Below, I\u2019ll walk you through how to write a marketing plan, the different types you can create, and share some helpful examples of marketing plans to use as inspiration for crafting your own.<\/p>\n
By the end, you\u2019ll be ready to begin implementing your marketing strategies \u2014 to take them from ideas to action. So, grab your free marketing plan template<\/a> and let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n \n <\/a> <\/p>\n Marketing plans and business plans are both strategic documents.<\/p>\n A business plan<\/a> covers all aspects of a company’s operations, including goals, finances, purpose, and strategies.<\/p>\n A marketing plan is one aspect<\/em> of a business plan. It shows how your marketing strategies and objectives will support your overall business goals, and provides detailed steps for how to carry them out.<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> If you\u2019re wondering where to start with executing a marketing plan, I recommend HubSpot\u2019s Marketing Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n A marketing plan is a detailed account of how you\u2019ll execute your marketing strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Marketing strategies are shaped by your business goals and come before a marketing plan can be written. That\u2019s because the marketing plan is a step-by-step guide for how to accomplish your marketing strategies.<\/p>\n In other words:<\/p>\n So, for example, if my goal is to increase traffic to my website, my marketing strategy <\/em>might be to run ads on social media. My marketing plan<\/em>, then, would detail the campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software<\/a> I\u2019ll use to execute my strategy and track its success.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Here, you\u2019ll state the purpose of your marketing plan and how it will help you accomplish your goals. This is a condensed overview of the entire plan, which should give critical information and also spark the interest of leadership and stakeholders to explore the plan further.<\/p>\n This section will compile the efforts of your market research to identify your target audience. It can specify a new audience, or aim to reach a broader group within your target market.<\/p>\n Some characteristics to define are: location, age, lifestyle, attitudes, values, interests, and pain points, among others. This is also a place to build out buyer personas, indicating the audience you aim to attract.<\/p>\n Introduce the companies you\u2019re competing with for your target audience. Include their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies, as well as how you will gain market share in the context of the competition.<\/p>\n Here, you\u2019ll specify your marketing strategies \u2014 that is, your high-level approach to meeting your objectives. Outline the overall methods and how they\u2019ll move you toward your goals.<\/p>\n For example, your strategy might be to implement a paid social media campaign to drive traffic to your ecommerce site.<\/p>\n Tactics are the specific actions you\u2019ll take to implement your strategies. These are detailed tasks and activities.<\/p>\n For example, if the strategy is to implement a paid social media campaign to drive traffic to your ecommerce site, then your tactics will specify everything about how to carry it out: channel, frequency, type, etc.<\/p>\n This is where you take your tactics and define the timing and pricing of each. Plot out a weekly and monthly calendar showing when each tactic should be accomplished, and allocate a budget to go along with each point.<\/p>\n The budget should also include higher level costs, such as staffing, tech, or partnerships.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to define how to measure the success of your marketing plan. For this, discuss targets, such as number of new customers to be attained, market share, or sales volume. State your expected outcomes and how you\u2019ll measure results.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n \n The first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to marketing, it should be tied to your business\u2019 overarching goal.<\/p>\n If your business’ mission is \u201cto make booking travel a delightful experience,\u201d your marketing mission might be \u201cto attract an audience of travelers, educate them on the tourism industry, and convert them into users of our bookings platform.\u201d<\/p>\n Be specific, but keep it short (a few sentences). The rest of the marketing plan is the place to elaborate on how you’ll accomplish this mission.<\/p>\n If you need help building your mission statement, I like this guide<\/a> with mission statement examples and templates to help me write the ideal mission statement.<\/p>\n And if you\u2019re running a startup or small business, HubSpot\u2019s starter bundle<\/a> is a great all-in-one solution \u2014 it can help you find and win customers, execute content marketing plans, and more.<\/p>\n To describe how you\u2019ll track your mission\u2019s progress, you\u2019ll need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs)<\/a>.<\/p>\n KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.<\/p>\n Let’s continue with the same example from above. If part of your mission is \u201cto attract an audience of travelers,\u201d you might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, \u201corganic page views\u201d is one KPI, and you can see the number of page views grow over time.<\/p>\n Also, make sure to check whether your current reporting software facilitates the KPIs you need. Some reporting tools can only measure a set of pre-defined metrics, which can cause massive headaches in particular marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n However, other tools, like HubSpot\u2019s analytics software<\/a>, offer full flexibility over the KPIs you wish to track.<\/p>\n You can generate custom reports that reveal average website engagement rates, page visits, email, social media traffic, and more.<\/p>\n A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title.<\/p>\n Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business’ current and potential customers. All business leaders should agree on your buyer personas.<\/p>\n Try out this Make My Persona<\/a> tool to jumpstart this process.<\/p>\n Here\u2018s where you\u2019ll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy.<\/p>\n Because there are so many content types and channels available, explain how and why you chose each one.<\/p>\n I like to specify:<\/p>\n A marketing plan explains the marketing team’s focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not<\/em> focus on.<\/p>\n If there are other aspects of your business that you aren\u2019t serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content.<\/p>\n In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made. And if your team isn\u2019t on the hook for something in this round, you\u2019ll need to make it known.<\/p>\n Whether it’s freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.<\/p>\n You can establish your marketing budget with these 8 free marketing budget templates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Part of marketing is knowing your competition. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.