how to start a marketing plan essay

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

Published: December 27, 2023

For a while now, you've been spearheading your organization's content marketing efforts, and your team's performance has convinced management to adopt the content marketing strategies you’ve suggested.

Now, your boss wants you to write and present a content marketing plan, but you‘ve never done something like that before. You don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, we've curated the best content marketing plans to help you write a concrete plan that's rooted in data and produces results. But first, we'll discuss what a marketing plan is and how some of the best marketing plans include strategies that serve their respective businesses.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that businesses use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period. Marketing plans can include different marketing strategies for various marketing teams across the company, all working toward the same business goals.

The purpose of a marketing plan is to write down strategies in an organized manner. This will help keep you on track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Writing a marketing plan will help you think of each campaign‘s mission, buyer personas, budget, tactics, and deliverables. With all this information in one place, you’ll have an easier time staying on track with a campaign. You'll also discover what works and what doesn't. Thus, measuring the success of your strategy.

Featured Resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

Looking to develop a marketing plan for your business? Click here to download HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template to get started .

To learn more about how to create your marketing plan, keep reading or jump to the section you’re looking for:

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Types of marketing plans, marketing plan examples, marketing plan faqs, sample marketing plan.

If you're pressed for time or resources, you might not be thinking about a marketing plan. However, a marketing plan is an important part of your business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute resources and make decisions as your business grows.

I like to think of a marketing plan as a subset of a business plan; it shows how marketing strategies and objectives can support overall business goals.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy describes how a business will accomplish a particular goal or mission. This includes which campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software they'll use to execute that mission and track its success.

For example, while a greater plan or department might handle social media marketing, you might consider your work on Facebook as an individual marketing strategy.

A marketing plan contains one or more marketing strategies. It's the framework from which all of your marketing strategies are created and helps you connect each strategy back to a larger marketing operation and business goal.

For example, suppose your company is launching a new software product, and it wants customers to sign up. The marketing department needs to develop a marketing plan that'll help introduce this product to the industry and drive the desired signups.

The department decides to launch a blog dedicated to this industry, a new YouTube video series to establish expertise, and an account on Twitter to join the conversation around this subject. All this serves to attract an audience and convert this audience into software users.

To summarize, the business's marketing plan is dedicated to introducing a new software product to the marketplace and driving signups for that product. The business will execute that plan with three marketing strategies : a new industry blog, a YouTube video series, and a Twitter account.

Of course, the business might consider these three things as one giant marketing strategy, each with its specific content strategies. How granular you want your marketing plan to get is up to you. Nonetheless, every marketing plan goes through a particular set of steps in its creation.

Learn what they are below.

• State your business's mission.
• Determine the KPIs for this mission.
• Identify your buyer personas.
• Describe your content initiatives and strategies.
• Clearly define your plan's omissions.
• Define your marketing budget.
• Identify your competition.
• Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

1. State your business's mission.

Your first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to your marketing department, it should serve your business‘s main mission statement.

From my experience, you want to be specific, but not too specific. You have plenty of space left in this marketing plan to elaborate on how you'll acquire new customers and accomplish this mission.

Need help building your mission statement? Download this guide for examples and templates and write the ideal mission statement.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

Every good marketing plan describes how the department will track its mission‘s progress. To do so, you need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs) .

KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.

Let's take our example of a marketing mission from the above step. If part of our mission is “to attract an audience of travelers,” we might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, “organic page views” is one KPI, and we can see our number of page views grow over time.

These KPIs will come into the conversation again in step 4.

3. Identify your buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title. Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business's current and potential customers. So, all business leaders must agree on your buyer personas.

Create your buyer personas with this free guide and set of buyer persona templates.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Here's where you'll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy. Because there's a laundry list of content types and channels available to you today, you must choose wisely and explain how you'll use your content and channels in this section of your marketing plan.

When I write this section , I like to stipulate:

• Which types of content I'll create. These might include blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, and ebooks.
• How much of it I'll create. I typically describe content volume in daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly intervals. It all depends on my workflow and the short-term goals for my content.
• The goals (and KPIs) I'll use to track each type. KPIs can include organic traffic, social media traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic. Your goals should also include which pages you want to drive that traffic to, such as product pages, blog pages, or landing pages.
• The channels on which I'll distribute my content. Popular channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.
• Any paid advertising that will take place on these channels.

Build out your marketing plan with this free template.

Fill out this form to access the template., 5. clearly define your plan's omissions..

A marketing plan explains the marketing team's focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not focus on.

If there are other aspects of your business that you aren't serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content. You can’t please everyone in a single marketing campaign, and if your team isn't on the hook for something, you need to make it known.

In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made.

6. Define your marketing budget.

Whether it's freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.

You can establish your marketing budget with this kit of 8 free marketing budget templates .

7. Identify your competition.

Part of marketing is knowing whom you're marketing against. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.

Keep in mind not every competitor will pose the same challenges to your business. For example, while one competitor might be ranking highly on search engines for keywords you want your website to rank for, another competitor might have a heavy footprint on a social network where you plan to launch an account.

Easily track and analyze your competitors with t his collection of ten free competitive analysis templates .

8. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it's time to explain who’s doing what. I don't like to delve too deeply into my employees’ day-to-day projects, but I know which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and more.

Now that you know why you need to build an effective marketing plan, it’s time to get to work. Starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming if you haven't done it before. That’s why there are many helpful resources that can support your first steps. We’ll share some of the best guides and templates that can help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.

Ready to make your own marketing plan? Get started using this free template.

Depending on the company you work with, you might want to create various marketing plans. We compiled different samples to suit your needs:

1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans

These plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you'll take on in a certain period.

Forbes published a marketing plan template that has amassed almost 4 million views. To help you sculpt a marketing roadmap with true vision, their template will teach you how to fill out the 15 key sections of a marketing plan, which are:

• Executive Summary
• Target Customers
• Unique Selling Proposition
• Pricing & Positioning Strategy
• Distribution Plan
• Your Offers
• Marketing Materials
• Promotions Strategy
• Online Marketing Strategy
• Conversion Strategy
• Joint Ventures & Partnerships
• Referral Strategy
• Strategy for Increasing Transaction Prices
• Retention Strategy
• Financial Projections

If you're truly lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I highly recommend using this guide to help you define your target audience, figure out how to reach them, and ensure that audience becomes loyal customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan

This type of plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish specifically on social media. A specific subtype is a paid marketing plan, which highlights paid strategies, such as native advertising, PPC, or paid social media promotions.

Shane Snow's Marketing Plan for His Book Dream Team is a great example of a social media marketing plan:

When Shane Snow started promoting his new book, "Dream Team," he knew he had to leverage a data-driven content strategy framework. So, he chose his favorite one: the content strategy waterfall. The content strategy waterfall is defined by Economic Times as a model used to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

Snow wrote a blog post about how the waterfall‘s content strategy helped him launch his new book successfully. After reading it, you can use his tactics to inform your own marketing plan. More specifically, you’ll learn how he:

• Applied his business objectives to decide which marketing metrics to track.
• Used his ultimate business goal of earning $200,000 in sales or 10,000 purchases to estimate the conversion rate of each stage of his funnel.
• Created buyer personas to figure out which channels his audience would prefer to consume his content.
• Used his average post view on each of his marketing channels to estimate how much content he had to create and how often he had to post on social media.
• Calculated how much earned and paid media could cut down the amount of content he had to create and post.
• Designed his process and workflow, built his team, and assigned members to tasks.
• Analyzed content performance metrics to refine his overall content strategy.

I use Snow's marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it's linear and builds on the step before it, creating an air-tight strategy that doesn't leave any details out.

3. Content Marketing Plan

This plan could highlight different strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you'll use content to promote your business or product.

HubSpot's Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy is a strong example of a content marketing plan:

At HubSpot, we‘ve built our marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of hundreds of employees. Along the way, we’ve learned countless lessons that shaped our current content marketing strategy. So, we decided to illustrate our insights in a blog post to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy, regardless of their team's size.

In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, you'll learn:

• What exactly content marketing is.
• Why your business needs a content marketing strategy.
• Who should lead your content marketing efforts?
• How to structure your content marketing team based on your company's size.
• How to hire the right people for each role on your team.
• What marketing tools and technology you'll need to succeed.
• What type of content your team should create, and which employees should be responsible for creating them.
• The importance of distributing your content through search engines, social media, email, and paid ads.
• And finally, the recommended metrics each of your teams should measure and report to optimize your content marketing program.

This is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size — whether you're a team of one or 100. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you'll need, what type of content you should create, and even recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns. If you're aiming to establish or boost your online presence, leveraging tools like HubSpot's drag-and-drop website builder can be extremely beneficial. It helps you create a captivating digital footprint that sets the foundation for your content marketing endeavors.

4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan

This will be a roadmap for the strategies and tactics you‘ll implement to promote a new product. And if you’re searching for an example, look no further than Chief Outsiders' Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product :

After reading this plan, you'll learn how to:

• Validate a product
• Write strategic objectives
• Identify your market
• Compile a competitive landscape
• Create a value proposition for a new product
• Consider sales and service in your marketing plan

If you're looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target one product versus its entire marketing strategy.

5. Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like we see in Venture Harbour’s Growth Marketing Plan Template :

Venture Harbour's growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. Their template has five steps intended for refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle. The five steps are:

• Experiments

I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation always feels risky and unfamiliar, but this plan creates a framework for accountability and strategy.

• Louisville Tourism
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Visit Oxnard
• Safe Haven Family Shelter
• Wright County Economic Development
• The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County
• Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Visit Billings

1. Louisville Tourism

It also divides its target market into growth and seed categories to allow for more focused strategies. For example, the plan recognizes Millennials in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville as the core of it's growth market, whereas people in Boston, Austin, and New York represent seed markets where potential growth opportunities exist. Then, the plan outlines objectives and tactics for reaching each market.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

• The plan starts with a letter from the President & CEO of the company, who sets the stage for the plan by providing a high-level preview of the incoming developments for Louisville's tourism industry
• The focus on Louisville as "Bourbon City" effectively leverages its unique cultural and culinary attributes to present a strong brand
• Incorporates a variety of data points from Google Analytics, Arrivalist, and visitor profiles to to define their target audience with a data-informed approach

2. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

For example, students who become prospects as freshman and sophomore will receive emails that focus on getting the most out of high school and college prep classes. Once these students become juniors and seniors — thus entering the consideration stage — the emails will focus more on the college application process and other exploratory content.

• The plan incorporates competitive analysis, evaluation surveys, and other research to determine the makeup of its target audience
• The plan lists each marketing program (e.g., direct mail, social media, email etc.) and supplements it with examples on the next page
• Each marketing program has its own objectives, tactics, and KPIs for measuring success

3. Visit Oxnard

This marketing plan by Visit Oxnard, a convention and visitors bureau, is packed with all the information one needs in a marketing plan: target markets, key performance indicators, selling points, personas, marketing tactics by channel, and much more.

It also articulates the organization’s strategic plans for the upcoming fiscal year, especially as it grapples with the aftereffects of the pandemic. Lastly, it has impeccable visual appeal, with color-coded sections and strong branding elements.

• States clear and actionable goals for the coming year
• Includes data and other research that shows how their team made their decisions
• Outlines how the team will measure the success of their plan

4. Safe Haven Family Shelter

This marketing plan by a nonprofit organization is an excellent example to follow if your plan will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization. It includes SMART marketing goals , deadlines, action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages , and metrics.

The plan is detailed, yet scannable. By the end of it, one can walk away with a strong understanding of the organization’s strategic direction for its upcoming marketing efforts.

• Confirms ongoing marketing strategies and objectives while introducing new initiatives
• Uses colors, fonts, and formatting to emphasize key parts of the plan
• Closes with long-term goals, key themes, and other overarching topics to set the stage for the future

5. Wright County Economic Development

Wright County Economic Development’s plan drew our attention because of its simplicity, making it good inspiration for those who’d like to outline their plan in broad strokes without frills or filler.

It includes key information such as marketing partners, goals, initiatives, and costs. The sections are easy to scan and contain plenty of information for those who’d like to dig into the details. Most important, it includes a detailed breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative — which is critical information to include for upper-level managers and other stakeholders.

• Begins with a quick paragraph stating why the recommended changes are important
• Uses clear graphics and bullet points to emphasize key points
• Includes specific budget data to support decision-making

6. The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

This marketing plan presentation by a cultural council is a great example of how to effectively use data in your plan, address audiences who are new to the industry, and offer extensive detail into specific marketing strategies.

For instance, an entire slide is dedicated to the county’s cultural tourism trends, and at the beginning of the presentation, the organization explains what an arts and culture agency is in the first place.

That’s a critical piece of information to include for those who might not know. If you’re addressing audiences outside your industry, consider defining terms at the beginning, like this organization did.

• Uses quality design and images to support the goals and priorities in the text
• Separate pages for each big idea or new strategy
• Includes sections for awards and accomplishments to show how the marketing plan supports wider business goals
• Defines strategies and tactics for each channel for easy skimming

7. Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau

Cabarrus County’s convention and visitors bureau takes a slightly different approach with its marketing plan, formatting it like a magazine for stakeholders to flip through. It offers information on the county’s target audience, channels, goals, KPIs, and public relations strategies and initiatives.

We especially love that the plan includes contact information for the bureau’s staff members, so that it’s easy for stakeholders to contact the appropriate person for a specific query.

• Uses infographics to expand on specific concepts, like how visitors benefit a community
• Highlights the team members responsible for each initiative with a photo to emphasize accountability and community
• Closes with an event calendar for transparency into key dates for events

8. Visit Billings

Visit Billing’s comprehensive marketing plan is like Cabarrus County’s in that it follows a magazine format. With sections for each planned strategy, it offers a wealth of information and depth for internal stakeholders and potential investors.

We especially love its content strategy section, where it details the organization’s prior efforts and current objectives for each content platform.

At the end, it includes strategic goals and budgets — a good move to imitate if your primary audience would not need this information highlighted at the forefront.

• Includes a section on the buyer journey, which offers clarity on the reasoning for marketing plan decisions
• Design includes call-outs for special topics that could impact the marketing audience, such as safety concerns or "staycations"
• Clear headings make it easy to scan this comprehensive report and make note of sections a reader may want to return to for more detail

What is a typical marketing plan?

In my experience, most marketing plans outline the following aspects of a business's marketing:

• Target audience

Each marketing plan should include one or more goals, the path your team will take to meet those goals, and how you plan to measure success.

For example, if I were a tech startup that's launching a new mobile app, my marketing plan would include:

• Target audience or buyer personas for the app
• Outline of how app features meet audience needs
• Competitive analysis
• Goals for conversion funnel and user acquisition
• Marketing strategies and tactics for user acquisition

Featured resource : Free Marketing Plan Template

What should a good marketing plan include?

A good marketing plan will create a clear roadmap for your unique marketing team. This means that the best marketing plan for your business will be distinct to your team and business needs.

