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Follow these templates and guidelines to get started on your business's marketing plan.
To have a successful business, you need a well-thought-out marketing plan to promote your products or services. Although making a few social media posts or blasting a few promotional emails may seem simple enough, disjointed marketing efforts not only confuse your target audience, but can ultimately harm your business.
A marketing plan is a strategic road map for how you communicate (online and offline) with your target audience to successfully promote your products or services. Depending on your goal, marketing plans can be extremely basic or highly detailed.
According to Molly Maple Bryant, vice president of marketing at Vibrent Health, a marketing plan is not simply a list of things you want to accomplish. Instead, it should list the outcomes you seek — measurable and contextual, like the pipeline you’re developing, or leads you’re generating — and it should explain the high-level strategies you will use to achieve those outcomes. Developing strategies can be complicated, but they make a major difference in keeping you on track and avoiding diversions, also called scope creep .
“Once you have an agreed-upon plan, you are able to compare any incoming requests against your strategies to determine ‘Yes, this adheres to my strategy so we can add it,’ or ‘No, this sounds good in theory, but it doesn’t adhere to our agreed-upon strategy, so we won’t adjust resources,'” Bryant told us.
There are several different types of marketing plans you can use based on certain strategies that make sense for your organization. Your business will likely need a combination of the following marketing plans to create an effective, comprehensive marketing strategy:
A marketing plan is a crucial resource for any small business because it helps you identify the market needs your product or service meets, how your product is different from competitors, and who your product or service is for. Marketing plans also serve as a road map for your sales strategy, branding direction and building your overall business. This is important for successfully conveying your brand messaging to your target audience .
Another significant benefit of a marketing plan for your company is that rather than simply guessing metrics, it forces you to sit down and do the math about your business goals and how to realistically fulfill them. When you look at your growth outcomes, you can delve further to determine what it will take to get to those numbers.
Bryant offered the following example: “Need $100,000 in revenue? How many sales is that? If 10, what’s your close rate? Let’s say 10 percent from lead to closed deal. Now you have a metric to start with — to get to 10 sales, we need 100 leads. Where will they come from, and what strategies will you use? The plan helps you put it all on paper so you can map out resources and tactics later with a lot of preparation and realism,” said Bryant.
When analyzing outcomes and resources, you can save time and avoid scope creep by focusing only on strategies that are relevant to your marketing plan. A marketing plan helps you think realistically about your strategies, gets your stakeholders on the same page, and holds your marketing team accountable for their decisions.
“When everyone’s tasks and goals are laid out for the stakeholders and company partners to see, it is much easier for the entire team to feel at ease about reaching sales goals and allowing the marketing team the space and freedom needed to execute work without constant supervision,” said Cassady Dill, digital marketing consultant and owner of Ethos Agency.
Additionally, Dill said a marketing plan should be easily understood by your entire team, executives and outside departments. Your plan should also serve as an easy guide for future marketing managers and team members to understand and implement.
A marketing plan should be customized to fit your business; however, Dill said, all marketing plans contain five essential functions:
We broke down those five functions into 10 actionable categories to help you create a marketing plan that is unique and effective for your business.
The executive summary is a great place to give the reader of your plan an overview of your business’s mission or goals, as well as the marketing strategy you’re looking to employ. An executive summary is often written after you’ve completed the rest of the marketing plan, to ensure it covers all the important elements of your plan. If the executive summary is the only part of your marketing plan that someone reads (which is highly possible), you want to be sure they understand the most crucial details.
The mission statement , not to be confused with a vision statement, is a statement that encompasses your company’s values and how they relate to your overall goals as an organization. Here are some good questions to get you thinking:
Identifying your target market is one of the most important parts of your marketing plan. Without a defined target audience, your marketing expenses will be wasted. Think of it like this: Some people need your service or product but don’t know it exists yet. Who are those people?
Here are some other questions to help you brainstorm your target market :
In this section, don’t just list what your product or service is. Think critically about what you have to offer your customers and what that value proposition means to them.
At this point in your report, you should transition your thinking into actual marketing theory and practices. Distribution channels are the avenues you’ll use to reach a prospective customer or business . Think of all current and potential sales channels on which your specific target audience is active. One distribution channel that works great for one organization may be useless to another. For example, one company may host their website for free on a site like HubSpot and solely rely on that as their sales channel, while another company may have a whole team of people using Pinterest to drive sales. [Learn how CRM systems can help track your marketing leads based on various distribution channels.]
