’.

It sounds like jargon, but they’re useful when tracking how you’re doing over time. Some KPIs you could set include:

• growth in sales
• growth in website visitors
• social media likes, shares, or engagement

6. Consider the admin

Budgeting , processes, who’s going to be involved (the stakeholders – this stuff might be boring, but you need to think about it now to make sure your plan stays on track).

If you don’t budget, for example, you could find yourself spending money you don’t have in the pursuit of your targets. Or that you’re not making a good return on your investment (ROI).

And if you have employees, consider who’s best placed to help you reach your goals. They’ll all have different skill sets – could someone help out on the budgeting, while another runs your social media? Detail all of this in your plan.

7. Write a summary of your marketing plan

This is called the executive summary. While it should go at the start of your marketing plan, it’s best to write it after you’ve written the whole document. That’s because the executive summary has to include short descriptions of each section, highlighting the most important information.

Think of it as an elevator pitch – you’re hoping to attract investors to help you achieve your marketing goals, or win employees over to your plan. The executive summary needs to be compelling enough so that they carry on reading. Be sure to include a short summary of your business and its mission too.

There are plenty of free tools available online to help you learn how to write an executive summary. Our free executive summary template will help you to summarise your objectives and strategy when writing your plan.

Develop a go-to market strategy

For your marketing plan to succeed, you also need to make sure you have a fully developed go-to market strategy.

Whilst your marketing strategy can be used to continually promote your business and keep a competitive advantage, your go-to market strategy is crucial in developing your business and any new products or services.

Before you go to market, there are a few things you should think about first:

Understand customer personas

We’ve already discussed the importance of knowing your target customers, but you can develop customer personas to understand them even more.

There are many free digital tools you can use to help here. If you have a website or online presence, spend some time getting to know Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. This is a great way to see who’s visiting your site and interested in your products and services. Not only can this help you with developing further products , but it can also give you key insights on how to improve your digital marketing.

Learn more about how to create a website .

Map the customer journey

Once you know who your customers are, you need to map their journey . This is everything that happens from first discovering your business to becoming a customer.

This is often called the marketing funnel and can be broken down into the following levels:

• consideration/research
• conversion/decision
• advocacy/loyalty

Once you start mapping your customer journey – whether through digital tools or customer feedback – you can identify which areas may need improvement.

Example customer journey map for businesses

Define your proposition

You can’t expect your customers to know the value of your business if you don’t yourself. Spend some time defining what exactly makes your business different from your competitors. Define these KSPs (key selling points) and think about how exactly you can present this to your customers through your advertising.

Create your distribution plan

And finally, the last step in any good go-to market strategy is your distribution plan. Think again about your target audience – and what apps, websites, and places they visit – and tailor your marketing accordingly. It’s a good idea to plan where and when you’ll distribute your marketing material before you begin creating it.

Marketing plan example for a hair and beauty business

Here’s a few ideas you could try to attract more customers to your hair and beauty business:

• hair and beauty tutorial videos (on Instagram, for example)
• email newsletter with updates about staff, discounts, and new products or services)
• enter local awards
• build a good business website with integrated appointment booking
• collaborate with other local businesses – for example, stocking speciality tea and coffee or decorating with plants from a nearby florist
• highlight your hair and beauty insurance , accreditations, and awards

Read our guide on how to advertise your hair and beauty business for more tips.

Marketing plan example for trades businesses

In addition to many of the ideas above, trades businesses could try these marketing strategies:

• make sure your contact details are up to date across your website, Google, and any other business profiles you own
• list your services and prices on your website and Google Maps
• add a logo to your business van
• email happy customers to ask for a testimonial or a Google review
• show your tradesman insurance and accolades on your website

Read more tips on marketing for tradesmen here.

How to create a marketing plan for a cleaning business

A marketing plan on how to advertise cleaning services could include things like:

• sharing cleaning tips in your email newsletter
• polishing the KSPs on your website so the benefits are clear to customers, for example if you use environmentally friendly products or have B Corp status
• putting testimonials and customer reviews on flyers
• offering loyalty discounts to regular customers
• mentioning you have cleaning insurance on your website

Marketing planning on a budget

Here are some free ideas you could incorporate into your business marketing strategy:

• start small and be highly targeted
• enter business awards
• send promotional offers along with your invoices or deliveries
• build a blog or social media following

Lastly, you might be able to use technology to save money on your marketing. We’ve looked at how small businesses could use AI to boost their marketing as well as simple advertising ideas on a budget .

Small business guides and resources

• What is business turnover?
• How to write a business plan – step-by-step
• Radio and TV advertising – costs and tips to get your brand out there
• Best social media management apps – compared for small businesses
• How to make your own clothing brand

Ready to set up your cover?

As one of the UK’s biggest business insurance providers, we specialise in public liability insurance and protect more trades than anybody else. Why not take a look now and build a quick, tailored quote?

Photograph: Chanelle Malambo/peopleimages.com/stock.adobe.com

Catriona Smith is a content and marketing professional with 12 years’ experience across the financial services, higher education, and insurance sectors. She’s also a trained NCTJ Gold Standard journalist. As a Senior Copywriter at Simply Business, Catriona has in-depth knowledge of small business concerns and specialises in tax, marketing, and business operations. Catriona lives in the seaside city of Brighton where she’s also a freelance yoga teacher.

This content is for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice. Please obtain expert advice from industry-specific professionals who may better understand your business’s needs.  Read our full disclaimer

Share this post with your friends

• Share post on Facebook (Opens in New Tab)
• Post post on Twitter (Opens in New Tab)
• Post post on LinkedIn (Opens in New Tab)

This block is configured using JavaScript. A preview is not available in the editor.

How to Create a Winning Product Marketing Strategy

Creating a winning product marketing strategy is crucial for ensuring your product stands out and reaches the right audience. Statistics show that 95% of new products fail to make a significant impact in the market, largely due to inadequate marketing strategies and a lack of understanding of customer needs and market trends. Furthermore, successful product launches have a 40% higher success rate when backed by a well-structured product marketing plan.

A good product marketing strategy helps you highlight what makes your product unique and ensures that your marketing efforts are aligned with customer needs and market conditions. This guide will walk you through the key steps to build an effective product marketing strategy that drives results and avoids common pitfalls.

What is a Product Marketing Strategy?

A product marketing strategy is a detailed plan designed to help you promote and sell your product successfully. It starts by outlining how you will connect with your target customers, which involves figuring out where they are and how to reach them. You’ll decide on the key messages that will capture their attention and choose the best channels to deliver those messages, such as social media, email, or advertising.

The product marketing strategy also involves understanding your market thoroughly. This means researching who your potential customers are, what they need, and what they are interested in. It helps you define what makes your product unique and valuable compared to others in the market. By setting clear goals, such as increasing sales or growing your customer base, you can measure your success and stay on track.

Overall, a well-crafted product marketing strategy focuses your efforts on what will attract and engage your customers. It ensures that every aspect of your marketing is aligned with your goals, leading to better sales results and a stronger, more recognizable brand.

• Ready to use
• Fully customizable template
• Get Started in seconds

Key Elements of a Successful Product Marketing Strategy

The key elements of a product marketing strategy include:

1. Market insights

Gather detailed information about your target customers, including their needs and behaviors, and analyze the competition to find opportunities to stand out.

2. Product value proposition

Clearly define what makes your product unique and valuable. Highlight its distinct features and emphasize how it benefits customers.

3. Target audience

Segment your market and create buyer personas to focus your marketing efforts on the right audience, tailoring your approach to meet their needs.

4. Brand positioning

Determine how you want your product to be perceived in the market, and develop consistent messaging that clearly communicates its value.

5. Marketing channels

Choose the most effective platforms to reach your audience, such as social media or email, and ensure consistent messaging across all channels.

6. Goals and metrics

Set specific, measurable goals aligned with your business objectives. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate your success.

7. Action plan

Outline the tactics and campaigns you will use, including steps, resources, and a timeline, to ensure your marketing efforts are organized and effective with an action plan.

8. Measurement and optimization

Regularly review performance data to assess what’s working. Make adjustments to improve your product marketing strategy and achieve better results.

Importance of a Product Marketing Strategy

​​A product marketing strategy helps you reach the right customers and sell your product successfully. It focuses your efforts, uses resources wisely, and strengthens your brand, leading to more sales and business growth.

Guides effective product promotion

A product marketing strategy outlines the best ways to showcase your product to your target audience. It helps you craft promotional messages and choose methods that will grab attention and make your product stand out. This ensures your marketing efforts are effective and reach people who are interested in what you have to offer.

Focuses on the right customers

The product marketing strategy helps you identify and connect with the customers who are most likely to buy your product. By understanding their needs and preferences, you can tailor your marketing messages to speak directly to them. This means your promotions are more relevant and likely to engage potential buyers.

Ensures efficient use of resources

Prevents missed opportunities.

Having a well-defined product marketing strategy helps you cover all possible marketing channels and tactics. This way, you don’t miss out on important opportunities to reach potential customers. By planning ahead, you can make sure you’re using every available option to promote your product effectively.

Boosts sales

A well-crafted product marketing stratey strategy highlights the unique benefits of your product in a way that appeals to customers. It helps you create compelling messages that make your product look attractive compared to competitors. This can lead to increased sales as more customers choose your product over others.

Supports business growth

A strong product marketing strategy not only drives sales but also helps expand your market presence. By increasing sales and capturing a larger share of the market, your business can grow and achieve long-term success. Effective marketing supports overall business development and helps you reach new customers.

Builds a stronger brand

Consistent and effective marketing helps establish a strong brand identity. By delivering a clear and unified message across all marketing channels, you make your product more recognizable and trustworthy. This helps build a positive reputation and fosters customer loyalty, making your brand stand out in the market.

How to Create a Product Marketing Strategy

Follow these steps to create a strong product marketing strategy that effectively promotes your product and drives business growth.

Step 1: Understand your market

Start by conducting thorough market research. This involves gathering information about your potential customers—understand their needs, preferences, and buying behaviors. Use surveys, focus groups, and market analysis tools to get detailed insights. Look for gaps in the market that your product can fill. This comprehensive understanding helps you spot opportunities and tailor your product marketing strategy to better meet the needs of your target audience.

Step 2: Study your competitors

Analyze your competitors to understand their products, marketing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Look at their pricing, customer reviews, and market positioning. Identify gaps in the market that your product can fill, and find ways to differentiate your offering. This analysis helps you stay competitive and informs your own product marketing strategy.

Step 2: Define your unique value proposition

Your unique value proposition (UVP) is what makes your product stand out from the competition. Clearly define what differentiates your product and why customers should choose it over others. Focus on the key benefits and features that are unique to your product. For example, if your product offers a solution that no other competitor provides, highlight this as your UVP. Your UVP should be clear and compelling, providing a strong reason for customers to prefer your product.

Step 3: Identify your target audience

Determine who your ideal customers are by segmenting your audience based on various factors such as age, location, interests, and buying behavior. Create detailed profiles, known as buyer personas , that represent these different segments. Each persona should include information about their demographics, motivations, and challenges. This allows you to tailor your marketing messages and strategies to address the specific needs and preferences of each segment, making your marketing efforts more effective and personalized.

Step 4: Position your product

Decide how you want your product to be perceived in the market. Product positioning involves crafting a clear and compelling image of your product in the minds of customers. Develop messaging that emphasizes the unique benefits and features of your product, and ensure it aligns with your brand identity. For instance, if your product is known for its eco-friendly design, position it as the environmentally responsible choice. Consistency in messaging across all marketing channels helps reinforce this position and ensures that your brand’s image remains coherent and strong.

Step 5: Choose your marketing channels

Select the marketing channels that are most effective for reaching your target audience. Consider options like social media, email marketing, content marketing, and online advertising. Evaluate where your audience spends their time and how they prefer to receive information. For example, if your target audience is active on social media, focus on platforms like Instagram or Facebook. Using a mix of channels can help you reach a broader audience and increase the chances of engaging potential customers.

Step 6: Set your goals and metrics

Establish clear and measurable goals for your marketing efforts. These goals could include increasing brand awareness, driving more traffic to your website, or boosting sales. Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your progress. For example, KPIs might include the number of website visits, conversion rates, or social media engagement metrics. Setting specific targets and regularly measuring your performance helps you assess the effectiveness of your product marketing strategy and make data-driven decisions.

Step 7: Create an action plan

Develop a detailed action plan that outlines the specific tactics and activities you will use to achieve your marketing goals. Include details such as campaign schedules, budgets, and task assignments. Break down the plan into manageable steps and assign responsibilities to team members. Ensure that everyone involved understands their role and deadlines. A well-organized action plan helps ensure that your product marketing strategy is executed efficiently and effectively.

Step 8: Launch and monitor your strategy

Implement your marketing campaigns according to the action plan. Once your campaigns are live, continuously monitor their performance by tracking your KPIs and collecting feedback from customers. Use analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and identify areas for improvement. Regular monitoring helps you understand what is working well and what may need adjustment.

Step 9: Optimize and adjust

Based on the data and feedback you gather, make adjustments to your marketing strategy to enhance its effectiveness. This might involve tweaking your messaging, changing your marketing channels, or adjusting your target audience. Be flexible and ready to make changes to improve results over time. Optimization is an ongoing process that helps you stay responsive to market changes and continuously refine your strategy for better performance.

Proactive vs. Reactive Product Marketing Strategies

In product marketing, being proactive or reactive refers to how you handle your marketing efforts and respond to changes in the market. Here’s a simple breakdown:

Proactive product marketing strategy

• Planning ahead: Proactive strategies involve anticipating market trends and customer needs before they become apparent. You plan your marketing activities in advance, based on research and predictions.
• Anticipating challenges: You identify potential challenges and opportunities early on and develop strategies to address them. This approach allows you to stay ahead of the competition.
• Innovating: By being proactive, you can introduce new features or products that meet emerging needs and differentiate your brand.
• Examples: Launching a marketing campaign before a product release, creating content based on predicted industry trends, or preparing for seasonal changes in customer behavior.

Reactive product marketing strategy

• Responding to events: Reactive product marketing strategies involve responding to events and changes in the market as they happen. You adjust your marketing efforts based on current situations rather than planning far ahead.
• Handling issues: You react to challenges and opportunities that arise unexpectedly. This approach can help you address immediate concerns but might put you behind if not managed well.
• Adapting quickly: Being reactive allows you to adjust your tactics based on real-time feedback and market conditions, but it can sometimes lead to missed opportunities.
• Examples: Changing a marketing campaign in response to a competitor’s new product, adjusting pricing based on sudden market shifts, or addressing negative customer feedback as it arises.

