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It outlines core purposes such as communicating with ideal customers, addressing competitive challenges, using marketing budgets efficiently, clarifying employee roles, and tracking performance for continuous improvement. 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PLAN.  \nWhen marketing a business, product or service, it pays to plot your course  \nFINANCIA L STRATEGIES FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR  \n􀁤 􀁤 􀁤 􀁤 􀁤 5 PARTSERIES  \nMARKETING –  \nMAKING THE CUSTOMER CONNECTION  \nThis is the second article in a five-part series on marketing your business. In this issue, we discuss the importance of a marketing plan and what it should include.  \nWithout a blueprint, a contractor would never deliver building materials to an empty lot and then tell the crew,“Let’s build a house.” Doing so might incur the loss of thousands of dollars in materials and worker productivity. Similarly, a business that arrives – or stays – in the marketplace without a marketing plan can lose thousands on misguided promotional efforts and ineffective employee action.  \nA marketing plan enables a business to:  \n Communicate effectively with ideal customers  \n Overcome competitive challenges  \n Spend marketing dollars efficiently and effectively  \n Help employees understand their roles in creating and selling products and/or services  \n Track success and make improvements when necessary  \nMARKETING PLAN MUST-HAVES  \nSITUATION ANALYSIS  \nUse SWOT to list your company’s …  \nSTRENGTHS– How is your company and its offerings superior to the competition?  \nWEAKNESSES– Include anything from competing in a  \nhighly saturated market to inexperienced staff OPPORTUNITIES– Things like product line expansion or new services to fulfill an arising need  \nTHREATS– Include other companies entering the market, emerging technologies that may duplicate what you do or even environmental issues  \nYou’ll use this information to capitalize on strengths and opportunities, improve upon weaknesses, and then define steps necessary to overcome threats.  \n(continued on page 2)  \nPhillips Financial  \n104 W Lampkin Street Starkville, MS 39759 662-324-2889 [www.phillipsfinanclai.org](www.phillipsfinanclai.org)  \nLynn Phillips-Gaines, CFP®, CLTC  \nCertified Financial Planner Registered Principal  \nMarketing? Plan.  \n(continued from page 1)  \nANALYZE YOUR CUSTOMERS  \nWhat you should know about your ideal customers and why:  \n• The number of people who could potentially use your product or service indicates near-term revenue potential and whether there’s room for market growth.  \n• Knowing key demographics of your customer base (e.g. , age, social class, gender, etc.) helps you plan product line extensions for new or changing consumer groups and aids in media planning to reach your target client.  \n• The value your product and/or service delivers to customers so you can evaluate if a product or service exceeds or underperforms a competitor’s, plus it helps you hone your marketing message and value proposition.  \nARE WE THERE YET?  \nWriting a marketing plan can take a couple of months or longer. Allow time to gather necessary information and time to focus on writing it.  \nANALYZE YOUR COMPETITION  \nWhat you should know about competitors and why:  \n• Market position. What company is the biggest, smallest and how invested are they? This helps evaluate competitor dominance.  \n• Strengths and weaknesses. Use this information to exploit weakness and determine what steps (e.g. , product improvements) can help your company overcome their strengths.  \n• Market share. Knowing this allows your company to increase its share of the market (e.g. , product improvement, increase sales force, gain shelf space, increase media dollars), either through marketing or acquisition.  \nEMAIL    \nIncludes newsletters, promotional campaigns and transactional emails. Services  \nlike MailChimp and Constant Contact simplify the process of managing email campaigns.  \nMOBILE    \nGives customers the power to choose how and when they’d like to receive messages. Includes text messages and push notifications to smartphones or tablets that can be read at leisure or are time-sensitive offers.  \nTHE MARKETING MIX  \nThe FOUR P’s described here form the backbone of your marketi","cbCait1UVyYBxlS6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCait1UVyYBxlS6","pdf",1717038,"English","# Marketing Plan Must-Haves\n## Situation Analysis (SWOT)\n## Analyze Your Customers\n## Analyze Your Competition\n## The Marketing Mix (Four P’s)\n## Get a Template for Your Plan","[{\"question\":\"Why does a marketing plan matter for a business?\",\"answer\":\"A marketing plan helps a business communicate with ideal customers, overcome competitive challenges, spend marketing dollars efficiently, clarify employee roles, and track success to make improvements when needed.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the situation analysis require in the marketing plan?\",\"answer\":\"It uses SWOT to list strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, then uses that information to build on strengths and opportunities, address weaknesses, and define steps to overcome threats.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the Four P’s in the marketing mix?\",\"answer\":\"The marketing mix includes Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, forming the backbone of the marketing plan derived from the earlier analyses.\"}]","Marketing Plan - Making the Customer Connection - Must-Haves | PDF",1790111068]