Marketing Plan: Types, Structure, and How to Create One

1. What is a marketing plan

A marketing plan is a step-by-step guide to achieving both short-term and long-term goals for a company or project. This document usually includes a set of actions needed to implement a brand strategy. It details advertising and PR campaigns, the timelines for their execution, and the KPIs to measure success. A marketing plan can be presented in any format that is convenient for the company, such as an Excel spreadsheet, PDF file, Word document, and so on.

The plan is approved by the company's top management, while the head of the marketing department is responsible for its implementation and monitoring. The entire marketing team is not always fully informed about the plan. Typically, the SEO specialist is briefed on SEO tasks, the email marketer on email campaigns, and the PPC specialist on tasks related to Google Ads and Bing Ads. Marketers report on their specific areas, and the department head compiles the overall results.

2. Why you need a marketing plan

A marketing plan is like a detailed version of a Google Map. It’s not enough to just know your final destination; it’s crucial to understand the specific steps and turns you need to take to get there. That’s why a marketing plan is essential for any company that wants to grow successfully. It’s created by small, medium, and large businesses, startup founders, and project organizers. Here are the five main reasons to create a marketing plan:

1. Helps understand where the company stands now. A marketing plan includes an analysis of the current situation, allowing you to see the strengths and weaknesses of your brand and assess the effectiveness of your work.
2. Shows where the company should be in the future. Clearly defined goals set the direction. Without moving forward, a company's competitiveness and efficiency will decline. That's why planning is essential for growth.
3. Provides instructions on how to achieve goals. A step-by-step marketing action plan helps you understand what needs to be done, when, by whom, and why. Most importantly, it shows you the tools you'll need along the way.
4. Helps plan timelines and budget. It's difficult to estimate the time and money needed to attract a certain number of new customers if each step of the process isn't clearly defined. This is why creating a marketing plan is so important. It helps you understand how much time and money are required to accomplish specific tasks.
5. Increases competitiveness. A well-crafted marketing plan allows you to analyze the company’s market position, identify problems and growth opportunities, and develop promotion strategies. This improves efficiency and helps you outpace competitors.

There are actually many more reasons to create a marketing plan. With one, you can reduce costs, organize your work, clearly define goals and objectives, and increase sales. Therefore, a marketing plan is essential for any business or project. Without it, in a highly competitive environment, a company will act chaotically, struggle to prioritize effectively, and have difficulty adapting to market changes.

3. Types of marketing plans

There is no strict classification for marketing plans. Their format and structure depend on the business goals, size, industry, and various other factors. Therefore, the categorization of marketing plans is quite flexible. Here are three main factors for classification:

1. Timeframe. Every company has its own budget and approach to business. As a result, marketing plans can be short-term, medium-term, or long-term. Short-term plans are created for a month, medium-term plans for a quarter, and long-term plans for a year or more.
2. Purpose. A marketing plan is designed with a specific goal in mind, and it outlines a detailed set of actions to achieve that goal. This is why there are marketing plans focused on increasing sales, launching a new product, SEO, SMM, and so on.
3. Planning model. The planning model defines the approach to achieving the company’s goals, the structure of the marketing plan, and its name. Depending on the planning model, there are plans like SOSTAC, 4P, 8P, and others.

As you can see, marketing plans can be categorized in various ways. In this article, we will focus on marketing plans based on different planning models. These models are used by companies regardless of their size or industry. Let’s take a closer look at some common planning models that can help you create your ideal marketing plan.

 > 4P Marketing strategy

The 4P marketing strategy is a combination of factors that a company uses to gain a competitive advantage in the market and promote its products. The basic model of the 4P marketing strategy consists of four elements:  

1. Product. The products and services that a company offers to the market.
2. Price. The amount consumers must pay to receive the product or service.
3. Place. How the product reaches the consumer and where it is sold.
4. Promotion. How the company communicates the benefits of its products and services.

Sometimes, three more elements are added:

1. People. Everyone involved in the sale of the product or service.
2. Process. How the customer selects and purchases the product.
3. Physical evidence. The physical environment surrounding the customer at the time of choosing and buying the product.

Each of these elements should be analyzed by asking the questions: who, what, where, when, and how. For example, what product or service will be launched on the market, where and at what price it will be sold, who the target audience is, and through which channels the promotion will be carried out. The answers to these questions form the basis of the marketing strategy.

> The shortest marketing plan

This is the ideal option for simplified planning. The shortest marketing plan was developed by Kelly Odell. Once, he was asked to talk about marketing planning to a group of students. At that moment, he realized that none of the existing templates suited him. According to Odell, most marketing plans are too long and cumbersome to work with.

So, Kelly Odell created his own planning model. It consists of a small table with four rows and six columns. When all the fields are filled in, your marketing plan could end up being 24 pages long. It all depends on how detailed you make each section.

The key is not to overdo it. Write tasks clearly and concisely. Try to limit the description of each section to no more than one page, even if you need to add charts or other visualizations.

