A marketing plan is one component of a business plan. Marketing plans contain information about a company's products and/or services and discuss how potential customers will be identified and how the company's products and/or services will be marketed to them.
Putting together a marketing plan is a time-intensive process that involves conducting a great deal of research using a variety of different resources and then synthesizing that research into one cohesive document that provides a detailed discussion of a company's target market, its competitors, industry trends, etc.
Below are some elements generally included in a marketing plan, and in some cases, a few suggestions for finding more information.
Product Planning Essentials by Describe your audience in detail. Look at the market’s size, demographics, unique traits, and trends that relate to demand for your business.
Macro environment includes information about the political, economic, social, and technological factors affecting a company, as well as information about the industry in which the company operates. Explore all the pages of this guide to find useful information.
Strengths: What are the main advantages of your company? What do you do well? What resources do you have?
Weaknesses: What factors negatively influence the sale and development of the product? What can other companies perceive to be your company’s primary weakness?
Opportunities: What market trends do you have information about? What technological innovations are occurring?
Threats: What obstacles do you face? What external force can stop your operations?
Search for SWOT Analysis reports in the following business databases:
Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is business jargon to describe the unique selling point of a business. In essence, 'What is that special feature that differentiates your product from others in the same category?'
A USP has the following subcategories;
Product: What are the varieties of your product? What kind of packaging will the product have?
Price: How much will your product or service be priced at compared to similar products from different brands?
Place: How will you distribute your product? (grocery stores, farmers markets, pharmacies...)
Promotion: How will you advertise your product or service? (TV ads, radio, internet search engines...)
Search for "Unique Selling Proposition" in these databases to find helpful articles: