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How to Write a Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well written report that many inside and possibly outside the organization will evaluate. It is an essential document for both large corporate marketing departments and for startup companies. Essentially the Marketing Plan:

  • forces the marketing personnel to look internally in order to fully understand the results of past marketing decisions.
  • forces the marketing personnel to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which they operate.
  • sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone within the organization should understand and support.
  • is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives.

The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons:

  1. Needed as part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area.
  2. Needed for a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem.
  3. Is a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal to the financial community.

There are many ways to develop and format a marketing plan. The approach taken here is to present a 6-Part plan that includes:

  1. Purpose and Mission
  2. Situational Analysis
  3. Marketing Strategy and Objectives
  4. Tactical Programs
  5. Budgets, Performance Analysis and Implementation
  6. Additional Consideration

How to Write a Marketing PlanThis plan is aimed at individual products and product lines, however, it can be adapted fairly easily for use in planning one or more strategic business units (SBU). The page length suggested for each section represents a single-spaced typed format for a plan focused on a single product. Obviously for multi-product plans lengths will be somewhat longer.

It is assumed that anyone developing a Marketing Plan possesses a working understanding of marketing principles. If you do not, it is suggested you spend considerable time learning about basic marketing through the previous sections of the Principles of Marketing Tutorials.

Note, throughout the plan the word "product" is used. However, the information presented in the Marketing Plan tutorials applies to both products and services.

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78 Comments

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    April 28, 2012

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    April 10, 2012

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    March 01, 2012

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    February 24, 2012

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    January 23, 2012

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    December 05, 2011

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    November 22, 2011

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    October 09, 2011

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    September 13, 2011

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    August 25, 2011

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    August 15, 2011

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    July 12, 2011

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    May 19, 2011

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    April 07, 2011

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    April 04, 2011

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    January 28, 2011

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    January 19, 2011

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    January 02, 2011

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    December 21, 2010

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    November 28, 2010

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    September 29, 2010

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    September 04, 2010

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  32. Nomalanga makes this comment

    August 27, 2010

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  33. joetam makes this comment

    June 21, 2010

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  34. nat makes this comment

    June 04, 2010

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    May 12, 2010

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    May 10, 2010

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    May 07, 2010

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    May 02, 2010

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    April 27, 2010

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    April 20, 2010

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    April 13, 2010

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  42. Arturo makes this comment

    March 17, 2010

    What I enjoyed about this article is its simplicity without sacrificing thoroughness. Marketing plans are crucial for developing more than strategy for campaigning, however. They can include strategy for developing other tools for marketing success, such as the use of a marketing database.

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    March 16, 2010

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    March 10, 2010

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    February 23, 2010

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    February 16, 2010

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  47. Kasadha makes this comment

    February 15, 2010

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  48. Lilit makes this comment

    February 09, 2010

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    February 08, 2010

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    February 04, 2010

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    February 01, 2010

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    January 31, 2010

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    January 21, 2010

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    January 16, 2010

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  55. qeramixhi makes this comment

    January 07, 2010

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  56. marcus makes this comment

    December 03, 2009

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  57. ariel makes this comment

    December 01, 2009

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  58. abnr makes this comment

    November 27, 2009

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  59. sepehr makes this comment

    November 20, 2009

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  60. Tomiris makes this comment

    November 11, 2009

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  61. Nguyen makes this comment

    October 28, 2009

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  62. Kamariah makes this comment

    October 25, 2009

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  63. NRESH makes this comment

    October 12, 2009

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  64. albino makes this comment

    October 02, 2009

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  65. saqlain makes this comment

    September 29, 2009

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  66. JMO makes this comment

    September 23, 2009

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  67. tine makes this comment

    September 23, 2009

    Thank you so much for this! It would surely help me to create a marketing plan! Thanks!!

  68. henry makes this comment

    September 19, 2009

    I sincerely appreciate the effort of the site owner(s). What I have gathered will assist me in developing a perfect marketing plan.

  69. Paul Christ - KnowThis.com makes this comment

    September 16, 2009

    Edwin: Yes, doing this right will take some time and probably money. You might want to look at the Marketing Research tutorials for some ideas. Also, if you have funds you may be able to get a freelancer to help you find the information. If this interests you try eLance. Paul

  70. edwin makes this comment

    September 15, 2009

    I learn a lot from your tutorial and actually developing a simplified version of my own marketing plan. However, the research portion is very complex, I need to spend huge effort to dig into the market related information. Thanks

  71. NNEKA makes this comment

    September 14, 2009

    I appreciate the efforts of those who engineered this site. I am a young marketer in a designing and printing company and I'd want to do my best to achieve the objectives of the company. I hope I can find the best strategies here.

  72. moe makes this comment

    September 10, 2009

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  73. karuna makes this comment

    September 04, 2009

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  74. K makes this comment

    August 30, 2009

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  75. Tim makes this comment

    August 25, 2009

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  76. Dena makes this comment

    August 15, 2009

    A reasonable introduction for a lay reader. I have a small business and have been marketing intuitively. I believe it is time now to be more logical in my approach and I think your tutorials will help me. Thank you!

  77. tonia makes this comment

    August 11, 2009

    nice work

  78. DOMINIC makes this comment

    July 26, 2009

    Good effort there!!

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