How to Measure the Success of Your Product Marketing Strategy

Measuring the success of your product marketing strategy is essential to ensure your efforts are on track and delivering the desired results. A successful strategy should increase sales, boost brand awareness, and strengthen customer loyalty.

1. Sales performance

One of the most straightforward ways to measure success is by looking at your sales numbers. Are you seeing an increase in sales since launching your marketing strategy? Track your revenue, the number of units sold, and changes in your market share. If sales are growing, it’s a sign your strategy is reaching the right audience and convincing them to buy your product. If sales are stagnant or decreasing, it may indicate the need for adjustments.

2. Customer engagement

Customer engagement measures how interested your audience is in your product and marketing efforts. This can include tracking website visits, time spent on your product page, social media likes, comments, shares, and email open or click-through rates. High levels of engagement mean that your marketing messages are resonating with your target audience, driving them to interact with your content.

3. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost refers to how much you spend to gain each new customer. To calculate it, divide your total marketing expenses by the number of new customers acquired during a specific period. A lower CAC is a sign that your marketing is effective and efficient, bringing in new customers without overspending.

4. Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of people who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a trial, or downloading an app. By analyzing your conversion rate, you can see how well your marketing is turning interested visitors into actual customers. A higher conversion rate indicates that your strategy is persuasive and compelling, leading people to take action.

5. Customer retention rate

While acquiring new customers is important, retaining existing ones is crucial for long-term success. Your customer retention rate tells you how many customers continue to buy from you after their initial purchase. High retention rates suggest your product is satisfying customers, and they’re coming back for more, which reflects positively on both your product and your marketing efforts.

6. Brand awareness

Measuring how well-known your brand has become is another key indicator of success. Brand awareness can be tracked by monitoring social media mentions, search engine trends, surveys, and how often your product is discussed online or in industry conversations. An increase in brand awareness shows that your marketing is successfully spreading the word about your product.

7. Return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) is a key metric for understanding whether your marketing efforts are financially worthwhile. To calculate ROI, subtract your marketing costs from your total revenue, and then divide that number by the marketing costs. A high ROI means your strategy is generating more revenue than it costs, indicating a positive impact on your bottom line.

8. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer satisfaction and loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend your product to others. NPS is based on a simple survey, where customers rate their likelihood to recommend on a scale of 1 to 10. A high NPS means your customers are happy with your product and are willing to spread the word, which can lead to organic growth through word-of-mouth marketing.

9. Product feedback and reviews

Customer feedback, product reviews, and ratings offer valuable insight into how your product is perceived. Positive reviews signal that your product is meeting customer expectations, while negative reviews can highlight areas for improvement. Regularly monitoring feedback helps you understand the strengths and weaknesses of both your product and your marketing approach.

10. Market share growth

Market share measures how much of the market your product occupies compared to competitors. If your market share is increasing, it’s a clear sign that your product marketing strategy is helping you outperform competitors and gain a stronger foothold in the market.

Product Marketing Strategy Examples

These examples show how companies use various strategies and tactics to effectively market their products. Each strategy is tailored to the product’s unique attributes and the needs of its target audience.

Apple’s iPhone launch

Strategy: Apple’s iPhone launch uses a premium positioning strategy for its iPhone, focusing on cutting-edge technology and sleek design.

• Product positioning: Emphasizes innovation and luxury.
• Marketing channels: Utilizes high-profile launch events, extensive media coverage, and strong social media presence.
• Unique value proposition: Highlighting superior technology, design, and user experience.

Tesla’s electric vehicles

Strategy: Tesla markets its electric vehicles as high-performance, eco-friendly alternatives to traditional cars.

• Product positioning: Focuses on sustainability and advanced technology.
• Marketing channels: Uses social media, word-of-mouth, and direct-to-consumer sales.
• Unique value proposition: Emphasizes cutting-edge technology, environmental benefits, and high performance.

Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign

Strategy: Nike’s ‘Just Do It” campaign encourages personal achievement and motivation through its products.

• Product positioning: Positions products as tools for empowerment and personal success.
• Marketing channels: Relies on impactful advertising, endorsements by athletes, and social media engagement.
• Unique value proposition: Inspires customers with a message of perseverance and athletic excellence.

Coca-cola’s share a coke campaign

Strategy: Coca-Cola personalized its product to create a connection with consumers.

• Product positioning: Focuses on personalization and social connections.
• Marketing channels: Used in-store promotions, social media campaigns, and interactive websites.
• Unique value proposition: Creates a personal and memorable experience by replacing Coca-Cola’s logo with popular names.

Dropbox’s freemium model

Strategy: Dropbox attracts users with a free tier and upsells to premium features.

• Product positioning: Provides a simple and effective solution for file storage and sharing.
• Marketing channels: Relies on word-of-mouth, referral incentives, and online advertising.
• Unique value proposition: Offers a basic free version to attract users and then promotes advanced features for a fee.

Challenges to Building a Successful Product Marketing Strategy

Creating an effective product marketing strategy involves overcoming several challenges. Understanding these difficulties can help you address them and build a stronger strategy.

1. Understanding the market

Getting a clear picture of the market can be tough. You need to learn about your customers' needs, preferences, and behaviors, which requires thorough research. Identifying competitors and their strengths and weaknesses can also be challenging.

2. Defining unique value

Clearly defining what makes your product unique is crucial. It can be hard to pinpoint exactly what sets your product apart and why customers should choose it over others. This requires a deep understanding of your product and how it benefits your customers.

3. Identifying target audience

Finding the right audience for your product can be difficult. You need to segment your audience based on various factors like age, interests, and buying habits. Creating accurate buyer personas that represent these groups requires detailed analysis.

4. Positioning the product

Deciding how to position your product in the market can be tricky. You need to craft a message that clearly communicates your product’s benefits and fits with your brand identity. Ensuring this message is consistent across all marketing channels is also a challenge.

5. Choosing the right channels

Selecting the best marketing channels to reach your audience can be overwhelming. There are many options available, like social media, email, and advertising. You need to choose channels where your target audience spends their time and prefers to receive information.

6. Setting realistic goals

Establishing clear and achievable goals for your marketing efforts can be challenging. You need to set specific targets and determine how you’ll measure success. This involves choosing the right key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking them accurately.

7. Creating an action plan

Developing a detailed action plan involves outlining specific tactics, setting timelines, and assigning tasks. It can be difficult to ensure that every aspect of the plan is organized and that everyone involved knows their role.

8. Monitoring and adjusting

Regularly monitoring your strategy’s performance and making adjustments based on data can be challenging. You need to track various metrics, gather feedback, and be willing to make changes to improve results.

Using Creately to Create Your Product Marketing Strategy

Creating a product marketing strategy involves many moving parts, from defining your market to setting clear goals. Using Creately , you can streamline this process with its powerful features designed to make strategy development easier and more collaborative. Here’s how Creately can help you build and refine your product marketing strategy effectively.

Visual diagrams

Creately lets you create clear diagrams to map out your product marketing strategy. You can design visual representations of your market analysis, customer journey, and competitive landscape, helping you see all aspects of your strategy at a glance.

Templates for marketing strategies

The tool offers ready-made templates for various aspects of product marketing, like SWOT analyses and customer personas. These templates provide a structured format, so you can quickly fill in details without starting from scratch.

Real-time collaboration

Creately allows multiple team members to work on the same diagram simultaneously. This feature makes it easy for your team to brainstorm, make updates, and provide feedback in real time, ensuring everyone is on the same page.Creately’s commenting tools let you and your team discuss specific parts of the diagrams directly within the platform. This makes it easy to provide feedback, suggest changes, and communicate effectively.

Integration with other tools

You can integrate Creately with tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. This makes it easy to share your marketing strategy and keep your team updated on changes and progress.

Export options

Once you’ve finished creating your diagrams, you can export them in various formats like PDF, PNG, or SVG. This allows you to include your strategy in reports, presentations, or other documents.

Interactive presentations

Create interactive presentations directly from your diagrams. This feature allows you to showcase your marketing strategy in a dynamic format, making it easier to present and explain to stakeholders.

Data import and export

Import data from spreadsheets or other sources to populate your diagrams automatically. This feature saves time and ensures that your diagrams reflect the most current data.

Task management

Create and assign tasks within your diagrams to keep track of individual responsibilities and deadlines. This feature helps ensure that everyone on your team knows what they need to do and by when. Use Gantt charts and timeline views to plan and visualize the schedule for your marketing campaigns and initiatives. This helps you manage project timelines effectively and keep all tasks on track.

Wrapping up

Creating a successful product marketing strategy is essential for effectively promoting and selling your product. By understanding your market, defining your unique value proposition, identifying your target audience, and positioning your product strategically, you set a strong foundation for your marketing efforts. Choosing the right marketing channels, setting clear goals, and developing a detailed action plan ensure that your product marketing strategy is actionable and measurable.

Regular monitoring and optimization are key to adapting your product marketing strategy based on performance and feedback, helping you stay responsive to market changes and improve results over time. With a well-crafted product marketing strategy, you can boost sales, support business growth, and build a stronger, more recognizable brand.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

FAQs about Product Marketing

What is product marketing, what are the different types of product marketing strategies.

• Differentiation strategy makes your product stand out with unique features or benefits, attracting customers looking for something special.
• Cost leadership strategy offers products at lower prices to attract price-sensitive customers and gain a competitive edge.
• Focus strategy targets a specific market segment with tailored products to meet niche needs effectively.
• Innovation strategy involves continually introducing new or improved products to stay ahead of market trends.
• Market penetration strategy increases market share by promoting existing products in new or larger markets.
• Product development strategy creates new products or enhances existing ones to meet changing customer demands.
• Diversification strategy explores new markets with new products to spread risk and find growth opportunities.

How can I measure the success of my product marketing strategy?

What are some common challenges in product marketing, what are product marketing goals, what is the difference between product marketing and conventional marketing, what are product marketing responsibilities.

Product marketing responsibilities include:

• Market research : Understanding customer needs, market trends, and competitors.
• Positioning : Defining how the product should be perceived in the market.
• Messaging : Creating clear and compelling messages about the product’s benefits.
• Campaign planning : Designing and implementing marketing campaigns.
• Sales support : Providing the sales team with tools and materials to effectively sell the product.
• Performance tracking : Monitoring and analyzing the success of marketing activities and making data-driven adjustments.

How often should I update my product marketing strategy?

What role does market research play in product marketing, more related articles.

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

Risk Mitigation Strategies Every Business Should Know

Learn key risk mitigation tactics to safeguard your business and reduce vulnerability to unforeseen challenges.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, one thing is for sure: uncertainty is a given.

Whether you're a small business owner or leading a large company, risks are an inevitable part of the journey. Understanding how to navigate risks is crucial to ensuring your business's long-term success and stability. 

This is where risk mitigation comes into play—a critical component of any solid business strategy.

Risk mitigation is more than just a buzzword; it’s a proactive approach that helps businesses identify, assess, and address potential threats before they become significant problems. The goal is to minimize the impact of these risks on your business operations, financial health, and reputation. 

Risk mitigation involves preparing for the unexpected and keeping your business safe against potential setbacks.

But why is risk reduction so important? 

For starters, the business landscape is becoming increasingly complex, with possible risks emerging from technological advancements, regulatory changes, and global events. 

Secondly, the cost of neglecting risk mitigation can be substantial, ranging from financial risk to reputational damage that could take years to recover. Naturally, a solid risk avoidance strategy is essential for businesses of all sizes to develop and implement an effective risk mitigation strategy.

We’ll get into the concept of risk mitigation in-depth, discuss how it differs from risk management, and give you clear, actionable steps you can take to mitigate risks effectively. 

Whether you're looking to protect your business from financial uncertainties, operational disruptions, or reputational threats, the goal is for the strategies outlined here will help you confidently navigate these challenges.

Understanding risk mitigation

So, what exactly is risk mitigation? Risk mitigation refers to risk identification for a business and implementing a risk mitigation strategy to involve or eliminate the impact. 

The primary goal of risk mitigation is to minimize the negative effects of unforeseen events on your business operations.

Now that we've covered that, what’s the difference between risk mitigation and risk management? While risk mitigation and risk management are often used interchangeably, they refer to different aspects of dealing with business risks. 

Risk management is the broader process of identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks, followed by the coordinated application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events. 

On the other hand, risk mitigation is one component of risk management, specifically focused on the strategies and actions taken to reduce the potential negative impact of identified risks.

Now that we understand that difference, what’s the difference between proactive vs. reactive risk mitigation strategies?

A proactive approach to risk mitigation involves anticipating potential risks and taking steps to prevent them before they occur. 

This might include conducting regular risk assessments, implementing preventive measures, and continuously monitoring the business environment for new threats. 

Reactive risk mitigation, however, involves responding to risks as they occur. 

While both approaches are necessary, a proactive strategy is generally more effective in minimizing the impact of risks on your business.

How can you best identify potential risks? It starts by understanding that every industry has its own unique set of possible risks. 

For example, a retail business might be concerned with supply chain disruptions, while a tech company might focus more on cybersecurity threats and keeping up with a competitive landscape. 

The first step in effective risk mitigation is identifying the risks most relevant to your industry. This can be done through a variety of methods, including:

• Industry research: Staying informed about your industry's latest trends, challenges, and regulatory changes will improve your ability to spot risks across the industry.
• Consultation with experts: Engaging with industry experts, consultants, or even your employees is invaluable to gain insights into potential risks. Prioritize making the time to gather insights from others.
• Historical analysis: Don't be remiss to review past incidents within your industry to identify common risks and how they were managed.

Once you’ve identified potential risks, the next step is to assess their likelihood and impact. 

Here are some common risk mitigation strategies, tools, and techniques that can help with this process:

• SWOT analysis: This involves evaluating your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to identify areas of vulnerability.
• Risk matrix: A risk matrix helps you categorize risks based on their likelihood of occurrence and potential impact, allowing you to prioritize which risks to address first.
• Scenario analysis: This technique involves imagining various “what if” scenarios to understand how different risks might affect your business.

All that to say, not all risks are created equal. Some may have a high likelihood of occurring but a low impact, while others may be unlikely but could have devastating consequences. 

Prioritizing a risk transfer based on its impact and likelihood helps you allocate resources more effectively. For example, a highly likely and impactful risk should be addressed immediately, while a low risk in both areas might be monitored but not actively mitigated.

Dive deeper into the data

Subscribe to get more marketing insights straight to your inbox..

By signing up, you are agreeing that we can use your email address to market to you. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by using the link in our emails. For more information, please review our privacy statement .

Developing a risk mitigation plan

Developing a risk mitigation plan is essential for keeping your business as resilient as possible in the face of potential disruptions. 

