Marketing Coursework

Instructions:
i) Attempt all questions
ii) All Questions carry equal marks@15 marks
iii) Work should be done in groups of not more than 7 members.

a) Develop a marketing plan for a product or service of your choice. (15

marks)
b) Discuss the concept of services marketing clearing spelling out the
characteristics of services and the factors to be considered in designing a
services element. (15 marks)

What Is A Marketing Plan?

What To Include & How To
Start
RELATED TOPICS

 Marketing Strategy First Steps

 Business Strategy Elements
 Product Strategy Elements
 Marketing Strategy Elements
 Marketing Strategy Resources

 Types Of Marketing Strategy

Ready to create a marketing plan that actually works? Learn more

about what a marketing plan is, its purpose, and all the steps you
need to create one.

Table of Contents

1. What Is A Marketing Plan?

2. Marketing Strategy Vs. Marketing Plan: What Is The Difference?
3. What Is The Purpose Of A Marketing Plan?
4. 3 Types Of Marketing Plans
5. How To Create A Marketing Plan
6. 12 Steps In The Marketing Planning Process
7. Marketing Plan FAQs

What Is A Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan documents how an organization will execute its
marketing strategy to actualize the organization’s vision.
Marketing Plan

Marketing plans are operational documents that outline target

markets, goals, competition, content initiatives, budgets, editorial
schedules, and process methodologies.

Marketing plans include:

 Marketing goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs)

 Target market and audience personas based on market research of
pain points and solution expectations
 Competitive analysis and market trends
 Marketing initiatives, channels, tactics, and content
 Responsibilities and resource needs for people, processes, and
technology
 Budget requirements to execute the plan effectively and efficiently
 Editorial scheduling, timelines, and execution methodologies
Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Check out this easy
guide to create a winning marketing plan!
Download Your Marketing Plan Template Now

Marketing Strategy Vs. Marketing Plan:

What Is The Difference?
Marketing strategy is what the company will do to actualize the
organization’s vision, leveraging strengths while mitigating risks.
The marketing plan documents how the company will actualize the
marketing strategy.
1. Marketing strategy is what the company wants to do to achieve
the desired states and outcomes for their business. A complete
marketing strategy includes the company’s value proposition, brand
messaging, agreed-upon strategic approach, and business
objectives. Each strategic action item should align with top-level
goals and ultimately fulfill the company’s vision statement.
 Simply put, a marketing strategy is a philosophy that drives
marketing decisions and keeps track of goals.

How will a business achieve its missions or goals?

 Launching campaigns

 Producing quality content

 Being active on customer-facing channels

 Keeping their marketing tech stack efficient

2. The marketing plan documents how the company will execute the
marketing strategy to achieve the desired states and outcomes.
When building a marketing plan, be sure to add…

 In-depth research of the target market

 A list of marketing activities and when they will happen – monthly,

quarterly, or annually

 A timeline of completion for tasks within the strategy

 Processes & workflows for implementation

 KPIs

What Is The Purpose Of A Marketing

Plan?
A marketing plan helps you organize, execute, and track your
planned marketing activities. It’s a strategic roadmap to actualize
your business goals.
3 Types Of Marketing Plans
A word of caution about different types of marketing plans:

Marketing strategy is a comprehensive approach for the

organization to actualize the vision by leveraging marketing
skills, tactics, and resources.
Therefore, it is a humble opinion that there is only one marketing
strategy—and one true marketing plan—per organization. Too many
marketing plans likely indicate disconnects in the organization’s
overall approach toward realizing its vision.
That said, various marketing plans may make sense for your
organization to create based on marketing strategists’ specialization
areas. Let’s take a look.

1. Tactical Marketing Plans

 Tactical marketing plans align activities for a specific tactic to the
marketing strategy.

Tactical Marketing Plan Examples:

1. Paid marketing plans

2. Influencer marketing plans

3. Referral marketing plans

4. Co-branding marketing plans

5. Product launch marketing plans

Recommended Reading: 35 Marketing Tactics That Work (And How

to Plan Them)

2. Channel Marketing Plans

Channel marketing plans focus on optimizing a specific method or
platform to actualize the marketing strategy.
Channel Marketing Plan Examples:

1. Social media marketing plans

2. Email marketing plans

3. Event marketing plans

4. Conference marketing plans

5. SMS marketing plans

Recommended Reading: How to Select Marketing Channels That

Drive the Best Results

Recommended Reading: Mastering Mobile Marketing

 3. Marketing Content Plans
Marketing content plans align the focus of specific types of content
with actualizing the marketing strategy.

