Why should you have a marketing plan

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Bikky Khosla | 21 Jan, 2014
Do you have a marketing plan for your small business? Many small and medium enterprises don't bother to create a marketing plan -- they think only big businesses need such a plan. Some others write down a plan but only because the bank wants them to do so. Similarly, there is no dearth of small businesses who simply try to copy marketing strategies of their competitors. This is a wrong approach. A marketing plan is vital for any business -- small or big. When you don't have a sound plan to follow, you become prone to failure.

So, how to write a marketing plan? I think a simple online search will fetch you a lot of information on this, but it must be remembered that marketing plan is not about setting some vague goals. It is about setting specific goals, tracking and following up on performance -- the plan must clearly mention your strategic priorities (not make a long list of them) -- what you want to achieve, specific tactics -- what you have to do to achieve the objectives, specific dates -- when you want achieve them, clearly defined fund requirements -- how much it will cost. In addition, you must determine how you are going to track the performance of each of your marketing tactics.

What time span should a marketing plan cover? For small businesses, I think one year is enough. With the market getting competitive every day, you cannot afford to keep doing the same things year after year -- you have to restrategize and reboot your marketing from time to time. However, this does not mean that you shouldn't have a long-term plan -- in fact, a section of your marketing plan should clearly mention those goals that you want to achieve within two to four years by building on your initial and less-costly marketing activities. But the primary focus should be on the coming year.

In addition, doing a bit of research is well worth it, but small businesses usually ignore this aspect of planning. If everything is running fine, why bother? It is because an avalanche of change can sweep your business away -- so you must keep your eyes open to what is happening in the world -- what your competitors are doing, what trends are affecting the market, how your customers are behaving, which govt policy can affect your business, etc. Failing to think about the wider environment may result in catastrophe for your business. So, your marketing plan should address this.

The heart of business success lies in marketing and to keep the latter on track you must have a sound marketing plan.