That said, most marketing plans will include sections for one or more of the following:

• Clear analysis of the target market
• A detailed description of the product or service
• Strategic marketing mix details (such as product, price, place, promotion)
• Measurable goals with defined timelines

This can help you build the best marketing plan for your business.

A good marketing plan should also include a product or service's unique value proposition, a comprehensive marketing strategy including online and offline channels, and a defined budget.

Featured resource : Value Proposition Templates

What are the most important parts of a marketing plan?

When you‘re planning a road trip, you need a map to help define your route, step-by-step directions, and an estimate of the time it will take to get to your destination. It’s literally how you get there that matters.

Like a road map, a marketing plan is only useful if it helps you get to where you want to go. So, no one part is more than the other.

That said, you can use the list below to make sure that you've added or at least considered each of the following in your marketing plan:

• Marketing goals
• Executive summary
• Target market analysis
• Marketing strategies

What questions should I ask when making a marketing plan?

Questions are a useful tool for when you‘re stuck or want to make sure you’ve included important details.

Try using one or more of these questions as a starting point when you create your marketing plan:

• Who is my target audience?
• What are their needs, motivations, and pain points?
• How does our product or service solve their problems?
• How will I reach and engage them?
• Who are my competitors? Are they direct or indirect competitors?
• What are the unique selling points of my product or service?
• What marketing channels are best for the brand?
• What is our budget and timeline?
• How will I measure the success of marketing efforts?

How much does a marketing plan cost?

Creating a marketing plan is mostly free. But the cost of executing a marketing plan will depend on your specific plan.

Marketing plan costs vary by business, industry, and plan scope. Whether your team handles marketing in-house or hires external consultants can also make a difference. Total costs can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. This is why most marketing plans will include a budget.

Featured resource : Free Marketing Budget Templates

What is a marketing plan template?

A marketing plan template is a pre-designed structure or framework that helps you outline your marketing plan.

It offers a starting point that you can customize for your specific business needs and goals. For example, our template includes easy-to-edit sections for:

• Business summary
• Business initiatives
• Target market
• Market strategy
• Marketing channels
• Marketing technology

Let’s create a sample plan together, step by step.

Follow along with HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template .

1. Create an overview or primary objective.

Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience’s valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.

For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:

We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform].

The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.

Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.

• Profession:
• Background:
• Pain points:
• Social media platforms that they use:
• Streaming platforms that they prefer:

For more useful strategies, consider creating a buyer persona in our Make My Persona tool .

Our content pillars will be: [X, Y, Z].

Content pillars should be based on topics your audience needs to know. If your ideal clients are female entrepreneurs, then your content pillars can be: marketing, being a woman in business, remote working, and productivity hacks for entrepreneurs.

Then, determine any omissions.

This marketing plan won’t be focusing on the following areas of improvement: [A, B, C].

5. Define your marketing budget.

Our marketing strategy will use a total of [Y] monthly. This will include anything from freelance collaborations to advertising.

6. Identify your competitors.

I like to work through the following questions to clearly indicate who my competitors are:

• Which platforms do they use the most?
• How does their branding differentiate?
• How do they talk to their audiences?
• What valuable assets do customers talk about? And if they are receiving any negative feedback, what is it about?

7. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

Create responsible parties for each portion of the plan.

Marketing will manage the content plan, implementation, and community interaction to reach the KPIs.

• Social media manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Content strategist: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Community manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Sales will follow the line of the marketing work while creating and implementing an outreach strategy.

• Sales strategists: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]
• Sales executives: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Customer Service will nurture clients’ relationships to ensure that they have what they want. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Project Managers will track the progress and team communication during the project. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

Get started on your marketing plan.

These marketing plans serve as initial resources to get your content marketing plan started. But, to truly deliver what your audience wants and needs, you'll likely need to test some different ideas out, measure their success, and then refine your goals as you go.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure t o learn more about how we use AI.

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Blog Marketing

What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]

By Sara McGuire , Oct 26, 2023

A marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines your strategies to attract and convert your ideal customers as a part of your customer acquisition strategy . It’s a comprehensive document that details your:

• Target audience:  Who you’re trying to reach
• Marketing goals:  What you want to achieve
• Strategies and tactics:  How you’ll reach your goals
• Budget:  Resources you’ll allocate
• Metrics:  How you’ll measure success

In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about creating a marketing plan . If you need a little extra help, there are professionally designed marketing plan templates that’ll make the process much easier. So, let’s ditch the confusion and get started!

Click to jump ahead:

What is a marketing plan?

How to write a marketing plan .

• Marketing plan v.s. business plan
• Types of marketing plans

9 marketing plan examples to inspire your growth strategy

Marketing plan faqs.

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for your products or services, which could be applicable for the coming year, quarter or month.  

Watch this quick, 13-minute video for more details on what a marketing plan is and how to make one yourself:

Typically, a marketing plan includes:

• An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals
• A description of your business’s current marketing position
• A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking
• A description of your business’s target market and customer needs
• A description of how you will measure the performance of the strategy

For example, this marketing plan template provides a high-level overview of the business and competitors before diving deep into specific goals, KPIs and tactics:

Learning how to write a marketing plan forces you to think through the important steps that lead to an effective marketing strategy . And a well-defined plan will help you stay focused on your high-level marketing goals.

With Venngage’s extensive catalog of marketing plan templates , creating your marketing plan isn’t going to be hard or tedious. In fact, Venngage has plenty of helpful communications and design resources for marketers. If you’re ready to get started, sign up for  Venngage for Marketers   now. It’s free to register and start designing.

Whether you’re a team trying to set smarter marketing goals, a consultant trying to set your client in the right direction, or a one-person team hustling it out, Venngage for Marketers helps you get things done.

As mentioned above, the scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for.

For example, you could create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing strategy or simply focus on a specific channel like SEO, social media marketing, content marketing and more, like in this example:

A typical outline of a marketing plan includes:

• Executive summary
• Goals and objectives
• User personas
• Competitor analysis/SWOT analysis
• Baseline metrics
• Marketing strategy
• Tracking guidelines

Below you will see in details how to write each section as well as some examples of how you can design each section in a marketing plan.

Let’s look at how to create a successful marketing plan (click to jump ahead):

• Write a simple executive summary
• Set metric-driven marketing goals
• Outline your user personas
• Research all of your competitors
• Set accurate key baselines & metrics
• Create an actionable marketing strategy
• Set tracking or reporting guidelines

1. Write a simple executive summary

Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.

One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well-written executive summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future plans, and other important contextual facts.

Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.

Include things like:

• Simple marketing goals
• High-level metrics
• Important company milestones
• Facts about your brand
• Employee anecdotes
• Future goals & plans

Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to keep it under three to four paragraphs.

Take a look at the executive summary in the marketing plan example below:

The executive summary is only two paragraphs long — short but effective.

The executive summary tells readers about the company’s growth, and how they are about to overtake one of their competitors. But there’s no mention of specific metrics or figures. That will be highlighted in the next section of the marketing plan.

An effective executive summary should have enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but not bog them down with specifics yet. That’s what the rest of your marketing plan is for!

The executive summary also sets the tone for your marketing plan. Think about what tone will fit your brand ? Friendly and humorous? Professional and reliable? Inspiring and visionary?

2. Set metric-driven marketing goals

After you perfect your executive summary, it’s time to outline your marketing goals.

(If you’ve never set data-driven goals like this before, it would be worth reading this growth strategy guide ).

This is one of the most important parts of the entire marketing plan, so be sure to take your time and be as clear as possible. Moreover, optimizing your marketing funnel is key. Employing effective funnel software can simplify operations and provide valuable customer insights. It facilitates lead tracking, conversion rate analysis, and efficient marketing optimization .

As a rule of thumb, be as specific as possible. The folks over at  VoyMedia  advise that you should set goals that impact website traffic, conversions, and customer success — and to use real numbers.

Avoid outlining vague goals like:

• Get more Twitter followers
• Write more articles
• Create more YouTube videos (like educational or Explainer videos )
• Increase retention rate
• Decrease bounce rate

Instead, identify  key performance metrics  (KPI) you want to impact and the percentage you want to increase them by.

Take a look at the goals page in the marketing plan example below:

They not only identify a specific metric in each of their goals, but they also set a timeline for when they will be increased.

The same vague goals listed earlier become much clearer when specific numbers and timelines are applied to them:

• Get 100 new Twitter followers per month
• Write 5 more articles per week
• Create 10 YouTube videos each year
• Increase retention rate by 15% by 2020
• Decrease bounce rate by 5% by Q1
• Create an online course  and get 1,000 new leads
• Focus more on local SEO strategies

You can dive even deeper into your marketing goals if you want (generally, the more specific, the better). Here’s a marketing plan example that shows how to outline your growth goals:

3. Outline your user personas

Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of value.

Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.

You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get the right visitors.

Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your business solve customer problems?

Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.

Some ways to conduct user research are:

• Interviewing your users (either in person or on the phone)
• Conducting focus groups
• Researching other businesses in the same industry
• Surveying your audience

Then, you will need to compile your user data into a user persona  guide.

Take a look at how detailed this user persona template is below:

Taking the time to identify specific demographic traits, habits and goals will make it easier for you to cater your marketing plan to them.

Here’s how you can create a user persona guide:

The first thing you should add is a profile picture or icon for each user persona. It can help to put a face to your personas, so they seem more real.

Next, list demographic information like:

• Identifiers
• Activities/Hobbies

The user persona example above uses sliding scales to identify personality traits like introversion vs. extroversion and thinking vs. feeling. Identifying what type of personality your target users tend to have an influence on the messaging you use in your marketing content.

Meanwhile, this user persona guide identifies specific challenges the user faces each day:

But if you don’t want to go into such precise detail, you can stick to basic information, like in this marketing plan example:

Most businesses will have a few different types of target users. That’s why it’s pertinent to identify and create several different user personas . That way, you can better segment your marketing campaigns and set separate goals, if necessary.

Here’s a marketing plan example with a segmented user persona guide:

The important thing is for your team or client to have a clear picture of who their target user is and how they can appeal to their specific problems.

Start creating robust user personas using Venngage’s user persona guide .

4. Conduct an extensive competitor analysis

Next, on the marketing plan checklist, we have the competitor research section. This section will help you identify who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how you could carve yourself a place alongside them in your niche — and ideally, surpass them. It’s something you can learn to do with rank tracking software .

Competitor research is also incredibly important if you are starting a blog .

Typically, your competitor research should include:

• Who their marketing team is
• Who their leadership team is
• What their marketing strategy is (this will probably revolve some reverse-engineering)
• What their sales strategy is (same deal)
• Social Media strategy (are they using discounting strategies such as coupon marketing to get conversions)
• Their market cap/financials
• Their yearly growth (you will probably need to use a marketing tool like Ahrefs to do this)
• The number of customers they have & their user personas

Also, take as deep a dive as you can into the strategies they use across their:

• Blog/Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Video marketing
• And any other marketing tactics they use

Research their strengths and weaknesses in all parts of their company, and you will find some great opportunities. Bookmark has a great guide to different marketing strategies for small businesses  if you need some more information there.

You can use this simple SWOT analysis worksheet to quickly work through all parts of their strategy as well:

Click the template above to create a SWOT chart . Customize the template to your liking — no design know-how needed.

Since you have already done all the research beforehand, adding this information to your marketing plan shouldn’t be that hard.

In this marketing plan example, some high-level research is outlined for 3 competing brands:

But you could take a deeper dive into different facets of your competitors’ strategies. This marketing plan example analyses a competitor’s content marketing strategy:

It can also be helpful to divide your competitors into Primary and Secondary groups. For example, Apple’s primary competitor may be Dell for computers, but its secondary competitor could be a company that makes tablets.

Your most dangerous competitors may not even be in the same industry as you. Like the CEO of Netflix said, “Sleep is our competition.”

5. Set accurate key baselines & metrics

It’s pretty hard to plan for the future if you don’t know where your business stands right now.

Before we do anything at Venngage, we find the baselines so we can compare future results to something. We do it so much it’s almost like second nature now!

Setting baselines will allow you to more accurately track your progress. You will also be able to better analyze what worked and what didn’t work, so you can build a stronger strategy. It will definitely help them clearly understand your goals and strategy as well.

Here’s a marketing plan example where the baselines are visualized:

Another way to include baselines in your plan is with a simple chart, like in the marketing plan example below:

Because data can be intimidating to a lot of people, visualizing your data using charts and infographics will help demystify the information.

6. Create an actionable marketing strategy

After pulling all the contextual information and relevant metrics into your marketing plan, it’s time to break down your marketing strategy.

Once again, it’s easier to communicate your information to your team or clients using visuals .

Mind maps are an effective way to show how a strategy with many moving parts ties together. For example, this mind map shows how the four main components of a marketing strategy interact together:

You can also use a flow chart to map out your strategy by objectives:

However you choose to visualize your strategy, your team should know exactly what they need to do. This is not the time to keep your cards close to your chest.

Your strategy section may need to take up a few pages to explain, like in the marketing plan example below:

With all of this information, even someone from the development team will understand what the marketing team is working on.

This minimalistic marketing plan example uses color blocks to make the different parts of the strategy easy to scan:

Breaking your strategy down into tasks will make it easier to tackle.

Another important way to visualize your marketing strategy is to create a project roadmap. A project roadmap visualizes the timeline of your product with individual tasks. Our roadmap maker can help you with this.

For example, this project roadmap shows how tasks on both the marketing and web design side run parallel to each other:

A simple timeline can also be used in your marketing plan:

Or a mind map, if you want to include a ton of information in a more organized way:

Even a simple “Next, Now, Later” chart can help visualize your strategy:

7. Set tracking or reporting guidelines

Close your marketing plan with a brief explanation of how you plan to track or measure your results. This will save you a lot of frustration down the line by standardizing how you track results across your team.

Like the other sections of your marketing plan, you can choose how in-depth you want to go. But there need to be some clear guidelines on how to measure the progress and results of your marketing plan.

At the bare minimum, your results tracking guidelines should specify:

• What you plan to track
• How you plan to track results
• How often you plan to measure

But you can more add tracking guidelines to your marketing plan if you see the need to. You may also want to include a template that your team or client can follow,  for  client reporting ,  ensure that the right metrics are being tracked.

The marketing plan example below dedicates a whole page to tracking criteria:

Use a task tracker to track tasks and marketing results, and a checklist maker to note down tasks, important life events, or tracking your daily life.

Similarly, the marketing plan example below talks about tracking content marketing instead:

Marketing plan vs. marketing strategy

Although often used interchangeably, the terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” do have some differences.

Simply speaking, a marketing strategy presents what the business will do in order to reach a certain goal. A marketing plan outlines the specific daily, weekly, monthly or yearly activities that the marketing strategy calls for. As a business, you can create a marketing proposal for the marketing strategies defined in your company’s marketing plan. There are various marketing proposal examples that you can look at to help with this.