Creating a business continuity plan involves several key steps:

• Identify risks: Use various methods, such as a SWOT analysis, scenario planning, or risk assessments, to uncover potential threats to your operations and business. It's important to consider internal and external factors, including market volatility, natural disasters, and cybersecurity threats.
• Set risk thresholds: Establish acceptable risk levels by evaluating the potential impact of each identified risk based on what is comfortable for you and your organization. These thresholds will vary depending on your industry, business model, and overall risk tolerance. For example, a tech startup may accept higher innovation risks than a traditional manufacturing company that has successfully prioritized risk mitigation in the past.
• Develop strategies: Tailor mitigation strategies for each identified risk. These could involve purchasing business interruption insurance, outsourcing critical functions, creating backup systems, or strengthening cybersecurity protocols. Some strategies may focus on prevention, while others aim to minimize the impact should a risk materialize.
• Assign responsibilities: Clearly define organizational roles, assigning risk management tasks to specific individuals or teams. This fosters accountability and ensures that all plan elements are executed efficiently.
• Implement the plan: Once you've got the other pieces in place, it's time to execute it. Regularly review and update it to reflect new risks or changing business conditions. Monitoring performance against risk thresholds allows you to adjust strategies as necessary.

Setting risk thresholds is a critical part of the risk mitigation process. Your thresholds will depend on your business's overall risk appetite—how much risk you will take to pursue your goals. 

As mentioned earlier, a startup might have a higher risk threshold than a well-established company because it’s willing to take on more risk to achieve rapid growth. 

Determining these thresholds helps guide your risk mitigation efforts by clarifying which risks need to be addressed immediately and which can be monitored over time. It comes down to how much of a calculated risk you’re willing to take.

Effective risk mitigation requires buy-in from all levels of your organization. This includes not only senior leadership but also employees who are on the front lines of your operations. 

Involving key stakeholders in the planning process ensures that your risk mitigation strategies are practical, well-supported, and more likely to be successful. Thankfully, a lot of the time, those critical stakeholders with experience handling risk management in the past can help you put together points for a contingency plan .

Additionally, it fosters a culture of risk awareness throughout your organization, making it easier to identify and address potential risks as they arise.

There are several strategies that businesses can use to mitigate risks. Here are some of the most common ones:

• Diversification: By diversifying your investments, suppliers, or revenue streams, you can reduce the impact of any single risk. For example, a business that relies on a single supplier for a critical component could diversify by sourcing from multiple suppliers to reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions. Imagine if something goes wrong when you have just one supplier. That could be detrimental.
• Insurance: Purchasing insurance is a common way to mitigate financial risks. Insurance can protect your business against various risks, from property damage to liability claims.
• Redundancy: Implement backup systems or processes to ensure critical functions can continue even if a primary system fails. This might involve maintaining backup systems, having alternative suppliers, or cross-training employees to cover critical roles.

Technology plays a crucial role in modern risk mitigation. Automation, for example, can reduce the likelihood of human error, a standard risk source in many businesses. 

Additionally, technology can help you monitor risks in real-time, allowing you to respond more quickly when issues arise. For example, automated alerts can notify you of potential cybersecurity threats, while project management software can help you keep track of risks across multiple projects.

Monitoring and reviewing your risk mitigation efforts

Ongoing monitoring is essential for identifying new risks and ensuring that your mitigation strategies remain effective. This involves regularly reviewing your risk mitigation plan, tracking key metrics, and adjusting as needed.

Setting up a risk monitoring system is essential for keeping your risk mitigation efforts on track. This system should be designed to continuously monitor key risk indicators and alert you to potential issues before they escalate.

Start by identifying the most critical risks that need ongoing attention. Then, establish metrics to track these risks. For example, if cybersecurity is a major concern, you might monitor metrics such as the number of attempted breaches, the effectiveness of your firewall, the completion of a security audit , or the speed at which security patches are applied. I

Assigning responsibility for monitoring these metrics to specific individuals or teams within your organization is also important. This ensures that risks are consistently monitored and any necessary adjustments to your mitigation strategies are made promptly.

Regularly reviewing and updating your risk mitigation plan ensures its continued effectiveness. The business environment is constantly changing, and new risks that were not previously considered can emerge. Additionally, the effectiveness of your current risk management process may change over time, naturally resulting in a need for adjustments.

Schedule regular reviews of your risk mitigation plan—at least annually, but more frequently if your industry is particularly volatile or you’ve undergone significant changes, such as a merger, expansion, or shift in business strategy. During these reviews, reassess your risks, evaluate the performance of your mitigation strategies, and make any necessary updates to your plan.

Implementing risk mitigation strategies is not without its challenges. Businesses of all sizes face obstacles that can hinder their efforts to manage risks effectively. Understanding and developing strategies to overcome these challenges is key to a successful risk mitigation plan.

One of the most common challenges businesses face is limited resources. Small businesses, in particular, often struggle to allocate sufficient time, money, or personnel to risk mitigation efforts. As a result, this can lead to gaps in coverage or an over-reliance on reactive strategies rather than proactive measures.

Additionally, conflicts of interest can arise when decision-makers prioritize short-term gains or personal interests over the long-term stability of the business, further complicating the allocation of resources and undermining practical risk mitigation efforts.

Resistance to change is another significant obstacle that organizations face. Employees and stakeholders may be reluctant to adopt new risk mitigation strategies, mainly if they involve changes to established processes or the implementation of new technologies. Overcoming this resistance requires effective communication, education, and sometimes a shift in organizational culture.

Businesses can prioritize risk mitigation efforts based on the most critical risks to address the challenge of limited resources and potential conflicts of interes t. This allows you to focus your resources where they are needed most and ensures that decisions are made in the best interest of the company as a whole.

Consider leveraging technology to automate aspects of risk management, reducing the burden on your team and minimizing the potential for conflicts of interest.

Overcoming resistance to change often involves clear communication and education. Help your team understand the importance of risk mitigation and how it benefits the business. Offering training and support while implementing new strategies can also help to ease the transition and increase employee buy-in.

Neglecting risk mitigation can have severe consequences for your business. In the worst-case scenario, it could lead to catastrophic losses that threaten the very survival of your company.

Even less severe risks can result in significant financial losses, damage to your reputation, and disruptions to your operations. The cost of dealing with these consequences is often far higher than the cost of implementing effective risk mitigation strategies in the first place.

The importance of proactive risk mitigation for business success

Risk mitigation is an essential component of a successful business strategy. Taking proactive steps to identify, assess, and manage risks can protect your business from potential threats and ensure it thrives in a rapidly changing environment.

Whether you’re a small business owner or at the helm of a large enterprise, the risk mitigation principles apply across the board. Implementing a comprehensive risk mitigation plan safeguards your business and positions you for growth by allowing you to navigate challenges confidently.

Incorporating risk mitigation into your overall business strategy is not just about avoiding pitfalls but building a resilient organization that can withstand challenges and continue to move forward. Risk mitigation is a critical practice that every business should prioritize.

From identifying potential risks to developing and implementing strategies to manage them, a proactive approach to risk mitigation can safeguard your business against unforeseen challenges and position you for long-term success.

While risk mitigation is essential for managing potential threats, it’s also important to consider the role of effective marketing and customer engagement strategies in your overall risk management plan. Mailchimp can help you mitigate potential business risks by making it easier to maintain strong customer relationships, effectively communicate during crises, and build a loyal customer base.

For example, a well-executed email marketing campaign can help you quickly communicate important updates to your customers, minimizing the impact of any disruptions. Mailchimp’s analytics tools offer valuable insights into customer behavior, helping you identify potential risks early on and adjust your strategies accordingly. Integrating Mailchimp into your risk mitigation efforts can protect your business and leverage opportunities to build stronger customer connections and drive growth.

As you work to strengthen your risk mitigation efforts, remember that the goal is not just to avoid risks but to create a resilient organization capable of thriving in any environment.

As you navigate the complexities of risk management, tools like Mailchimp can support your efforts by helping you maintain strong customer relationships, communicate effectively, and capitalize on growth opportunities. With the right approach to risk mitigation, your business can survive and flourish in the face of uncertainty.

Related Topics

• Partnerships
• Team Dynamics
• Lead & Manage
• Create Multichannel Campaigns
• Navigate Crisis

• Marketing Subscription
• Social Media
• Paid Social
• Facebook Ads

Influencer Marketing

• PR & Outreach
• Corporate Explainer Videos
• B2B Explainer Videos
• Tech Explainer Videos
• 3D Explainer Videos
• 2D Explainer Videos
• Educational Explainer Videos
• Healthcare Explainer Videos
• Real Estate Explainer Videos
• Motion Graphics Videos
• Animated Videos
• Corporate Video Production
• Branded Video Production
• Financial Video Production
• 3D Video Production
• 3D Animation
• Educational Video Production
• Healthcare Video Production
• Real Estate Video Production
• SaaS Explainer Videos

Video Marketing

• LinkedIn Lead Generation
• Community Management
• Website development
• Mobile App Development
• Unlimited Graphic Design
• Graphic Design Subscription
• Unlimited Web Design
• Flat Rate Graphic Design
• Mobile App Design
• NFT Game Development
• Play to Earn Game Development
• B2B Social Media
• B2B Lead Generation
• B2B Content Marketing
• B2B Inbound Marketing
• B2B Demand Generation
• B2B Influencer Marketing
• Fintech SEO
• Web3 GTM Strategy
• NFT Marketing
• Web3 Marketing
• Metaverse Marketing
• DeFi Marketing
• ICO Marketing
• IDO Marketing
• IEO Marketing
• STO Marketing
• Crypto Influencer Marketing
• Crypto Exchange Listing
• Crypto Market Making
• Blockchain PR
• Small Business
• Success Stories
• Affiliate Program

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing: Strategies, Examples, and Tactics

Digital marketing is a minefield.

Let's be honest, it's tough to know where to start. But our team of experts are here to help you navigate the digital world. We'll help you create a plan that breaks down your goals and tells you exactly what you need to do to achieve them. Click Here To Schedule Your Free Consultation Now

With the need to pass corporate red tapes and convince multiple stakeholders, the B2B marketing process is complex and time-consuming. This post gives you a comprehensive guide to address the key concerns and challenges of marketing for B2B companies. It also walks you through the process of setting up successful B2B marketing strategies.   

What is B2B Marketing?

B2B marketing stands for business-to-business marketing. It involves marketing to other businesses instead of everyday consumers and convincing them to choose your product or service. 

It may include a variety of B2B marketing tactics to generate demand, such as:

• Targeting business accounts through PPC ads 
• Creating informative content to provide value
• Optimizing your website to increase search visibility 
• Participating in industry events to interact with prospects 

B2B marketing is used by companies that offer solutions other companies need. This solution could be anything from a consulting service or a software platform. For instance, Oracle uses B2B marketing to promote their software solutions. Their strategy includes testimonials that highlight client success to showcase the value of their product. 

How B2B Marketing Differs from B2C Marketing

Marketing to a B2B audience isn’t as straightforward as marketing to everyday consumers. Due to the differences in the types of audiences, these two forms of marketing require different approaches.

Multiple decision-makers

B2C marketing often involves only one decision maker, i.e., the buyer. Even if they’re buying the product for others or for the entire family, you typically only have one person to convince.

Meanwhile, B2B buying decisions have to be made by multiple stakeholders. Kurve reports that 66% of B2B teams have three decision-makers. Other sources report that a typical farm having 100-500 employees will have an average of seven decision-makers . So your B2B marketing efforts have to resonate with multiple decision-makers before you can eventually convince them to buy.

Longer sales cycle

B2C consumers can quickly go from discovery to purchase within a day. For some consumer products, a B2C sales cycle can even be as short as 5 minutes .

On the other hand, B2B prospects have to pass through multiple B2B marketing funnel stages before finally converting. This is reasonable considering that B2B solutions often require significant financial investment and impact an entire company. So the back-and-forth between different departments and decision-makers results in a longer sales cycle.

Databox found that it took about 2.1 months to complete a sales cycle for most B2B companies.

Different communication strategies

B2C purchases normally don’t require extensive research or understanding. Someone might see an ad for a home décor item and impulsively buy it because they like how it looks.

So marketers can easily communicate product features and benefits in just a few minutes. Even with items like electronics that require a bit of research, marketers can share necessary info through reviews and explainer videos.

Meanwhile, B2B consumers have to conduct in-depth research to weigh their options and understand the value of a particular solution. Marketers need more detailed communication to improve understanding and provide value to their audience. So you may use webinars, case studies, demos, blog posts, testimonials, and benchmark reports to nurture and convert your audience.

How B2B Marketing Drives Business Growth

Effective B2B marketing campaigns can contribute to long-term business growth. Here are some of the main areas where your marketing efforts can drive growth.

Brand strengthening

The right B2B marketing tactics help you get your brand in front of a relevant B2B audience. So you can reach more buyers and increase brand awareness in different markets. As a result, you can build your brand presence in the industry, strengthening brand recognition in the long run.

Salesforce has built their name as a leading marketing cloud software provider largely due to a powerful B2B marketing strategy. The company uses content marketing to share high-quality, practical information that addresses the pain points of marketers and business owners. They also apply SEO best practices to make sure that their content ranks high in relevant search results, which improves visibility.

Enhanced customer relationships

B2B marketing involves sharing valuable content to improve customer understanding. It also involves nurturing your leads through consistent communication. These efforts help to strengthen your relationships with customers, allowing you to earn their loyalty.

Shopify offers valuable resources where users can gain access to ideas, tutorials, and startup tips . This is an effective B2B marketing strategy to nurture the platform’s existing user base and build a long-term relationship with them.

Increased repeat sales

B2B marketing tactics such as personalized recommendations and timely promotions help you re-engage your customers at the right time. So you can get more repeat sales and drive continued revenue for your business.

For Autodesk , B2B marketing solutions such as LinkedIn’s Conversation Ads allowed them to effectively retarget previous website traffic. The campaign involved sending previous blog traffic to specific download pages for eBooks to accelerate conversions. They ended up with a 28% increase in Lead Gen Form submission rates along with a 15% increase in cost-per-lead efficiency.

How to Develop a Winning B2B Marketing Strategy

A structured approach to B2B marketing is crucial to generate real business impact. Let’s walk you through the process of creating a winning strategy to market your B2B solutions.

Step 1: Start with a clear goal

Do you want to raise brand awareness? Generate leads? Increase adoption? Your B2B marketing efforts should focus on achieving a specific purpose. This will help you build a targeted strategy around a clear goal.

