Know-How Exchange : Other

Sounds like you've got a challenging position playing "catch all" for a lot of different assignments! Good luck!

There are tons of resources on the web to help one develop a marketing plan. Search for "marketing plan" and see what comes up. Many of the best will cost some money. One that doesn't cost money that I like is this one: https://money.howstuffworks.com/marketing-plan.htm.

You can see a good template (with explanatory links) at: https://www.quickmba.com/marketing/plan/.

If you feel over your head with these templates (and if you have done a lot of marketing work before it can feel that way easily), you might want to consider talking to a local university to see if someone in their marketing department would be willing to come talk you through yours for a small fee. You can also look for a local marketing consultant, too, although they may cost you more.

Depending on how important the marketing plan is, and whether it's for "show" or for "go," you're probably well advised to get a professional marketing consultant to work with you on the marketing plan -- especially since it's your first one.

There are books and software packages that give you the boilerplate and the section headings, but they don't give you the guts -- the real essence of the plan. If you just need this for "show," then you might be able to "fake it" with one of these books or software packages.

There's also a software package called IdeaFisher that has what they call a Q-bank -- a series of questions -- that someone will need to answer in order to create a good marketing plan. The list of questions is quite exhaustive, and it's a good list. The problem is that IdeaFisher doesn't really create the plan for you. It just points you toward some questions that are central to writing the plan.

What I'd really suggest is that you establish a reasonable budget and hire a professional for this. You can post a project on the MarketingProfs "Hire an Expert" board by clicking on "Post a Project" in the column at the right. If you offer a reasonable fee, you'll get several expressions of interest by the people on this forum.

Writing a marketing plan is much, much easier and faster when you've written a few dozen (or a few hundred) before. The first few are really tough. And you'll end up with a better plan if you have some outside perspective, too, because an experienced consultant can bring to bear a lot of the lessons he/she has learned along the way.

If this sounds like a commercial for marketing consulting, I guess it is. I truly believe in utilizing professional expertise whenever you need to do something that's really important and that is new to you.

If you find the right consultant, you can learn from him/her, too, and next time you need to create a marketing plan the process will feel that much more familiar to you. By the third or fourth one, you'll be able to do most of it yourself.

Hi -- Here are two links that help generate ideas for creating marketing plans and present articles offering ideas on various marketing topics.

https://www.bplans.com/sp/Marketingplans.cfm; https://www.mplans.com/dpm/allarticles.cfm

Special Features: Free access to various marketing plans including businesses focused on a bed & breakfast, restaurant, fitness program, shoe shop, law practice and catering.

Informative articles include Getting Noticed on a Shoestring, Seven Rules for Legal Advertising, Implementing A Successful Publicity Campaign, Efficiency in Marketing on the Web, What’s the Right Image for Your Small Business and What To Know About File Formats (EPS vs. JPG vs. GIF).

Hope you find this info helpful.
Corpcommer