A company’s extended marketing strategy can be like this:

Notice how it’s more general and doesn’t include the actual activities required to complete each strategy or the timeframe those marketing activities will take place. That kind of information is included in a marketing plan, like this marketing plan template which talks about the content strategy in detail:

Marketing plan v.s business plan

While both marketing plans and business plans are crucial documents for businesses, they serve distinct purposes and have different scopes. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

Business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines all aspects of your business, including:

• Mission and vision
• Products or services
• Target market
• Competition
• Management team
• Financial projections
• Marketing strategy (including a marketing plan)
• Operations plan

Marketing plan on the other hand, dives deep into the specific strategies and tactics related to your marketing efforts. It expands on the marketing section of a business plan by detailing:

• Specific marketing goals (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, sales)
• Target audience analysis (detailed understanding of their needs and behaviors)
• Product:  Features, benefits, positioning
• Price:  Pricing strategy, discounts
• Place:  Distribution channels (online, offline)
• Promotion:  Advertising, social media, content marketing, public relations
• Budget allocation for different marketing activities
• Metrics and measurement to track progress and success

In short, business plans paint the entire business picture, while marketing plans zoom in on the specific strategies used to reach your target audience and achieve marketing goals.

Types of marketing plans that can transform your business strategy

Let’s take a look at several types of marketing plans you can create, along with specific examples for each.

1. General marketing strategic plan / Annual marketing plan

This is a good example of a marketing plan that covers the overarching annual marketing strategy for a company:

Another good example would be this Starbucks marketing plan:

This one-page marketing plan example from coffee chain Starbucks has everything at a glance. The bold headers and subheadings make it easier to segment the sections so readers can focus on the area most relevant to them.

What we like about this example is how much it covers. From the ideal buyer persona to actional activities, as well as positioning and metrics, this marketing plan has it all.

Another marketing plan example that caught our eye is this one from Cengage. Although a bit text-heavy and traditional, it explains the various sections well. The clean layout makes this plan easy to read and absorb.

The last marketing plan example we would like to feature in this section is this one from Lush cosmetics.

It is a long one but it’s also very detailed. The plan outlines numerous areas, including the company mission, SWOT analysis , brand positioning, packaging, geographical criteria, and much more.

2. Content marketing plan

A content marketing plan highlights different strategies , campaigns or tactics you can use for your content to help your business reach its goals.

This one-page marketing plan example from Contently outlines a content strategy and workflow using simple colors and blocks. The bullet points detail more information but this plan can easily be understood at a glance, which makes it so effective.

For a more detailed content marketing plan example, take a look at this template which features an editorial calendar you can share with the whole team:

3. SEO marketing plan

Your SEO marketing plan highlights what you plan to do for your SEO marketing strategy . This could include tactics for website on-page optimization , off-page optimization using AI SEO , and link building using an SEO PowerSuite backlink API for quick backlink profile checks.

This SEO marketing plan example discusses in detail the target audience of the business and the SEO plan laid out in different stages:

4. Social media marketing plan

Your social media marketing plan presents what you’ll do to reach your marketing goal through social media. This could include tactics specific to each social media channel that you own, recommendations on developing a new channel, specific campaigns you want to run, and so on, like how B2B channels use Linkedin to generate leads with automation tools and expand their customer base; or like making use of Twitter walls that could display live Twitter feeds from Twitter in real-time on digital screens.

Edit this social media marketing plan example easily with Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor:

5. Demand generation marketing plan

This could cover your paid marketing strategy (which can include search ads, paid social media ads, traditional advertisements, etc.), email marketing strategy and more. Here’s an example:

1. Free marketing plan template

Here’s a free nonprofit marketing plan example that is ideal for organizations with a comprehensive vision to share. It’s a simple plan that is incredibly effective. Not only does the plan outline the core values of the company, it also shares the ideal buyer persona.

Note how the branding is consistent throughout this example so there is no doubt which company is presenting this plan. The content plan is an added incentive for anyone viewing the document to go ahead and give the team the green light.

2. Pastel social media marketing campaign template

Two-page marketing plan samples aren’t very common, but this free template proves how effective they are. There’s a dedicated section for business goals as well as for project planning .

The milestones for the marketing campaign are clearly laid out, which is a great way to show how organized this business strategy is.

3. Small business marketing strategy template

This marketing plan template is perfect for small businesses who set out to develop an overarching marketing strategy for the whole year:

Notice how this aligns pretty well with the marketing plan outline we discussed in previous sections.

In terms of specific tactics for the company’s marketing strategy, the template only discusses SEO strategy, but you can certainly expand on that section to discuss any other strategies — such as link building , that you would like to build out a complete marketing plan for.

4. Orange simple marketing proposal template

Marketing plans, like the sample below, are a great way to highlight what your business strategy and the proposal you wan to put forward to win potential customers.

5. One-page marketing fact sheet template

This one-page marketing plan example is great for showcasing marketing efforts in a persuasive presentation or to print out for an in-person meeting.

Note how the fact sheet breaks down the marketing budget as well as the key metrics for the organization. You can win over clients and partners with a plan like this.

6. Light company business fact sheet template

This one-page sample marketing plan clearly outlines the marketing objectives for the organization. It’s a simple but effective way to share a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

What really works with this example is that includes a mission statement, key contact information alongside all the key metrics.

7. Marketing media press kit template

This press kit marketing plan template is bright and unmistakable as belonging to the Cloud Nine marketing agency . The way the brand colors are used also helps diversify the layouts for each page, making the plan easier to read.

We like the way the marketing department has outlined the important facts about the organization. The bold and large numbers draw the eye and look impressive.

8. Professional marketing proposal template

Start your marketing campaign on a promising note with this marketing plan template. It’s short, sharp and to the point. The table of contents sets out the agenda, and there’s a page for the company overview and mission statement.

9. Social media marketing proposal template

A complete marketing plan example, like the one below, not only breaks down the business goals to be achieved but a whole lot more. Note how the terms and conditions and payment schedule are included, which makes this one of the most comprehensive marketing plans on our list.

What should marketing plans include?

Marketing plans should include:

• A detailed analysis of the target market and customer segments.
• Clear and achievable marketing objectives and goals.
• Strategies and tactics for product promotion and distribution.
• Budget allocation for various marketing activities.
• Timelines and milestones for the implementation of marketing strategies.
• Evaluation metrics and methods for tracking the success of the marketing plan.

What is an executive summary in a marketing plan and what is its main goal?

An executive summary in a marketing plan is a brief overview of the entire document, summarizing the key points, goals, and strategies. Its main goal is to provide readers with a quick understanding of the plan’s purpose and to entice them to read further.

What are the results when a marketing plan is effective?

When a marketing plan is effective, businesses can experience increased brand visibility, higher customer engagement, improved sales and revenue, and strengthened customer loyalty.

What is the first section of a marketing plan?

The first section of a marketing plan is typically the “Executive Summary,” which provides a concise overview of the entire plan, including the business’s goals and the strategies to achieve them.

Now that you have the basics for designing your own marketing plan, it’s time to get started:

More marketing design guides and templates:

• Marketing Infographics: The Definitive Guide [Includes Infographic Templates]
• 20+ Business Pitch Deck Templates to Win New Clients and Investors
• 20+ White Paper Examples [Design Guide + White Paper Templates]
• The Evolution of Marketing [Timeline Infographic]

What Is a Marketing Plan and Why Is It Essential for Business Success

Putting together a solid marketing plan is crucial for any business – it's like drawing up a game plan before a big match. It helps you determine your customers, what they want, and how to reach them effectively. Whether launching a new product, expanding your business, or aiming to boost your brand, a solid plan gives you a clear path. It involves researching your market, checking out your competition, creating creative ways to promote your offerings, and setting goals to track your progress. 

In this article, we'll break down the steps you need to take to create a winning marketing plan for college to help you stand out and succeed in today's competitive business world. At the end of the article, you can find a good marketing plan example for your inspiration and a source of practical know-how.

Definition of What Is a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic blueprint that outlines a company's marketing objectives and the specific actions needed to achieve them within a defined timeframe. It serves as a roadmap for businesses to identify their target audience, understand market dynamics, and allocate resources effectively to maximize their marketing efforts. 

Typically, a marketing plan includes an analysis of the current market situation, the establishment of clear objectives, the identification of target markets, the development of marketing strategies and tactics, the allocation of budgets, and methods for measuring success. By providing a structured approach to marketing activities, a well-crafted plan helps businesses stay focused, aligned, and competitive in their industry while driving sustainable growth and profitability. If you’re struggling with this assignment during your MBA course, you can easily say, ‘ write my essay for me ,’ and our experts will handle it shortly.

How to Write a Winning Marketing Plan?

With expert writers on your team, the chances of success increase dramatically!

What Is the Purpose of a Marketing Plan

The purpose of a marketing plan is multifaceted, serving as a crucial tool to guide businesses in achieving their marketing objectives effectively. Firstly, writing a marketing plan provides clarity by outlining specific goals, target audiences, and strategies, aligning the entire organization towards a common vision. Secondly, it serves as a roadmap, providing a structured framework for decision-making and resource allocation, ensuring that marketing efforts are focused and efficient. 

Additionally, it facilitates coordination and communication across different departments, promoting synergy and coherence in marketing activities. Furthermore, it enables businesses to anticipate and adapt to market changes by incorporating mechanisms for monitoring performance and adjusting strategies accordingly. 

Ultimately, the overarching goal is to drive business growth, enhance brand visibility, and generate sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. If things don’t work out at the moment with such an assignment, use our business essay writing service to streamline the process. 

Difference Between Marketing vs. Business Plan

The primary difference between marketing and business plans lies in their focus and scope. What is a business plan? It is a comprehensive document that outlines a business's overall objectives, strategies, and operational details. It encompasses various aspects such as organizational structure, financial projections, target market analysis, product or service offerings, and competitive analysis. 

In contrast, a marketing plan is a subset of the business plan that specifically focuses on the marketing strategies, tactics, and activities required to achieve the business's marketing objectives. While a business plan provides a holistic view of the entire business, including marketing, operations, finance, and management, a plan delves deeper into the specific marketing strategies, target audience segmentation, promotional tactics, and metrics for measuring marketing effectiveness. 

Essentially, the business plan serves as the overarching blueprint for the entire business, while the marketing plan zooms in on the marketing aspect within that broader framework. To improve your academic writing skills, consult our guide on the most effective business essay format . 

Difference Between Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

The main distinction between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan lies in their scope, focus, and level of detail. What is a marketing strategy? It is a high-level approach that outlines the overall direction and objectives for achieving a company's marketing goals. It involves identifying target markets, positioning the brand, and establishing a competitive advantage. Essentially, the marketing strategy sets the overarching framework for all marketing activities. 

On the other hand, a marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that operationalizes the marketing strategy. It delineates specific tactics, timelines, budgets, and metrics for implementation. A marketing plan breaks down the strategic goals into actionable steps, such as product development, pricing strategies, distribution channels, promotional campaigns, and communication channels. In summary, while a marketing strategy defines the "what" and "why" of marketing efforts, a plan outlines the "how," providing a tactical blueprint for executing the strategy effectively.

Types of Marketing Plans

Overall, a marketing plan can be of several types, while the choice depends on your specific goals and current purposes. Let’s analyze each type in detail:

Digital Marketing Plan

As the world of commerce has gone digital-first, businesses must harness the power of online platforms to reach their target audience effectively. A digital marketing plan uses various digital channels such as social media, search engines, email marketing, and content marketing to promote products or services, engage with customers, and drive conversions. 

It includes a marketing strategy for creating compelling digital content, optimizing websites for search engine visibility, running targeted advertising campaigns, and measuring performance through analytics tools. By embracing digital marketing tactics, businesses can enhance their online presence, build brand awareness, and generate leads cost-effectively, catering to the evolving preferences of modern consumers who increasingly rely on digital channels for information and purchasing decisions. By the way, if you’re really into digital advertising, check out this list of the best marketing books !

Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a specific target audience. A content marketing plan outlines the strategy for developing and disseminating various types of content, such as blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and podcasts, across different channels and platforms. It involves conducting audience research to understand their needs and interests, identifying relevant topics and themes, creating high-quality content, and distributing it through appropriate channels to maximize reach and engagement. 

A content marketing plan includes mechanisms for measuring the effectiveness of content, such as website traffic, social shares, and conversion rates, allowing businesses to refine their content strategy based on data-driven insights. By consistently delivering valuable content that resonates with their audience, businesses can establish thought leadership, build trust, and drive customer acquisition and retention.

Social Media Marketing Plan

Social media has become ubiquitous in people's daily lives, making it an indispensable platform for businesses to connect with their target audience, build brand visibility, and foster relationships. A social media marketing plan delineates the strategies and tactics for leveraging various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok to achieve marketing objectives. It involves defining target audience demographics and preferences, creating a content calendar with engaging posts, implementing paid advertising campaigns, and actively engaging with followers through comments, messages, and live sessions. 

A good marketing plan for social media incorporates performance metrics such as reach, engagement, and conversions to evaluate the effectiveness of social media efforts and make data-driven optimizations. By harnessing the power of social media, businesses can humanize their brand, drive brand loyalty, and cultivate a community of loyal advocates who amplify their message and support their business goals.

Product Launch Marketing Plan

Launching a new product or service into the market requires careful planning and execution to ensure a successful introduction and adoption by customers. A product launch marketing plan outlines the strategies and tactics for generating excitement, building anticipation, and driving sales around the new offering. It involves conducting market research to identify target customer segments and their needs, developing compelling messaging and positioning highlighting the product's unique value proposition, and creating a multi-channel marketing campaign to reach and engage the target audience. 

In addition, a product launch marketing plan includes media outreach, influencer partnerships, event marketing, and customer education to generate buzz and drive awareness. By orchestrating a coordinated marketing effort leading up to and following the product launch, businesses can maximize visibility, generate momentum, and ultimately achieve a successful market entry that lays the foundation for long-term success.

Brand Awareness Marketing Plan

Building brand awareness is essential for establishing a strong presence in the market and differentiating oneself from competitors. A brand awareness marketing plan outlines the strategies and tactics for increasing the brand's visibility, recognition, and recall among the target audience. It involves defining brand identity elements such as logos, colors, typography, and messaging that resonate with the brand's values and personality. Additionally, a brand awareness plan includes sponsorships, partnerships, public relations, and community engagement to raise awareness and generate positive associations with the brand. 

Moreover, leveraging digital channels such as social media, content marketing, and influencer collaborations can amplify brand reach and engagement with relevant audiences. By consistently reinforcing the brand message across various touchpoints and channels, businesses can foster familiarity, trust, and loyalty among consumers, driving brand preference and ultimately influencing purchase decisions.

Customer Retention Marketing Plan

While acquiring new customers is important for business growth, retaining existing customers is equally crucial for long-term success and profitability. A customer retention plan focuses on strategies and tactics for nurturing relationships with existing customers, increasing their loyalty, and encouraging repeat purchases. It involves implementing personalized communication strategies such as email marketing, loyalty programs, and customer feedback mechanisms to stay connected with customers and address their needs and concerns. 