Marketing Content Plan Examples:

1. Newsletter marketing plans

2. Podcast marketing plans

3. Video marketing plans

4. Landing page marketing plans

5. Guest blog post marketing plans

Recommended Reading: 113 Types of Content Marketing You Can

Add to Your Calendar Now

How To Create A Marketing Plan

Here are some of the most common components of a marketing
plan. If you’re curious, here is a full list of many (if not all) marketing
plan components and elements you may consider when drafting
your marketing plan outline.

1. Write An Executive Summary

An executive summary gives you a high-level overview of the
document. Think of it as your marketing plan’s TL;DR.

Ask yourself these questions to highlight your marketing

plan’s main points in the executive summary:
 What types of customers are you targeting?

 What patents or products will you market specifically?

 What unique partnerships will you leverage to succeed?

 How is your marketing plan special?

 How will your company stand out?

 What problem are you solving?

 What is the solution?

 Why now?

Some businesses use a paragraph or two for their executive

summary, while others go more in-depth. HubSpot has a two-page
marketing plan executive summary example with subheaders for
each topic:
2. Develop A Mission Statement
The first step in creating a marketing plan is to develop a mission
statement. You need a basic understanding of what your company is
trying to achieve and where it’s headed, like this example
from CoSchedule.
 The statement should also briefly describe the purpose of your
marketing efforts. It should be clear, short, and easy to understand.
Once you have developed your mission statement, you can use it to
guide the rest of your marketing planning.

3. Set Your Marketing Goals

What will success look like in your marketing plan? This section will
establish your financial and non-financial goals. Vital
Marketing recommends setting two main goals and three to five
supporting goals. Marketers who set goals are 376% more likely to
report success.
Establish your financial goals:

 How much money do you want to generate with your marketing?

 Can you break that revenue down into a specific number of sales?

 How can you make your marketing earnings and spending align with
your business goals?

Hash out your non-financial goals:

 Put out fresh content without increasing your workload

 Get better mileage out of your best content

 Re-use content that didn’t perform well but had great promise

Once you know your goals, it’s also crucial for you to define
your marketing objectives. When you define those, you can
understand if you’ve successfully reached your goals in a clear and
quantifiable way.
Recommended Reading: What Are The Goals Of Marketing? A Brief
Overview Of What To Influence With Your Marketing Activities

4. Set Your KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) track progress and measure
success in marketing. Common marketing KPIs include website
traffic, conversion rate, cost-per-acquisition, number of leads, and
more. You might already be sourcing some social media KPIs from
your CoSchedule’s analytics dashboards, such as Engagement Rate
or Total Engagements.
 When selecting which KPIs to feature in your marketing plan,
consider the following elements:

 What lead indicators could you monitor that have high potential to
meet your goals?

 What actions must prospective customers take for them to achieve

your goals?

 How will you monitor if these lead indicators and activities are
happening as desired?

Recommended Reading: How to Select Marketing Metrics and KPIs

to Prove Your Strategy Works

5. Define Your Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal
customer. They are based on market research and real data about
your existing customers.

Don’t underestimate the power of buyer personas. Well-thought-out

personas can help you better understand your target audience and
create better initiatives. Marketing campaigns are the most
successful when they resonate with the people you’re trying to
reach.

Where do you start?

We recommend starting your target audience research for your

marketing plan with these questions:
 How would we describe our current best customers?

 Why did these customers look for a product or service like ours?

 Why did they hire us?

 How do these customers benefit from choosing us over the

competition?

As an example, BusinessTown’s marketing plan takes a unique

approach in their target audience description for a hypothetical
landscaping company by also noting what customers they don’t
want to target:

Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and

Create a Marketing Persona

Check out Indie Game Girl’s example of a marketing plan buyer

persona:
 6. Perform Competitive Research & Situational
Analysis
Your situational analysis will help you understand your marketing
situation at a glance. By researching your competitors, you can
understand their strengths and weaknesses and, by comparison,
learn more about your own. Include these elements in it:
Company Outline:

 Statistics about company size, locations, employees, etc.

 Tagline

 Unique selling proposition

 Sector
 Brand awareness

Competitor Outline (one per major competitor):

 Products

 Universal selling point

 Strengths compared to your organization

 Weaknesses compared to your organization

Environmental Factors:

 Internal

 External

 Economic

 Sociological

 Industry trends

Use the SWOT Analysis Generator to gain deeper insights into your
business strategy today!
Recommended Reading: SWOT Analysis: How To Conduct Your
Marketing SWOT

7. Implement Goal-Oriented Initiatives

Within a marketing plan, there could be several initiatives. Initiatives
are key focus areas that leverage your company’s strengths and
opportunities and successfully influence the most profitable
customer action.

