Sample Marketing Plans

Here is some ideas and plans with useful links:

Getting ready to create a marketing plan? Finding a sample plan for a similar company can be a great place to start. Get inspired with great example plans from our collection.

Top marketing plans

The following plans were created using Sales and Marketing Pro. With our inexpensive Sales and Marketing Software, you can edit and update these sample plans directly to produce your marketing plan faster and easier, or create your own plans from scratch.

1.  Accounting and Bookkeeping Services Marketing Plan
    Sorcerer's Accountant
2. Business Employee Trainer Marketing Plan
   College Knowledge Centre
3. Business Operations Consultant Marketing Plan
   Turnaround Consultant
4. Catering and Ballroom Rental Marketing Plan
   Sumptuous Cuisine Catering
5. Education Marketing Plan
   Allendale Language School
6. Equipment Manufacturer Marketing Plan
   Equipment Manufacturer
7. Hotel and Motel Marketing Plan
   The Drowzey Hotel
8. Houseboat Rental Marketing Plan
   Houses on the Lake
9. Inventory Control Software Marketing Plan
   Software Company
10. Jewelry Artisan Marketing Plan
    MoraDora Jewelry
11. Locally Produced Clothing Retailer Marketing Plan
    Local Threads
12. Marketing Coach Marketing Plan
    Marketing Coach
13. Nonprofit Business Training Services Marketing Plan
    Riverton Business Accelerator
14. Organic Bakery Marketing Plan
    Orti's Organic Bakery
15. Personal Insurance Agent Marketing Plan
    Plynthe Insurance
16. Personal Organization Consultant Marketing Plan
    Declutter Coaches
17. Plumbing Company Marketing Plan
    Plumbing Company
18. Portrait Photographer Marketing Plan
    Ofeeld Photography
19. Real Estate Marketing Plan
    Titicus Realtors
20. Remodeling Contractor Marketing Plan
    Remodeling Contractor
21. Restaurant Marketing Plan
    Neon Memories Diner
22. Sheet Music Website Marketing Plan
    Winning Score
23. Sports and Fitness Club Marketing Plan
    Jamestown Sports and Fitness
24. Toilet Rebate Promotion Marketing Plan
    Toilet Promo
25. Tutoring Service Marketing Plan
    Tutors by the Numbers
26.  Window Cleaning Marketing Plan
    Window Cleaning

How to Market Your Business

Marketing strategies and sales ideas

No matter what business you’re in, you rely on customers and sales to bring in revenue. How are you going to do it efficiently? Start with a good marketing plan, then implement it with social media marketing, email marketing, and more.

The Essential Contents of a Marketing Plan

by TIM BERRY

Every marketing plan has to fit the needs and situation. Even so, there are standard components you just can’t do without. A marketing plan should always have a situation analysis, marketing strategy, sales forecast, and expense budget.

• Situation Analysis: Normally this will include a market analysis, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and a competitive analysis. The market analysis will include a market forecast, segmentation, customer information, and market needs analysis.
• Marketing Strategy: This should include at least a mission statement, objectives, and focused strategy including market segment focus and product positioning.
• Sales Forecast: This would include enough detail to track sales month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales by product, by region or market segment, by channels, by manager responsibilities, and other elements. The forecast alone is a bare minimum.
• Expense Budget: This ought to include enough detail to track expenses month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales tactics, programs, management responsibilities, promotion, and other elements. The expense budget is a bare minimum.

Are They Enough?

These minimum requirements above are not the ideal, just the minimum. In most cases you’ll begin a marketing plan with an Executive Summary, and you’ll also follow those essentials just described with a review of organizational impact, risks and contingencies, and pending issues.

Include a Specific Action Plan

You should also remember that planning is about the results, not the plan itself. A marketing plan must be measured by the results it produces. The implementation of your plan is much more important than its brilliant ideas or massive market research. You can influence implementation by building a plan full of specific, measurable and concrete plans that can be tracked and followed up. Plan-vs.-actual analysis is critical to the eventual results, and you should build it into your plan.

Outline for a Marketing Plan

The exact nature of your plan, and your marketing situation, dictates its contents. You add detail or take it away to suit your needs.

In the real world you’ll want to customize your outline according to whether you are selling products or services, to businesses or consumers, or you’re a nonprofit organization. Although the outline does change in some respects as a result, this is a good standard sample outline for a basic marketing plan.

Expanded plan outline

1.0 Executive Summary

2.0 Situation Analysis

2.1 Market Summary

2.1.1 Market Demographics
2.1.2 Market Needs
2.1.3 Market Trends
2.1.4 Market Growth

2.2 SWOT Analysis

2.2.1 Strengths
2.2.2 Weaknesses
2.2.3 Opportunities
2.2.4 Threats

2.3 Competition
2.4 Services
2.5 Keys to Success
2.6 Critical Issues
2.7 Channels
2.8 Macroenvironment

3.0 Marketing Strategies

3.1 Mission
3.2 Marketing Objectives
3.3 Financial Objectives
3.4 Target Marketing
3.5 Positioning
3.6 Strategy Pyramids
3.7 Marketing Mix

3.7.1 Services and Service Marketing
3.7.2 Pricing
3.7.3 Promotion
3.7.4 Service
3.7.5 Channels of Distribution

3.8 Marketing Research

4.0 Financials, Budgets, and Forecasts

4.1 Break-even Analysis
4.2 Sales Forecast

4.2.1 Sales Breakdown 1
4.2.2 Sales Breakdown 2
4.2.3 Sales Breakdown 3

4.3 Expense Forecast

4.3.1 Expense Breakdown 1
4.3.3 Expense Breakdown 2
4.3.3 Expense Breakdown 3

4.4 Linking Sales and Expenses to Strategy
4.5 Contribution Margin

5.0 Controls

5.1 Implementation Milestones
5.2 Marketing Organization
5.3 Contingency Planning