Examples of sales channels include the following:
One of the major aspects of your marketing plan is developing your unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is a feature or stance that separates your product or service from competitors. Finding your USP is all about differentiation and distinguishing your company as a sole proprietor of one type of good or service. Conduct a competitive analysis to identify your competitive profile and how you stack up against the competition. It is important to remain unbiased when conducting this analysis.
Here are some ideas to consider:
Consider pricing when drafting your marketing plan. Developing the right pricing strategy helps you better market your product. Think about your current and projected finances when developing a long-term marketing strategy that is realistic and beneficial for your business. Here are some key questions to ask yourself about your pricing:
Consider your objectives when developing a marketing plan. This aspect of your plan should involve specific goals related to market penetration and revenue targets. Be sure to keep your marketing objectives on-brand with your business. Here are some things to consider:
With all of the above items outlined, determine what steps need to be taken to enact your marketing plan. This includes determining the proper steps, setting goals, breaking down responsibilities, and establishing an overall timeline.
It’s also important to brainstorm potential roadblocks your business could face and some solutions to overcome them. Your research is useless if you don’t have an actionable plan that can be realistically implemented to carry out your ideas.
This last step allows you to establish a realistic marketing budget and better understand your marketing plan from a cost perspective. In addition to setting a budget, consider the overall return on investment as well. Here are some other financial projections to consider:
The internet is full of useful tools, including paid and free marketing plan templates, to help you build a successful marketing plan .
Whether you are looking for a free template generator to build a new marketing plan or a benchmarking tool to evaluate your current strategies, several great resources are available. Keep in mind that the best marketing plan for your business will be a customized one.
“Ultimately, you should design a marketing plan that best serves the needs of your team as you see fit,” said Dill. “Don’t force yourself into a plan that doesn’t fit your team. Use templates to shorten the workload time, but then adjust it for a more custom plan.”
Here are some tools and templates to get you started:
When creating an effective marketing plan, you need to avoid falling for common missteps and mistakes. For starters, failing to identify any of the 10 actionable categories above is an obvious mistake.
Here are some other key mistakes to avoid:
Avoiding these mistakes and missteps can help you create a more effective and successful marketing plan that drives results for your business.
Before you dive into marketing plan templates, it’s important to understand how to think about a marketing plan.
A good marketing plan targets who your buyers are, establishes the service or product you are offering, and determines your unique selling proposition. From here, you will tackle the marketing planning process and develop the best way to get your product in front of buyers who want your product or service.
Dill created a simple four-step process for how small businesses can take action with creating a marketing plan.
In addition to drafting your own plan, you can work with a digital marketing agency or use internet marketing and pay-per-click management services to leverage your online presence.
Once you’ve established a general road map, update it annually. Developing an evolving marketing plan sets your business up for continued success because it allows you to prepare for the unexpected and establish a connection between your brand and your audience.
Matt D’Angelo contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
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You’ve addressed what you’re selling and why in the products and services section. You now have an understanding of the market and an ideal customer in mind thanks to your market analysis. Now, you need to explain how you will actually reach and sell to them.
The marketing and sales section of your business plan dives into how you’re going to accomplish your goals. You’ll be answering questions like:
By the end of this section, you should have an outline of what growth looks like, what milestones you intend to hit, and how you’ll measure success. Basically, you’re backing up the opportunity you’ve identified with a solid go-to-market plan.
The sections you should include act as a useful framework for exploring and defining your marketing and sales tactics.
How does your business differ? What do you do that others don’t? If you’re unsure, work through a handful of strategic exercises to create a simple but convincing positioning statement.
A marketing plan brings together strategic goals with tangible marketing activities designed to reach and engage your target market—ultimately convincing them to purchase your product.
A good sales strategy provides actionable steps to reach your goals. Estimate how much you intend to sell and outline a process that anyone else in your business can execute.
The basics of a marketing and sales plan are fairly straightforward. However, it’s also the perfect place to flesh out any details that you think will make your outreach efforts successful.
What makes your business unique? How does the solution you provide stand out? This is your chance to point to what you believe potential customers will find more valuable about your business over the competition.
While we don’t recommend creating separate traditional and digital marketing plans, it may be wise to explore and address them separately within your plan.
How will you convince your customers to buy your products or services? While actual ads and promotions may be months away, it’s best to think through and even mock up designs now.
With this simple analysis, you’ll better understand your strengths and weaknesses, along with the opportunities and threats you should account for.
