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

Marketing can get messy. It’s hard to estimate a budget for projects, hiring, and outsourcing over a year, especially if you don’t have a solid marketing plan in place.

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.

What should a business plan include?

A business plan is a blueprint that entrepreneurs use to define their business goals, strategies, and financial projections over a set period.

The business plan outline we explore will guide you in crafting a comprehensive plan that effectively communicates your vision and secures support from investors and stakeholders.

Business plans can vary in detail depending on your industry and the scope of your operations. This holds true whether you’re focusing on a local market or expanding globally.

Despite these differences, here are the key elements I believe should be included in every business plan or business planner template:

Business Summary: In a business plan, an executive summary is exactly what it sounds like — a brief overview of the business.

It provides all stakeholders with a quick understanding of your company before diving into the more detailed aspects of your plan. It also serves as a handy reference if any questions arise during their review.

At a minimum, most executive summaries include:

• Company name
• Location
• Vision statement

Our business plan outline also includes details on leadership, which is particularly useful for organizations with a large management team.

SWOT Analysis: Your business plan’s executive summary should also include a SWOT analysis. This summarizes your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).

Conducting a SWOT analysis is a crucial strategic exercise (and yes, I find it fascinating). It offers a clear picture of the environment your business operates in and how well it’s performing within it.

Think of it as a quick health check-up for your business. You get to assess where you stand and, perhaps, have a moment to reflect before making improvements.

Including a SWOT in your business plan helps readers understand the context your strategies are built around.

Pro Tip: In my experience, it’s beneficial to have input from stakeholders across all business areas when creating your SWOT analysis, ensuring nothing is missed.

To ensure accuracy, thorough market research, data analysis, and competitive analysis are essential.

Make sure to revisit your SWOT analysis each time you update your business plan, as your market, audience, and competition will evolve.

Business Initiatives: What is your business focusing on? What do you want to achieve?

Document these goals in your business plan under key initiatives. This section sets the direction for the entire document and its strategies.

Be mindful not to get distracted by large-scale company goals (e.g., expanding into a new market or launching a new product line) that would typically be included in a marketing plan.

This section should highlight projects that are directly related to your business operations. You’ll also define the goals of these projects, making sure they are measurable.

Each initiative should align with the SMART framework, ensuring the goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

For instance, a general goal might be, “Grow our customer base.” A SMART version would be, “Increase our customer base by 25% by the end of Q3.” Can you spot the difference?

Target Market:
Next, consider your target market, or the audience you are trying to reach with your marketing messages. This includes your industries and buyer personas.

• Industries: If you’re B2B, include a description of the industries your clients typically operate in or those that benefit from your products or services. If you’re B2C, you can skip this section.
• Buyer Personas: A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. It highlights key characteristics such as:
  Age

  Location

  Job title

  Goals

  Personal challenges

  Pain points

  Triggering events

It provides a more detailed understanding of your target market or the specific types of individuals you aim to connect with.

Competitive Analysis: Your buyer persona has options when it comes to solving their problems, including the types of solutions they explore and the providers that can deliver those solutions.

A competitive analysis will outline the companies or brands you’re competing against, and this should be factored into your business strategies.

Think about who your competition is, what they excel at, and where the opportunities lie for you to fill the gaps. This can cover:

• Positioning
• Market share
• Offerings
• Pricing

Our business plan template provides space to list the specific products or services you compete with. You can also mention other aspects of your competitors’ strategies, such as their content marketing or customer service practices.

Keep this section concise. Your in-depth competitive analysis should be conducted separately.

How to Create a Marketing Plan?

1. Research, research, research.

The first step in creating a marketing plan is conducting market research. This is where I gather all the data and insights to complete SWOT and competitor analyses.

Additionally, I need a good picture of the current market. How do I compare to my competitors? What are they missing? What can I offer that’ll give me a competitive advantage? Doing a competitor analysis can help.

Answering questions like this should help you figure out what your customer wants, which brings us to step number two.

2. Define and refine your target market.

Who are you aiming to serve? Who is most likely to use your product or service?

If your business already has buyer personas, this step is about reviewing and refining those personas. But if you don’t, it’s time to create one.

Your buyer persona should include demographic details like age, gender, and income, as well as psychographic insights such as challenges and objectives.

What motivates your target audience? What pain points do they experience that your product or service can solve?

Once you’ve captured this information, it will help shape your objectives, which brings us to the next step.

3. Define your SMART goals.

My mother always used to tell me, “You can’t go somewhere unless you have a road map.”

For someone geographically challenged, like me, that was literal advice. But it can also be applied metaphorically to marketing.

You can’t improve your ROI unless you know your goals.

After you’ve figured out your current situation and know your audience, you can begin to define your SMART goals.

SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This means that all your goals should be specific and include a time frame for which you want to complete them.

For example, your goal could be to increase your Instagram followers by 15% in three months.

Before you start any tactic, write them out. Then, you can begin to analyze which tactics will help you achieve that goal. That brings us to step number four.

4. Analyze your strategies.

What strategies will help you reach your goals? What are the right channels and actions to prioritize?

This is where you outline those strategies.

For instance, if your goal is to boost website traffic by 20% in six months, your strategies might include running paid search ads, optimizing blog content for SEO, and collaborating with influencers.

Once you’ve defined your goals, brainstorming effective strategies to achieve them should be straightforward.

That said, you might not be able to implement every strategy on your list (unless you have an unlimited budget, which, lucky you). This brings us to step five.

5. Define your budget.

Before you begin executing any of the strategies you’ve identified, you need to establish your budget.

For example, your strategy might involve paid social media campaigns. However, if you don’t have the budget for that, you may need to adjust your plans.

As you work through your strategies, be sure to estimate the budget for each one. Factor in the time required to execute them, as well as any resources you may need, such as paid advertising or tools.

6. Document it.

Now that you have all the necessary information, it’s time to document everything clearly and cohesively. This is a crucial step in ensuring your plan is organized, accessible, and actionable.

A well-documented plan helps you stay on track and provides a reference point for stakeholders. Make sure to include the following elements:

• Executive Summary: A brief overview of your business, goals, and strategies.
• Market Analysis: Insights into your target market, buyer personas, and competition.
• Goals & Objectives: Clearly defined SMART goals and the key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.
• Tactics & Strategies: A detailed breakdown of the tactics you’ll use to achieve your goals, along with action items and timelines.
• Budget & Resources: A clear budget outline, including estimated costs and resource allocations.
• Timeline: A timeline that details when each tactic will be implemented and when to expect results.
• Roles & Responsibilities: Clarify who is responsible for each task and how progress will be tracked.

Make sure the document is easy to navigate, whether you’re presenting it to a team or referring back to it yourself. Having everything written down allows for a consistent approach, helps keep all team members aligned, and increases the chances of success.

Once it’s documented, you’ll be able to revisit and update it as necessary, ensuring that your business strategy stays relevant and flexible as your company grows.

Set your business planning process up for success.

A business plan is vital to your long-term success, but don’t let its significance overwhelm you.

Whether you’re an experienced entrepreneur or just starting out, with all the business plan templates, examples, and tips provided, you have everything you need to set your business planning process up for success.

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