The Three Marketing Plan Keys

Marketing Plan, Marketing Strategy and Marketing Tactics

Before we start working on a marketing plan it’s important to understand some basic concepts of marketing. Most people make the mistake of creating a marketing mix of some fundamental marketing concepts. This mistake can lead a business plan towards failure.

Business owners often have no idea why their marketing plan failed, because they have a lack of understanding of the key concepts of making a marketing plan. The concepts I am talking about are:

Marketing Plan
Marketing Strategies
Marketing Tactics

This does not mean that these are the only three things we need to understand about a marketing plan, but we will focus on these three concepts in this article.

Marketing Plans

Marketing plans are a set of actions required to implement a successful marketing strategy. A plan consists of a drawn out document of the steps to be taken by your business over a few years time. Usually small businesses draw up a one year business plan because it is difficult for them to project more than a year ahead.

Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies are related to your business objectives. You need to devise your strategy according to your business goals. Strategies are dependent on many external factors like: your business type, budget, demographics, and other external factors related to your business. Strategies are not stand alone independent rules. You can make changes in your business strategy to suit your business goals. Strategies are the means for you to reach your goals.

Some strategies include:

• product differentiation
• innovation
• horizontal integration
• diversification
• many others

Marketing Tactics

Tactics are the execution level and are dependent on your strategy. Tactics are affected by external factors to your business. You can change your tactics based on testing and results. Many businesses use tactics in place of principles which can limit their longevity.

The reason many online businesses fail is due to following a tactic without any business foundations or principles. Tactics are based on your level of expertise and directly related to understanding broader marketing plans, strategies and principles. Your business budget and most importantly your time to execute those tactics are critical.

Do not simply buy into any tactic from another marketer because their time, funding and expertise level is different than yours. If a tactic is based on a foundation of principles, plans, and strategies to make it operable then and only then does it make sense. But more importantly it needs to appeal to you.

These three marketing keys are simply a founding principle of marketing and are permanent and evergreen to your success. If you are running an internet or brick and mortar business or if you run a digital information store online or a pet shop in a mall these keys apply. It does not matter what your business budget or marketing mix are these principles will be the same for any business owner.

We will show you how to use a marketing plan blueprint, marketing strategies and marketing tactics as this blog progresses. Stay tuned.

Author: Scott Holden – TrafficEraBlog

Online Marketing Can Make Sense