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A marketing strategy refers to a business’s overall game plan to facilitate the buying and selling of its products or services. A marketing strategy determines how to reach prospective consumers and turn them into customers. It contains the company’s value proposition , key brand messaging, data on target customer demographics, and other high-level elements.
A thorough marketing strategy covers the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.
A clear marketing strategy should revolve around the company’s value proposition, which communicates to consumers what the company stands for, how it operates, and why it deserves its business.
This provides marketing teams with a template that should inform their initiatives across all of the company’s products and services. For example, Walmart ( WMT ) is widely known as a discount retailer with “everyday low prices,” whose business operations and marketing efforts are rooted in that idea.
The marketing strategy is outlined in the marketing plan —a document that details the specific types of marketing activities that a company conducts and contains timetables for rolling out various marketing initiatives.
Marketing strategies should ideally have longer life spans than individual marketing plans because they contain value propositions and other key elements of a company’s brand, which generally hold constant over the long haul. In other words, marketing strategies cover big-picture messaging, while marketing plans delineate the logistical details of specific campaigns.
For example, a marketing strategy might say that a company aims to increase authority in niche circles where their clients visit. The marketing plan puts that into action by commissioning thought leadership pieces on LinkedIn.
The ultimate goal of a marketing strategy is to achieve and communicate a sustainable competitive advantage over rival companies by understanding the needs and wants of its consumers. Whether it’s a print ad design, mass customization , or a social media campaign, a marketing asset can be judged based on how effectively it communicates a company’s core value proposition .
Market research can help chart the efficacy of a given campaign and can help identify untapped audiences to achieve bottom-line goals and increase sales.
Creating a marketing strategy requires a few steps. Here are some of the steps you should consider when creating your marketing strategy.
A marketing strategy helps a company direct its advertising dollars to where it will have the most impact. Compared with the data from 2018, the correlation between organization and success in marketers jumped from being almost four times more likely to almost seven times more likely in 2022.
The four Ps are product, price, promotion, and place. These are the key factors that are involved in the marketing of a good or service . The four Ps can be used when planning a new business venture, evaluating an existing offer, or trying to optimize sales with a target audience. It also can be used to test a current marketing strategy on a new audience.
A marketing strategy will detail the advertising, outreach, and public relations campaigns to be carried out by a firm, including how the company will measure the effect of these initiatives.
They will typically follow the four Ps. The functions and components of a marketing plan include market research to support pricing decisions and new market entries, tailored messaging that targets certain demographics and geographic areas, and platform selection for product and service promotion—digital, radio, Internet, trade magazines, and the mix of those platforms for each campaign, and metrics that measure the results of marketing efforts and their reporting timelines.
The terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” are often used interchangeably because a marketing plan is developed based on an overarching strategic framework. In some cases, the strategy and the plan may be incorporated into one document, particularly for smaller companies that may only run one or two major campaigns in a year. The plan outlines marketing activities on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, while the marketing strategy outlines the overall value proposition.
Companies need to sell their products and services to generate revenue and put them on the path of being a successful business. To sell their products or services, they have to let consumers know of them. They must also convince consumers to buy them as well as convert consumers from competitors. Having a marketing strategy that outlines this process and more is a crucial step in converting consumers into customers.
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Once you've launched a business, you'll want to do everything in your power to help it succeed. Organizing your promotional activities around a well-researched marketing strategy is one of the best ways to set goals and measure your progress.
A marketing strategy is one of the most important parts of your overall brand or business strategy. It's a written document that provides a broad framework for the marketing activities you'll do to promote your work, your products, or yourself.
You'll typically create a marketing strategy when you want to achieve specific goals or reach certain milestones. This could be increasing your sales numbers or social media followers or raising or reinforcing brand awareness.
Making a marketing strategy can also provide clarity on your goals and help you stay organized.
Components of a marketing strategy typically include:
Information about your business and its niche
Your business goals
Your target customer or ideal audience
Research on your competitors
A broad look at your proposed marketing activities
How you'll measure success
All of these components are tailored to your specific business needs. You can think of a marketing strategy like a fingerprint. Your business has unique goals, and so the path toward success will also be distinct.
A marketing strategy is closely related to a marketing plan, but the two things have different purposes. A strategy proposes what you're looking to accomplish, while a plan tackles how this will happen.
A marketing plan also outlines the specific things you'll do to execute your marketing strategy.