Additionally, customer retention marketing plans include exclusive offers, special discounts, and VIP perks to incentivize repeat purchases and reward loyalty. Moreover, leveraging data analytics and customer segmentation techniques can help businesses identify valuable customers and tailor retention strategies based on their preferences and behaviors. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and loyalty, businesses can maximize lifetime customer value, reduce churn, and create advocates who continue to support the brand and refer new customers, fueling sustainable growth and success.

How to Write a Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan might feel like diving into uncharted waters for many businesses. It's exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. In this section, we've gathered some practical marketing plan tips to help you grasp the process’s ins and outs smoothly. 

Set Clear Objectives

Begin by defining your marketing objectives. What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? Whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or expanding into new markets, having clear and specific goals will guide your strategy and keep your team focused.

When setting your marketing objectives, make sure they are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This ensures your goals are realistic and actionable, providing a clear direction for your marketing efforts.

Study Your Audience

Understanding your target audience is crucial for crafting effective marketing messages and choosing the right channels to reach them. Conduct thorough market research to identify your ideal customer demographics, preferences, and pain points. This will help tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with their needs and interests.

Beyond demographic data, delve deeper into psychographic factors such as values, beliefs, and lifestyle choices. This deeper understanding will help you create more targeted and impactful marketing messages that resonate with your audience personally.

Analyze the Market and Competition

The next step in learning how to create a marketing plan is to assess the competitive landscape to identify opportunities and challenges. Analyze market trends, industry benchmarks, and competitors' strategies to gain insights that will inform your approach and help you differentiate your brand.

Look beyond direct competitors to identify emerging trends and potential disruptors in your industry. You can capitalize on opportunities and mitigate threats before they impact your business by staying ahead of the curve.

Develop Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Define what sets your product or service apart from the competition. Your unique value proposition should communicate the benefits you offer customers and why they should choose you over alternatives.

When writing a parking plan, highlight the benefits and outcomes your product or service delivers to customers. Emphasize how you solve their problems or fulfill their needs in a way competitors cannot replicate.

Choose Your Marketing Channels

Select the most appropriate marketing channels to reach your target audience based on their preferences and behavior. Whether it's social media, email marketing, content marketing, or traditional advertising, each channel has strengths and limitations, so choose wisely.

To fully comprehend how to write a marketing plan, don't spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere at once. Instead, focus on key channels where your target audience is most active and engaged. This allows you to allocate your resources more effectively and maximize your impact.

Create a Marketing Strategy

Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that outlines how you will achieve your objectives using the chosen channels and tactics. This may include defining messaging, setting budgets, planning campaigns, and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.

Take a holistic approach to your marketing strategy by integrating online and offline tactics. For example, creating marketing plans for social media advertising can combine traditional methods like direct mail to create a cohesive and multi-dimensional campaign.

Implement Your Plan

Put your marketing plan into action by executing your strategies and tactics according to the established timeline and budget. Ensure all team members are aligned and aware of their roles and responsibilities to ensure smooth execution.

Effective implementation requires clear communication, collaboration, and accountability among team members. Regular check-ins and progress updates ensure everyone stays on track and can address any challenges or roadblocks as they arise.

Measure and Adjust

Monitor the performance of your marketing efforts using relevant metrics and analytics tools. Evaluate the effectiveness of each campaign and channel against your objectives and KPIs. Based on the results, make necessary adjustments to optimize your marketing plan for better outcomes in the future. Remember, it is not set in stone; it should evolve and adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs.

Look beyond vanity metrics like website traffic or social media followers and focus on metrics directly tied to your business objectives, such as lead generation, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value. Use this data to identify what's working well and needs improvement, then adjust your strategy for continuous optimization and success. Is the workload too heavy to ensure it all by yourself? Let a seasoned economics essay writer share the burden with you!

Marketing Plan Examples

In this section, we’d like to offer you two examples of marketing plans to provide real-world insights into how theoretical concepts are applied in practice, helping bridge the gap between academic learning and practical implementation. By studying successful marketing plans from various industries, you can gain valuable knowledge about different strategies, tactics, and best practices, enabling you to develop unique strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

Learning how to write a marketing plan is invaluable for students as it equips them with essential skills and knowledge applicable across various industries and roles. It deepens your understanding of marketing principles and cultivates critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategic planning abilities. 

Moreover, the practical experience gained from creating marketing plans provides students with a competitive edge in the job market, enabling them to demonstrate their proficiency in developing actionable strategies to achieve business objectives. By honing their planning skills, students prepare themselves for success in their future careers and contribute to driving innovation and growth in the dynamic and ever-evolving marketing field. Whenever you need assistance with such tasks, feel free to ask an MBA essay writer to give you a hand.

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What Is a Marketing Plan?

How to create a marketing plan, what should a good marketing plan include, related articles.

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Marketing is an often misunderstood profession. Peers often stereotype marketing with massive budgets, loosey-goosey timelines, haphazard tactics, high-profile influencers, and Snapchat filters. In reality, modern marketing plans are more complex and orchestrated than a Premier League-winning football team.

Businesses have big goals to hit and fine margins to walk—and they need realistic, yet imaginative, marketing plans to make it happen. Sure, bigger companies can spend all willy-nilly hiring Taylor Swift for a commercial op and dropping a quarter million on Facebook advertising, but small businesses and startups have to get downright strategic with every dollar they spend.

If your business is trying to stretch every penny, you’ve come to the right place. This article will show you how to create a marketing plan in 2023 that actually works with a down-to-earth budget. We’ve included step-by-step actions, outlines, examples, and more to give you everything you need to take an idea to the market with laser precision.

Table of Contents

What is a marketing plan?

How to create a marketing plan

Marketing plan template

Marketing plan example

Marketing Plan FAQs

What is a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a documented roadmap for how you plan to drive awareness, sales, signups, attendance, or other marketing initiatives. It outlines your KPIs, budget, and timeline, dictating everything from the critical milestones to the nitty-gritty to-do items.

Marketing plans come in all shapes and sizes. You could build an overarching marketing plan to document and guide your entire department’s annual goals and strategies for the upcoming year. Or you might create a marketing plan detailing the launch strategy for the brand-new product release coming out next quarter. Big plans can even include small plans, just like an adorable collection of Russian nesting dolls.

Plans can be short, long, fat, or thin—just remember what your plan is trying to accomplish. If you’re trying to pitch an idea to a team of venture capitalists or a local bank, you might need a chunky document with accompanying spreadsheets and financial figures. However, if you’re trying to communicate the plan to your marketing team leads, you’ll want to skip straight to the point with tactics, deadlines, and deliverables.

Regardless of your use case, the next section will give you the building blocks you need to create a marketing plan that works.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

This section will show you the 7-step process to creating a marketing plan. Plans are fluid and versatile, so we don’t recommend filling out one of these with pen and paper—get your eraser ready because a marketing plan is never perfect from the get-go.

Here’s an overview of the 7-step process:

• Establish Your Marketing Goal
• Identify Your Audience and Competitors
• Set Your Marketing Budget
• Determine Your Deadline(s)
• Pick Your Marketing Channels and Tactics
• Outline the To-Do List and Make Assignments
• Track Performance and Review Analytics

Don’t worry too much about making it all nice and pretty right now. Later, you can use our provided marketing outline to copy, paste, and format a more articulated version for widespread distribution. For now, just focus on hashing out each section and answering the thought-provoking questions.

1. Establish Your Marketing Goal

Define exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to drive more sales? How much? What about recurring customers? How many? Do you need to increase brand awareness? To whom and by how much?

Work out the details of what you want to accomplish, why, and how you’re going to measure it. Establish your KPIs early on to measure the success of your marketing campaign. You’ll refer to these numbers throughout the rest of your marketing plan, so get specific.

For example, how many website visitors you’re trying to drive will affect your marketing budget, deadlines, and tactics. And if you’re targeting a specific demographic, you may need to engage different marketing teams to use the appropriate channels and messaging.

Fine-tune your marketing goal so that you can communicate it simply in a single sentence. For example: “The goal is to drive 25,000 key decision-makers to the new product page by the end of October with a limited marketing budget of $75,000.”

2. Identify Your Audience and Competitors

Explain who this campaign is targeting. If you’ve already built out your buyer personas, you’ll just plug in the persona appropriate to this campaign. However, if this is your first time thinking long and hard about your target audience, really get to know the person you’re marketing to.

Depending on your product, industry, and market, you’ll want to know demographics like:

• Marital status

These details help you identify a broad audience, but you’ll want to narrow it down with psychographics.

Psychographics dig deeper . They cover your audience’s:

• Influencers
• Shopping behaviors

Demographics explain the “who,” while psychographics explain the “why.”

Think about if you were trying to sell a baseball glove. How you market that glove is going to be very different depending on the buyer. Are your messaging and channels targeting a college athlete, recreational youngster, mom, dad, or low-income family? It’s hard to know what to say and how to say it unless you know who you’re talking to.

Don’t just gloss over this section. Without a target audience, you’ll be blindly throwing darts at a board—sure, some plans might work out, but it’ll come down less to strategy and more to sheer luck. A target audience and replicable formula make your success a science and not a game of Russian roulette.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to figure out who’s also targeted the same people. Competition research is a way to understand who you are up against for eyeballs, SEO rankings, and influence, but it also can serve as an opportunity to fill gaps in our needs that your competitors are missing.

One easy way to do this is to look at comment sections or reviews of similar companies in your industry. Look for:

• Frequent complaints about product design.
• Consistent issues with customer service.
• Ads or branding language that falls flat.
• If the competitor hasn’t made a product their customers are asking for.

By identifying your competitor’s weaknesses or gaps their missing with their customers, you’ll have a treasure trove of marketing copy to use in order to differentiate your business from the pack.

3. Set Your Marketing Budget

Marketing plans need budget constraints. Without a cap, plans could hypothetically include:

• 60-second Super Bowl commercial
• Cristiano Ronaldo as a celebrity endorser
• Billboard advertisements along the entirety of Route 66

For most startups, that’s just not a possibility.

And it’s not where the magic happens. Powerful marketing plans turn tiny marketing budgets into impressive ROI. They prioritize the right channels, messaging, and tactics to stretch every dollar to the max.

Decide beforehand how much budget you’ll need to allocate to meet the goals you set in Step 1. When push comes to shove, you may need to throw additional money at the campaign later to get it across the finish line, but stay strong and do your best to create a marketing plan that works with the budget constraints.

Tight on budget but full on creativity? Check out our Small Business Marketing Guide: From Scratch to Success .

4. Determine Your Deadline(s)

Deadlines create the boundaries to your marketing campaign—you can’t have a plan without them. No deadlines mean there’s a never-ending period to achieve your objective, and it’s probably not a good idea to have a 20-year free pass to accomplish that sales goal you set.

Set your deadline. Be realistic, but also be ambitious. The faster you achieve this goal, the faster you can move on to the next one—and each progressive goal should be moving your business forward.

Establish the final deadline for achieving your primary KPI. Then, set the necessary milestones along the journey. For example, you might set milestones for launching different aspects of your campaign, such as hosting 4 webinars, publishing 10 supporting blog posts, or earning a callout in 2 prime news outlets.

Finally, set the start date for when you’ll need to get the ball rolling to meet your deadlines. Don’t assume it’s ASAP—you might have a few weeks to get your ducks in a row instead of immediately heading off into a chaotic marketing battle.

5. Pick Your Marketing Channels and Tactics

This is arguably the funnest part of creating a marketing plan. This is the step where you get to choose the channels, tactics, and deliverables. The right channels and tactics will vary depending on your audience and product or service, but here are the most popular ones to consider:

• Email Marketing: Email marketing is one of the tried-and-true tactics of the digital marketing world. It generates an average ROI of $40 for every $1 invested —you can’t get much more bang for your buck than that. (Check out our complete email masterclass to learn how to conquer this lucrative channel.)
• Social Media Marketing: Whether you’re running organic strategies or targeted paid campaigns , social media marketing is an excellent modern-day tactic for reaching consumers where they’re most comfortable: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, or TikTok.
• PPC Marketing: Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing lets you run advertising campaigns on search engine pages and other websites across the internet. It’s a competitive way to get your content in front of the right eyeballs.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing paired with a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is a long-term tactic that can drive organic traffic (read: free) to your website for years to come.

And do you know what all these channels have in common? They each give you the ability to monitor your results and track your progress to prove if a channel is worth your time and money. Unlike traditional outbound advertising and its estimated impressions and influence, you know exactly what you’re getting with these digital marketing strategies.

6. Outline the To-Do List and Make Assignments

Here’s where you get into the nitty-gritty of your marketing plan. Step 6 is where you’ll outline everything that needs to get done:

• Launch meeting
• Recurring meetings and syncs
• Creative assets
• Promotional channels
• Post-mortems

And that’s just the start. Outline everything that needs to happen to make your plan a reality. Once you know what needs to happen, it’s time to start making assignments. Someone needs to be responsible for every deliverable.

Here’s where you may run into roadblocks. You may discover that your creative team is overwhelmed and won’t be able to handle the creative requests until later, or you may find that other email campaigns or social media advertisements are the top priority.

If that’s the case, go back to Step 4 to revisit your timeline. Make adjustments to ensure there’s bandwidth available to make your marketing plan a reality.

7. Track Performance and Review Analytics

No marketing plan will go off without a hitch. That’s why you need your ear to the ground to understand what’s working. Through analytic tools, you can understand if your marketing plan’s target audience, messaging, or creative needs adjusting. Thankfully, most digital tactics allow you to do this on the fly.

Make sure you familiarize yourself with these basic marketing analytics tools:

• Facebook Ads Manager
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Semrush or Ahrefs for SEO

For more on analytics, read our marketing metrics guide .

Marketing Plan Template (Copy/Paste)

Marketing Plan Template: [Name of Project]

Marketing Plan Example (Filled Out)

Here’s a fake content marketing plan example for a fictitious shoe company.

Marketing Plan Template: [Project Zeus Running Collection]

Marketing Goal Drive $200,000 in sales for the new Zeus running collection within the first 4 months of launch day.

Target Audience The primary audience is 35 to 50-year-old male recreational runners who tend to run 30-40 miles a week at an average page of 8:00-10:00 minutes per mile. They’re not overly competitive, but they like to race 5K and 10K races occasionally throughout the year and are always trying to beat their personal best. Many have experienced mild injuries over the last few years that the Zeus Running Collection can help alleviate.

Marketing Budget We have a budget of $40,000 for the initial launch period. If we can prove out the Zeus Running Collection, we’ll allocate additional budget after the first 4 months.

• Launch Day: June 1
• Marketing Assets Ready to Go: May 28
• Pre-Launch Teaser: May 24
• Creative Assets Finished: May 21
• Product Beta Tester Reviews Submitted: May 10
• Written Content Creation Period: April 12 – May 7
• Enlist Beta Testers: April 12
• Project Kickoff Meeting: April 5

Marketing Tactics

• Social Media Marketing: Target runners on Instagram and Facebook with paid ads featuring our endorsed runner racing in the shoe.
• Email Marketing: Email existing customers with a 15% off discount code on the new Zeus Running Collection. Email prospects with a link to the product breakdown page with a code for free shipping.