All initiatives must conclude in reaching one or more of the strategic

business objectives and marketing goals.
 For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, your
initiatives might include starting a social media campaign and doing
manual sales outreach.

Ideally, initiatives should align and “talk to each other” to create a

consistent customer experience.

Answer the following questions to get an idea of your initiatives:

 What are your target industries?

 What are your target verticals?

 What marketing tactics will you use to reach your target market?
 What marketing channels will you use to get your target market?
 What types of content will you publish and promote to reach your
target market?
 What should your marketing funnel look like to influence your
marketing goals?
8. Embrace Your Responsibilities
For a marketing plan to be successful, you need buy-in and support
from all marketing team members. However, it’s also important to
ensure that each team member understands where, how, and when
they need to contribute.

Ideally, you should have a project lead who oversees each campaign
as it flows through the cross-functional team.

Couple that with an established internal process, and the workflow

will be smooth, and you will meet your goals.

For example, if the marketing team wanted to release a new ebook,

the content, social, and product marketing teams would all have to
work together in a cross-functional manner to make it happen.
The Content Strategist or the Content Marketing Manager would
likely be the one spearheading the project.
 Get started by asking yourself a few questions:

 What departments must be involved to execute the initiatives

effectively?

 What teams within departments must be involved?

 What specific roles must be involved?

 What particular people must be involved?

 What will each person’s responsibilities be?

 How will you hold each person accountable for completing their
duties?
 Who needs to be involved in approvals?

 What cross-functional frameworks must exist to operate effectively

and efficiently?

Recommended Reading: Marketing Operations: The Start to Finish

Guide for Busy Managers

9. Determine Your Marketing Budget

Include an overview of your budget and spending priorities in your
marketing plan. This budget summary will help you make marketing
decisions faster by giving them a financial context.

First, make sure you have a defined total budget. We discuss ways
to calculate your marketing budget in the Marketing Strategy Hub.
Marketing Budget

Your marketing budget is the planned amount of money you’ll spend

to make your marketing goal a reality.

Once you have that total number, break it down into the costs for
each project you want to do. Organize your tasks into needs and
wants:

 Needs: Projects your business needs to execute for a

successful marketing strategy.
 Wants: Projects that are nice to have but don’t necessarily tie into
your greater marketing strategy.

Write down how much your needs will cost. Then, you can delegate
what you have left in your total budget to your most important
wants.
10. Use An Editorial Calendar To Plan Your
Content
An editorial calendar is a tool you can use to plan and schedule
content. It can track deadlines, ensure that all content pieces align
with the marketing objectives, and keep the marketing team
organized.

Editorial calendars can come in many different formats.

Monthly

A monthly editorial calendar usually lists the most details about

upcoming campaigns. You can use this type of calendar to track
deadlines, content topics, and who is responsible for each task.

Quarterly

A quarterly editorial calendar offers a more broad view of upcoming

content. This type of calendar can plan out themes or marketing
initiatives that will span multiple months.

Annually

Establish an annual editorial calendar if you want to see your

marketing plan through a bird’s eye view. It covers the most high-
level initiatives and can be used to track the overall brand narrative
and align business objectives.

12 Steps In The Marketing Planning

Process
Marketing planning is a crucial aspect of any successful
marketing campaign. It involves a systematic approach to
identifying and analyzing potential opportunities, developing a
comprehensive plan, executing the plan, and measuring results to
make improvements in the future. A well-planned marketing
strategy can help companies achieve their marketing goals,
enhance their brand image, and increase revenue.

The marketing planning process includes twelve steps, which are

divided into three broad phases: strategizing, planning, and
execution. In this section, we will discuss these steps in detail.
Step 1: Strategize
The first step in the marketing planning process is to develop a
strategic plan. This involves identifying opportunities and options,
brainstorming and prioritizing ideas, and determining the best action
to achieve your marketing objectives.

Opportunities brainstorming and prioritization: This step involves

brainstorming ideas and prioritizing them based on their potential
impact on your marketing goals. It is essential to consider various
opportunities, including market trends, consumer behavior, industry
developments, and competitor actions.
Options brainstorming and prioritization: After identifying potential
opportunities, the next step is brainstorming various options for
capitalizing on them. This could include developing new products or
services, refining existing ones, or improving your marketing tactics.

Step 2: Plan
The planning phase involves developing a comprehensive plan for
your marketing campaign. This includes creating a creative/project
brief, defining expectations against which you may hold contributors
accountable, establishing campaign and project timelines, and
gaining stakeholder awareness, opinions, and approval.

One of the most important aspects of this step is to create a brief.