A strategy might propose using social media to promote the launch of a new product. In the plan, you'll then spell out how often to post on Instagram per week, or outline ways you'll repurpose content across digital channels.
Think of the strategy as a blueprint for a new building, and the plan as the raw materials used in construction. A marketing plan needs the structure of a marketing strategy to be successful.
There's no right or wrong time to create a marketing strategy, but it's generally more effective once your business is up and running. You'll be able to measure the effectiveness of promotional approaches on an audience familiar with your work. Building a customer base from the ground up also requires a different mindset and strategy.
Consider creating a marketing strategy when:
You're expanding your services. A wedding photographer might want to advertise that they're now offering family photo shoots.
You want to grow your audience or customer base. When you have the capacity to add clients or want more people to know about your products, a marketing strategy can help you figure out the best approach.
You've done a brand refresh or business pivot. Marketing strategies are a great way to reintroduce yourself to past customers and attract new ones.
You have a specific product to promote. Designers who might have product drops around certain holidays or seasons can often benefit from a tailored marketing strategy.
You want to promote yourself. Content creators can position themselves as subject matter experts or thought leaders to get speaking engagements or freelance assignments.
Defining a marketing strategy can feel daunting, but taking a step-by-step approach can make the process less overwhelming.
Create a marketing strategy after you've built a website and set up your social media channels . Your brand and business are built on this foundation. From an analytics perspective, websites and social media channels can also inform your marketing research.
Before marketing your business to other people, make sure you can describe it yourself.
Consider writing one-sentence, two-sentence, and paragraph-long descriptions of your business. Outline what you do, what services you provide, and your unique value proposition. Having these top of mind can help direct your research and focus your goal-setting.
An effective marketing strategy is informed by research, particularly into the marketing activities of competitors.
Conducting research into other businesses within your niche provides insights into things you're doing right and areas where you can improve.
Some questions you might ask include:
What marketing channels are they using?
How often are they posting on social media?
Are they prioritizing photos, video, or written content?
What are competitors not doing that you could adopt?
What promotional activities do you find most appealing?
Where do our marketing approaches overlap?
Your own social media channels and website are invaluable sources for your marketing strategy. These clues can steer your business and strategic decisions.
Use your website and social media analytics to gather information about your existing customer demographics, how people are finding your business, social media engagement, and popular posts or web pages.
You can also look for patterns in your own promotional activities. Perhaps you've noticed that the people who comment on your social media posts are gravitating toward a specific piece of writing or product.
Market research helps you identify your existing audience and define potential customers. That research can help you figure out what makes you stand out. Your business might be providing a service that's unique in your area or offer more competitive pricing.
You can also tailor your marketing strategy toward your likely customers. If your audience is younger, they might prefer one social media channel over another or relate better to video marketing. Someone who has a wedding photography business will want to target newly engaged couples.
Success looks different for every business. But a marketing strategy is built around well-defined goals that spell out what you're looking to accomplish.
Some possible outcomes might be:
Raising awareness of your business
Generating more sales and revenue
Gaining customers
Increasing your social media following
Growing newsletter subscribers
The S.M.A.R.T. acronym can be helpful for goal-setting . This stands for:
Specific: Your goal should be straightforward and well-defined.
Measurable: This is a goal that's quantifiable, where success is concrete.
Achievable: Make sure your goal is realistic and not too ambitious for your business growth.
Relevant: Make sure your goal aligns with your mission, values, and focus.
Time-bound: Propose a finite time frame to reach a certain goal.
For example, you might set a goal to increase your newsletter subscriber count by 30 people within the next six months.
Within a marketing strategy, consider defining short- and long-term goals. Having milestones to reach along the way can keep you motivated and allow room for changes when applicable.
It's also important to be realistic about what you have the capacity to achieve. Don't try to take on too much at once. Consider starting out with one or two big goals and then adding more as your strategy progresses.
You might not have the time or financial resources to implement a multi-channel marketing strategy. In that case, it's best to focus on one or two activities most likely to help you maximize your marketing success.
Common marketing methods include:
Social media: A photographer might decide that a visual-heavy channel like Instagram is the best way to promote their work. In contrast, an author might turn to TikTok to find readers.
SEO-optimized content: Creating a website driven by a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can help small businesses reach a bigger audience.
Email marketing: Launching an email newsletter is an excellent way to keep in touch with people interested in your business.
Multimedia content: A well-crafted video or beautiful photos are excellent promotional tools, but take time to produce.