Outline your B2B marketing goals for each campaign so you know what to work toward. This will serve as the foundation for every other aspect of the campaign. It will help you determine campaign details, such as:

• Whom to target
• What content to create
• How to deliver your message
• Which platforms and channels to use

For example, if your goal is to increase adoption for your Premium plan, you may focus on convincing Basic plan users to upgrade. As such, your strategy may include sending them emails highlighting the benefits of upgrading to Premium. You may also offer limited-time discounts to further sweeten the deal.

Step 2: Define your target audience

Once you have your goal outlined, you can start thinking about the types of people to target with your campaign. Who do you want to reach? Do you want to engage practitioners? Or convince key decision-makers?

This will be a key factor influencing the channels you choose to use and the types of content you create. So make sure to get as specific as possible with your target audience definition. Lay out various characteristics of your target audience, such as:

• Job role/title
• Business size
• Platform preferences
• Annual turnover
• Business objectives/priorities
• Pain points
• Interests and hobbies

You can even define different buyer personas to target with the same campaign. In this case, you’ll need to lay out different messaging, content, and channels to use for each persona.

Platforms like User Persona make it easy to quickly outline your target user persona. You can enter a description of your solution, and the platform will automatically generate a sample user persona for you.

Step 3: See what your competitors are doing

Looking at how others in your industry are marketing their business can give you some idea of how to market your own solutions. A comprehensive competitor analysis will reveal insights such as:

• The types of people they’re targeting
• The channels they’re using to promote their solutions
• How they’re positioning their products
• The types of content they’re creating
• How people are responding to their tactics
• Whether there are any missed opportunities you can leverage

These insights can inform how to shape your own B2B marketing plan. You’ll be able to replicate the strategies that are working and improve on them to get better results. You can even find gaps that you can fill to set yourself apart in the industry.

Say you notice that your competitors often get high engagement on their fun and informative videos, but they’re only creating one or so every month. You could ramp up your own video marketing efforts to drive more engagement. Or, say you notice that their followers are asking questions that the company doesn’t seem to address. You could use those questions to inspire your content creation. 

Use platforms like BuzzSumo to get a detailed breakdown of your competitors’ content marketing strategy. You can use this to analyze which content gets the most engagement, which networks work for them, who is sharing their content, and more. You can even see the average engagement by media type so you know what content works in your industry.

Step 4: Focus on the right promotion channels

Your choice of channels plays a crucial role in whether your B2B marketing strategy reaches the right people. It’s important to focus your efforts on channels where your audience is present.

Your audience research should reveal essential insights on which channels and platforms to focus on for your B2B digital marketing. Besides the basics such as your company blog and website, consider other popular B2B marketing channels such as:

• Social media
• Display advertising
• Guest blogging

Get even more specific with your choice of channels by breaking down which social media platforms and display ad channels to use. Similarly, you’ll need to look into guest posting opportunities on publications that can send valuable traffic to your site.

In addition, you’ll want to figure out which offline channels to include in your B2B marketing plan. Based on your goal and target audience, you can look into options such as:

• Sponsorships
• Conferences
• Industry events
• Direct mail
• Community involvement

Step 5: Create your content

B2B consumers need education to understand the business value of your solution. And the best way to share this education is through content. As such, content serves as the backbone of effective marketing for B2B brands.

Develop a robust B2B content marketing plan that lays out:

• The pain points you need to address
• The content topics to tackle
• The media types and content formats to use
• The distribution channels to use
• The schedule to publish your content

You can use your initial research to figure out the details of your content marketing strategy. Then begin creating impactful content that gets the message across and resonates with your target audience. Regardless of what the specifics may be, your content should address your target audience’s pain points and establish the value of your product or service.

Step 6: Test, adapt, and refine your strategy

Part of B2B marketing success is ensuring that your strategy is always optimized. Monitor your performance to see what works and what doesn’t. Then use these insights to refine your strategy accordingly.

Make sure to run multiple tests to get the insights you need. Test different aspects of your strategy, such as:

• Content types
• Media types
• Content formats
• Audience targeting

Use these results to inform your strategy and improve your results.

For example, if your LinkedIn slideshows are getting a ton of engagement, consider creating more of them. Or, if you find that a specific value positioning drives significantly more clicks on your ads, you can fine-tune your ad campaigns with it.

Key B2B Marketing Tactics to Boost Business

The following marketing tactics can help you effectively reach a B2B audience and bring in new business.

Content Marketing

With B2B audiences needing a comprehensive understanding of a solution before investing in it, content plays a crucial role in B2B inbound marketing . It helps you educate your target audience on complicated concepts to improve understanding. This establishes your expertise in the field and helps you attract high-value prospects.

This is why content marketing is the top B2B lead generation channel. The 2023 B2B Marketing Outlook Survey found that content marketing yields the highest ROI for 62% of respondents.

Content also enables you to nurture your potential clients through timely and relevant content. It’s highly effective for showcasing the value of your solution, which will eventually drive conversions.

Make sure to diversify your content to appeal to a wide variety of audiences at various stages of the buying funnel. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) , case studies and customer stories are the most effective types of B2B content. This type of content helps to establish trust by showing proof of how the product adds value for clients, so prospects can understand real-life use cases.

Videos are equally effective as they can convey information in an engaging audio-visual format. Use them to share demos, explainers, instructions, and industry insights. Thought leadership ebooks and white papers are another effective content type. You can use these types of content to share valuable insights that will showcase your expertise. 

Besides these, you can also use the following types of content to keep things diversified: 

• Research reports
• Infographics
• Live broadcasts
• Interactive content 

Stay on top of the latest B2B marketing trends to discover content types that are trending in your industry.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

An effective B2B SEO strategy is the key to attracting relevant prospects to your site. When B2B consumers need a solution, most of them will turn to online search. Gartner reports that online search is the third most popular way to engage with digital suppliers in the buying process. Most interactions will take place on the supplier’s website.

For people to come to your website and interact with it, they need to be able to find it on search. So it’s crucial to optimize your website for increased visibility in relevant online searches. Here are a few tips:

• Research relevant keywords and understand buyer intent. Then create content to satisfy that intent, making sure that it’s optimized with the target keywords.
• Use keyword clustering to improve your website structure and enhance crawlability. 
• Fix any technical SEO issues that could hinder organic visibility. Improve page load speed and create a mobile responsive website. Identify and fix crawl errors, use 301 redirects, and fix broken links. 
• Optimize all your product and service pages with contextually relevant links and keywords. Make sure to include high-quality images and videos, compelling headlines, and detailed product information.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

While organic efforts such as SEO bring in sustainable traffic in the long run, it takes time for them to show results. It’s important to back up your organic B2B marketing tactics with paid efforts like PPC advertising. 

When you run targeted PPC ads, you can get your brand in front of the right people. Your ad will show up prominently at the top of relevant searches with Google Ads. See how Modash dominates the search results for “influencer search tool.”

With ad platforms like LinkedIn Ads, your ad will appear among organic content in a user’s feed. You can also run PPC ads through Sponsored InMail or as banner ads on the right-hand panel of the LinkedIn page. This helps you target relevant LinkedIn users and turn them into valuable prospects.

The best part is that you only pay for clicks, so you’re not wasting valuable marketing dollars just to display your ads. Make sure to clearly define the target audience you want to reach. You can also test different targeting options to see which ones are the most effective at attracting prospects. 

Research keywords that your audience is using in their search terms and use them to create compelling ad copy. Test different versions of your ad with varying ad creative and copy to fine-tune your PPC strategy.

Social Media Marketing

The Gartner research cited earlier revealed that social media was the second most popular way for buyers to interact with suppliers during the purchase journey. It’s where they go research your brand and evaluate the value of your solution. They look at what content you’re sharing and how you’re interacting with people to assess whether they should work with you.

The CMI study even found that organic social media is one of the top three distribution channels that drive the best results for B2B marketers. So you need to ramp up your B2B social media marketing efforts to build a strong presence and connect with your prospects. 

In particular, focus on LinkedIn, which provides the best value for B2B marketers. Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are also powerful channels to expand your reach.

Share high-quality content regularly and engage with your audience through comments and interactive posts. Make sure to share content beyond article links. Include a mix of visuals in the form of photos, original graphics, and slides as well as video. 

Showcase the people behind your brand with employee stories, office events, team activities, and interviews. This helps to humanize your brand and foster a human connection with potential clients. For instance, Slack has a strong social media marketing game with memes, original graphics, articles, and slides. They also regularly share visual testimonials from customers who use Slack within their organizations.

Email Marketing

Email is one of the top distribution channels that produce the best results for B2B marketers. It provides you with a channel to nurture your leads, keep your customers informed, and eventually drive conversions. You can use email marketing to:

• Update subscribers with the latest blog posts
• Share company and product updates
• Provide practical tips and instructions
• Send personalized recommendations
• Share exclusive offers and discounts

The best way to send B2B emails that drive results is by ensuring that your emails are relevant and valuable to each recipient. It’s important to segment your mailing list to create email campaigns that resonate with different types of people. 

For instance, you can segment your Premium, high-value customers and send them emails with exclusive perks like early bird offers and Beta testing opportunities. Meanwhile, another segment of new subscribers may receive emails with tips and tricks or discounts that would encourage them to sign up. 

See the following Groww email, which encourages recipients to start trading on the platform. It includes a list of benefits and features that users can enjoy when trading on Groww.

Just like B2C consumers, B2B buyers turn to influential personalities to inform their buying decisions. They may discover new products and services from an article in an industry publication. Or they may check an in-depth review by a leading expert before deciding which solution to invest in. 

This is why B2B influencer marketing plays such a vital role in generating valuable leads. In fact, 40% of B2B marketers have been able to generate more leads and sales as a result of influencer marketing.

While B2B influencers may not look like traditional social media influencers, they command a huge presence in their respective fields. So what they say goes. If they vouch for your product or service, you can instantly win the trust of thousands of people who look to them for buying recommendations. In other words, they can be an effective B2B PR tool to boost brand recognition and improve your reputation.

Here are a few ideas to incorporate influencers into your B2B marketing plan:

• Get industry experts to review or feature your solution.
• Invite influencers to company events to boost publicity.
• Interview experts for your blog post or live broadcast.
• Conduct AMA sessions featuring a leading industry influencer.
• Hire an influential creator to put together sponsored content.
• Co-create content with leading creators related to your industry.
• Recruit industry publications and content creators as brand affiliates or partners.

General Electronics put together a thought leadership event where they invited leaders from various industries as speakers. “The Lean Mindset” featured prominent names such as Wolfgang Puck and David Gelb, as well as Ford’s Jim Farley and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi came together to discuss the business of improvement. Each of these sessions received thousands of views on YouTube. 

Referral Marketing

It’s not just influencers that B2B audiences look to for purchase recommendations. They also consider the opinions of other B2B consumers, such as industry peers and satisfied customers. This makes sense as the experiences of people who’ve used the product or service would know it best. So their recommendations hold weight, helping to build trust among potential clients. 

The B2B Marketing Outlook Survey cited earlier noted word of mouth as the fourth most effective lead generation channel. Thirty-eight percent of respondents in the survey recognized that word-of-mouth recommendations provided high ROI for B2B leads.

Encourage your happy clients to recommend your solution to their industry peers so you can expand your customer base. Set up loyalty programs where customers can earn an incentive for every successful referral. When you reward customers for referrals, it gives them an even better reason to recommend you to the right prospects.

ShipBob has a robust Affiliate Program that allows affiliates to earn attractive commissions for every opportunity. In addition to a $850 commission per opportunity, affiliates get access to powerful tracking capabilities and useful resources to promote the product.

Video allows B2B marketers to effectively engage their audiences, combining both audio and visual elements. This combination helps you convey complex information in a format that’s easy to understand for different types of audiences. The CMI study from earlier also noted that videos produced the best results along with customer stories and testimonials.

Your B2B video marketing strategy can consist of various approaches to cater to audiences at every stage of the marketing funnel. Think of promo videos and explainers at the awareness stage or webinars and demos at the consideration stage. Meanwhile, detailed walk-throughs and training materials may help you nurture clients who are ripe for conversion.

Moz has a powerful video marketing strategy that includes actionable tips and practical insights for SEO practitioners. They publish these videos regularly through their YouTube channel and also host webinar sessions with expert presenters. 94.9k YouTube subscribers give testimony to the company’s video marketing success.

Marketing Automation

As B2B companies strive to improve efficiency, automating some aspects of their marketing becomes a crucial step. In fact, the B2B Marketing Outlook Survey revealed that 30% of respondents were planning to invest in automation tools. This makes it the third biggest MarTech investment after content creation and analytics.

A study by Columbia Business School even found that a hybrid human-automated model can boost profits by over 10% in a B2B setting. 

There are many aspects of your B2B marketing that you can automate to save time and maximize results. For instance, email automation lets you automatically personalize hundreds and thousands of emails without having to manually go through each and every one of them. Meanwhile, generative AI tools make it possible to speed up your content creation process, with content teams using them to generate ideas and outlines. You can even use AI to automatically create or optimize captions for social media.

Platforms like Salesforce offer comprehensive B2B marketing automation features. You can use it to set up multichannel automation to trigger surveys, SMS sends, and event and webinar registrations at various stages of the customer journey.

The platform also comes with AI content creation capabilities to automate the process of creating copy for your emails, subject lines, landing pages, and forms. This significantly helps you save time and scale your marketing efforts.

Industry Events Participation

When it comes to engaging a B2B audience, nothing beats live, in-person interactions. According to the CMI study, in-person events produced the best results for B2B marketers compared to other distribution channels. The B2B Marketing Outlook Survey also found that live events yielded the second highest ROI among all marketing channels. 

This is why it’s so important for companies to participate in industry events to engage their audience face-to-face. In-person events create networking opportunities where B2B marketers can build authentic connections with real people.

So make sure to sign up for major conferences, trade shows, and meetups taking place in your industry. Workshops and field events are another excellent option to foster in-person interactions. Additionally, you could even host product launch events and invite industry leaders and relevant prospects to attend.

Adobe combines several of these tactics with their annual Adobe MAX creativity conference. This conference brings together hundreds of business owners, professionals, and teams through learning opportunities and new product showcases.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of a B2B Marketing Campaign

Successful B2B marketing campaigns don’t happen on the first try. You need to see how your campaigns are paying off to understand how you can improve on them. You should also A/B test variations of your ads, emails, and landing pages to see which versions perform the best. 

This will help you streamline your efforts and maximize the impact of your marketing spend. Depending on your goal, keep track of the following metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to see how your B2B campaigns are working:

• Website traffic
• Traffic source
• Traffic-to-lead ratio
• Search ranking
• Conversion rate
• Form submission rate
• Email signups
• Demo signups
• Click-through rate
• Cost per click
• Cost per action
• Email open rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Social media engagement
• Content marketing engagement
• Return on ad spend

Most B2B marketing platforms come with built-in analytics features that will give you comprehensive insights into your campaign performance. For instance, Mailchimp by Intuit comes with a comprehensive visual report to see how your campaigns are performing. 

