The Fundamentals of a Basic Marketing Plan

Dylan Notturno | Dec. 20, 2022

Developing and implementing a thoughtfully constructed marketing plan is key in understanding and planning your business’ path forward. The strategies that result from a marketing plan help inform future business decisions. This, even in its most basic form, is a great way to gain an understanding of your business from a marketing perspective.

The Seven Components of a Basic Marketing Plan

Marketing plans may vary between businesses, but there are foundational elements that are included in any basic report. In its most basic form, every well-rounded marketing plan should include the following:

1. A brand summary,

2. The target audience(s),

3. Key Insight

4. Situational Analysis,

5. Objectives,

6. Marketing strategy & deliverables,

7. Budget.

These reports are essentially an overview of the business, its challenges, its opportunities, and proposed strategies to promote growth. As such, it’s an assessment of the company. If done well, it can be very insightful.

1. A brand summary includes the business’ values and overall vision. This is often the first portion of the report because of its overview of critical company characteristics. A strategy that contradicts the brand would not be valuable in promoting the improvement and growth of said brand. Internal agreement of this section creates the basis for future discussions.

2. The target audience(s) of a business identify the individuals who would be interested–and derive value–from the goods and services the business provides. Very few businesses, if any, can succeed by asserting that their brand is for everyone. It’s unrealistic and ineffective to try and appeal to everyone possible, which is why identifying and focusing on specific demographics is more time and cost effective. Who are the consumers that you strive to serve? What are their needs, and what characteristics do they possess?

3. The key insight can be one of the most eye-opening and challenging aspects of the report. The best part? Everyone on the team can participate in this portion. This is the “why” behind your target audience’s motivations. Once target audiences have been identified, primary and secondary research can help uncover the single greatest struggle or problem that your company has the opportunity to solve. You will then understand why your customer base would seek your business out for a solution to their problem. There isn’t a clear formula to the key insight, but once discovered it’s powerful information to wield.

4. A situational analysis outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) for the business. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, and opportunities and threats are external factors. For example, which product, place, price, and/or promotional factors benefit the company, and which ones do not? Analyzing internal opportunities for success and growth, as well as your business’ competition, can help determine areas of emphasis for marketing strategies. If there is little to no competition (threat) for your business, for example, then that is a clear opportunity.

5. Every business needs to determine marketing objectives. Once the foundation for the report has been established, it’s now time to determine how the company will measure its trajectory forward by outlining objectives that are most relevant to achieving their vision. These aren’t the specific plans, simply the overarching goals that will help further the brand’s mission through marketing. Will there be a focus on lead generation? Or perhaps increase brand awareness? Which parts of the marketing funnel need special attention?

6. The culmination of these findings will lead to the development of proposed strategies & deliverables. With clear, measurable objectives, specific plans can be proposed to tackle each problem and opportunity for the business. These strategies should be specific to the objectives and include tangible milestones throughout the entire duration of the marketing plan, whether that be a month, quarter, or year. Deliverables should be clearly outlined to showcase how each strategy will be evaluated. These strategies can be refined overtime through the input of others, but generally speaking, these should be well-informed and presented with confidence.

7. The final part of any basic marketing plan includes an overview of the proposed budget. Your business should know how much is anticipated to be spent in pursuit of these strategies. Promotional ad campaigns, design requests, software subscriptions, and other costs not already part of standard business expenses should be accounted for, and itemized. This ensures that all parties are aware of the allocated spend for marketing efforts. Like every part of this report, this portion of the report is about accountability.

Application and Accountability

Not everyone is a marketer, but that doesn’t limit your ability to put together a plan for your business. Working as a team is vital for a well-rounded proposal, especially for something that has long-term implications. The spirit of developing a marketing report should be positive as everyone collaborates to refine the group’s ideas.

It’s easy to avoid trying this. You could just promote on social channels and consider “marketing” “done.” But I highly discourage just focusing on promotion. After all, you and your team have worked so hard to build your business, why not showcase it properly for your whole audience to appreciate?

The best time to create a marketing plan is with a clear length of time for implementation in mind, such as a quarter or longer. If your business hasn't thought about marketing for the first quarter of the new year, then this can be a great time to start!

Businesses with a lack of internal marketing experience don’t need to make major strategic decisions, as it’s ok to start small. Just don’t limit yourself to posting sporadically on social media or occasionally spending money on assets or efforts that lack a clear connection to the overall vision. Even in its simplest form, a marketing plan with any number of the components above–ideally all seven–helps you understand where you are now and where you want to be. Whether or not you can easily plan how to get there, that’s fine, but at least you’ve got a strong path to follow as a united team.