Blogs or other written content: You can add a personal touch to your marketing by sharing insights into your work, like a behind-the-scenes look at a photo shoot.
Paid advertising: You can reach new customers and connect with existing ones by promoting your products and services via social media ads.
Keep in mind that each channel might require its own marketing strategy because they attract different audiences or are built around a specific medium. This might have an impact on where you direct your time.
Your brand is one the most powerful elements of your business, as it communicates your values and approach to your work. Make sure your marketing strategy aligns with the impact you want to have on the world.
Your strategy and how you present yourself should also match your brand visuals . If you haven’t written down your mission and vision for your brand, that can also help guide your marketing decisions.
When you're busy running a business, it can be tough to take a step back and assess your progress.
Frequent check-ins ensure you can identify any potential problems sooner rather than later and adjust your goals and strategy accordingly. You can also assess timelines and promotional activities and see whether any need to be updated.
Running a business can be full of surprises. And even the most well-organized marketing strategy might not account for unexpected things.
You might uncover an entirely new customer base or discover that certain kinds of content no longer resonate with your audience. In cases like these, a marketing strategy pivot isn't just appropriate, it's necessary.
Once you reach certain strategic milestones, it also might make sense to create more granular marketing strategies for specific marketing channels.
These can include:
Digital marketing strategy: This kind of strategy analyzes your online presence and activities, including your website, email newsletters, and social media. You might spend a few months building your newsletter subscribers or do a website copy refresh.
Social media strategy: You might discover that one social media channel is more effective than others. Creating a social media strategy around just this channel can help you build an audience there and leverage existing strengths.
Paid advertising strategy: Once you have the budget for marketing activities, consider paid advertising. This involves paying to boost certain social media posts or creating a dedicated digital ad campaign. Social media advertising tends to be more cost-efficient and provides instant access to robust analytics that can guide your work.
Content marketing strategy: A content marketing strategy looks at the ways you can use writing to build your brand and business. In practice, this could mean creating a content calendar to map out a schedule of blogs by topic and frequency.
Granular strategies often overlap. For example, you might incorporate a paid advertising strategy into your approach to social media marketing and boost posts a certain times a week. A digital marketing strategy will often touch on your content or social media activities.
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Updated: Jun 18, 2024, 8:52am
What is small business marketing, why is small business marketing important, types of small business marketing, small business marketing tools, create your small business marketing strategy, bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).
Small business marketing today typically focuses on establishing a strong online presence, but your options aren’t limited to just the web. Figuring out how to best reach new customers, connect with former ones and maintain long-term relationships with buyers will look different for every small business, depending on their goals, budget, target audience and product. Optimizing your marketing strategy, even if you are just starting out, is one of the keys to success. Keep reading for some of the best strategies for your small business marketing.
Small business marketing means using every available resource to share, promote and build awareness around your brand. In theory, doing this should increase your customer base and drive up sales. In practice, it’s a little trickier. Marketing can get expensive and time-consuming very quickly, so it’s important to understand how it works and what options are the best for your business.
No matter the size of your business, marketing is not optional if you want to be successful. Gone are the days of relying on word of mouth or the occasional magazine ad. Small business marketing today means pushing across a variety of platforms and utilizing several different avenues simultaneously to stay in front of customers.
Small businesses marketing is important because it has the potential to share your message with customers who may not be familiar with your business. Capturing new interests and leads through marketing not only grow your sales but it also helps establish a presence and sense of authority around your brand.
By creating and sharing valuable content across different channels, small businesses are able to reach new audiences, engage with them in real time, offer helpful information and gain insight into what future strategies will prove to be the most successful.
There are many different types of small business marketing and all the options can feel overwhelming quickly. Before you decide on a marketing plan, it’s helpful to conduct some research about the different possibilities, which choices are recommended for your business category and how much each one costs. Websites, social media, email, blogs and print are some of the available options and making strategic choices helps lead to the best outcomes.
Yes, email has been around for a long time. But it’s still one of the most effective forms of marketing available and it comes with a low price tag. This marketing strategy usually consists of sending out mass emails to prospective, current and former customers, with content that may include business updates, promotions and special product information.
Email marketing is a flexible solution since every part of the message can be customized to fit your business and what you want to share. Personalized emails can be sent to specific groups of customers, with targeted information that has been created to appeal to their exact needs. There are several ways to collect email addresses, including website sign-ups, running a contest or offering incentives and discounts.