Responsibilities and Assignments

• Lizzy K: Creative assets
• Mark B: Blog post announcement + product page
• Spencer S: Beta tester outreach
• Larry G: Email and social media marketing campaigns
• Carly M: Project manager

Do I need to write a marketing plan for everything?

As stated earlier, marketing plans can come in all shapes and sizes. But that doesn't mean you need one for every single Facebook ad or whitepaper your team creates. The best marketing plans serve as a source of truth for your team to reach a goal. Within the marketing plan, you should have enough wiggle room to adjust your strategy and tactics. Marketing is an art and science, so there are bound to be surprises once you start executing your plan.

How do I know if my marketing plan is a success?

One of the most common mistakes marketers make is creating a seemingly perfect marketing plan and then going off script as soon as there's a sign of trouble or distraction. Using the SMART goal method (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound) is a simple way to ensure your marketing plan is applicable. Every marketing plan should be a success, whether you hit your goal or not, because you'll learn something new about your customer, tactics, and business throughout the process.

Who should make a marketing plan?

If you're reading this article, ideally you. A marketing manager or marketing team member typically writes marketing plans, but marketing strategy should start at an enterprise level. The more people understand the marketing plan for your business, the more you can work together (not in silos) to achieve a common goal. You'll see this happen in larger organizations where the marketing team works plan that the product or sales team have no idea about.

Plan It Out—Make It Happen

Every great campaign starts with an even better plan. Don’t leave your startup’s success up to chance—give it all the thought and attention you can.

With the right plan in place, you won’t be crossing your fingers on launch day or during the quarterly review. You’ll be sitting confidently, knowing that everything is running according to plan.

Need a high-level plan for your startup? We got you covered with our free content marketing training .

About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

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Write a marketing plan

Marketing is a key part of business success. You need to decide which customers to target. You need to work out how you will reach and win new customers. You need to make sure that you keep existing customers happy. And you need to keep reviewing and improving everything you do to stay ahead of the competition.

Your marketing plan should be the reference document you use as a basis to execute your marketing strategy. It sets out clear objectives and explains how you will achieve them. Perhaps most importantly it looks at how you can ensure that your plan becomes reality.

Remember that marketing in itself will not guarantee sales, but by adopting a well-researched and coherent plan, you have a much better chance of building long-term, profitable relationships.

This guide outlines the key areas to look at and what to include in an effective marketing plan.

Marketing plan summary and introduction

External and internal analysis for your marketing plan, your marketing objectives, marketing strategy for your marketing plan, plan your marketing tactics, implementation of your marketing plan, tips for writing a marketing plan.

Your marketing plan should start with an executive summary. The summary gives a quick overview of the main points of the plan.

Although the executive summary appears at the beginning of the plan, you should write it last. Writing the summary is a good opportunity to check that your plan makes sense and that you haven't missed any important points.

Business strategy

It's a good idea to introduce the main body of the plan with a reminder of your overall business strategy, including:

• what your business is about (your business mission)
• your key business objectives
• your broad strategy for achieving those objectives

This helps to ensure that your marketing plan, your marketing strategy and your overall business strategy all work together. For example, suppose your business strategy is based on providing premium quality products and service. Your marketing strategy and plan will need to take this into account, targeting customers who appreciate quality, promoting your product in ways that help build the right image and so on.

Understanding the environment your business operates in is a key part of planning and will allow you to discern the threats and opportunities associated with your area of business. A STEEPLE analysis helps you to identify the main opportunities and threats in your market:

• S ocial factors such as changing attitudes and lifestyles, and the ageing population
• T echnological factors such as new materials and growing use of the Internet
• E conomic factors such as interest rates, exchange rates and consumer confidence
• E nvironmental factors such as changing expectations of customers, regulators and employees on sustainable development
• P olitical factors such as changes to taxation, trading relationships or grant support for businesses
• L egal factors such as changes to employment law, or to the way your sector is regulated
• E thical factors such as ethical and moral standards governing policies and practices

You also need to understand your own internal strengths and weaknesses . For example, the main strengths of a new business might be an original product and enthusiastic employees. The main weaknesses might be the lack of an existing customer base and limited financial resources.

A SWOT analysis combines the external and internal analysis to summarise your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You need to look for opportunities that play to your strengths. You also need to decide what to do about threats to your business and how you can overcome important weaknesses.

For example, your SWOT analysis might help you identify the most promising customers to target. You might decide to look at ways of using the Internet to reach customers. And you might start to investigate ways of raising additional investment to overcome your financial weakness.

You can find out more about strategic analysis in our guide on how to review your business performance .

Your marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy.

For example, suppose your business objectives include increasing sales by 10 per cent over the next year. Your marketing objectives might include targeting a promising new market segment to help achieve this growth.

For more information on how to identify the best opportunities, see the page in this guide on external and internal analysis for your marketing plan.

Objectives should always be SMART :

• Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers.
• Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan.
• Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money.
• Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable.
• Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months.

Your marketing plan is how you put your marketing strategy into practice. It should therefore be a practical reflection of your strategy.

If you understand the market well, you can probably break it down into different segments - groups of similar customers. For example, you can break the business market down into businesses of the same sector and of a similar size.

For each segment, you need to look at what customers want, what you can offer and what the competition is like. You want to identify segments where you have a competitive advantage. At the same time, you should assess whether you can expect high enough sales to make the segment worthwhile.

Often, the most promising segments are those where you have existing customers. See what you can do to expand sales to these customers. If you are targeting new customers, you need to be sure that you have the resources to reach them effectively.

Once you have decided what your target market is, you also need to decide how you will position yourself in it. For example, you might offer a high quality product at a premium price or a flexible local service. Some businesses try to build a strong brand and image to help them stand out. Whatever your strategy, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition to encourage customers to choose your business first.

Once you have decided what your marketing objectives are, and your strategy for meeting them, you need to plan how you will make the strategy a reality.

Many businesses find it helpful to think in terms of the four Ps :

• Product - what your product offers that your customers value, and whether/how you should change your product to meet customer needs.
• Pricing - for example, you might aim simply to match the competition, or charge a premium price for a quality product and service. You might have to choose either to make relatively few high margin sales, or sell more but with lower unit profits. Remember that some customers may seek a low price to meet their budgets, while others may view a low price as an indication of quality levels.
• Place - how and where you sell. This may include using different distribution channels. For example, you might sell over the Internet or sell through retailers.
• Promotion - how you reach your customers and potential customers. For example, you might use advertising, PR, direct mail and personal selling.

For a more comprehensive approach, you can extend this to seven Ps :

• People - for example, you need to ensure that your employees have the right training.
• Processes - the right processes will ensure that you offer a consistent service that suits your customers.
• Physical evidence - the appearance of your employees and premises can affect how customers see your business. Even the quality of paperwork, such as invoices, makes a difference.

Your marketing plan must do more than just say what you want to happen. It must describe each step required to make sure that it happens.

The plan should therefore include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.

It should also assess what resources you need. For example, you might need to think about what brochures you need, and whether they need to be available for digital distribution (by email or from your website). You might also need to look at how much time it takes to sell to customers and whether you have enough salespeople.

The cost of everything in the plan needs to be included in a budget. If your finances are limited, your plan will need to take that into account. Don't spread your marketing activities too thinly - it is better to pick a handful and make the most of them. You may also want to link your marketing budget to your sales forecast.

As well as setting out the schedule, the plan needs to say how it will be controlled. You need an individual who takes responsibility for pushing things along. A good schedule and budget should make it easy to monitor progress. When things fall behind schedule, or costs overrun, you need to be ready to do something about it and to adapt your plan accordingly.

From time to time, you need to stand back and ask whether the plan is working. What can you learn from your mistakes? How can you use what you know to make a better plan for the future?

It is important for a marketing plan to:

• set clear, realistic and measurable targets - for example, increasing sales by 10 per cent
• include deadlines for meeting targets
• provide a budget for each marketing activity
• specify who is responsible for each activity

Make sure you think through each of your objectives logically. For example, you might set a target for the number of new enquiries. But if you don't provide the resources and training to turn these enquiries into sales, you will have increased costs without any benefits.

Link to your strategy

Assess the business environment to identify the opportunities and threats that you face. Look for where you can capitalise on your strengths or where you need to overcome a weakness.

All parts of your business must work together. For example, if you have limited cash flow you should avoid seeking large orders from customers who demand extended credit or that will involve you in heavy, up-front costs.

Remember to focus on your long-term strategy. Reducing customer service might boost short-term profits, but next year you might not have any customers left.

Make it happen

A plan will not happen by itself. You need to make someone responsible for monitoring progress and chasing up overdue activities. Reviewing progress will also help you learn from your mistakes so that you can improve your plans for the future.

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How to Write a Marketing Plan

From ads on TV and YouTube, to billboards, to product placement, and so much more, we are surrounded by marketing. Marketing has rapidly developed over the past few decades to the point where it has now become one of the most important elements of doing business. With so much competition and so many different styles of marketing, it's not just enough to understand the benefits of your product or service, understanding the people you want to sell to and finding the right ways of reaching them is critical. 

In this article, you will learn how to build a marketing plan including all the marketing plan steps,  some bonus tips, a marketing plan outline, and an in-depth look into the various sections.            

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan definition could be a well-researched and comprehensive document that analyzes the market, identifies opportunities, presents a marketing strategy, and outlines the execution for a product or service. A marketing plan is crucial, especially in today's world where specific objectives must be met. A good marketing plan does the following:

• Identifies the correct target market or target population
• Sets goals and measurable objectives for specific marketing strategies
• Improves market share by converting new customers and retaining current ones
• Clarifies your specific marketing strategies
• Presents a marketing budget 

Struggling with the Marketing Plan?

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How to create a marketing plan

Marketing plans can differ based on the industry, specific requirements of the products or services, a focus on traditional or digital marketing, duration of Implementation of the marketing plan, etc. But when creating a marketing plan, you can always follow this general marketing plan template. 

Step 1. How to write an executive summary for a marketing plan

An executive summary is a brief paragraph at the beginning of your marketing plan that outlines the key elements of the plan overall. This includes your target market, the main goals of the marketing plan, as well as a quick description of the marketing strategy. While an executive summary is usually the first thing in a marketing plan, it is beneficial to write the executive summary after you have written the plan in full so that you can correctly identify the main elements of it. 

Step 2. Carry out market research

Market research is essential to understand the opportunities that you want to take advantage of.  There are a few types of market research; primary market research and secondary market research. Primary market research is things like focus groups, interviews, and surveys.  Secondary market research is information gathered from sources like articles, journals, and other qualitative research that gives an insight into consumer behavior or the market itself. Qualitative research is more useful for understanding consumer behavior through things like interviews, whereas quantitative research uses data and numbers, things like response rates, social media engagement numbers, etc. Good market research is essential because it helps devise the right marketing strategy for a specific target audience. 

Step 3. Define your market and customer profiles

Your market research should help you identify the specific type of market and customers you want to target. When defining your market think about the following things:

• What are the social factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? This can include things like changing attitudes regarding the environment, social media trends to take advantage of, etc. 
• What are the technological factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? Are there advances in technology that you want to take advantage of? 
• What are the economic factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? Are there changes in interest rates, inflation, monetary supply, etc?
• What are the environmental factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? How are changes in consumer expectations about the environment and policy changes within the government important?
• What are the political factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? This can include things like subsidies, new government regulations, etc.
• What are the legal factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? This can include things like changes in employment laws, unions, and subsidies. 
• What are the ethical factors that are pertinent to your marketing plan? This can include things like changing ethical standards and corporate social responsibility. 

When thinking about how to make a marketing plan, defining your target audience is vital. So think about the following things about the audience:

• What ages are you targeting?
• How much disposable income do they have?
• What is their level of education?
• What is their marital status?
• What are their interests and hobbies?
• How much money do they spend doing a specific activity?

Step 4. Conduct a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the industry. A SWOT analysis can help you understand what your unique advantages are as well as identify potential dangers so that you can devise strategies to overcome them making it one of the best marketing plan ideas to incorporate.

Strengths refer to the unique advantages that your product or service offers. This can be due to a variety of reasons like access to certain materials, advanced manufacturing capabilities, or emphasis on human resources and training, etc. By identifying your USP (unique selling proposition) you can understand what to focus on in your marketing strategy.

Weaknesses refer to the inherent disadvantages of your product, service, or company. Nothing is perfect, and being honest about your weaknesses allows you to devise strategies to minimize or overcome them. Tip - Trying to see things from the perspective of competitors or customers is helpful in identifying weaknesses.

In a marketing plan, opportunities are the possibilities that you want to take advantage of. This is based on market research and identifying new potential markets and audiences. Changes in regulations, market expectations, consumer behavior, etc. can all present opportunities that your product or service is uniquely positioned to take advantage of.

Identifying threats is important because it allows you to plan how to tackle them. The same things that can be opportunities can also be threats like changes in laws and regulations,  improving technological standards, changes in the supply chain, etc. If you are better prepared to handle potential threats than your competitors then you have an excellent strategic marketing plan. 

Step 5. Study the competition

Understanding what the competition is doing, what works well for them, and what doesn't work is a key part of market planning. After all, these competitors have similar products or services and face similar challenges to you. Here are some of the things you should look into when you study the competition:

• How is their product or service different from yours?
• Do they target a slightly different consumer profile?
• How do they position themselves in the market?
• What are the sales strategies that work for them?
• What are the marketing strategies that work for them?

Step 6. Set your goals and objectives

A marketing plan has to clearly set goals and objectives otherwise there is no concrete way of tracking whether the plan is effective and needs to adapt or not. A commonly used framework for setting goals and objectives is SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals.  

Specific means having a concrete goal such as improving sales by 10%

Measurable means that there has to be some way of tracking the effectiveness of the marketing strategy

Achievable means that a goal should be able to be realized with the resources at hand

Realistic means that a goal should not be so high that it demotivates people

Time-bound means that there must be a time by which results can be expected

It is also useful to think about KPIs (key performance indicators) when thinking about how to write a marketing plan. These are measurable values that can be used to set goals and objectives. Some important KPIs are. 

• Click-through rate
• Cost per lead
• Retention rates
• Sales revenue 
• New customers 
• Organic site traffic 
• Number of press mentions 

Step 7. Outline your marketing strategy plan

Based on all the research you have done, what are the strategies you think will impact the target audience in a way that will help you achieve your goals? When coming up with a marketing strategy you have to show an understanding of both the market, your product or service, as well as the target audience. Marketing strategies can be influenced by several factors, so think about as many of them as possible. For example, it may be true that young people interact more with social media, but there may be specific social media channels that are watched by stay-at-home mothers that are worth looking into. Keep in mind that every decision you make when coming up with a marketing strategy needs to be defended by your market research.  