A creative brief outlines your marketing campaign’s objectives,
target audience, messaging, and design elements. This document
serves as a guide for all team members involved in the campaign.

You will also need to set the expectations against which you may
hold contributors accountable. Setting clear expectations for team
members is essential to ensure everyone is on the same page
regarding goals and timelines.

Finally, there will need to be some form of stakeholder awareness,

opinion gathering, and approval. Maintaining stakeholder
awareness, opinions, and approval helps ensure the campaign aligns
with the company’s overall strategy and goals.

Step 3: Write
The third step in the marketing planning process is to develop
written content for the campaign. This is a critical step, as the
written content serves as the backbone of any marketing campaign.
Without compelling messaging and copy, the design and visuals of
the campaign are unlikely to have the desired impact on the target
audience.

In some cases, it may be necessary to engage a professional

copywriter or content creator to develop the written content. This
can be particularly beneficial for larger or more complex campaigns
where the messaging needs to be finely tuned to achieve the
desired impact.

Step 4: Design/Record
The next step is to create the design elements of the campaign,
such as graphics, videos, and other visual content. This step
involves collaborating with designers, videographers, and other
creative professionals to bring the campaign to life.
Ensuring that every aspect aligns with the brand vision and
aesthetic will help create a sense of continuity. This helps the reader
feel that it is tied into the other marketing elements already in place
and provides a professional component to each piece.

Step 5: Edit
The editing phase involves revising all campaign elements, including
text and visual content, such as graphics, videos, animations, and so
on. It is essential in creating an impactful campaign, as your
campaign elements will catch the target audience’s attention and
convey the intended message.

These elements are generally created in collaboration with a team of

professionals, including graphic designers, videographers,
animators, writers, and other creative professionals. These
individuals have the technical expertise and creative skills required
to produce high-quality content. The editing process ensures that all
text and visual elements align with the brand’s messaging and tone
of voice.

Step 6: Stage
The staging phase involves preparing the campaign for launch. This
could include setting up social media accounts, scheduling email
campaigns, and designing other promotional materials. This phase
typically involves several key activities, including:

If social media is part of the campaign strategy, setting up social

media accounts before launch is essential. This includes creating
accounts on all relevant social media platforms and ensuring their
optimization for the campaign’s messaging and branding.

Email marketing is an effective way to reach a target audience

directly. Marketers should schedule email campaigns in advance and
test them thoroughly before launch to ensure that the campaign’s
email marketing efforts are effective.

The campaign’s website is a critical component of the overall

strategy. Before launch, marketers should ensure that the website is
fully functional, optimized for SEO, and aligned with the campaign’s
messaging and branding.

Step 7: Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is a critical step in the marketing planning
process. This involves testing the campaign to ensure that all
elements function correctly and that the messaging is clear and
effective. The QA process typically involves several key activities,
including:

Functionality testing: Functionality testing involves checking that all

campaign elements, such as the website, landing pages, and email
campaigns, function correctly. This includes testing links, forms, and
other interactive elements to ensure they work as expected.
Usability testing: Usability testing involves testing the user
experience to ensure it is easy to navigate and use. This could
include testing the website’s layout, the clarity of the messaging,
and the ease of use of interactive elements.
Performance testing: Performance testing involves testing the speed
and responsiveness of the campaign. This could include testing the
website’s load time, the speed of email campaigns, and the
responsiveness of interactive elements.
Cross-platform testing: Cross-platform testing involves testing the
campaign across different devices and platforms. This ensures that
the campaign works correctly on desktop computers, mobile
devices, and different web browsers.
Content testing: Content testing involves testing the campaign’s
messaging to ensure it is clear, effective, and aligned with its
objectives. This could include testing headlines, body copy, and calls
to action to ensure they resonate with the target audience.

Step 8: Publish
The publish phase involves launching the campaign and making it
available to the target audience. This phase is critical to the success
of the campaign. It marks the culmination of all the planning and
execution efforts of the marketing team and is the point at which
the campaign is launched and made available to the target
audience.

Step 9: Measure
The measurement phase occurs after the campaign has been
launched and is critical to evaluating the success of the campaign.
The measurement phase involves tracking and analyzing data
related to the campaign’s performance against the established
objectives.

During the measurement phase, several key activities take place,

including:
Tracking metrics: It is essential to track metrics that align with the
campaign’s objectives. These could include website traffic, social
media engagement, email open and click-through rates, conversion
rates, or other relevant metrics.
Analyzing data: The data collected during the measurement phase is
analyzed to evaluate the campaign’s performance against the
established objectives. This analysis can help identify areas of
success and areas that may require improvement.
Making adjustments: Based on the data and analysis, adjustments
may be made to the campaign strategy. This could involve adjusting
the messaging, refining the targeting, or adjusting the budget.
Continuously monitoring: It is important to monitor the campaign’s
performance throughout the measurement phase to ensure it meets
the established objectives.