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Social media marketing is all the rage and for good reason. Utilizing platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X) and Facebook (Meta) allows businesses to reach potential customers across the globe, collecting new followers and buyers constantly. This style of marketing isn’t going away anytime soon, so pay attention to what is trending, even when it feels overwhelming.
If you’re just getting started with social media marketing, choose one outlet to begin with and do some research into how to best harness its power. This may include posting daily, creating reels, investing in paid ads, partnering with an influencer or building up the number of followers. No matter what you decide to do, engagement will be key. Customers want to know that the businesses they buy from care about their needs, want to hear their opinions and will respond to questions or concerns quickly.
Content marketing is a strategy that small businesses can employ to create and nurture customer relationships. Its purpose is to provide relevant, informational, educational and entertaining content that will draw people in and make them want to learn more about your brand. The key to successful content marketing is to use it strategically and make it beneficial to your target audience. It should never be heavy-handed or forceful but, instead, helpful and interesting.
The ultimate goal of content marketing is to establish your presence as an authority about whatever product or service you provide. This is done by capturing and retaining customer’s attention, which is incredibly difficult to do in our fast-paced world. When done correctly, content marketing can capture every point of the buyer’s journey, from the moment they start browsing casually until they make the decision to purchase from your business.
This marketing strategy uses the process of SEO to help your business website or shared content rank higher on search engines like Google. When performing a keyword search for a product or service, users tend to focus on only the first several results that pop up. So, if your business sells high-quality kites, you will get the most traffic if your website is one of the top results that people see when they search for “best kites.”
SEO marketing comes into play when a small business opts to implement calculated methods that will help maximize its search engine rankings. This is done by including several different tactics simultaneously to gain the most momentum possible. The fundamental SEO marketing strategy uses keywords, internal links, image optimization and competitive analysis.
It goes without saying that everyone has their eyes on their phone almost constantly. Mobile marketing is an excellent way to capture this attentive audience, often without them realizing that they are being marketed to. By using available tools like location tracking and search history, businesses are able to customize their marketing campaigns to mobile users.
Placing ads on social media or embedding them in websites means reaching more potential buyers every day, no matter where they are. As a general rule, mobile marketing is much cheaper than traditional advertising and isn’t overly complicated to set up. You’ll need to start by making sure that every aspect of your own small business website is completely mobile-friendly, from browsing to purchasing. Once that is set, you can begin experimenting with other options, such as location-based ads, sending customers short message service (SMS) messages and in-app promotions.
While it’s nowhere near as popular as it once was, traditional marketing can still be a crucial part of your small business marketing strategy. Traditional marketing encompasses any marketing efforts that aren’t online and, depending on what you are selling and who your target audience is, it can be a solid option.
Traditional marketing can include magazine or newspaper advertisements, billboards, direct mail and radio or television ads. Even in our electronic world, these marketing avenues are still relevant and effective. The biggest downside, however, typically is the cost since traditional marketing almost always comes with a higher price tag than digital efforts.
With so many marketing options available, figuring out which ones to use and the best way to implement them can feel confusing. Thankfully, there are a multitude of tools and technologies designed to streamline and automate your marketing strategy.
There are many email marketing software platforms to choose from and each one offers different advantages. Free trials are common, so we recommend taking a test run to help figure out which features will work best for your small business:
The number of social media marketing platforms is larger than ever before. But it’s not necessary to use every single one for your business, nor are all of them appropriate for every brand. Depending on your product or service, choose the social media channels that will reach your target audience:
SEO marketing is key to making your small business as visible as possible. Ranking high in search engines gets your brand in front of more eyes and helps build trust. This marketing strategy takes some legwork but also offers a high return on investment (ROI).
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a fantastic, free tool designed to give small businesses insight into their customers. The data provided is intended to help you understand more about your customers, how they found you and how they engage with your sites and apps. It provides reporting about the customer journey, which allows you to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly and help improve your ROI.
Google Search Console
Another excellent and free small business SEO marketing tool from Google is its Search Console. It differs from Analytics in that the Search Console is intended to help you monitor your website’s performance and see how it ranks in search engine results. This tool shares data about how often your site appears in a Google search, which search queries show your site and how often searchers click through for those queries.
Ubersuggest
Keywords are the backbone of successful SEO marketing and Ubersuggest specializes in generating new keyword ideas. This tool offers a free Chrome extension that, once installed, allows small businesses to search Google, YouTube and Amazon to see data around keywords. It also provides SEO insights and graphs that break down the total monthly search volume that displays monthly mobile and desktop searches for a particular keyword.