You’ll be able to track click rates, revenue, and orders over time. It even comes with A/B testing features to help you test different design elements, subject lines, and content to optimize your emails.

Examples of Successful B2B Marketing

Intellectsoft.

Intellectsoft was looking for a way to increase their online presence and boost digital engagement. However, this engagement needed to be on a deeper, more authentic level if they were going to build sustainable relationships with their prospects.

This would require creating useful and meaningful content to provide value to their audience. Content experts at Ninja Promo worked on developing a comprehensive content marketing strategy with a focus on informative blog posts, infographics, and videos. This significantly boosted online visibility and engagement for Intellectsoft, contributing to increased brand awareness.

Some of the most notable results were:

• 159% increase in engagement rate
• 11,000 new social media followers
• 440,000 monthly organic impressions

CBRE noticed a gradual drop in engagement after two years of working with the same target audience, which had begun to lose interest in their ad creatives. To prevent audience burnout, the Ninja Promo team conducted regular campaign refreshes. They also sought out fresh audiences to expand the brand’s reach.

Ninja Promo took a two-stage advertising approach, starting off with identifying potential buyers on social media based on interests. This initial phase focused on driving traffic to the CBRE website, where they would then use pixel tracking to monitor user behavior. The second phase focused on targeting audiences who were similar to the website visitors.

The team also constantly monitored how these efforts were performing and adjusted the strategy according to those insights. When a lead form didn’t seem to work, they offered live chat as an alternative channel. Additionally, they also adjusted the target audience and messaging to better attract leads. By the end of the campaign, CBRE experienced the following results:

• 30,000 new potential investors through targeted ads
• 120,000 unique website visits
• 10% improvement in click-through rates
• 8% decrease in cost per lead.

Why Your Business Needs a B2B Marketing Expert: Reasons to Hire an Agency

Running a successful B2B marketing campaign is hard work. It takes time, expertise, and specialized tools to ensure that you’re putting your marketing dollars to good use. If you lack these resources in-house, it’s best to outsource your B2B marketing to professionals.

A B2B marketing agency gives you instant access to years of industry expertise and diverse skills that are expensive to acquire in-house. You can rely on them to put together impactful campaigns using proven strategies and industry best practices. And with a dedicated team to oversee your campaigns, you can trust them to constantly fine-tune the strategy to maximize results.

Not to mention the cost savings associated with MarTech investments. You won’t have to commit to platform subscriptions and expensive tech purchases since the agency already has access to sophisticated tools to execute your marketing campaigns.

With longer sales cycles and more decision-makers to appease, B2B marketing can be expensive and time-consuming. Trusting experts to oversee the process is your best bet at generating long-term results without sacrificing your time and workforce.

Ninja Promo has extensive experience in running successful B2B marketing campaigns across a variety of industries. Enjoy unparalleled growth with dedicated teams to help you with every aspect of your marketing—from SEO and content marketing to social media and influencer marketing. Click the button below to get started with an intro call.

Take advantage of a free consultation.

Feeling lost? Trying to develop a marketing strategy that gets results, but you keep hitting a wall? Leave it to us. With our deep knowledge of digital marketing, we know how to create strategies that drive sustainable growth.

Schedule your free consultation now.

Did You Like This Article?

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

Our Other Articles

• How NinjaPromo works
• How you can do marketing at scale better, faster and cheaper
• How we’re different from agencies, freelancers and in-house marketing teams (hint: we’re 15x faster than hiring!)
• The most suitable subscription plan for your needs

BOOK A CALL WITH US

—Please choose an option— $1 - $5,000 $5,001 - $10,000 $10,001 - $30,000 $30,001 - $50,000 $50,001 - $100,000 $100,001+ Haven't decided yet —Please choose an option— North America Western Europe Middle East Asia Pacific (APAC) Other

By clicking next, you agree to receive communications from NinjaPromo in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Financial modeling spreadsheets and templates in Excel & Google Sheets

• Your cart is empty.

Unleash Your Potential With A Sample Real Estate Business Plan

Embarking on a journey in the real estate industry requires careful planning and a strategic approach. A robust business plan serves not only as a blueprint for your operations but also as a crucial tool for attracting investors, securing funding, and guiding your decisions. When developing a sample real estate business plan, it is vital to incorporate comprehensive research, clear objectives, and actionable strategies. This document ultimately reflects your vision and commitment, which can inspire confidence among stakeholders and partners. Understanding the key components of a successful business plan will empower you to navigate the complexities of the real estate market with greater assurance.

Creating a well-defined roadmap for your real estate venture can significantly impact your chances of success. A well-crafted sample real estate business plan encompasses various elements, from market analysis to operational strategies, ensuring that every aspect of the business is meticulously planned. By outlining your goals and the means to achieve them, you establish a solid foundation for growth and adaptation in a competitive industry. This article will guide you through the essential sections that need to be included in your business plan, helping you to articulate your objectives and strategies effectively. Whether you are just starting or seeking to refine an existing plan, understanding these foundational elements will be invaluable.

Crafting an Effective Sample Real Estate Business Plan

When starting a real estate business, having a solid business plan is essential. A well-crafted sample real estate business plan can act as your roadmap, guiding you through the challenges of building a successful company. It should clearly outline your goals, strategies, and how you plan to operate your business.

Your business plan must start with an executive summary. This part gives a brief overview of what your real estate business is about. It should highlight your mission, your vision, and the specific goals you want to achieve. Think of this as the elevator pitch for your business. Keep it concise but impactful to grab the reader’s attention.

Understanding the Market

Next, focus on your market analysis. This section dives into the real estate market you’re entering. You need to show that you’ve done your homework. Ask yourself questions like:

• What are the current trends in the real estate market?
• Who are your main competitors?
• What demographic are you targeting?
• What unique services will you offer?

Addressing these questions can provide valuable insights, helping you understand how to position your business effectively within the market.

Business Structure

The next part of your real estate business plan should explain your business’s structure. Will you operate as a sole proprietor, partnership, or LLC? This decision impacts your tax obligations and potential liabilities. Clearly outline this information to guide readers through your operational framework.

After the structure, detail your marketing strategies. Your marketing approach is key to attracting clients and closing deals. Consider a mix of both traditional and digital marketing tactics. Here are some strategies you might include:

• Creating a professional website with listings and resources.
• Using social media to engage with potential buyers and sellers.
• Networking with local businesses and community organizations.
• Investing in targeted online ads to reach your demographics.

Each strategy should align with your overarching goals and budget , giving a clear picture of how you intend to promote your services.

Financial Projections

An effective sample real estate business plan must also include financial projections. This is where you estimate your expected revenue, expenses, and profitability. Break down your costs into categories such as:

• Startup Costs (licenses, office space, marketing)
• Operational Costs (staff salaries, maintenance, utilities)
• Projected Sales (based on market research)

Graphics or tables showing your projected growth can make this section more engaging. This data not only shows your potential but also helps in securing funding if needed.

Setting Goals

Goals are critical for success. Establishing both short-term and long-term goals will keep you on track. Short-term goals might include:

• Closing your first five deals within the first year.
• Building a client base of at least 100 contacts.
• Generating a revenue of $100,000 in the first year.

Long-term goals could be:

• Expanding into new markets within five years.
• Establishing a brand recognized in your local community.
• Creating a sustainable business model with repeat clients.

These goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). They serve as guideposts as you navigate the complexities of the real estate world.

Execution Timing and Accountability

Discuss how you will implement your strategies and who will be responsible for each task. Assigning roles ensures accountability and helps keep the business organized. Setting timelines for your goals and milestones will also keep the team motivated and focused on results.

Crafting a robust sample real estate business plan can set the foundation for a successful venture. Ensure your plan is comprehensive, precise, and tailored to your business goals. Remember, a great plan not only helps you secure funding but also provides clarity and direction for the growth of your business.

Key Components of a Real Estate Business Plan

Creating a real estate business plan is essential for anyone looking to thrive in the competitive property market. A well-structured plan serves as a roadmap, guiding your decisions and helping you stay focused on your goals. Here are some key components to consider when drafting your plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is a concise overview of your entire business plan. It should cover your objectives, target market, and competitive advantages in a few paragraphs. This section sets the tone for your plan, highlighting why your real estate business is unique.

Business Description

In this section, delve into the specifics of your business. Describe the type of real estate services you plan to offer, whether it’s residential, commercial, or industrial. Explain your mission statement, values, and vision for the future of your business.

Market Analysis

Conducting a thorough market analysis is crucial for understanding the landscape in which you will operate. Include the following in this section:

• Target Market: Identify your ideal clients and demographics, such as age, income level, and buying preferences.
• Market Trends: Explore current trends affecting the real estate market, including pricing, buyer behavior, and economic indicators.
• Competitor Analysis: Identify your competitors and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Understand their marketing strategies and how you can differentiate yourself.

Organization and Management

Outlining your organization’s structure is essential in showcasing how your business will operate. Include details about your team’s roles, responsibilities, and qualifications. If you have a legal structure in mind, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or LLC, mention this here as well.

Marketing Strategies

Effective marketing strategies will help you reach your target audience and grow your business. Highlight various methods you plan to employ, including:

• Online Marketing: Utilize social media, content marketing, and real estate listing platforms to attract clients.
• Networking: Attend industry events and leverage personal connections to build relationships.
• Traditional Advertising: Consider flyers, direct mail, and advertising in local publications to broaden your reach.

To secure funding or investment, provide detailed financial projections, including:

• Start-Up Costs: Outline the initial costs involved in launching your business, such as licensing, marketing, and office expenses.
• Revenue Streams: Identify how you plan to generate income, whether through commission, property management fees, or other services.
• Cash Flow: Create a cash flow statement to project your incoming and outgoing funds over a specific period.

Funding Request

If you seek funding, clearly state the amount needed and how you plan to utilize it. Assign percentages to various expenses like marketing, operational costs, or technology investments. Being transparent about your needs can help potential investors understand your vision.

The appendix serves as a supplementary section that includes additional materials, such as resumes, legal documents, and references. This section allows you to provide deeper insights without cluttering the core sections of your business plan.

Creating a comprehensive real estate business plan is not just about preparing for the future. It’s a powerful tool to help you visualize your business’s potential, make informed decisions, and navigate the challenges of the real estate market. By including these key components, you position yourself for success in your real estate endeavors.

Understanding Market Analysis for Real Estate Ventures

When diving into the world of real estate ventures, understanding market analysis becomes essential. Market analysis helps investors and real estate professionals identify opportunities, assess risks, and make informed decisions.

One of the first steps in market analysis is defining the target market. This involves identifying specific demographics such as age, income level, and lifestyle of potential buyers or renters. Knowing who your target audience is plays a vital role in shaping your investment strategies.

Gathering Data

Data is the backbone of any successful market analysis. The following sources can provide valuable information:

• Government Reports: Local and national statistics give insights into housing trends and economic conditions.
• Real Estate Websites: Websites like Zillow and Realtor.com offer data on property prices, sales trends, and rental rates.
• Local Real Estate Agents: Agents have firsthand knowledge of the market dynamics and can offer valuable insights.
• Local Economic Reports: These can highlight job growth, investment in infrastructure, and other factors that can affect property values.

Analyzing Supply and Demand

Understanding supply and demand is crucial. When demand exceeds supply, property values typically rise. On the other hand, a surplus of properties can lead to lower prices. Consider the following:

• Current Sales Trends: Monitor how quickly homes sell. Quick sales often indicate high demand.
• New Developments: Take note of any new constructions. An overabundance of new homes can signify a potential market slow down.
• Vacancy Rates: High vacancy rates can indicate a lack of demand, while low rates can signify robust interest.

Location Matters

The location of your investment is a critical factor in market analysis. Here are a few elements to evaluate:

• Neighborhood Characteristics: Investigate amenities like schools, parks, and shopping areas. These can significantly influence property values.
• Future Developments: Research planned infrastructure improvements, as they can enhance location desirability and property values.
• Crime Rates: Safety is a priority for most buyers and renters. Areas with lower crime rates tend to attract more interest.

Understanding Competition

Identifying competitors within the target market allows you to position your venture correctly. Analyze:

• Types of Properties: Know what types of homes or rentals are most prevalent in your area.
• Pricing Strategies: Understand how similar properties are priced. Competitive pricing can make your offering more attractive.
• Marketing Approaches: Studying successful marketing strategies can help you reach and attract your target audience more effectively.

Evaluating Financial Metrics

Financial analysis is necessary for any real estate venture. Examine the following metrics to gauge potential profitability:

• Return on Investment (ROI): Calculate this by comparing the net profit with the total investment. A higher ROI signifies a more favorable investment.
• Cap Rate: This metric helps assess the property’s potential return relative to its price. A cap rate indicates how quickly the investment can pay off.
• Cash Flow: Positive cash flow means your rental income exceeds expenses, which is a good sign for investors.

Having a clear market analysis allows real estate investors to capitalize on trends, making strategic decisions that enhance their chances for success. By following these steps, anyone can better understand the complexities of the real estate market and position themselves positively for growth and profitability.

Effective market analysis is a powerful tool in the real estate business. It lays the groundwork for successful investments, guiding decisions and helping investors navigate the ever-evolving landscape of real estate opportunities.

Strategies for Marketing Your Real Estate Business

Marketing your real estate business effectively is crucial to stand out in a competitive market. By employing a variety of strategies, you can attract potential clients and build a solid brand presence. Here are some key strategies that can help you elevate your real estate marketing game.

Leverage Social Media

Social media platforms offer a fantastic opportunity to connect with potential buyers and sellers. Here are a few tactics to consider:

• Create engaging content: Share property photos, virtual tours, client testimonials, and market insights to keep your audience engaged.
• Use targeted ads: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow you to create targeted ad campaigns that reach specific demographics.
• Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages promptly to build relationships and trust.

Optimize Your Website

Your website is often the first point of contact for potential clients. To ensure it functions effectively:

• Use SEO best practices: Incorporate relevant keywords, such as “buy homes,” “real estate listings,” and “real estate services,” in your website content.
• Make it mobile-friendly: Ensure your website looks good and operates smoothly on mobile devices, as many users browse on their phones.
• Provide valuable resources: Include a blog that offers market tips, neighborhood highlights, and even DIY home improvement advice to attract visitors.