Step 10: Retrospective Analysis

After the campaign is complete, the team should conduct a
retrospective analysis to identify what went well, what didn’t, and
what could be done differently in the future.

This information should come from collecting feedback from all

stakeholders involved in the campaign, including team members,
clients, and vendors. Feedback can be gathered through surveys,
interviews, or other means.

The team should develop action plans to improve future campaigns

based on feedback, evaluation, and analysis. These action plans
could include adjusting the campaign strategy, refining the
targeting, or improving the planning and execution processes.
Step 11: Review & Report
The review and reporting phase involves sharing the campaign
results with stakeholders, including executives, shareholders, and
employees.

Based on the information gathered and the initial steps taken in the
previous step, this step helps define the actionable steps that will be
taken on future initiatives and will vastly improve the efforts moving
forward. It will also provide a written document that can be used to
benchmark all campaigns.

Step 12: Iterate

The final step in the marketing planning process is to use the
knowledge gained from the retrospective analysis and stakeholder
feedback to iterate on future campaigns. This could involve refining
the marketing strategy, adjusting messaging, or changing tactics to
reach the target audience.

At CoSchedule, we use our knowledge-sharing platform, Guru, to

share all changed processes or integration steps after every
campaign. This enables all team members to stay up-to-date on the
new policies in one centralized location that can be accessed
anytime.

It is important to note that the marketing planning process is not

linear, and each step is interconnected. As such, marketers should
be flexible and adapt their approach as needed based on feedback
and results.
The marketing planning process is a comprehensive approach to
developing and executing successful marketing campaigns.
Following the steps outlined in this section, marketers can develop
effective campaigns that achieve their objectives, enhance their
brand image, and increase revenue. The key to success is to remain
agile and adaptable, using feedback and data to inform future
campaigns and improve results over time.

Marketing Plan FAQs

What Is The Difference Between A Marketing Plan

Vs. A Business Plan?
A business plan documents the highest-level strategy for an
organization, including essentials such as mission, vision, values,
assets, human resources, and more.

A marketing plan documents how your team will execute a

marketing strategy. The marketing strategy is based on the “north
star” vision, which is documented in the business plan. It translates
the “north star” vision into tangible actions marketers can perform
to achieve their goals using their skill sets and contributions.

What Is A Marketing Plan Template?

A marketing plan template is a tool that organizations use to outline
and track their marketing initiatives. A marketing plan template can
be as straightforward or complex as you need it to be.
The important thing is that it includes all the critical information you
will need to track your progress and measure your success.

What Is An Executive Summary In A Marketing

Plan?
An executive summary is a brief overview of the marketing plan. It
should include the marketing objectives, key initiatives, and
expected results. The executive summary should be concise and to
the point.

What Is A Top-Down Marketing Strategy?

A top-down marketing strategy is an approach where senior
executives drive the marketing plan, initiatives, and goals. These
details trickle down in the hierarchy, and managers, specialists, and
associates will try to match the plans with campaigns and tactics.

What Is A Bottom-Up Marketing Strategy?

A bottom-up marketing strategy flips the traditional model on its
head. In this scenario, employees of all levels are involved in
developing marketing initiatives. This marketing strategy often
results in more buy-in and support from employees.

What Are The 5 Elements Of A Marketing Plan?

The 5 elements of a marketing plan typically refer to the 5 Ps of
marketing, also known as the marketing mix: product, price, place,
promotion, and packaging.
What Are The 7 Elements Of A Marketing Plan?
The 7 elements of a marketing plan traditionally include the 7 Ps of
marketing, also called the marketing mix: product, price, place,
promotion, packaging, positioning, and people.

What Is An Example Of A Marketing Plan?

Here is a one-page marketing plan example from CoSchedule:
Read this resource for a full list of marketing plan samples and
examples from 40+ organizations.
How Do I Build A Marketing Plan?

The best way to build a marketing plan will vary depending on your
organization’s needs. In any case, you’ll need to define your goals,
conduct market research, follow a marketing strategy, create
efficient campaigns, and keep track of your achievements. Then
you’ve got yourself a marketing plan!

WRITTEN BY
Nathan Ellering
 Nathan is the Head of Content & SEO at SimpleTexting. He's a demand
generation enthusiast, content marketing advocate, and team player. He
enjoys spending time with family and friends, running ultra marathons, and
canoeing in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. Connect with Nathan
on LinkedIn.
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