The screenshot below shows the template for the shortest marketing plan. It combines the 4P model (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), which we discussed earlier, with Sherrington’s 5W method (Who, What, When, Where, Why).

> One-page marketing plan

This is an ideal option for beginners as it helps you outline tasks step by step and stay focused on completing them. The one-page marketing plan was introduced by Allan Dib, a marketer, entrepreneur, and business coach. He created a template that, once filled out, will guide you toward your goals.

The one-page marketing plan is divided into sections that cover three stages of the customer’s buying cycle: before purchase, during purchase, and after purchase. Let’s take a closer look at each stage.

1. Prospect. This section describes the target audience, the message you want to convey to each potential customer, and the communication channels needed.
2. Lead. Here, you plan how to attract leads, nurture them, and convert them into customers.
3. Customer. This section outlines how to create a positive customer experience with the brand and strategies to increase Lifetime Value (LTV). It also considers ways to turn customers into brand advocates who will recommend your company and attract new clients.

Below, you can see a template for the one-page marketing plan. You can design your marketing plan differently and add more details. Remember, the more detailed the plan, the easier it is to work with, and the more effective it will be. 

> SOSTAC marketing plan

The SOSTAC model was developed by Paul Smith in the 1990s. It became widely known after the release of his book "Marketing Communications." The model's versatility and effectiveness have made it applicable to all types of planning. As a result, the popularity of SOSTAC continues to grow, with entrepreneurs from both large and small businesses across various industries successfully using it.

SOSTAC is an acronym that stands for Situation analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, and Control. Here’s what each of these six sections includes:

1. Situation analysis. In this section, you outline where the company currently stands, its competitive advantages and opportunities, who its customers are, which channels should be used to attract buyers, and so on.
2. Objectives. At this stage, you define the company's goals, determining what you aim to achieve. It’s important that these goals are clear and formulated using the SMART model. That means they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
3. Strategy. This section focuses on developing the pathways to achieve each goal. It’s crucial to think about how the company will move from point A to point B.
4. Tactics. Here, you describe the tools you'll need to accomplish your tasks. For example, chatbots, email, SEO, SMS, and web push notifications.
5. Action. At this stage, you create timelines for reaching goals, allocate the budget, and detail the specific steps to take. For example, preparing a welcome email series, creating a lead magnet, or developing a sales funnel in Facebook Messenger.
6. Control. In this section, you outline the KPIs that will help measure effectiveness and the tools needed to track them. You also specify the people responsible for monitoring the efficiency and quality of the work.

> Traditional marketing plan

Even though there is no single structure for a marketing plan, marketers agree that it should contain six essential elements: situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, budget, and control. In the traditional format, an Excel table is often used to outline all the details.

Below, you’ll see an example of such a plan. It can be used to monitor all media activities for your business.

All tasks in the plan are grouped into several major categories. Notice that for each advertising channel, the timeline is specified, along with a specific goal, the person responsible, the target audience, click and/or visit goals, and the percentage weight (which shows the share of each channel in the overall marketing activities). Additionally, the planned budget for marketing activities is outlined.

DOWNLOAD THE TRADITIONAL MARKETING PLAN TEMPLATE

4. Structure of a marketing plan

Marketing plans vary in structure. Some provide detailed descriptions of how to promote a product to different audience segments, while others simply list all the planned marketing activities for the period, including timelines and responsible individuals. Each company decides what to include in their marketing plan. However, there are essential sections that form the core structure of any plan:

✔️ Analysis

Marketers analyze the current state of the company's business by evaluating:

• Marketing Channels: Revenue, customer engagement, and satisfaction (NPS, LTV, average order value, reviews) across different channels and services.
• SWOT analysis: The company's strengths and weaknesses, competitive advantages, risks, and opportunities.
• Customer avatars: A detailed, in-depth description of the target audience representatives.
• Alignment of marketing with business goals: How well marketing efforts align with the company’s long-term and medium-term business goals.
• Product matrix.
• Competitors. 

✔️ Action Plan

This is the action plan for achieving the company’s marketing goals: a list of tasks with assigned team members, deadlines, and budgets. Examples of tasks include:

• Competitive analysis: Evaluating key market players, their product range, distribution channels (stores, marketplaces), and typical customer profiles.
• Building a commercial semantic core for an online store: Writing meta tags and launching landing pages for products and services.
• Supplier search: Finding suppliers with favorable wholesale prices.
• Content marketing strategy: Preparing a content marketing strategy for social media and the company blog, including writing posts.
• Social media advertising: Setting up social media ads to drive traffic to the website.
• Review collection automation: Automating the collection of product reviews. 

✔️ Risk management

Large companies often create marketing plans with a timeline of 1 to 5 years. However, long-term planning is risky because the market can change due to economic, political, and social factors. No marketing plan anticipated the emergence of COVID-19, lockdowns, or QR codes. 

