Marketing Planning

Plan to succeed

Marketing planning does not have to be at all complicated - but is is important if you want to be successful.

It should not be a massively time consuming exercise resulting in a fat document that sits gathering dust on a shelf.

The most important objective for planning is to be crystal clear about:

• Where you are now (including who your target market is, what your business actually offers them, and who your competitors are);
• Where you want to be (your objectives and goals);
• How you are going to get there (what strategy and tactics you will use).

This will give you the blueprint for all your marketing activity. Get this clear at the beginning, follow the guidelines on this site, and you cannot fail to succeed!

When you are considering where you are now, it is very useful to pinpoint the positive and negative elements of your business and environment. This can really help you pinpoint how you can improve your business and how to avoid unnecessary risks. This is often referred to as a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis and you can find help in doing this here.