FREE Marketing Strategy and Marketing Plan [ Difference, 9+ Templates ]

Businesses and organizations need to grow in order for it to become successful. How do you keep up with the constantly changing market? To ensure the success of your business or organization, it is important that you have a well-crafted marketing plan for your business. Aside from a business plan, which is essential in guiding you when planning the direction that you want for your business, a marketing plan is also a useful tool in helping you carefully plan out the marketing and advertising strategies that your business will take for a particular period of time. Unlike a business plan, a marketing plan needs to constantly change in order for the business to grow and adapt to the trends and the demands of the market.

With that said, what is the difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy? Many would be confused at the difference and would sometimes interchange its use. If you want to know what sets them apart, read on to find out more. To learn more about the benefits of having a marketing plan, you can read more information about it below. You can also read about the steps in creating your own marketing plan, and the components that you need to include for you to have a complete and effective plan. Plus, we also have some useful tips that you can refer to when creating your document.

Digital Marketing Plan Template

Career Marketing Plan Template

 

Industrial Marketing Plan Format

Blank Marketing Plan Template

Sample Medical Marketing Plan Template

What Can You Benefit from a Marketing Plan?

A detailed marketing plan allows you to develop strategies and methods to effectively market and advertise the different products and services that your business is offering. To learn more about the benefits of having a marketing plan, the benefits are as follows:

• A marketing plan allows you to understand the specific market that you are targeting or attracting. If you have a marketing plan, you will be able to develop effective marketing strategies that will target a particular group or audience.
• Through a marketing plan, you will be able to learn about your competitors, study the market, and other factors that will help you create useful methods that will contribute to the success of your business.
• A marketing plan allows you to prepare and outline the marketing goals of the business. The business will be able to create goals and objectives that the business will have to achieve at a certain period of time.
• Through a marketing plan, the business will be able to effectively communicate as well as have the same vision ensuring the success of the business.
• A marketing plan helps businesses make decisions, specifically in the marketing aspect of the organization.

 

What Do You Need to Focus on When Creating a Marketing Plan?

There are five things that a business needs to focus on when creating a marketing plan. This will ensure that you have an effective and accurate tool. Here are the things that you need to accomplish in a marketing plan:

• Ensure clarity: Since a marketing plan involves the participation of various individuals and departments, it is important that your marketing plan is clear and concise. Avoid using complex words in the document that you have created to ensure that everyone reading it will clearly understand.
• Be data-oriented: An effective marketing plan should be data-oriented and financially-oriented. It is important that you base your marketing plan on accurate data and information.
• Focus on a specific goal: When creating a marketing plan, it is important that you avoid running too many directions that will eventually lead to confusions. Your marketing plan should focus on one goal and should indicate what needs to be done as well as the things that shouldn’t be done.
• Be realistic: Every marketing plan that you create should be realistic. Although setting marketing objectives that sound the best is good, setting objectives that are hard or impossible to achieve is one of the most common mistakes that can happen when creating a marketing plan. It is important that you set objectives and goals that are realistic and achievable.
• Alignment is key: Lastly, another important thing that needs to be achieved when creating a marketing plan is to get input from everyone involved to ensure that everyone is on the same page and all the individuals clearly understand and agree to the marketing plan being created.

 

Basic Marketing Plan Template

Social Media Strategy Template

 

Printable Marketing Plan Template

Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Business

Now that we have discussed the benefits and the things that you need to accomplish in your marketing plan, let’s go over the steps in creating a marketing plan for your business.

The steps in creating one are as follows:

Step 1: Conduct a situation analysis.

What exactly is a situation analysis and how do you conduct one? A situation analysis refers to the overview of the current situation of a particular company or business. Conduct a situation analysis by analyzing and defining your business as well as the different products and services that you are offering to your clients and customers. This will help you understand your competitors, specifically the products and services that they offer, and what makes your products and services unique than those offered by other businesses.

Step 2: Describe your target market.

In your marketing plan, describe the potential customers that you want to attract. You can describe your target market through demographics such as age, earnings, location, sex, lifestyle, and so on. Knowing your target market or the audience will guide you when developing advertisements, public relations campaigns, etc.

Step 3: Outline your marketing goals.

Your marketing goals refer to the things that you want to achieve in your marketing plan. Write an outline of the different objectives and goals that you plan to achieve. When creating your goals, as mentioned previously, it is important that you keep them measurable and realistic to ensure that you will be able to achieve them. Through this, you will also be able to keep track of your progress and helps you see what you have achieved.

Step 4: Develop marketing strategies and methods.

Now that you have developed the goals that you want to achieve, create the various strategies and methods that you are going to do in order to achieve your goals. These strategies include advertising through social media, prints, brochures, television commercials, and other means of advertising.

Step 5: Create a marketing budget.

Allocate a marketing budget for the different marketing strategies and tactics that you have developed. It is important that you determine and set the right budget in order to effectively market and advertise the products and services that your business or company has.

Nonprofit Marketing Plan Template

One-Page Marketing Plan Template

 

Small Business Marketing Plan Template

What Is the Difference between a Marketing Plan and a Marketing Strategy?

Many people often get confused between the difference of a marketing plan and a marketing strategy. Although these two terms are commonly used in business and the marketing of products and services, both a marketing plan and a marketing strategy have various differences. In order for you to further understand their differences, we have listed below some key differences between the two terms.

• A marketing strategy refers to the set of actions that a business needs to do in order to accomplish the different marketing objectives set by the company. However, a marketing plan outlines the various steps needed to be done to be able to achieve the marketing strategy. A marketing strategy serves as a guide for businesses and is the basis of a marketing plan.
• Marketing strategies depend on a business’s marketing objectives while a marketing plan helps businesses outline the actions to take to implement the marketing strategy.

 

What to Include in a Marketing Plan

There are certain components that need to be present if you want to create an effective plan for your business. Here are the important aspects that you need to include in your marketing plan:

• Target Market: Your marketing plan should specify the type of market or the target audience that you want to sell your products and services to. It is important for any business to understand and know their ideal customers by researching the current market.
• Positioning Statement: A marketing plan should include a positioning statement. A positioning statement helps a business understand their current position in the market and what makes the products and services that they offer different from their competitors. This will help business understand how they want to present their products and services to their target audience.
• Goals: As with any business document, it is important for your marketing plan to outline the goals and objectives that you have created and what you need to achieve. How will you market your products and services to meet the set goals?
• Pricing Strategy: A marketing plan should also include the pricing strategy. A business’s pricing strategy specifically refers to the pricing that the business or company will charge for their products and services. It also outlines why a particular business chose that price point.
• Marketing Budget and Planning: The marketing budget and the planning is one of the essential aspects of the marketing plan. Before a business can implement a particular marketing strategy or a marketing plan, they need to allocate a certain amount that will cover the costs of implementing one. A marketing plan should outline the budget as well as the steps on how it will be implemented.

 

Additionally, aside from the samples and templates that we have provided in this article, you will also find templates for other types of marketing plans like a content marketing plan, marketing action plan, and so on. You can also explore our website for more templates and samples.