While large companies can weather crises with minimal damage (thanks to their budgets and human resources that allow them to quickly adjust), small businesses often struggle to break even, relying heavily on the resourcefulness of their leaders. 

It’s better to write a flexible marketing plan: make adjustments as needed and outline different possible scenarios. 

5. How to create a marketing plan

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create a marketing plan correctly:

• Analysis
  Marketers analyze the current state of the company’s business by examining marketing channels, including revenue, customer engagement, and satisfaction (NPS, LTV, average order value, reviews) across channels, as well as overall service. A SWOT analysis is conducted to identify the company’s strengths and weaknesses, competitive advantages, risks, and opportunities. Customer avatars are developed, providing a detailed and in-depth description of the target audience representatives. The alignment of marketing strategies with the company’s long-term and medium-term business goals is evaluated, along with an analysis of the product matrix and competitors’ activities.

• Objectives
  ​These could include increasing sales, expanding the customer base, boosting the number of visitors, or launching a new product. When setting objectives, specify the exact metrics you want to achieve and the timeline for achieving them. For example, "Increase the number of visitors by 30% in the fourth quarter of this year," or "Increase daily website visitors to 7,000 during the first quarter." Avoid vague goals and tasks. 

It's recommended to formulate objectives according to the SMART method:

• Target audience description
  In a marketing plan, it's crucial not only to describe your target audience (TA) but also to break it down into segments and outline the key messages you will communicate to each group. Create a detailed profile of your potential customer. The more details, the better. Consider every little aspect, as it could play a critical role in targeting and ad preparation. Keep in mind that messages will vary for different segments. For more on how to create a customer profile and where to find data, check out "How to create a target audience profile." 
  
  
• Value proposition
  This is a simple, clear, and concise description of the benefits and how you present the product to customers. In this section, you need to specify how the product solves the consumer's problem and what sets your brand apart from competitors. The value proposition is the foundation of the marketing plan and all advertising activities — everything else you plan will be based on this section.
  
  
• Action plan
  This is a calendar plan that outlines all the actions needed to achieve your objectives. These actions can include social media, radio, media outlets, blogger accounts, email, and the company blog. The approach in each channel may differ, and you’ll need to plan your content accordingly. For each channel, assign a team member who will be responsible for the results.
  
  
• KPI
  Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is impossible without key performance indicators (KPIs). It’s important to establish them during the planning stage, as this helps ensure that your efforts are aligned with your goals from the beginning. It’s crucial to choose KPIs that directly relate to the objectives of your marketing strategy. Here are the top 5 commonly used metrics: 
  Organic website traffic;
  Revenue growth;
  Landing page conversion rate;
  Cost per lead;
  ​Cost per click.
  
  
• Employee responsibilities
  To execute the plan successfully, you need to involve various team members. The document should specify who is responsible for each part of the plan. Consider who will be tasked with writing content, communicating with the media, designing banners, approving creative ideas, and so on.
  
  
• Timeline
  Indicate how much time will be needed to develop creative materials, when you will start marketing activities, and how often you will measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
  
  
• Budget
  Determine upfront how much money you have available for marketing. Specify how much you are willing to allocate for advertising on social media, Google, and other platforms. An initial budget calculation will help you distribute funds correctly and avoid overspending. 

6. Common mistakes when creating a marketing plan

No matter how perfect a marketing plan may seem, unexpected circumstances or oversights can arise. These might include: 

1. Targeting the wrong segment when launching an advertising campaign,
2. Using a non-converting slogan on an ad banner,
3. Allocating too little money for test advertising,
4. The budget for contextual advertising being spent faster than anticipated,
5. Aggregators appearing in search results, requiring more hours to be allocated to SEO. 

All of these issues can be adjusted during the process. It’s crucial to conduct analysis, gather data, and have backup options in case of failures, so you can quickly revise the plan without halting progress. Therefore, the marketing plan should be detailed yet flexible, allowing for adjustments without needing to change the overall direction due to new factors.

7. Marketing plan examples

There are many free templates available online that you can use for your company. You can find marketing plans for small businesses, restaurants, flower shops, event agencies, SMM projects, and more. These templates are categorized not only by niche but also by format. You can choose from Excel, PDF, Word, or Spreadsheet formats.

Below, I offer you a free marketing plan template that is well-suited for most businesses and projects.

Additionally, the template includes examples for filling out each section, making it easier for you to create your own marketing plan.

DOWNLOAD THE TRADITIONAL MARKETING PLAN TEMPLATE

A marketing plan should be a living document with up-to-date information. Therefore, it's important to regularly review tasks, adjust strategies if necessary, revise the budget, and so on. The market changes quickly, and so do working conditions. For a company to remain competitive and withstand challenges, it must adapt swiftly to market changes. The better and faster you can do this, the more effective your work will be.

Consistently analyze the quality of your company's interactions with the target audience. Develop omnichannel communication strategies and choose the most relevant channels.