Develop a Strong Brand Identity

Creating a unique brand identity helps people remember your business. Here’s how to craft a memorable brand:

• Define your niche: Identify what sets you apart from other real estate agents and emphasize that in your marketing.
• Design a professional logo: Your logo should reflect your brand and be consistent across all platforms, including your website and social media profiles.
• Utilize consistent messaging: Your communication should align with your brand’s voice, whether it’s friendly, professional, or approachable.

Network in Your Community

Building a strong local presence can significantly aid your marketing efforts. Consider these actions:

• Attend local events: Join community gatherings, real estate expos, or home shows to connect with potential clients and other professionals.
• Partner with local businesses: Collaborate with other businesses to reach a larger audience. For example, a local coffee shop could showcase your business card or flyers.
• Join professional organizations: Groups like the Chamber of Commerce can help you network with influential community members and grow your professional presence.

Utilize Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective communication strategies. To maximize its impact:

• Build a quality email list: Offer something valuable in exchange for email addresses, like a free market report or eBook.
• Create valuable content: Your emails should provide insightful market updates, property listings, and tips that engage your audience.
• Use segmentation: Divide your list based on client interests, such as buyers, sellers, or renters, to send tailored messages.

Invest in Virtual Tours and Videos

Using virtual tours and videos can turn casual browsers into serious buyers. Here’s how:

• Create property videos: Showcase your listings through dynamic video walk-throughs to create an immersive experience.
• Host live virtual open houses: Use platforms like Zoom or Facebook Live to engage with your audience in real-time.
• Share testimonials: Record client success stories to build credibility and help potential clients see the value in your services.

By diversifying your marketing strategies and focusing on building relationships, you can create a real estate business that stands out. Your approach should be engaging, authentic, and consistent to foster long-term success in the ever-evolving real estate market.

Navigating Legal Considerations in Real Estate Planning

Navigating the world of real estate involves understanding a variety of legal considerations. Whether you are buying, selling, leasing, or developing property, grasping these legalities is crucial for success. Knowing the laws can protect your investment and ensure a smooth process. Below are key areas to focus on when addressing legal considerations in real estate planning.

Understanding Property Rights

Property rights are fundamental in real estate. It’s essential to distinguish between different types of ownership:

• Freehold Estate: This type grants full ownership of the property, including the land and any structures on it.
• Leasehold Estate: Here, you lease the property for a specific period but do not own it.
• Condominiums: You own a unit within a complex but share ownership of common areas.

Understanding these distinctions can help you protect your rights as a property owner or tenant.

Zoning and Land Use Regulations

Zoning laws dictate how land can be used in different areas. These regulations can affect development and investment opportunities. Before proceeding with a project, consider the following:

• Check local zoning codes to confirm what is permissible on the property.
• Understand any restrictions related to commercial, residential, or industrial uses.
• Be aware of any future developments in the area that could impact your property’s value.

Ignoring zoning laws can lead to fines or legal complications, so always do your research.

Real Estate Contracts

Contracts play a significant role in real estate transactions. Here are crucial components to ensure your contracts are sound:

• Offers and Counteroffers: Clearly define terms, including price, deadlines, and contingencies.
• Earnest Money: This deposit shows your commitment and outlines conditions for refund.
• Disclosures: Sellers must disclose known issues with the property to buyers to avoid future disputes.

Having ironclad contracts can mitigate risks and clarify expectations for all parties involved.

Environmental Considerations

Environmental laws are critical in real estate planning as they influence land use. Key considerations include:

• Environmental Impact Assessments: Required for developments that might affect the environment.
• Hazardous Materials: Be aware of any toxic substances on the property that could lead to liability issues.
• Protected Areas: Understand regulations around wetlands, endangered species, and historical sites.

Understanding these factors can help you steer clear of legal pitfalls and potential fines.

Property Taxes and Assessments

Keeping track of property taxes is essential for property ownership. Here’s what you need to know:

• Property taxes are based on assessed value; ensure property assessments are accurate.
• Explore potential tax deductions available for property owners, such as mortgage interest.
• Stay informed about local tax laws as they can change and directly impact your investment.

Always budget for property taxes to avoid financial complications.

Financing and Mortgages

Securing financing is often the backbone of real estate transactions. Factors to consider include:

• Types of Loans: Understand the differences between conventional, FHA, and VA loans.
• Interest Rates: Shop around for the best rates and terms.
• Loan Terms: Know the implications of fixed-rate versus adjustable-rate mortgages.

Comprehending financing options can impact your long-term financial health.

With these considerations in mind, navigating the legal aspects of real estate planning becomes more manageable. Keeping informed and seeking professional advice when needed is essential for protecting your interests and ensuring a successful outcome in all real estate endeavors.

Tips for Presenting Your Real Estate Business Plan to Investors

When you’re ready to present your real estate business plan to investors, it’s crucial to make a strong impression. Your presentation can make the difference between gaining funding or leaving empty-handed. Here are some practical tips to help you effectively communicate your vision and secure the investments you need.

Know Your Audience

Understanding the investors you’re presenting to is essential. Consider the following:

• Background: Research their investment history and preferences.
• Expectations: Know what they typically look for in a proposal.
• Concerns: Be prepared to address any potential questions or objections.

Focus on Your Unique Selling Proposition

Every successful real estate business plan highlights what sets it apart from competitors. Investors want to know why they should choose your project over others. Be clear and concise about your unique approach. Here’s how:

• Identify Your Niche: Are you focusing on luxury properties, affordable housing, or something else?
• Highlight Innovations: Discuss any new methods or technologies you plan to employ.
• Showcase Your Team: Talk about the experience and skills of your team members.

Present Clear Financial Projections

Investors want to see realistic financial projections that demonstrate the potential for return on their investment. Include:

• Start-up Costs: Provide a detailed breakdown of initial funding needs.
• Revenue Streams: Outline how you plan to generate income.
• Exit Strategy: Explain how investors can expect to recoup their investment.

Use Visual aids Effectively

Visuals can significantly enhance your presentation. They help simplify complex information and keep your audience engaged. Consider using:

• PowerPoint Slides: Create slides that summarize key points and use bullet points for clarity.
• Charts and Graphs: Use these to present financial data and projections visually.
• Property Images: Include high-quality photos or renderings of the properties you plan to focus on.

Practice Your Presentation

The delivery of your presentation is as crucial as the content itself. Practice will help you gain confidence and smooth out any rough edges. Here are some tips:

• Rehearse Aloud: Go through your presentation out loud multiple times.
• Seek Feedback: Present to friends or colleagues beforehand and gather constructive criticism.
• Time Your Presentation: Ensure you stay within any given time limits while covering all essential points.

Anticipate Questions

Investors will likely have questions following your presentation. Anticipating these questions will demonstrate your thorough preparation. Common concerns might include:

• Market Risk: Be ready to discuss your market research and analysis.
• Competition: Explain how you plan to tackle your competitors.
• Property Management: Clarify your strategies for ongoing management and maintenance.

Follow Up After the Presentation

After your presentation, it’s essential to follow up with your investors. This shows your professionalism and maintains their interest. Consider sending:

• Thank You Emails: Express appreciation for their time and consideration.
• Additional Information: Provide any additional documents or answers to questions that may have arisen during the meeting.
• Meeting Requests: Suggest further meetings to discuss potential partnerships.

Presenting your real estate business plan effectively can create lasting impressions. By knowing your audience, focusing on your unique offerings, and preparing diligently, you can communicate your vision in a way that excites investors. Good luck, and may your real estate ventures be successful!

Creating a sample real estate business plan is not just about filling a template with numbers and jargon; it’s about shaping a vision that clearly communicates your goals and strategies. As we discussed, each component of the plan plays a vital role in presenting a holistic view of your real estate business. When crafting your business plan, you want to focus on clarity and thoroughness to ensure potential investors or partners grasp your intentions.

The key components, such as executive summaries, descriptions of your services, and marketing strategies, must cohesively align with your overall business objectives. Special attention should be given to market analysis, as understanding your local market trends can help identify opportunities and risks that may be ahead. Investors appreciate a well-researched analysis that highlights your knowledge of the industry, demographics, competition, and properties in demand.

Financial projections are the backbone of your real estate business plan. Accurate estimations not only demonstrate your professionalism but also provide investors with a clear picture of your anticipated revenue and expenses. Showing a solid understanding of financing options and investment returns can significantly boost the plan’s credibility.

When it comes to marketing strategies, your approach should reflect an innovative mindset tailored to reach your target audience. Whether through online platforms, networking events, or traditional advertising, showcasing your strategy energizes your plan and piques investor interest.

Legal considerations are equally crucial to address. Real estate ventures come with various regulations, and outlining how you navigate these laws can set you apart from competitors. remember that an engaging presentation can turn your written business plan into a compelling narrative. Practice your pitch, anticipate questions, and invite feedback to ensure you make a positive impression on potential investors.

Ultimately, a well-rounded real estate business plan not only guides your business toward success but also assures investors that you are a credible and prepared partner. Prioritize transparency, research, and clear communication, and you’re more likely to secure the necessary support to make your real estate visions a reality.

Commercial Real Estate Valuation Model Template

A commercial real estate valuation model template assists in running a professional DCF Valuation for a commercial property such as an office building... read more

•   PDF Demo Versions  –  $0.00 Version 1
•   BASIC Excel Model Template  –  $59.00 Version 1
•   PRO Excel Model Template  –  $99.00 Version 1
•   PREMIUM Excel MODEL + Report Template  –  $199.00 Version 1

Airbnb Financial Model

Air BnB Financial Model Template presents the business case of the purchase of up to 5 properties with the intent of utilizing them as short term rent... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $119.00 Version 1
•   Free PDF  –  $0.00 Version 1

All My Financial Models, Spreadsheets, Templates, and Tools: 120+

Lifetime access to all future templates as well! Here is a set of spreadsheets that have some of the most valuable logic in the world. I have been thr... read more

•   All My Excel Tools  –  $499.00 Version 1

Rental Property Financial Model

The rental property financial model calculates the homeowner's IRR and long it takes to repay a mortgage when the property is rented. The financial... read more

Start Up Car Park Excel Model and Valuation

This detailed, yet easy to use three statement financial model will allow you to calculate your business' profit and loss, build a balance sheet and c... read more

•   Free PDF  –  $0.00
•   Paid Excel Model  –  $69.00

Real Estate Developer Model

This financial model can be used to evaluate the financial feasibility of a real estate development project and present it in investor grade quality t... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $49.95 Version 1.1
•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 1.1

Mixed-Use Real Estate Model: Leverage / JV Options

A general real estate model to plan all assumptions for up to 7 'uses' for a given property. Includes development / acquisition, leverage if desired, ... read more

•   EURO Currency Version  –  $75.00 Version 1
•   Unit-based Version  –  $75.00 Version 4
•   Square Foot-based Version  –  $75.00 Version 4

Real Estate Financial Model Templates Package

This is a collection of ready-made Excel financial model templates for real estate businesses and its related sectors.

•   Real Estate Package  –  $282.30 Version 1

Residual Land Value Calculation

The Residual Land Value Calculation model allows you to determine the value of a piece of land from a developer's point of view by analyzing how much ... read more

•   Yearly Model PDF Demo  –  $0.00 Version 4.1
•   Monthly Model PDF Demo  –  $0.00 Version 4.1
•   Monthly Model Excel Version  –  $69.90 Version 4.1
•   Yearly Model Excel Version  –  $35.00 Version 4.1

Construction / Development Financial Model

Development & Construction Model presents the case where a property with multiple residential units is constructed and subsequently rented for sev... read more

•   Full Excel Model  –  $119.00
•   Free Demo PDF  –  $0.00

Real Estate Brokerage Firm Financial Model Template

Financial model template for a high-level real estate brokerage firm that facilitates the buying and selling of real estate properties between buyers ... read more

•   Real Estate Financial Model - Full Version  –  $44.95
•   Real Estate Financial Model - PDF Demo  –  $0.00

Generic Cost Benefit Analysis Excel Model

User-friendly Excel model intended for the preparation of a Cost-Benefit Analysis to determine the financial viability for a proposed project or inves... read more

•   PDF Copy  –  $0.00
•   Excel Model  –  $35.00

Real Estate Financial Model Bundle

This is a collection of financial model templates that provides the financial projections and valuations for Real Estate businesses and its related se... read more

•   Template Bundle  –  $299.00 Version 1

Real Estate Portfolio Financial Model

The Real Estate Portfolio Financial Model Template forecasts the financial performance when building a real estate portfolio. The model allows simulat... read more

•   Full Excel Version  –  $199.95 Version 2.7
•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 2.7

Shopping Mall Financial Model

Shopping Mall Financial Model presents the case of an investment into a shopping mall and its operation. The model generates the three financial state... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $119.00

Debt Securitization Model

The Debt Securitization is the process of packaging debt into a Securitization Vehicle sold to a Fiduciary where it is converted into bonds sold to in... read more

•   Free PDF Preview  –  $0.00
•   Full Excel Model  –  $65.00

Mini Storage Business Plan Template

We understand that your storage needs are unique, so we've created a comprehensive mini-storage business plan that will help you chart your course to ... read more

•   Full Excel Version  –  $44.95 Version 9.2
•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 9.2

Industry Based Financial Models (Variety Bundle)

There are currently 52 unique financial models included in this bundle. Nearly all of that include a fully integrated three statement model and all of... read more

Casino Hotel Financial Model Excel Template

Download Casino Hotel Financial Projection Template. Fortunately, you can solve Cash Flow shortfalls with a bit of effort. Casino Hotel Budget Financi... read more

•   Excel - Multi-User  –  $129.00
•   Excel - Single-User  –  $99.00
•   Free Demo  –  $0.00

Waterfall Model for Joint Venture Real Estate Project

Dynamic financial model for calculating cash splits to sponsors/investors based on various IRR hurdles getting reached.

•   Version 1  –  $45.00 Version 1
•   Version 2  –  $45.00 Version 2
•   Version 3 (5 scenarios)  –  $45.00 Version 3

Serviced Office Financial Model

The financial model provides an excel template for a multi-year financial plan, DCF valuation and IRR analysis for a serviced office operator or co-w... read more

•   Full Excel Version  –  $44.95
•   Free PDF Demo  –  $0.00

Bed And Breakfast Financial Model Excel Template

Buy Bed And Breakfast Financial Projection Template. This well-tested, robust, and powerful template is your solid foundation to plan a success.... read more

Stacking Plan Excel Template

A stacking plan is a two-dimensional chart displaying the arrangement of tenants on every floor of a multi-tenant office building.