Step 8. Set your marketing budget

A marketing budget is a key part of the marketing plan. You will have to justify any expenses that you make by stating exactly how they will impact your target audience. Even a marketing strategy that relies heavily on free avenues like word of mouth and organic growth may have some hidden costs. A tight marketing budget may look good but It is essential to budget enough money for specific activities. A marketing budget may change and evolve over time based on how effective different strategies are, so don't be afraid to clearly state your requirements.

Step 9. Keep your marketing plan up-to-date

You can include a brief conclusion at the end of your marketing plan that states the key factors,  but it isn't always necessary because it is essentially the same as the executive summary. One thing to keep in mind though is that a marketing plan is just a guide and not something that is set in stone. As you implement your plans you may discover new information that will require adaptation. It is also important to revisit your marketing plan regularly to both check that you are achieving targets as well as updating it based on new opportunities and threats.

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Tips for writing a marketing plan

If you follow the steps above you'll end up with a working marketing plan but here are some bonus tips on how to develop a marketing plan.

Set clear, realistic, and measurable targets

Clear targets leave no room for discussion, they are easily understood, and the path to achieving them is clear. 

Realistic targets challenge a company and motivate people to work hard, easy targets aren’t good for competition, and over-ambitious targets can lead to demotivation.  

Measurable targets are important because there needs to be a way to see the benefits of a marketing plan.  

All of these together are useful in showing the progress of a marketing strategy as well as defending the cost of a strategy.

Include deadlines for meeting targets

Each and every target should have a specific deadline to keep people on track. This doesn't just refer to KPIs but for each activity beforehand as well. For example, set deadlines for things as specific as to when a new logo should be done, when budgets are due, and when social media content needs to be designed, received, uploaded.

Provide a budget for each marketing activity

It’s often the case that not every marketing activity in a marketing plan will receive the go-ahead from higher-ups in a company. By providing a budget for each specific marketing activity, you make it easier for them to pick and choose which marketing activities to pursue rather than them canceling the entire marketing plan.

Specify who is responsible for each activity

When thinking of how to create a marketing plan, make a specific person responsible for each activity. This makes it so that people are accountable for specific tasks and there is a lower chance of miscommunication in the future.

Make sure you think through each of your objectives logically

It may be nice to set objectives based on what you would like to achieve, but each objective needs to be logical as well as realistic. Think through each objective and pretend to defend it against somebody who is questioning the objective. This is essentially what will happen when you present a marketing plan to your company.  

Whether you are looking for answers on how to write a digital marketing plan, how to write a marketing plan example, or how to write a strategic marketing plan, this article should have given you all the information you need to make a strategic market plan of any sort. As long as you remember the key components of a marketing plan and defend your conclusions with logic and research, you will be alright.

A marketing plan can be a relatively simple document or can be incredibly complicated, so if you need any help, then don't hesitate to reach out to the experts at Studyfy. They offer a range of academic writing services, including sociology essay writing service , argumentative essay writing service , write my narrative essay , and pay for an essay .

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How to Write a Marketing Plan

By Joe Weller | March 28, 2024

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A  marketing plan is a guide for achieving marketing initiatives on a set timeline. It includes analysis of a company's target audience, competitors, and market sector. Teams can build an organized strategy with that information to reach their goals.  

Inside this article you’ll find a detailed, step-by-step guide to writing a marketing plan, with a free, downloadable  marketing starter kit for beginners .

A  marketing plan includes analysis of the target audience, the competitors, and the market so that teams can determine the best strategy for achieving their goals. The plan’s length and detail depend on the company's size and the scope of the marketing project. A marketing plan is useful for all types of marketing, including digital, social media, new product, small business, B2C, and B2B. Follow the steps below to write a comprehensive marketing plan. 

1. Prepare for Success 

Before you begin writing your marketing plan, set yourself up for success by conducting thorough market research and assembling a team with diverse skills in marketing strategy, content creation, digital marketing, and data analysis. Be sure to consult all your team members as you progress through these steps. It might also be helpful to assign leaders to complete different sections of the plan, depending on their areas of expertise. For example, you might assign the market analysis section to a team member with strong analytical skills and experience in data analysis.  

2. Use a Marketing Plan Template

Download a free marketing plan template to ensure consistency and thoroughness in your final marketing plan.

For more template options, see this collection of  free marketing plan templates and examples.   

3. Identify Your Target Customers

To identify target customers for your marketing plan, collect information about their location, demographics (such as age, gender, and income), interests, values, and purchasing behaviors. This knowledge enables you to focus your marketing goals and tactics to meet their specific needs and preferences.

A  customer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer that provides valuable insights for strategic decision-making. Use one of these  customer persona templates  to craft a detailed profile of your ideal customer.   

4. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is an important part of any marketing plan, because it helps identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to the market environment. To start, divide a page into four quadrants and label each as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, brainstorm with your team to fill in each section. Be as honest and specific as possible, considering factors such as market trends, competition, and your own resources and capabilities. This information will allow the team to capitalize on strengths, prepare for challenges, and make sound strategic decisions throughout the marketing plan. 

See this collection of  marketing plan SWOT analysis templates  for additional guidance.   

5. Conduct a Market Analysis 

A  market analysis is an assessment of a market's size, growth, trends, customer segments, and competitor dynamics. Include it in your marketing plan to provide critical insights for strategic decision-making, helping to tailor products to customer needs, differentiate from competitors, and identify new opportunities. 

To conduct a market analysis for your marketing plan, determine each of the following factors:    

• Market Size: This is the total potential sales that a particular product or service can achieve within a defined market. Determine the market size by estimating the number of potential buyers for a particular service and multiplying that by the estimated number of purchases over a specific timeframe. (Number of Target Customers) x (Number of Purchases in a Given Time) = Market Size Imagine your company sells wireless headphones, and you estimate that the average consumer purchases a new pair every two years. If your market includes 1 million target customers, and assuming each customer buys one pair of headphones every two years, the calculation for annual market size would be as follows: (1 million target customers) x (0.5 purchases per year) = 500,000 pairs of wireless headphones per year   
• Market Growth Rate:  This measures the change in a market’s size over a specific time period and is typically expressed as a percentage. To determine the market growth rate, use the following formula: [(Current Market Size − Previous Market Size​) ÷ Previous Market Size] × 100% = Growth Rate For example, if the market for wireless headphones was worth $1 billion last year and is worth $1.1 billion this year, the market growth rate would be as follows: [($1.1 Billion – $1 Billion) ÷  $1 Billion] x 100% = 10%  

Market Share:  This is the percentage of total sales in an industry generated by a particular company over a period of time. It provides a benchmark for assessing performance relative to competitors. Use this formula for calculating market share: (Company’s Revenue ÷ Total Industry Revenue) x 100% = Market Share  

Tip:  Keep in mind that the market size, share, and growth rate are all estimates. It’s impossible to be exact. To obtain the most accurate numbers, review the latest industry reports and seek insight from experts.  

• Market Demand:  This is the amount of a product or service a consumer is willing to purchase and how much they are willing to pay for it. To determine market demand in a market analysis, begin by conducting comprehensive research on consumer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns related to your product or service. Use tools such as surveys, SEO analytics, and interviews to gather data on potential customer interest and willingness to pay, and analyze competitor pricing and offerings.  
• Market Trends:  This is the growth or decline direction of a product or service’s price over a specific timeframe. To identify a market trend, monitor industry developments, consumer behavior, and technological advancements over time. Review industry reports and expert analyses to understand broader market movements and future projections. Summarize these observations and include them in your plan to highlight the direction in which the market is heading.        

Market Segments:  The broader market includes specific groups, categorized by shared characteristics. Generally, there are four types of market segments: geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. In your marketing plan, detail how you'll target each segment by adapting your strategies to their unique characteristics. This targeted approach ensures more effective engagement with each segment.   

• Competitor Analysis:  A competitor analysis involves examining your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, market positioning, product offerings, and marketing strategies. Describe how you'll conduct a comprehensive evaluation of key competitors by analyzing their market share, pricing, distribution channels, and promotional tactics. For more guidance, try downloading this competitor analysis template. Use it to identify areas where your rivals succeed and why. Their strengths indicate areas for improvement, while their weaknesses indicate opportunities.  

6. List Your SMART Goals 

Include SMART goals in your marketing plan to ensure that objectives are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound, providing a clear direction for strategic actions and performance evaluation. Start by identifying key performance areas that align with your overall business strategy. Then, for each goal, apply the SMART framework. 

Here are two examples of SMART marketing goals:   

• By Q4 end, increase search results page (SERP) position from 14th to the top three for keywords pertaining to our brand and lead to more organic traffic. 
• Increase social media following, reach, and engagement by 25 percent in six months and 50 percent in one year.

Learn more about SMART goals and find a customizable SMART goals worksheet  in this comprehensive  guide to writing SMART goals . 

7. Create a Marketing Strategy

A  marketing strategy is the plan for achieving your SMART goals.   

“A marketing plan should include strategic and tactical elements,” says Gayle Kalvert, Founder and CEO at  Creo Collective , a full-service marketing agency. “From a strategic standpoint, it is critical that the marketing plan aligns to the overall goals of the organization. Tactically, what initiatives will the marketing team execute, and why? Tactics with no strategy lead to spotty results and poor-quality leads.”

Use one of these  marketing strategy templates to get started. A successful marketing strategy will include the following elements: 

7a. Customer Buying Cycle

The  customer buying cycle is the path a potential customer follows from first having exposure to a product or service to becoming an advocate for it. Understanding this process allows marketers to effectively target communications and strategies at each stage in their marketing plan. 

Pro Tip: “Consider your persona’s buyer's journey and ensure marketing has a role at each stage of the journey, especially after the close,” says Kalvert. “That is when customers can become advocates, sources of referral, and great subjects for marketing content for future buyers.”

7b. Unique Selling Proposition

A  unique selling proposition (USP) is a specific benefit or advantage that sets your product or service apart from the competitors. By including a USP in a marketing plan, you help ensure that the team communicates why customers should choose your offering over others. 

For example, Google’s USP is its powerful and accurate search algorithm that delivers relevant search results faster and more efficiently than its competitors.

7c. Branding 

Branding is the development of a unique identity, image, and experience for a company. Marketers convey a brand through messaging, tone, logo, colors, and web design. The marketing strategy needs to align with the company’s brand in order to maintain consistency in messaging and experience, which ultimately builds customer trust.

7d. Marketing Mix A marketing mix refers to the set of actions that a company takes to promote its brand or product in the market, typically encapsulated by the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Go through each of these steps when including the marketing mix in your strategy:  

• Product: Describe the product and the problem it solves for your target customers. What makes your product or service different from the competition? Why is it special? 
• Price: Explain how much your target customer is willing to pay for the product or service based on its real and perceived value. What do your competitors charge for a similar product? Will you run any seasonal promotions or discounts? 
• Place:  Describe where your product or service will be available for purchase by your target customers. Will you sell it online, through retail partners, or both? How will you manage logistics and supply chain to ensure your product is accessible to your target market?
• Promotion:  Detail the strategies you will use to communicate your product’s value to consumers. This includes advertising, public relations, social media marketing, email campaigns, sales promotions, and direct marketing tactics.    

7e. Channels 

Identify the specific mediums and platforms — or  channels — where you’ll share your message to your target audience. These should include distribution channels, communication channels, and engagement channels. 

As you list them, explain how they will be used to effectively reach and engage with your target audience. For example, if you’re marketing a new fitness app, one distribution channel would be a direct download from the App Store to reach fitness enthusiasts directly on their smartphones. An engagement channel could be an in-app community feature for users where they can share progress.

Here is a brief list of popular marketing channels:  

• Affiliate marketing
• Email marketing
• Social media
• Website marketing

7f. Tactics Tactics are the specific actions you will take to reach the goals outlined in your strategy. They cover everything from the creation and distribution of marketing materials to the scheduling of campaigns to the platforms used for advertising and engagement.  Detail the specific actions and tools you will use to execute your marketing strategy, along with timelines, responsibilities, and budget allocations for each activity. This includes specifying the exact steps for product promotion, customer engagement, content creation, digital marketing efforts, and any other methods chosen to reach and convert your target audience. “Equally as important as using data is to build in time and resources to be flexible,” says Kalvert. “The marketing landscape is evolving at such a rapid pace. Tactics that worked last year may not work this year. Be open to experimenting with new tactics and adjusting your approach based on feedback and results.”

8. Determine the Budget 

Start by estimating the costs associated with each tactic and channel outlined in your strategy, taking into account factors such as content creation, platform fees, and personnel costs. Next, prioritize spending based on the expected ROI for each tactic. Finally, document the budget in a clear, detailed format within your marketing plan, including an itemized list of costs for each tactic, total expenditure, and a contingency fund.

For more resources and help estimating marketing project costs, take a look at this collection of helpful free  marketing plan budget templates . 

9. Create a Calendar

Create a calendar to schedule and track deliverables. Include time for brainstorming, planning, executing, and analyzing results. List objectives, start dates, end dates, due dates, and responsible parties. Keep the calendar in a central location so that team members can easily access it.

10. List Marketing Tools and Technology

List any marketing tools or technologies your team will use to help achieve their goals. These can include email marketing software, blogging software, social media management software, or any other programs you plan to use.

11. Identify Metrics and KPIs

Identify the metrics for measuring and tracking your marketing goals. Metrics and KPIs eliminate ambiguity so that you can accurately measure progress. Select indicators that directly reflect the success of your marketing objectives, such as conversion rates, website traffic, lead generation, and customer acquisition costs.

12. Write an Executive Summary

Once you’ve completed all the sections in your marketing plan document, return to the first section to write the executive summary. Completing this section last ensures that you have a thorough understanding of all key elements before summarizing them. 

Concisely highlight the main objectives, target market, and key strategies of the plan, providing a snapshot of the market analysis and expected outcomes. Outline the budget, resources required, and the metrics for measuring success. This section serves as a compelling overview, enticing stakeholders to delve into the plan.

For more detailed information on executive summaries, see this guide to  writing an effective executive summary. You can also download a helpful template from this collection of  free executive summary templates

Marketing Starter Kit for Beginners

Download Marketing Starter Kit for Beginners

Get everything you need for creating a marketing plan with this free, downloadable marketing plan starter kit. The kit includes an executive summary template, a customer persona worksheet, a SWOT analysis template, a competitor analysis template, a SMART goals worksheet, a marketing strategy template, and a calendar template with a budget tracker, all in one easy-to-download file.

In this kit, you’ll find the following:  

• An executive summary template for Microsoft Word to help you introduce the content of your marketing plan.    
• A customer persona worksheet for Microsoft Word to collect information about your ideal customer.  
• A SWOT analysis template for Microsoft Word to guide strategic decision-making based on the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 
• A competitor analysis template for Microsoft Word to help you compare and evaluate your competitors. 
• A SMART goals worksheet for Microsoft Word to ensure each marketing objective follows SMART guidelines. 
• A marketing strategy template for Microsoft Word to outline the plan for achieving your goals. 
• A calendar template with budget tracker for Excel where you can organize, track, and manage marketing deliverables and their costs. 
• A marketing plan template for Microsoft Word to ensure consistency and thoroughness in your final marketing plan.

