Example Marketing Planning Template
Developing winning marketing strategies is time-consuming. But an effective plan is likely to improve profits and customer satisfaction.
Placing yourself deep in your customer’s mind on their desires and needs helps you understand why they want your product or service rather than your competitor’s.
Getting started is sometimes the biggest hurdle to overcome so we’ve created a simple marketing plan template that anyone can put to work on their business.
The Structure of Your Plan
A marketing plan outlines the journey your organisation undertakes to deliver a desired financial outcome. It answers many of the following questions:
- What new or existing products and services are you promoting?
- What types of customers are your targeting?
- How much does the product cost?
- What are the profits made from each sale?
- When does the promotion begin and end?
- What resources do you need?
- Do your competitors have identical products and why are yours different?
Here is a basic outline of what your plan should contain. The pdf download below includes additional notes and guidance on completing each section.
The Summary of the Plan
A two-page summary of the document providing enough data for someone to quickly grasp your concepts and financial projections.
Market Research and External Analysis
Information on your market position and external forces influencing your decisions.
- What’s the value in monetary terms of the current market?
- Is the size increasing or contracting and by how much?
- Who are the largest competitors?
- Will competitors change their pricing due to your marketing efforts?
Target Customer Demographics
Understanding exactly the type of customers who’ll buy from you is essential. B2C target groups have some of the following characteristics:
- Gender (male or female)
- Specific age or age brackets
- Social standing and aspirations
- Disposable income
- Private or council home ownership or rental
- Geographic location
If you’re targeting a B2B sector, you made also have these traits about your personas:
- Job title/ job type (director/ administration/ manager/ supervisor)
- Industry sector
- Company turnover
- Number of employees
Brand Positioning and Definition
Information about the type of company you represent, its core values, and how your company communicates with its audience.
Product and Service Outline
A description of the key products or services you’re targeting to the customer groups that you outlined in the previous section.
Pricing and Discounting Guidelines
Calculations on the pricing strategy and discounting tables that the sales team use when dealing directly with customers.
Wholesale and Retail Strategies
The different wholesale and retail pricing plans together with strategies for retail sales.
Sales Channel Marketing
Details of the different sales channels used for selling the products. These may include direct sales, face-to-face sales, online transactions, call centres, and affiliate marketing.
Advertising and Promotional Campaigns
List the key communications material produced for your campaign. Explain why you utilise individual media channels such as direct mail or radio together with the Return on Investment (ROI) for each channel.
Investment and Financial Returns
Highlight the investment together with financial returns over the period of the plan.
Free Template and Completion Tutorial
You can download a pdf copy of this template to use for your business. You’ll also receive a free 7-part marketing planning course that takes you through each step to complete your own plan. Just enter your information below to download the template and begin your course.
You can use it for brand development, product launches, service refreshes or any other related marketing activity. This template has been downloaded by students and business owners over 65,000 times over the years and is proven to help develop your ideas into successful plans.
Your completed plan will help you precisely target your chosen customer segments and check if you’ve achieved your objectives at the end of the project.
The Ansoff Matrix
Use the Ansoff Matrix below to assist with segmentation planning.
Each of the segments could be a target for your marketing. Each have different strategies to improve market share depending on the customers you want to develop.