Semrush is SEO software that allows small businesses to identify trends with its signature Keyword Magic Tool, Google Ad optimization and competitor analysis. It boosts organic search traffic by helping you optimize your website and is designed specifically for users who have limited SEO experience. Monthly subscriptions can be costly, but there is a free plan that provides limited options and is still a valuable tool, particularly for anyone who is just getting started with SEO.
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Creating a small business marketing strategy means developing a long-term plan that will reach more customers, help you understand your objectives, establish your authority and provide insight into where you stand in terms of marketing results. It’s not a one-and-done undertaking but, rather, a working blueprint that will need to be adjusted and changed as your business grows. Here’s how to get started.
You started your small business for a reason, but when was the last time you looked at your goals? The first step is to look closely at what your specific, measurable goals are, not only the big-picture dreams. Focus on numbers and break down what both the long- and short-term objectives are. They can be both big and small as long as they are defined clearly.
Next, take a hard look at your current marketing efforts and determine what is working and what is not. List out all the strategies you’ve tried and rank how successful they were. Be sure to look at the costs vs. outcomes for each one to see where your business has seen a high ROI.
Who are you trying to reach? What is the profile of your target customer? Lean into learning all about these people, from where they live to how they prefer to shop to what forms of payment they favor. Becoming as familiar as possible with this audience allows you to determine which marketing efforts are likely to be the most successful.
Once you have gathered all the necessary information, it’s time to choose your marketing strategies. Start with one or two that have worked well for your small business in the past and then decide on a new one to try out for six months. Remember that not every marketing tactic is the right fit for everyone, so there will always be periods of experimenting and making changes as needed.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what marketing strategies are the most popular. What matters is choosing the right fit for your specific business. You may sell the best product ever made, but if no one has heard of it, your business will never grow to its full potential. That’s why incorporating a marketing plan is an essential part of your small business’s success.
The best marketing for small businesses are the tactics that will reach the most customers in your target audience. What this looks like will vary depending on what you sell, how you are selling it, who you are trying to reach and what the buyer’s journey looks like for those people.
The top marketing mistakes that small businesses make are using methods that aren’t working. By paying attention to your analytics, you will be able to choose the best marketing options for right now as well as adjust them as needed in the future.
The cheapest way to promote your business is to incorporate several different low-cost strategies simultaneously. If you are just starting out, choose one or two social media platforms to market on, start an email list, publish a blog on your website and opt for one of the free SEO tools available.
Marketing caters more to building brand awareness—in other words, getting your company’s name out there in a sea of competitors. Sales, on the other hand, is about completing a deal and turning the interested consumers a marketing team has gathered into customers.
Laura is a freelance writer specializing in small business, ecommerce and lifestyle content. As a small business owner, she is passionate about supporting other entrepreneurs and sharing information that will help them thrive. Her work has been featured on Angi, Scary Mommy and Cubby.
Use these business plan PowerPoint templates to launch your next enterprise.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the best business plan PowerPoint templates you can download and use. And, as a bonus, we’re offering two templates completely free! Just click below to download them.
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Explore all of these business plan presentation PPT examples. See how a polished, engaging presentation can captivate your audience. You can even find an amazing fundraising presentation template for your next project.
Are you ready to take your business to new heights? Elevate your strategy with premium and free business plan PowerPoint templates from Envato Elements . Also find plenty of sample fundraising PowerPoint presentations for you to customize in no time.
We’ve seen a bunch of business plan PowerPoint presentation examples in this article. Looking for a non-profit fundraising PowerPoint presentation? We’ve also featured some of the best fundraising presentations PPT for your startup.
Choose from the business plan PowerPoint examples featured to make your brand shine. Boost your business towards success for 2024 and the future!
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Business owners believe employees with ai skills will save them time.
This insight makes sense, since AI has the capabilities to cut down on the time requirements for several important tasks, from drafting communications to creating media to share in marketing campaigns. But since it’s such an emerging technology, many small business owners don’t currently possess the skills to make the most of these tools. So hiring people who understand how to use it can allow businesses to reap these benefits without creating extensive training programs or learning how to use the technology themselves.
AI can be an incredibly powerful and time-saving technology. But it will only help you reach your goals if you use it in targeted and intentional ways. New hires may be able to guide you toward the exact methods, but it’s up to business owners to create plans and oversee these operations to make sure they’re working as intended.