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How to Write a Marketing Plan Tutorial – Part 1

The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well-written report that many inside and possibly outside an organization will evaluate. In many respects, the Marketing Plan is the most important document produced by marketers as it not only helps to justify what has occurred in the past, but is critical for explaining where an organization intends to go in the future. Consequently, understanding how to write a Marketing Plan is a key skill required of many marketers.

About the Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan is widely used by both large large corporate marketing departments and also by small startup companies. Learning how to write a Marketing Plan is particularly important for marketers who seek funding for new projects or to expand existing products or services.

Essentially the Marketing Plan does the following:

• It forces marketing personnel to look internally in order to fully understand the results of past marketing decisions.
• It forces marketing personnel to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which they operate.
• It sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone within the organization should understand and support.
• It is a key component in efforts to obtain funding to pursue new initiatives.

The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons:

• Needed as part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area.
• Needed for a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem.
• Is a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal directed at the financial community.

There are many ways to develop and format a Marketing Plan. The approach taken here is to present a plan divided into 6 sections. These sections are presented over two tutorials: How to Write a Marketing Plan – Part 1 and How to Write a Marketing Plan – Part 2. Coverage in these tutorials includes:

• Section 1: Purpose and Mission (covered in Part 1)
• Section 2: Situational Analysis (covered Part 1)
• Section 3: Marketing Strategy and Objectives (covered in Part 1)
• Section 4: Tactical Programs (covered in Part 2)
• Section 5: Budgets, Performance Analysis and Implementation (covered in Part 2)
• Section 6: Additional Consideration (covered in Part 2)

This plan is primarily addresses planning for individual products and product lines. However, the information in this tutorial can be adapted fairly easily for use for broader planning needs, such as planning for a strategic business units (SBU) that may have many products.

The page length suggested for each section represents a single-spaced typed format for a printed plan (or digital PDF format) and for a single product. Obviously, for a Marketing Plan that discusses multi-products the overall length will be somewhat longer.

It is assumed that anyone developing a Marketing Plan possesses a working understanding of marketing principles. If you do not, it is suggested you spend considerable time learning about basic marketing. For example, you can learn the key marketing principles in our KnowThis: Marketing Basics book.

Note: Throughout the plan the word “product” is used. However, the information presented in the Marketing Plan tutorials applies to both products and services.

Section 1: Purpose and Mission

Section 1 of the plan is designed to provide the reader with the necessary information to fully understand the purpose of the Marketing Plan. This section also includes organizational background information, which may be particularly important if the audience for the plan is not familiar with the company, such as potential financial backers.

This section of the plan contains two key components:

Purpose of the Marketing Plan

Organization mission statement.

Some of the information, in particular the mission statement, may require the input of upper-management. The information in this part will prove useful later in the plan as a point of reference for material that will be introduced (e.g., may help explain pricing decisions). In cases in which there are separately operated divisions or SBU, there may also be mission statements for each.

The main body of the Marketing Plan often starts with a brief discussion of the purpose of the marketing plan and why the plan is being developed. The tasks associated with this section are to (Length: 1 paragraph):

1. Offer a Brief Explanation For Why This Plan Was Produced

• e.g., introduce new product, enter new markets, continue growth of existing product, yearly review and planning document, etc.

2. Suggest What May Be Done With the Information Contained in the Plan

• e.g., set targets to be achieved in the next year, represents a departmental report to be included in larger business or strategic plan, etc.

Note: For larger firms this may already exist in a public way (e.g., found in annual report, found on corporate website) but for many others this may need to be formulated.

The organization mission statement consists of a short, finely-honed paragraph that considers the following issues (Length: 1 paragraph):

1. Identifies a stable (i.e., not dramatically changing every year), long-run vision of the organization that can answer such questions as:

• Why is the organization in business?
• What markets does the organization serve and why does it serve these markets?
• e.g., a low-price software provider may state they offer “practical and highly affordable business solutions”
• What does the organization want to be known for?
• What is the organization out to prove to the industry, customers, partners, employees, etc.?
• What is the general organizational philosophy for doing business?
• What products/services does the organization offer?

2. In developing the vision presented in the mission statement consider:

• Discuss how organization started and major events of the organization, products, markets served, etc.
• In general, what is the organization good at doing?
• What is special about the organization compared to current and future competitors (in general terms do not need to mention names)?
• What does the organization do that gives it a competitive advantage?
• people, products, financial position, technical and research capabilities, partnership/supply chain relations, others
• physical (e.g., facilities), equipment, political regulatory, competitive, economic, technological, others

Section 2: Situational Analysis

The situational analysis is designed to take a snapshot of where things stand at the time the plan is presented. It covers much of the same ground covered in the Preparing a Market Study Tutorial , so those preparing a Marketing Plan should check this out as well.

This part of the Marketing Plan is extremely important and quite time consuming. For many, finding the metrics needed in this section may be difficult, especially for those entering new market. For ideas on how to obtain information see the Marketing Research chapter of KnowThis: Marketing Basics book.

The situational analysis covers the following key areas:

1. Analysis: Current Product(s)

Note: The marketer may be able to skip this section if plan is for a new product and no related products exist.

Provide detailed analysis of the company’s product(s). (Length: 1-2 pages).

1. Describe the Organization’s Current Product(s) Offerings in Terms of:

• Describe the main product features, major benefits received by those using the product, current branding strategies, etc.
• Describe pricing used at all distribution levels, such as pricing to final users and to distributors, incentives offered, discounts, etc.
• Describe how the product is made accessible to final users, including channels used, major benefits received by distributors, how product is shipped, process for handling orders, etc. (Note: More discussion of distribution is addressed in Analysis: Current Distributor Network(s) below.)
• Describe promotional programs and strategies in terms of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations, how product is currently positioned in the market, etc.
• Describe support services provided to final users and distributors before, during and after the sale

2. Analysis: Current Target Market(s)

Examine in detail the organization’s current target market(s). Obviously to do this section correctly takes a great deal of customer-focused research. (Length: 2-3 pages).

1. Describe the Target Market Approach

• mass market – aim to sell to a large broad market
• segmentation approach – aim to selectively target one (niche) or more markets

2. Describe Demographic/Psychographic Profile of the Market

• gender, income, age, occupation, education, family life cycle, geographic region, lifestyle, attitudes, purchasing characteristics, etc.

3. Describe the Following Characteristics of Targeted Customers

• Needs/benefits sought by market
• who is using the product?
• why do they use the product?
• when do they use the product?
• how is the product used?
• Evaluate how customers perceive the product in relation to competitor’s products or to other solutions they use to solve their problems
• What is the target market’s attitude regarding the organization’s product?
• What is the target market’s attitude regarding the general product category?
• i.e., examine the general attitudes regarding how products from all competitors serve the target market’s needs

4. Describe the Purchasing Process

• What does the decision-making process involve?
• What sources of information are sought?
• What is a timeline for a purchase (e.g., impulse vs. extended decision-making)?
• Does user purchase or is another party responsible (e.g., parent purchasing for children)?
• Who or what may influence the purchase?

5. Provide Market Size Estimates (Note: Keep in mind these are estimates for the market not for a specific product.)

• What is the largest possible market if all buy?
• What percent of the potential market actually purchased?
• At least through the time frame for the plan (e.g., 1 year) but most likely longer (e.g., 3-5 year projections)

3. Analysis: Current Distributor Network(s)

Note: This may not apply if the organization does not use distributors.

Evaluate how the organization’s product(s) is distributed. Clearly marketing plans for a service organization may not have much detail here but this section will most likely have some relevance even for service firms (e.g., package delivery services, online legal service, etc,). (Length: 2 pages).

1. Describe the Channels/Supply Chain Employed to Sell and Deliver the Product (Note: Internal sales force discussion should appear under company promotion in Analysis: Current Product(s) above.)

• Direct to customer
• indirect via a distributor
• Combination of both

2. What are the Needs/Benefits Sought by Distributors?

3. Describe the Product’s Role Within the Distributor Network

• How is this product used within the distributor’s business?
• How important is product within the distributor’s strategy?
• How is the product positioned?
• What are the attitudes and perceptions about the organization’s product(s)?

4. Purchasing Process

• How does distributor network make their purchase?
• Who or what influence distributor’s purchases?

5. Demographics

• geographic region
• markets served

4. Analysis: Current Competitor(s)

Examine the main competitors serving the same target market(s). For much more detail on analyzing competitors see the Preparing a Market Study Tutorial . This section may also benefit from the use of comparison tables. (Length: 3-4 pages).

1. Describe Direct Competitors in Terms of:

• Target markets served
• Product attributes
• Distribution including the distributor network(s)
• Services offered

2. Discuss Competitor’s Strengths and Weaknesses

• financial standing
• target market perception
• R & D capabilities

3. Discuss Competitive Trends

• May need to include discussion of future competitive threats

5. Analysis: Current Financial Condition

Much of the information in this part can be handled within a graphical format, such as tables and graphs, though a paragraph explanation of each is generally required. Make sure to include total dollar (or other currency) amounts as well as percentage market share. For more detailed Marketing Plans or for plans for seasonal products, providing monthly or even weekly sales figures may be required. Provide a spreadsheet-style layout showing detailed breakdown of marketing revenues and expenses. (Length: 2-4 pages).

1. Current Sales Analysis

• total market sales
• total for organization’s product(s)
• total for competition
• total for segments/product categories
• total for each channel
• total for organization’s product(s) by channel
• total for competition by channel
• total for each region
• total for organization’s product(s) by region
• total for competition by region

2. Profitability Analysis

• For highly detailed plans break out into categories as shown above in the Current Sales Analysis section.
• Direct – those expenses that can be tied to the product
• Indirect or Proportional – generally administrative or broad marketing expenses that may be assigned to a product based on some established criteria, such as a product’s percentage of overall company sales. (Note: not all organizations follow this approach.)

6. Analysis: External Forces

Describe trends, events, conditions that are external (usually uncontrolled by the organization ) that may impact the organization’s product(s) or the market. (Length: 1-2 pages)

1. Areas of Consideration

• social and cultural
• demographic
• technological
• legal, regulatory, ethical

7. Analysis: Summary

In an effort to provide an easy-to-visualize summary of the product(s), consider using one or more of the following commonly used product/market analysis tools. (Length: 1 page)

• Planning With the Product Life Cycle Tutorial
• Boston Consulting Group Growth/Share Matrix
• General Electric Market Attractiveness Matrix

Finally, summarize all information in the Situational Analysis. (Length: 1 page)

1. Provide a SWOT Analysis for the Organization’s Product(s) That Includes:

• Opportunities

Section 3: Marketing Strategy and Objectives

Those reading a Marketing Plan need a clear picture of the direction the product(s) will take. Also, they want to see that some accountability has been built into the plan so that the plan is not just fluff but results in measurable actions.

The best way to provide this information is through a section devoted to identifying the key marketing strategy and marketing objectives for the product(s).

This section consists of three major issues:

Identify Marketing Strategy

Determine financial objectives, determine marketing objectives.

In this section, identify the general marketing strategy under which this plan is being developed. It is very possible that a product will follow more than one strategy (e.g., sell more of same product to current customers but also find new customers in new markets). Plan developers may get some guidance and also rationale for strategy by examining general business objectives that may be established for the entire organization. For instance, the organization may state within its Mission Statement or in other internal documents that its objective is to be the market leader in all markets it serves. This would then become an objective for the products managed by a marketer.

Additionally, the Situational Analysis performed by the marketer may also provide insight. In particular, planners may look to strategies that are suggested within the scope of the Product/Market Analysis Tools. However, planners should refer to the Mission Statement in Step 1 to ensure any strategies that are developed are in line with how the company views itself. (Page length: less than 1 page)

Strategies generally fall under one of the following (or in some cases more than one) ideas:

1. Market Growth (see Ansoff Matrix )

• If overall market is growing this may not necessarily mean a growth in overall market share
• If overall market is not growing this means a growth in overall market share
• Sell to markets or market segments not previously targeted
• Develop new products for existing customers
• Develop new products for new customers

2. Market Stability

• Primarily used in times of economic decline or market decline
• Generally requires the taking of market share from others in the industry

3. Cost Control

• Can work in combination with market growth or market stability

4. Market Exit

• Techniques to depart a market

For many organizations, the ultimate goal of the Marketing Plan is the effect it will have on the bottom line. Measures reflect income statement items and common ratios. (Page length: less than 1 page)

1. Customer Sales

• by volume and growth percentage
• by segments

2.Channel Sales

4. Profitability

• use common financial ratios and other metrics associated with marketing in the industry

Marketing success can be measured on several non-financial market metrics. These measures are important since these often shed light on underlying conditions and circumstances facing the organization that are not easily seen within financial measures. For instance, a company may report strong sales for a product but market share information may suggest the product is losing ground to competitors. The marketing objectives section will indicate targets to be achieved across several marketing decision areas. To add additional strength to this section include marketing metrics where possible. (Page length: less than 1 page)

1. Target Market Objectives

• number/percentage new
• number/percentage retained
• rate of purchases
• size/volume of purchases

2. Promotional Objectives

• level of brand/organization awareness
• (e.g., store traffic, website traffic, social media subscribers)
• (e.g. sales promotions, product demonstrations)
• (e.g. cycle time, cost-per-call, closing rate, customer visits, etc.)

3. Channel Objectives

• on-time rate
• shrinkage rate
• correct order rate

4. Marketing Research Objectives

• studies initiated
• studies completed

5. R&D Objectives

• product development

6. Other Objectives

• e.g., partnerships developed

We continue our discussion of the marketing plan in the How to Write a Marketing Plan Tutorial – Part 2 .

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• Writing Guides

How To Write Marketing Essay

Table of Contents

How To Write Marketing Essay (Complete Guide)

• Introduction writing
• Body paragraphs writing
• Conclusion writing
• Outline example

Marketing essays or marketing papers are one of the most common types of essays a student will encounter in her life. This is because papers on marketing are not only considered school requirements but are mostly used in the professional field. Marketing essay writing is a very indispensable skill in the field of business, administration, and the like. More particularly, marketing essays are very detailed and well-researched because of the fact that their main purpose is to provide a comprehensive and step-by-step plan for their readers about how to take persuasive action toward customers and clients in purchasing their product. However, because of its sheer complexity and importance, most writers are daunted with the idea of writing one. Thus, in order to help you, below are some marketing essay writing guides and tips to get you started.

Marketing essay outline

In order to write a good marketing essay, it would be best to have a solid and well-founded structure. To be able to do this, one of the most common techniques is marketing essay outlining. As the term implies, this technique provides an outline for a marketing essay, so one can easily form their ideas, set their milestones, and achieve their goals without missing them. In other words, this outline provides the writer with a checklist of the things/ideas/opinions which he/she forgot and makes sure that they would be covered throughout the text.

Below is an example of a marketing essay outline about the topic “how to boost sales in the supermarket’s kid’s department section?”