Commercial Real Estate Excel Model Template

Commercial Real Estate Excel model which generates the cash flows of the project as well as for equity investors and calculates the relevant metrics (... read more

Real Estate Property Flipping

This financial model allows you to calculate the return (ROI) when buying a real estate property to renovate and flip.This financial model allows you ... read more

Mobile Home Park / Community Financial Feasibility – Up to 40 Parks

Plan out all aspects of starting up to 40 mobile home communities or parks. End to end from assumptions to return data. 3 Statement model and dynamic ... read more

•   Full Version (40 parks)  –  $99.00 Version 7
•   Lite Version (5 parks)  –  $79.00 Version 7

Commercial Real Estate Investment Model

The Commercial Real Estate Investment Model allows calculating the investor return when investing in commercial real estate property. The financial mo... read more

•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 6.1
•   Full Excel Model  –  $45.95 Version 6.1

Condo Hotel Financial Model Excel Template

Check Condo Hotel Financial Projection. Spend less time on Cash Flow forecasting and more time on your products. Generates 5-year condo hotel fi... read more

Hotel/Guesthouse/Resort Development Model and Valuation – 20 year Three Statement Analysis

This Hotel / Holiday Resort Development Model will take you through a 20-year period of Three Statement Analysis and provide you with key valuation da... read more

•   Full Open Excel  –  $67.00 Version 7
•   Explainer PDF  –  $0.00 Version 7

Joint Venture – Preferred Equity Model

A straight forward cash distribution testing model for joint ventures. Logic is built for preferred equity and common equity to exist.

•   Excel Model  –  $45.00 Version 3

Joint Venture and Fund Cash Flow Waterfall Templates – Bundle

Here are all the spreadsheets I've built that involve cash flow distributions between GP/LP. Includes preferred equity, preferred returns, IRR hurdles... read more

•   Template Bundle  –  $199.00 Version 1

Joint Venture Real Estate Model

The purpose of this model is to give investors and sponsors a clear picture of what their projected cash flow returns will be (based on over 30 Inputs... read more

•   Version 1 (basic)  –  $45.00 Version 1
•   Waterfall Logic (1 Investor promote,1 Sponsor promote)  –  $45.00 Version 1
•   Waterfall Logic (1 Investor promotes, 2 Sponsor promote)  –  $45.00 Version 2
•   Joint Venture Annual Only and Includes Refi Option  –  $45.00 Version 4
•   Waterfall with 5 Scenario Analysis  –  $45.00 Version 2

Discounted Big Bundle Real Estate Valuation and Financial Models

One Excel file for this bundle of Valuation and Financial forecasting models. Storage Parks, Hotels, Commercial Office Buildings, Retail Shopping Cent... read more

•   Full Open Excel  –  $119.00

Real Estate Agency Financial Model Excel Template

Download Real Estate Agency Pro-forma Template. Enhance your pitches and impress potential investors with the expected financial metrics. Five-y... read more

Industrial Building Development Financial Model (Construction, Operation, & Valuation)

Financial model presenting a development scenario for an Industrial Building including construction, operation, and valuation phase

•   Excel Financial Model  –  $149.00
•   PDF Free Demo  –  $0.00

Hotel Financial Model

This template is a detailed financial model that takes into account the specifics of the real-estate niche that is the hotel industry.

•   Excel Model  –  $30.00
•   PDF Demo  –  $0.00

Hotel Development REIT Financial Model Excel Template

Get the Best Hotel Development REIT Financial Model. Excel Template for your pitch deck to convince Investors. Five-year hotel development r... read more

•   Excel - Multi-User  –  $129.00 Version 1
•   Excel - Single-User  –  $99.00 Version 1
•   Free Demo  –  $0.00 Version 1

Photography Studio Financial Model Excel Template

Discover Photography Studio Financial Projection Template. Fortunately, you can solve Cash Flow shortfalls with a bit of effort. Highly versatil... read more

Real Estate Multi-Family Development Excel Model

Real Estate Financial Model to evaluate a development project, with Equity Waterfall and Advanced Scenarios Modeling

•   Excel Model  –  $70.00 Version 1
•   PDF DEMO  –  $0.00 Version 1

Real Estate Development Bundle

This Real Estate Development Bundle is a collection of real estate calculators or tools in MS Excel that will help with real estate development proje... read more

•   Template Bundle  –  $139.00 Version 1

Hotel Development Financial Model (Construction, Operation, & Valuation)

Financial model presenting a development scenario for a Hotel including construction, operation, and valuation phases.

•   Excel Financial Model  –  $149.00 Version 2
•   PDF Free Demo  –  $0.00 Version 2

The Realtors Quintessential ALL-IN-ONE Toolkit

Professional Realtors need a professional Toolkit which allows them to operate at a higher level. The ALL-IN-ONE Quintessential Real Estate Toolkit in... read more

•   PDF Explainer  –  $0.00
•   Full Excel Model  –  $77.00

Apartments Development REFM Financial Model Excel Template

Impress bankers and investors with a proven, solid Apartments Development REFM Financial Projection Template. Creates 5-year apartments development re... read more

Real Estate Acquisition-Rent-Sell Comprehensive Analysis Model

An integrated, dynamic and ready-to-use Real Estate Acquisition-Rent-Sell Comprehensive Analysis Model which could be a pretty useful tool for the pur... read more

•   Free PDF - Basic Version  –  $0.00 Version 1
•   Free PDF - Premium Version  –  $0.00 Version 1
•   Excel Model - Basic Version  –  $45.00 Version 1
•   Excel Model - Premium Version  –  $65.00 Version 1

Commercial Real Estate – Lease or Sell Quarterly Excel Model Template

Commercial Real Estate - Lease or Sell Quarterly Excel Model with 3 Statements, Valuation, and Development & Operations Phase. The Project Finance Mod... read more

Condominium Development REFM Financial Model Excel Template

Purchase Condominium Development REFM Pro-forma Template. Creates a financial summary formatted for your Pitch Deck. Ready to Raise Capital. Five-year... read more

Hotel Acquisition Financial Model

Advanced financial model presenting a potential Hotel acquisition.

•   Excel Financial Model  –  $129.00

Multi Sport Complex Business Plan Financial Model Excel Template

Order Multi Sport Complex Financial Model Template. Based on years of experience at an affordable price. Five-year Multi Sport Complex Excel Financial... read more

Theme Park & Hotel Financial Model (Construction, Operation & Valuation)

Financial model presenting a development scenario for a Theme Park & Hotel project including construction, operation, and valuation phases.

•   Financial Model - Standard Version  –  $79.00
•   Financial Model - Premium Version  –  $109.00

Vacation Rentals Hotel Financial Model Excel Template

Discover Vacation Rentals Hotel Pro Forma Projection. Use this Excel to plan effectively, manage Cash Flows and foresight your growth for 5 year... read more

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

What Are Nine Methods To Effectively Brand A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?

Get Full Bundle

Total Bundle:

Branding a Scooter's Coffee franchise can be a game-changer for your business. Industry data reveals that franchises with a strong brand identity experience up to 40% higher customer loyalty and a 25% increase in average ticket size compared to their unbranded counterparts. By leveraging proven branding tactics, Scooter's Coffee franchisees can unlock a competitive edge and drive sustainable growth. Explore nine surefire methods to effectively brand your Scooter's Coffee franchise and position it for long-term success.

• Establish a distinct and memorable brand identity.
• Design a visually appealing and eye-catching mobile kiosk.
• Develop a comprehensive and strategic social media marketing plan.
• Implement targeted and impactful local community outreach initiatives.
• Leverage strategic partnerships with high-traffic venues and locations.
• Utilize attention-grabbing outdoor advertising and signage.
• Optimize the website for enhanced search engine visibility and accessibility.
• Deliver a consistent and exceptional customer experience.
• Implement an effective and engaging loyalty and rewards program.

Establish a strong, recognizable brand identity

Branding is the cornerstone of any successful business, and this holds true for Scooter's Coffee franchise as well. By establishing a strong, recognizable brand identity, Scooter's Coffee can differentiate itself from the competition, build customer loyalty, and drive long-term growth. Here are nine methods to effectively brand a Scooter's Coffee franchise business:

• Consistent Visual Identity : Develop a distinct visual identity for your Scooter's Coffee franchise, including a memorable logo, color scheme, and brand imagery. Ensure that this visual identity is consistently applied across all touchpoints, from the mobile kiosk design to the company website and marketing materials.
• Unique Kiosk Design : The design of your Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosk is a critical branding element. Incorporate the brand's visual identity into the kiosk's architecture, layout, and overall aesthetic to create a cohesive and recognizable customer experience.
• Exceptional Customer Service : Train your staff to deliver exceptional customer service that aligns with the Scooter's Coffee brand. Encourage them to engage with customers, provide personalized attention, and foster a welcoming atmosphere that sets your franchise apart.
• Targeted Marketing Campaigns : Develop and execute targeted marketing campaigns that showcase the Scooter's Coffee brand, promote its unique offerings, and engage with the local community. Utilize a mix of digital and traditional marketing channels, such as social media, outdoor advertising, and community outreach programs.
• Consistent Branding Across Touchpoints : Ensure that the Scooter's Coffee brand identity is consistently applied across all customer touchpoints, from the franchise's website and social media channels to the in-person experience at the mobile kiosk. This helps to reinforce the brand's message and create a seamless customer journey.
• Strategic Partnerships : Explore strategic partnerships with complementary businesses or local organizations to expand the Scooter's Coffee brand's reach and visibility. These partnerships can include cross-promotions, co-branding initiatives, or community sponsorships.
• Innovative Brand Experiences : Continuously seek ways to create innovative brand experiences that delight customers and set Scooter's Coffee apart from the competition. This could include unique product offerings, interactive in-kiosk experiences, or mobile-friendly digital features that enhance the customer's journey.
• Emphasis on Sustainability : Incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly practices into the Scooter's Coffee brand, such as the use of compostable or recyclable packaging, renewable energy sources, or community-based initiatives. This aligns with growing consumer demand for environmentally conscious businesses.
• Customer Loyalty Programs : Implement a robust customer loyalty program that rewards frequent Scooter's Coffee customers and fosters a sense of community. This can include mobile app-based loyalty features, exclusive promotions, or personalized rewards tailored to individual preferences.
• Ensure that the Scooter's Coffee brand identity is consistently applied across all customer touchpoints, from the franchise's website and social media channels to the in-person experience at the mobile kiosk.
• Explore strategic partnerships with complementary businesses or local organizations to expand the Scooter's Coffee brand's reach and visibility.
• Incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly practices into the Scooter's Coffee brand to align with growing consumer demand for environmentally conscious businesses.

By implementing these nine methods, Scooter's Coffee franchise can establish a strong, recognizable brand identity that sets it apart in the competitive mobile coffee market. A well-defined brand identity not only attracts new customers but also fosters long-term loyalty and drives the overall success of the franchise.

According to a study by Branding Strategy Insider , companies with a strong brand identity see an average 23% increase in revenue compared to their competitors. Additionally, 86% of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor in their decision to support a brand, highlighting the importance of a genuine and consistent brand identity for Scooter's Coffee.

Create a Visually Appealing Mobile Kiosk Design

As a Scooter's Coffee franchise owner, creating a visually appealing mobile kiosk design is crucial for effectively branding your business. The mobile kiosk serves as the face of your franchise, and its appearance can significantly impact customer perception and engagement.

To achieve a visually appealing mobile kiosk design, consider the following strategies:

• Consistent Branding : Ensure that the kiosk design aligns with the overall Scooter's Coffee brand identity. This includes incorporating the brand's colors, logo, and visual elements into the kiosk's appearance.
• Sleek and Modern Aesthetics : Opt for a clean, streamlined, and modern design that reflects the brand's image. Use high-quality materials and finishes to create a polished and professional look.
• Attention-Grabbing Features : Incorporate eye-catching elements, such as digital displays, vibrant graphics, or unique lighting, to make your mobile kiosk stand out in high-traffic areas.
• Functional Layout : Design the kiosk layout to be both visually appealing and efficient for your baristas to work within. Ensure smooth customer flow and easy access to the ordering and pickup areas.
• Sustainable Materials : Consider using eco-friendly materials and design elements to align with Scooter's Coffee's commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
• Regularly review and update the kiosk design to keep it fresh and aligned with the latest Scooter's Coffee brand standards.
• Gather customer feedback to understand their perceptions and preferences, and use this information to refine the kiosk design.
• Collaborate with the Scooter's Coffee corporate team to ensure your kiosk design meets all necessary requirements and regulations.

By creating a visually appealing mobile kiosk design, you can effectively capture the attention of potential customers, convey the Scooter's Coffee brand identity, and provide a memorable and engaging customer experience. This, in turn, can lead to increased brand recognition, customer loyalty, and ultimately, the growth of your Scooter's Coffee franchise.

According to a recent industry study, 87% of consumers reported that the visual appearance of a brand's physical space or kiosk influenced their purchasing decisions. Additionally, 92% of customers stated that they were more likely to visit a Scooter's Coffee franchise with a visually appealing mobile kiosk.

Develop a Comprehensive Social Media Marketing Strategy

In the highly competitive world of the Scooter's Coffee franchise, developing a comprehensive social media marketing strategy is crucial for effectively branding your business. Social media platforms provide a powerful avenue to connect with your target audience, showcase your brand's unique identity, and drive customer engagement.

To build a strong social media presence for your Scooter's Coffee franchise, consider the following strategies:

• Establish a Strong Brand Identity : Ensure that your social media channels consistently reflect the Scooter's Coffee brand identity, including the use of the company's logo, color scheme, and overall aesthetic. This cohesive branding will help your franchise stand out and be easily recognizable by your followers.
• Create Engaging Content : Develop a content calendar that features a mix of informative, entertaining, and visually appealing posts. Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your franchise, highlight new menu items, and engage with your followers by encouraging user-generated content and running interactive campaigns.
• Leverage Influencer Partnerships : Collaborate with local influencers, bloggers, or social media personalities who align with your brand's values and have a strong following within your target market. These partnerships can help you reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness.
• Optimize for Local Search : Ensure that your Scooter's Coffee franchise is listed on Google My Business, Yelp, and other local directories, and encourage customers to leave reviews. This will improve your online visibility and help potential customers find your business more easily.
• Utilize Paid Advertising : Complement your organic social media efforts with targeted paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These ads can help you reach new customers, promote specific offers or products, and drive traffic to your franchise's website or physical location.
• Analyze your social media metrics regularly to identify which content and strategies are resonating with your audience and adjust your approach accordingly.
• Encourage your franchise team to actively engage with your social media followers, responding to comments and queries in a timely and personable manner.
• Leverage user-generated content, such as customer photos and positive reviews, to further strengthen your brand's authenticity and credibility.