<\/p>\n A great way to go into depth on this is to run a comprehensive competitive analysis, which will uncover who your competitors are and in which aspects you compete with them. You can get started with this exercise using these 10 free competitive analysis templates<\/a>.<\/p>\n With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it\u2019s time to delegate. For this step, I like to write out which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and all other aspects of the plan.<\/p>\n Now, I know starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming. To ease that, in the next sections, I\u2019ll share some of the best guides and templates to help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n The type of marketing plan you create will depend on your company, your industry, and your business goals. Here, I\u2019ll outline five common types, along with templates from real-world businesses and brands.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Quarterly, annual, or any other time-based marketing plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you’ll take on during a certain period.<\/p>\n This template from<\/a> Forbes<\/em><\/a> highlights the 10 key sections you\u2019ll need to include:<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>If you’re lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I recommend this guide to help you define your target audience, strategize how to reach them, and develop a plan to ensure that the audience becomes loyal customers.<\/p>\n A social media marketing plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish on social media.<\/p>\n One subtype of this is a paid marketing plan, which includes paid strategies like native advertising<\/a>, PPC<\/a>, and paid social media promotions.<\/p>\n To give an example of this type, I\u2019ll use Shane Snow’s Marketing Plan<\/a>, which he used to promote his book, Dream Teams<\/em>. For this, he chose a data-driven content strategy framework known as the content strategy waterfall.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The content strategy waterfall, as defined by Economic Times<\/a>, is a model used to create \u201ca system with a linear and sequential approach.\u201d<\/p>\n In Snow\u2019s Contently article<\/a>, he details how the waterfall model helped him successfully launch his new book. From it, I pulled out the following helpful advice:<\/p>\n Best for:<\/strong> I use Snow\u2019s marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it\u2019s linear, building on each prior step and creating an airtight strategy that doesn’t leave any details out.<\/p>\n A content marketing plan<\/a> highlights the strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you’ll use content to promote your business or product.<\/p>\n For this example, I\u2019ll refer to HubSpot’s Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n HubSpot built its marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of thousands of employees. Along the way, countless lessons have shaped its current content marketing strategy.<\/p>\n HubSpot compiled its insights in a guide to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy<\/a>, regardless of their team’s size.<\/p>\n In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, I found these key points:<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>I think this is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size, whether one or one hundred. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you\u2019ll need, what type of content you should create, and also recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns.<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> If you’re aiming to establish or boost your online presence, try tools like HubSpot’s drag-and-drop website builder<\/a>, which will help you create a digital footprint that sets the foundation for all your content marketing endeavors.<\/p>\n A new product launch marketing plan is a road map for promoting a new product. One of my favorite examples is the Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product<\/a> by Chief Outsiders:<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n In this plan, I learned to:<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>If you’re looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders\u2019 template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target only one product.<\/p>\n Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like I found in Venture Harbour\u2019s Growth Marketing Plan Template<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Venture Harbour’s growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. This template has five steps, intended to allow refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle, which are:<\/p>\n Best for: <\/strong>I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation can feel risky and unfamiliar, but this plan gives you a framework for accountability and strategy.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n To put all this information together, I\u2019m going to outline the step-by-step creation of a sample marketing plan.<\/p>\n Psst! Follow along with HubSpot’s free<\/em> marketing plan template<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience\u2019s valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.<\/em><\/p>\n For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:<\/p>\n We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform].<\/em><\/p>\n The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.<\/p>\n![\"Download](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/53\/aacfe6c7-71e6-4f49-979f-76099062afa0.png\")
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Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nMarketing Plan vs. Marketing Strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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What\u2019s included in a marketing plan?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Executive Summary<\/h3>\n
Target Market Analysis<\/h3>\n
Competitive Analysis<\/h3>\n
Marketing Strategies<\/h3>\n
Tactics<\/h3>\n
Budget and Calendar<\/h3>\n
Metrics<\/h3>\n
1. State your mission.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Identify your buyer personas.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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5. Clearly define your plan’s omissions.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
6. Define your marketing budget.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
7. Identify your competition.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
8. Outline your plan’s contributors and their responsibilities.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Types of Marketing Plans<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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2. Social Media Marketing Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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3. Content Marketing Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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5. Growth Marketing Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Sample Marketing Plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Create an overview or primary objective.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Identify your buyer personas.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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