Marketing plan is road map to your business goals

The business plan sets your destination.
The marketing plan tells you how to get there.

By Bonnie Kreitler

What is marketing? You may say it’s your latest bill for newspaper advertising. Someone else may picture his sales staff calling from a bank of phones. And another business owner might think about the latest list she’s testing for a direct-mail campaign.

All of you are right. And all of you are wrong.

Marketing is the sum of many actions. It involves product design, pricing strategy, sales and distribution, and promotion and advertising.

The biggest marketing mistake many business owners make, says marketing consultant Paul Hughes, of the Connecticut Small Business Development Center (CSBDC) in Hartford, is to focus on individual marketing actions instead of placing them in the context of their companies’ overall business.

Business owners frequently put the marketing horse before the business cart, says consultant Bruce Murphy, of Path Wey Marketing Co. in Guilford. Marketing is not a goal in itself, he points out. You should think of a marketing plan as a road map that takes you to the goal or goals you’ve set in an overall business plan. The business plan sets your destination. The marketing plan tells you how to get there.

Hughes, who served as senior vice president for marketing at the Connecticut Development Authority before joining the CSBDC, advises business owners to break down the process of developing a marketing plan into three parts: basic research, analysis and execution.

Basic research

You need to identify your customers or prospects, where they are, how you can reach them, and what influences their buying decisions. Research should also identify your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and how you can distinguish yourself from these competitors. Don’t guess or assume, says Hughes; go after hard data.

The data you need will vary tremendously depending on how you define your market. A retailer might want to talk to the town planner before deciding on a new store location. A business-to-business service provider would want to know more about trade shows in its industry. A mail-order company needs to know what mailing lists are available that will reach its potential customers.

Statistically valid market research is too expensive for most small businesses to do on their own, says Hughes. You may find useful marketing studies on the Internet or through trade associations, though. And, he says, everyone can do subjective market research using focus groups and advisory boards.

Focus groups meet one time, whereas an advisory board meets on a regular schedule. The idea behind either one is that you ask from six to eight people, including customers, competitors, suppliers and knowledgeable businesspeople, for their ideas and opinions about your product, your customers, your marketing strategies or tactics, or anything else that can help you improve your marketing.

Analysis

This is the second stage in developing your marketing plan. Looking at everything you’ve learned, you need to define a unique strategy that sets you apart from your competitors, meets the needs of your customers and uses marketing tactics they will respond to. This is the strategy you will use to reach that specific, measurable goal you set in your business plan.

Planning for growth, notes Murphy, may mean creating a new product to extend your line, or adding more sales personnel or more support staff for the existing salespeople. It may mean identifying new customers, solidifying relationships with existing ones, giving your sales force new tools to work with, or developing new promotions. The steps you identify become part of your overall marketing plan. The actions you take will vary depending on whether you are a manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer or service provider.

Execution

This is the stage most people think of as "marketing." These are the tactics you will use to generate sales. Again, they will vary depending on your business. For a retailer, tactics might include print and broadcast advertising, coupon promotions, in-store sweepstakes, customer-service training for sales staff, good parking, and an attractive street-side image. For a manufacturer doing business-to-business sales, tactics might include adding more salespeople, providing additional sales training, developing a trade-show presence or starting a telemarketing program.

Every six months to a year, Hughes says, look at how effective your marketing strategy and tactics have been. Analyze your cash flow to make sure marketing is generating sales fast enough to cover your costs and produce the growth you want. "It’s easier to pay attention to marketing tactics than the numbers," he says, "but if the dollars don’t add up, the fanciest marketing plan in the world will do you no good."

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