Boosting sales in the Kid’s department section

• Background context
• Statement of the problem
• SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) overview of the problem
• Thesis statement (quick overview of your solution)
• The significance of the proposed solution
• Supporting evidence and case studies from the same context
• Projected result/milestones
• Potential risks and crisis management strategies

How to start a marketing essay

By following the outline stated above, one can now easily write an essay draft to help answer what is perhaps the most difficult question any writer could ask, which is, “how to start a marketing essay?” As most of us are already aware, a marketing essay technically starts with an introduction. Outlines are simply a way to help you get started and focused throughout the course of your paper, while a marketing essay introduction actually sets the trajectory of your paper and guides the readers as to what they should expect by the end of the paper. Listed below are some tips as to how to write an effective marketing essay introduction.

Tips on writing a marketing essay introduction:

• Make sure the main point/goal of your marketing essay is stated
• Point out what interventions should be done by the end of the paper
• State the SWOTs and discuss how would you plan to utilize/tackle it in the succeeding parts of your paper

After working on your introduction, the next step is writing the body of your marketing essay. Technically, the main body paragraph is where you expound on what you’ve stated in your marketing essay introduction. In other words, this is where you provide argumentative support for the SWOTs and the interventions (planned solution). One important note that everyone should be aware of is all of these paragraphs in the body should support your main idea until you have reached your conclusion.

Listed below are some indispensable tips on how to write the body of a marketing essay:

• Always make sure each paragraph starts with an idea (which either supports the previous paragraph or the main topic in general) and succeeds with sentences that support the main idea.
• Keep the number of words per paragraph to about 300-400 words
• Use transition words to smoothly shift from one topic to another. Some examples of transition words are; and, nevertheless, furthermore, nonetheless, thus, therefore, etc.

After working on the main paragraph and building up your ideas, the next step is writing the conclusion for a marketing essay.  Mainly, a conclusion is where you again point out your ideas during your introduction and make a firmer claim about it (since you’ve already proven your point during the body).

Aside from this, here are other tips on how to conclude a marketing essay:

• Make sure you’ve pointed out every detail/argument stated in your main body
• Be firm about your point and discuss why it should be taken into consideration
• Visualize a projected result of your planned intervention, based on the data that you’ve found in your body
• Identify the risks which your intervention might bring

Sources for essay choice

In choosing the sources for your marketing essay, it would be best to remember that, just like any other kind of academic and professional essay, looking for credible, if not, academic sources. As a student, looking it would be best to look for these resources in your local or university library or even on the internet by searching for online journals.

Finalizing essay

Writing a marketing essay is not a simple task. The repercussions of the interventions which you’re trying to propose might become a big letdown for the company, especially if you did your research halfheartedly. Thus, in order to finalize your essay, remember that it is always of prime importance to proofread your work, and ensure quick but easy revisions could be done with it.

Home — Essay Samples — Business — Marketing Plan — My Personal Marketing Plan

My Personal Marketing Plan

• Categories: Marketing Plan Target Market

About this sample

Words: 513 |

Published: May 7, 2019

Words: 513 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Target market, marketing segmentation, geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation.

• To establish myself in a large bank risk management team.
• To create lasting relationships among employees and clients.
• To be promoted to a managerial position in the next five years.
• Live a lifestyle in which I will be able to be financially secure.
• To be promoted to a position that travels and deals with larger claims.

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The Stark Reality of Israel’s Fight in Gaza

Israel has failed to achieve its two primary goals of the war, while the suffering of Palestinians erodes support even among its allies.

Six months into the conflict in Gaza, the question of what Israel has achieved is creating ever more intense global strains. Credit... Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

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By Julian E. Barnes ,  Adam Goldman ,  Eric Schmitt and Adam Rasgon

Reporting from Washington and Jerusalem

• April 22, 2024

Israel’s military operations in Gaza have weakened Hamas. Most Hamas battalions have been degraded and are scattered. Thousands of its members have been killed, and at least one senior military leader has been eliminated.

Yet Israel has not achieved its primary goals of the war: freeing hostages and fully destroying Hamas.

The war and the tactics of the Israel Defense Forces have come at a great cost. Vast numbers of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the Israeli campaign; hunger is widespread in Gaza; and deaths around relief efforts have generated condemnation.

Six months into the conflict, the question of what Israel has achieved — and when and how the fighting could come to an end — is creating ever more intense global strains around a war that has cost Israel support from even close allies.

Israel’s own military casualties have begun to climb, with about 260 killed and more than 1,500 injured since its pulverizing ground assault began in the weeks after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7.

Israeli officials say that about 133 of the hostages taken remain in Gaza. But talks to secure the return of at least some of them in exchange for a halt in the fighting and the release of Palestinian prisoners have hit a snag. Hamas has rebuffed the latest proposal and claims it does not have 40 hostages who meet the terms of the first part of the proposed deal, raising questions about how many are still alive and how many are held by other groups.

The war has settled into a deadly pattern of skirmishes and airstrikes as Israeli forces continue to operate in Gaza, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters. Last week, with tensions between Israel and Iran increased, the Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets and killed dozens of fighters in the central part of the enclave, including a Hamas security officer who served in the group’s intelligence wing.

The Israeli military says Hamas casualties continue to mount but that no Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in Gaza since April 6 . That suggests that the pace of the fighting and Hamas’s capabilities have waned for now.

But both sides are bracing for a larger operation in the southern city of Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold that Israel has not invaded.

And there is more uncertainty about what will follow Rafah, with questions about who will govern Gaza and provide its security if the fighting is to end.

This article is based on interviews with American and Israeli officials, members of Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military planning, sensitive diplomacy or secret intelligence assessments.

Despite Hamas’s heavy losses, much of its top leadership in Gaza remains in place, ensconced in a vast underground network of tunnels and operations centers, calling the shots in the hostage negotiations. Those tunnels will allow Hamas to survive and reconstitute once the fighting stops, current and former U.S. officials say.

“Palestinian resistance to Israel, manifested by Hamas and other militant groups, is an idea as much as it is a physical, tangible group of people,” said Douglas London, a retired C.I.A. officer who spent 34 years at the agency. “So for as much damage Israel might have inflicted on Hamas, it still has capability, resilience, funding and a long line of people most likely waiting to sign up and join after all the fighting and all the destruction and all the loss of life.”

In an annual intelligence assessment released in March, American spy agencies expressed doubts about Israel’s ability to truly destroy Hamas, which the United States has designated a terrorist group.

“Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from Hamas for years to come,” the report said, “and the military will struggle to neutralize Hamas’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength and surprise Israeli forces.”

After six intense months, the war has come down to Rafah.

The Israeli military believes four battalions of Hamas fighters are based in the city and that thousands of other fighters have taken refuge there, along with around a million civilians.

The Israeli military says those battalions must be dismantled.

Israeli officials said the only way to destroy those battalions is with a major push into Rafah by ground forces. Israeli security experts contend that destroying the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that supply Hamas with arms will also be a critical goal.

But the planned invasion has become a point of friction between the United States and Israel.

Israel has not developed a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, U.S. officials said. Without one, the death toll in Gaza — already about 34,000, according to health officials there — will climb even higher. The Israeli government disputes those numbers, saying they do not distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians killed during the war.

“I have not yet seen a credible and executable plan to move people that has any level of detail about how you not only house, feed and provide medicine for those innocent civilians, but also how you deal with things like sanitation, water and other basic services,” Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters earlier this month.

U.S. military officials say that Israel should model its plan on the siege of Mosul, Iraq, in 2017 by Iraqi forces and the U.S. Air Force. The operation destroyed large swaths of what was once Iraq’s second-largest city. While roughly 3,000 civilians were killed as a result of Iraqi or U.S. military action, by some estimates , the coalition successfully evacuated a million residents from the city ahead of the assault on the city.

For Rafah, American military planners want Israel to carry out targeted raids on Hamas strong points, but only after civilians have been relocated.

Israeli officials say they expect civilians to move to safer areas. But U.S. officials have said that with much of the strip nearly uninhabitable, Israel needs a better plan.

“This is an opportune time for Israel to transition to a new phase focused on very precise counterterrorism operations, particularly given the situation of 1.2 to 1.3 million Palestinians all clustered within Rafah and its environs,” said Lt. Gen. Mark C. Schwartz, a retired U.S. Special Operations commander who served as the American security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The movement of civilians within Gaza, and the Palestinians taking refuge in Rafah, is a major sticking point not just between the United States and Israel but also in the talks about a temporary cease-fire to secure the release of hostages.

On Thursday, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, placed the lack of progress in the talks squarely at the feet of Hamas and its negative reaction to a U.S.-backed proposal presented this month.

“It’s a big rock to push up a very steep hill right now,” Mr. Burns said. “It’s that negative reaction that really is standing in the way of innocent civilians in Gaza getting humanitarian relief.”

U.S. officials say privately that the only way to get Israel to stop the Rafah operation is through a hostage release deal.

But Israeli officials say they believe it is only the looming operation in Rafah that has kept Hamas in negotiations.

As the talks continue, there is rising anger among families of hostages about Israel’s failure to bring their loved ones home.

Gilad Korngold, 62, whose son Tal Shoham is one of the hostages, said he was overcome with feelings of “despair, frustration, anger and fear” because of the government’s failure to strike a deal to free the hostages.

“They abandoned them,” he said in an interview. “Time is running out. We don’t know how they’re doing, if they’re eating or drinking, or if they’re getting medicine. We don’t know anything about them.”

Mr. Korngold said three members of his family were killed on Oct. 7 and that six others who had been abducted were released during a short-lived cease-fire in late November.

“Hostage recovery comes down to thoughtful and unified negotiations, and that will likely not happen until Israel withdraws the hammer,” said Jay Tabb, a Marine officer who fought in Iraq and served as a top F.B.I. executive working on counterterrorism and hostage issues.

Since the beginning of the war, Israel has tried to destroy the extensive tunnel network below Gaza.

The system runs for hundreds of miles, at points reaching 15 stories below ground, according to Israeli and U.S. officials. It contains larger complexes of underground rooms, used for command posts and refuges. Hamas has used the tunnels to hide its leaders, hold hostages and allow fighters to escape Israeli attack.

Israel has not been able to destroy the tunnels, which Hamas has spent years building. But Israeli officials say they have taken out most of the key nodes, the underground strategic complexes that Hamas has used to command its forces. About 70 percent of the complexes have been eliminated, said an Israeli military intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comply with army protocols.

Israeli officials also say their military has killed as many as 13,000 Hamas members, though experts caution that any figures are probably imprecise given the chaos of the war. And in March, Israel killed Marwan Issa, who was the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing and a presumed planner of the Oct. 7 attacks. He is the highest-ranking Hamas military leader eliminated during the war.

As a result of the fighting, 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions are no longer functioning, the Israelis say.

Between the losses and damage to the underground complexes, Hamas’s ability to command its forces has been severely reduced.

But veterans of the United States’ wars say the number of enemy soldiers killed, or command posts destroyed, has proved a totally irrelevant fact and a deeply misleading measure of success in a military campaign.

To be sure, American intelligence agencies assess that Hamas has lost a significant amount of combat power, and that rebuilding will take time.

But that does not mean Hamas has been destroyed. Israeli officials said the group and other militant organizations still have many forces above and below ground. In northern Gaza, 4,000 to 5,000 fighters have held out, the Israeli military intelligence official said.

U.S. officials and analysts say Hamas is likely to remain a force in Gaza when the fighting is over. But how quickly it can rebuild will depend on Israel’s decisions in the next phases of the war and in its aftermath.

Both the Israeli military and the Palestinians are bracing for what comes next.

While Israel has continued to conduct strikes on Rafah, several Palestinians said they were struggling to survive.

“We’re going through a dreadful experience,” said Khalil el-Halabi, 70, a resident of Gaza City sheltering in a tent in Rafah. “Why do we have to live through this misery when we had nothing to do with Oct. 7? We just want to go back to our homes.”

Despite American pleas for restraint, Palestinians, Israelis and military experts expect that Israel will go into Rafah. The real question is what will happen after that.

Israel’s attacks have devastated Gaza. Palestinians returning to the southern city of Khan Younis after the Israeli military pulled out this month were confronted with an apocalyptic scene — endless islands of rubble, destroyed roads and the smell of human remains.

“I feel like Khan Younis was hit by a magnitude-50 earthquake,” said Mohammed al-Hassi, a medic from the city. “Entire neighborhoods have been erased, and people can’t even recognize where their homes once were.”

Some Israeli officials say grinding down Hamas may take years.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, told a group of Israelis in January that the war could last “a year, a decade or a generation,” according to a person who participated in the meeting.

American officials blanch at suggestions that intense Israeli operations could go on for two more months, let alone two more years.

They say Israel should declare victory over Hamas and move to a different kind of fight: one that targets senior Hamas leaders but does not brutalize civilians; one focused on preventing Hamas from resupplying and rebuilding, rather than pummeling the fighters that remain.

Equally critical, American officials say, is coming up with a plan to return the governance of Gaza to Palestinians. U.S. and Arab officials are pushing to announce steps toward a demilitarized Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and his government are against such moves. But Israeli officials have been reluctant to engage with Americans on their plans for Gaza, including who they intend to hand power over to, and what proposals for security and governance they would accept.

On Thursday, the United States vetoed a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, saying the step requires negotiations.

In the absence of Israel allowing a functioning Palestinian government to take charge, chaos and lawlessness have taken over as Israeli troops have withdrawn from parts of Gaza.

Current and former U.S. officials said that while Israel has not, and cannot, destroy Hamas, it has made the likelihood of a repeat of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack remote.

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief, agreed. “We’ve already achieved the most important thing: dismantling Hamas as an organized army capable of an Oct. 7 attack,” he said. “It can’t do it again.”

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades. More about Julian E. Barnes

Adam Goldman writes about the F.B.I. and national security. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about Adam Goldman

Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times, focusing on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism issues overseas, topics he has reported on for more than three decades. More about Eric Schmitt

Adam Rasgon reports from Israel for The Times's Jerusalem bureau. More about Adam Rasgon

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

Israeli negotiators, offering a hint of hope for negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza, have reduced the number of hostages they want Hamas to release  during the first phase of a truce.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan for his second stop on a Middle East tour  to meet with top officials to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas.

President Biden and his national security team see a narrow window to finally seal an agreement  that would at least temporarily halt the war in Gaza and possibly even end it for good, but their optimism has been dashed before.

Campus Protests in the U.S.: On quads and lawns from coast to coast, U.S. colleges are grappling with a groundswell of student activism  over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Administrators are having to make controversial decisions .

Cracking Down on Protests: Grief and rage over the Gaza war and Israel have led to demonstrations across the Arab world. Arrests suggest governments fear the outrage could boomerang .

Imagining Gaza’s Reconstruction: International development agencies have been meeting with Middle East business interests and urban planners to map out an economic future for the territory .

Showing Liberal Dismay: Representative Mark Pocan, the progressive Democrat from a rural, mostly white Wisconsin district, is determined to let President Biden know that it is not just young people of color who are concerned about the war .

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