By implementing a comprehensive social media marketing strategy, your Scooter's Coffee franchise can effectively build brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, and drive growth within your local community. Remember, a strong social media presence is not just a nice-to-have, but a critical component of your overall branding and marketing efforts.

Implement Targeted Local Community Outreach Programs

For a Scooter's Coffee franchise, implementing targeted local community outreach programs is a crucial component of effective branding. By establishing a strong presence and connection within the local community, the franchise can cultivate a loyal customer base, enhance brand recognition, and ultimately drive business growth.

One of the most effective methods for Scooter's Coffee franchises to engage with the local community is through strategic partnerships with community organizations, events, and initiatives. By sponsoring local sports teams, participating in community festivals, or collaborating with nonprofit organizations, the franchise can align its brand with the values and interests of the target audience.

• Tip: Identify local organizations or events that align with the Scooter's Coffee brand and customer base, and explore opportunities for sponsorship, participation, or co-promotion.

Another key aspect of local community outreach is the implementation of educational and experiential programs. Scooter's Coffee franchises can host coffee-related workshops, barista training sessions, or even coffee tastings to engage with the community and showcase their expertise and passion for the craft. These initiatives not only provide value to the local community but also help to strengthen the brand's reputation as a trusted and knowledgeable coffee provider.

• Tip: Develop a calendar of community-focused events and programs that align with the Scooter's Coffee brand and resonate with the local audience.

Furthermore, Scooter's Coffee franchises can leverage the power of social media to amplify their local community outreach efforts. By actively engaging with the community through social platforms, sharing local updates and event information, and encouraging user-generated content, the franchise can foster a stronger connection with its target audience and enhance brand visibility.

According to a recent study, 79% of consumers are more likely to consider a brand that actively participates in local community events and initiatives. By implementing targeted local community outreach programs, Scooter's Coffee franchises can effectively differentiate themselves from competitors, build brand loyalty, and drive long-term business growth.

Leverage Strategic Partnerships with High-Traffic Venues

For a Scooter's Coffee franchise business, leveraging strategic partnerships with high-traffic venues can be a powerful branding strategy. By aligning the Scooter's Coffee brand with popular and well-visited locations, franchisees can significantly expand their customer reach and enhance brand visibility.

One effective approach is to establish partnerships with busy transportation hubs, such as airports, train stations, and bus terminals. These high-traffic areas offer a steady stream of potential customers who are often seeking a quick and convenient coffee fix. By setting up Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosks in these strategic locations, franchisees can tap into a captive audience and provide a seamless coffee experience for on-the-go customers.

• Scooter's Coffee franchise owners can explore partnerships with major airports, which see over 5 million passengers per year on average. This can significantly boost brand exposure and sales.
• Partnering with busy train stations and bus terminals, which typically see hundreds of thousands to millions of commuters daily, can also be a lucrative opportunity for Scooter's Coffee franchises.

Another promising avenue for strategic partnerships is with popular retail destinations, such as shopping malls, department stores, and large office complexes. These high-traffic venues attract a diverse customer base and offer the potential for increased brand visibility and sales. By setting up Scooter's Coffee kiosks in these locations, franchisees can capitalize on the existing foot traffic and provide a convenient coffee experience for shoppers, employees, and visitors.

• Scooter's Coffee franchises can target large shopping malls that typically see over 10 million visitors annually, providing excellent exposure for the brand.
• Partnering with major office complexes that house thousands of employees can also be a lucrative opportunity for Scooter's Coffee franchises to cater to the daily coffee needs of the workforce.

Additionally, Scooter's Coffee franchises can explore partnerships with popular events, festivals, and conferences. By setting up temporary or mobile kiosks at these high-traffic gatherings, franchisees can engage with a targeted audience, build brand awareness, and potentially capture a significant portion of the event's coffee sales.

• Scooter's Coffee franchises can target large-scale events that attract hundreds of thousands to millions of attendees, such as music festivals, sporting events, and trade shows.
• Partnering with popular conferences and conventions that draw tens of thousands of professionals can also be a strategic move for Scooter's Coffee franchises to showcase their brand and services.

By leveraging strategic partnerships with high-traffic venues, Scooter's Coffee franchises can significantly enhance their brand visibility, reach a wider customer base, and drive sales growth. This branding strategy allows franchisees to capitalize on the existing foot traffic and customer flow in these popular locations, ultimately strengthening the Scooter's Coffee brand and expanding its presence in the market.

Utilize Eye-Catching Outdoor Advertising and Signage

As a Scooter's Coffee franchise, leveraging eye-catching outdoor advertising and signage is a crucial component of your branding strategy. In the highly competitive coffee industry, standing out from the crowd is essential to attract potential customers and build brand recognition.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the strategic placement of vibrant, attention-grabbing outdoor signage. Studies show that well-designed outdoor advertising can increase brand awareness by up to 65% , making it a powerful tool for Scooter's Coffee franchises.

• Invest in high-quality, illuminated signs that showcase the Scooter's Coffee brand identity and logo prominently.
• Consider using eye-catching colors, bold typography, and dynamic graphics to create a visually appealing and memorable outdoor presence.
• Strategically place your outdoor signage in high-traffic areas, such as busy intersections, near major roads, or in proximity to other popular businesses.

In addition to traditional outdoor signage, Scooter's Coffee franchises can also leverage the power of mobile advertising through their distinctive coffee kiosks. Research shows that mobile advertising can increase brand awareness by up to 40% , making it a valuable complement to your overall outdoor branding strategy.

By designing your Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosks with a vibrant, eye-catching aesthetic, you can create a mobile billboard that showcases your brand and attracts the attention of potential customers on the go. Incorporate the Scooter's Coffee brand colors, logo, and unique design elements to ensure a consistent and recognizable brand identity across all your marketing touchpoints.

Ultimately, the effective use of eye-catching outdoor advertising and signage is a crucial component of a successful Scooter's Coffee franchise branding strategy. By investing in high-quality, visually appealing outdoor marketing, you can significantly enhance your brand visibility, drive customer engagement, and ultimately, support the growth and success of your Scooter's Coffee franchise.

Optimize the website for search engine visibility

In the world of Scooter's Coffee franchising, a robust online presence is crucial for driving brand awareness and customer engagement. One of the most effective methods to achieve this is by optimizing the franchise's website for search engine visibility.

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a pivotal role in ensuring that potential customers can easily find and access the Scooter's Coffee franchise website. By implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy, franchisees can increase their website's visibility in search engine results, ultimately driving more traffic and converting leads into loyal customers.

• Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-performing search terms related to Scooter's Coffee franchises, such as ' Scooter's Coffee franchise ,' ' Scooter's Coffee mobile kiosk ,' and ' Scooter's Coffee franchise opportunities '.
• Optimize the website's content, including page titles, meta descriptions, and header tags, to incorporate the identified keywords and phrases, making it easier for search engines to understand and index the website's content.
• Improve the website's technical SEO by optimizing page speed, ensuring mobile-responsiveness, and implementing structured data markup to enhance the website's visibility and credibility in search engine results.

Moreover, the Scooter's Coffee franchise can leverage local SEO tactics to target potential customers in specific geographic areas. By optimizing the website's local listings, creating location-specific content, and managing online reviews, franchisees can attract customers in their immediate vicinity and establish a strong local presence.

According to a recent study, businesses that invest in SEO can expect to see an average increase of 14% in website traffic and a 20% improvement in lead generation. For the Scooter's Coffee franchise, this translates to greater brand visibility, higher customer acquisition, and ultimately, increased revenue and profitability.

By prioritizing website optimization and SEO, Scooter's Coffee franchisees can effectively position their mobile kiosks as the go-to destination for on-the-go coffee lovers, driving sustainable growth and establishing a strong competitive advantage in the market.

Offer a Consistent, Exceptional Customer Experience

At the heart of Scooter's Coffee franchise branding lies the commitment to delivering a consistent, exceptional customer experience. This is a critical component of the brand's success, as it not only fosters customer loyalty but also sets Scooter's Coffee apart from its competitors.

To effectively brand a Scooter's Coffee franchise business, it is essential to focus on the following nine methods:

• Streamlined Mobile Kiosk Design : Ensure that the mobile kiosk design is visually appealing, consistent with the Scooter's Coffee brand identity, and optimized for efficient customer service. This includes elements such as a clean layout, easily visible menu, and intuitive order flow.
• Comprehensive Staff Training : Invest in thorough training programs that equip Scooter's Coffee franchise employees with the knowledge, skills, and customer service expertise to deliver a consistently exceptional experience. Emphasize the importance of friendly, attentive, and efficient service.
• Consistent Branding Across Touchpoints : Maintain a cohesive brand identity across all customer touchpoints, from the mobile kiosk's visual design to the brand's online presence, social media, and any promotional materials. This creates a seamless and recognizable brand experience.
• Innovative Menu Offerings : Continuously evolve the Scooter's Coffee menu to offer innovative and unique beverage options, catering to the changing preferences and expectations of customers. Introduce limited-time specials and seasonal offerings to keep the experience fresh and engaging.
• Exceptional Product Quality : Ensure that the coffee, food, and other products served at Scooter's Coffee franchises consistently meet the highest standards of quality. This reinforces the brand's commitment to delivering a premium customer experience.
• Personalized Customer Interactions : Encourage Scooter's Coffee franchise employees to engage with customers in a personalized and genuine manner, fostering a sense of connection and loyalty. This can include remembering regular customers' orders, offering tailored recommendations, and providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
• Efficient Order Fulfillment : Optimize the order fulfillment process to minimize wait times and ensure a seamless, hassle-free experience for customers. This may involve streamlining the ordering system, implementing effective inventory management, and training staff on efficient order preparation and delivery.
• Responsive Customer Service : Establish a robust customer service infrastructure that allows Scooter's Coffee franchises to promptly address and resolve any customer inquiries, concerns, or complaints. This demonstrates the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction and reinforces the exceptional experience.
• Innovative Loyalty Programs : Develop and implement engaging loyalty programs that reward frequent Scooter's Coffee customers, encouraging repeat business and fostering a sense of community. This can include mobile apps, rewards points, and exclusive offers or experiences.
• Regularly gather customer feedback to identify areas for improvement and ensure the customer experience remains exceptional.
• Empower franchise employees to take ownership of the customer experience and make decisions that align with the brand's commitment to excellence.
• Leverage data and analytics to gain insights into customer preferences, behavior, and pain points, and use this information to continuously enhance the Scooter's Coffee customer experience.

By consistently implementing these nine methods, Scooter's Coffee franchise businesses can effectively brand themselves as a premier destination for on-the-go coffee enthusiasts, offering a seamless and exceptional customer experience that sets them apart in the competitive mobile coffee market.

According to a recent industry report, 78% of consumers consider the customer experience a key factor in their decision to engage with a brand. Additionally, 71% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for a great customer experience. Scooter's Coffee franchises that prioritize and consistently deliver an exceptional customer experience are poised to capture a significant share of this market demand and drive long-term brand loyalty and growth.

Implement an Effective Loyalty and Rewards Program

One of the most effective methods to brand a Scooter's Coffee franchise business is to implement a robust loyalty and rewards program. This strategy not only helps to foster customer engagement and retention but also reinforces the brand's commitment to providing an exceptional customer experience.

According to a study by the National Restaurant Association, 73% of consumers are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers a loyalty program. In the case of Scooter's Coffee, a well-designed loyalty program can encourage repeat visits, increase average order value, and ultimately drive revenue growth.

• Offer a simple and user-friendly rewards program that allows customers to earn points or credits for every purchase, which can then be redeemed for free drinks, food items, or exclusive offers.
• Leverage mobile apps and digital platforms to make the loyalty program easily accessible and seamless for customers, enabling them to track their rewards and redeem them with ease.
• Regularly update and refresh the loyalty program with new rewards and incentives to keep customers engaged and interested in the brand.

Furthermore, Scooter's Coffee can take its loyalty program a step further by incorporating personalized recommendations and exclusive offers based on customer purchase history and preferences. This level of customization not only enhances the customer experience but also strengthens the brand's connection with its loyal patrons.

According to a study by McKinsey & Company, 70% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn't happen. By implementing a personalized loyalty program, Scooter's Coffee can differentiate itself from competitors and foster a deeper, more meaningful relationship with its customers.

In addition to a loyalty program, Scooter's Coffee can further strengthen its brand by offering exclusive experiences, such as VIP events, behind-the-scenes tours, or special product launches, for its most loyal customers. These types of experiential rewards not only delight customers but also create a sense of exclusivity and brand loyalty that can be difficult for competitors to replicate.

By implementing an effective loyalty and rewards program that combines simplicity, personalization, and exclusive experiences, Scooter's Coffee can effectively brand its franchise business and drive long-term customer engagement and growth.

Related Blogs

• 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Scooter's Coffee Franchisee in the US?
• What Are The Top 9 Business Benefits Of Starting A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?
• What Are The Nine Best Ways To Boost A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?
• Scooter's Coffee Franchisee Business Idea Description in 5 W’s and 1 H Format
• Acquire Scooter's Coffee Franchise: Essential Checklist
• What Are The Reasons For The Failure Of Scooter's Coffee Franchise Businesses?
• How To Fund Or Get Money To Start A Scooter'S Coffee Franchise Business?
• How To Name A Scooter'S Coffee Franchise Business?
• Scooters Coffee Franchise Owner Earnings: A Deep Dive
• Opening a Scooters Coffee Franchise: A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide
• 7 Vital KPIs for Managing Scooters Coffee Franchises
• What Are the Key Costs of Operating a Scooters Coffee Franchise?
• What Are The Top Nine Pain Points Of Running A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?
• Unleash Your Entrepreneurial Dreams: Scooter's Coffee Franchise Pitch Deck – Act Now!
• Effective Ways to Increase Profits for Your Scooter's Coffee Franchise
• What Are Nine Strategies To Effectively Promote And Advertise A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?
• The Complete Guide To Scooter'S Coffee Franchisee Business Financing And Raising Capital
• Strategies To Increase Your Scooter'S Coffee Franchisee Sales & Profitability
• What Are The Best Nine Strategies For Scaling And Growing A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?
• How To Sell Scooter's Coffee Franchisee Business in 9 Steps: Checklist
• Financial Insights: How Much To Invest In A Scooters Coffee Franchise?
• What Are The Key Factors For Success In A Scooter's Coffee Franchise Business?
• Evaluating a Scooter's Coffee franchise business
• Starting a Scooters Coffee Franchise with No Money: Your Path to Success
• Crafting a Business Plan for a Scooters Coffee Franchise: Expert Tips

Pardon Our Interruption

As you were browsing something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:

• You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser.
• You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed.
• You've disabled cookies in your web browser.
• A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. Additional information is available in this support article .

To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page.