What is a marketing plan?

The marketing plan is your road map for achieving sales, generating funds, gaining participation or accomplishing any other marketing goal. It states the specific objectives and details the strategies and tactics for the "4Ps" – product, pricing, placement/distribution and promotions– that you’re going to use to achieve your objectives.

What is integrated marketing communications?

As part of your promotions, you’ll need to figure out how to position your company and services and how to communicate your benefits and features to your target audience.

Integrated marketing communications covers all of the various channels of communication and ensures a consistent message and approach across all of them. The benefit of this is that you increase effectiveness and maintain brand value.

Just 10 years ago, TV, radio, telephone and mail were the key channels for communicating your marketing message. If you were a savvy marketing manager, you would have leveraged targeted TV and radio ads to generate awareness and interest, while focusing direct mail and sales force efforts on obtaining leads and sales.

While traditional channels are still critical, the Internet now offers you additional opportunities for not only communicating your message but for also selling and delivering your product.

The challenge is integrating web site, email and other forms of online promotions with the more traditional offline ones. See also Tips and Resources - Web Site Design, Development and Promotion.

Getting Started

Developing a marketing strategy can be a challenge even for an expert. However, you can minimize the headaches and ensure great results by following a few guidelines.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Start with an outline.
  
• Consider your available time and knowledge in marketing. If you’re managing an entire company or product line, you may not want to be in charge of writing a plan as well.
  
• Seek help from a professional marketing consultant or agency with actual experience in developing a strategy. Don’t expect a web designer to map out your web site structure and determine how to position the copy and promote your services.
• Always establish a marketing budget and keep your strategist and ideas in line with it.
• Develop a realistic action plan and make sure your strategist can commit to specific due dates.
• Tie your objectives to specific strategies and target results. Otherwise, you won’t know if you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish.
• Don’t try to be perfect by spending hours theorizing and not implementing. Instead, consider your marketing plan a working document that will be modified occasionally as needed. And, act before you lose the opportunity.
• Evaluate your results and constantly improve them.
  

Want more help?

Contact us at: info@mxservices.net

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