Marketing Plan

The Marketing Plan explains how the business is going to get customers to buy its products and services. This section will provide a detailed explanation of the business's pricing, promotion and distribution strategies. 

Pricing:

• Describe your pricing strategy and how you arrived at it, including your pricing relative to your costs
• How do your prices compare to those of your competition?

Product Positioning:

• How your product/service is presented in the market (i.e. luxury item, impulse buy, necessity, specialty item, etc.) 
• Tools used to solidify the appropriate image and positioning of your product/service in the market
  

Promotion and Advertising:

• Your promotional strategy, based on your target market and positioning 
• Detailed description of the types of advertising and promotion you will use to reach your target market (i.e. media advertising, direct mail, Internet, trade shows, press releases, etc.)
• Include a timeline and associated cost for each major type of promotion and/or advertising you plan to use as well as an annual budget
• Describe how you will measure the effectiveness of your promotional efforts

Sales and Distribution Strategies:

Sales Strategy:

• Based on your research and capacity, what are your sales goals (in units) per day/month/year, including any anticipated seasonality in sales
• How will your sales be conducted and who will be primarily responsible for sales
• Describe what resources will be allocated in sales in terms of both time and
  funds
• Outline your company’s services policies, guarantees, warrantees, etc.
• Credit and collection policies
• Explain how you will determine customer satisfaction

Distribution strategy:

• Includes all aspects of how your product is routed from your business to your customer
• Where your product will be sold or in the case of services businesses where your service will be delivered/conducted
• Identify intermediaries in your distribution network, such as wholesalers, distributors, etc.

Download Business Plan Format Checklist (PDF,167KB)