Strategies for navigating a new kind of communication landscape: the “echoverse.”
The Internet and AI tools are transforming marketing communications within a complex, interactive landscape called the echoverse. While marketing has evolved since the proliferation of the Internet, in the echoverse, a diverse network of human and nonhuman actors — consumers, brands, AI agents, and more — continuously interact, influence, and reshape messages across digital platforms. Traditional one-way and two-way communication models give way to omnidirectional communication. The authors integrated communication theory and theories of marketing communications to create a typology of marketing communication strategies consisting of three established strategies — 1) promotion marketing, 2) relationship marketing, and 3) customer engagement marketing — and their proposed strategy, 4) echoverse marketing. The authors also recommend three strategies for marketers to make the shift from leading messaging to guiding messaging: 1) Enable co-creation and co-ownership, 2) Create directed learning opportunities, and 3) Develop a mindset of continuous learning.
Today, companies must navigate a new kind of communication landscape: the “ echoverse .” This new terrain is defined by a complex web of feedback loops and reverberations that are created by consumers, brands, news media, investors, communities, society, and artificial intelligence (AI) agents. This assemblage of actors continuously interact, influence, and respond to each other across a myriad of digital channels, platforms, and devices, creating a dynamic where messages circulate and echo, being amplified, modified, or dampened by ongoing interactions.
Farmers have a tough decision trying to market their crops at the appropriate time, at profitable levels, and at the highest price possible. Previous years’ higher prices made it hard for farmers to market their 2023 crops. Now in July, farmers must develop an exit plan for the 2023 crop and determine a marketing plan for the 2024 crop.
Current prices available for 2023 corn are $1.59 below the low price in 2022 and the soybean price is $2.39 below the low price in 2022. Costs on the 2023 crop varied from $5.00 to $5.43 for corn and $13.00 to $13.84 for soybeans, thus another reason for the slow sales. Farmers with grain in the bin must determine an exit plan for these unsold bushels.
Seasonally, high corn prices are above average from March through July 1 and soybean prices are above average from March through August. It has been hard for farmers to price the 2023 crop at lower current prices below their breakeven prices. But now with a new crop coming, they must sell the old crop. Target prices can still be used, but default dates to force sales will be an important part of an exit strategy. At some point, a cash sale will be necessary.
Farmers not satisfied with these prices on the cash sales can re-own with a call option, but at the money, calls are expensive, and many options expire worthless, so a farmer needs to set goals on these call options too.
For the 2024 crop farmers should first determine their breakeven cost estimates for 2024 crops. Costs for 2024 corn range from $4.75 to $5.40 and $13 to $13.85 for soybeans for marketing groups I work with. With these breakeven prices, farmers have had little to no opportunity to sell the 2024 crops, leading to lower sales than normal.
Some farmers are only interested in selling a small portion pre-harvest while others will sell a large percentage of their crop pre-harvest. Revenue insurance plays an important role in pre-harvest marketing with spring 2024 revenue prices of $4.66 for corn and $11.55 for soybeans. These prices can act like a put on the 2024 crop on the farmer’s coverage level, insured bushels.
Farmers can also purchase call options if they are concerned prices will continue higher after they have completed pre-harvest sales. Unfortunately, prices for 2024 crops are hovering at low contract prices.
Farmers should develop a marketing plan and determine if current prices offered for 2024 crops would generate a profit for their farming operation by covering their breakeven prices. If those prices are not available, farmers should use crop insurance for puts until the crop is harvested and consider buying put for unsold grain if they are concerned about lower prices or buy calls on previously sold bushels in case the prices rally.
With all marketing plan tools, farmers need to set reasonable goals, so their options don’t expire worthlessly. Default dates are helpful tools, but if current prices are below the farmer's cost of production, those sales might not happen.
Year | High | Low | Difference |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | 15.49 | 12.72 | 2.77 |
2022 | 16.99 | 13.22 | 3.77 |
2021 | 16.37 | 11.57 | 4.8 |
2020 | 12.49 | 7.84 | 4.65 |
2019 | 8.89 | 7.4 | 1.49 |
2018 | 9.82 | 7.26 | 2.56 |
2017 | 9.74 | 8.41 | 1.33 |
2016 | 10.82 | 8.03 | 2.79 |
2015 | 10 | 8.07 | 1.93 |
2014 | 14.82 | 8.53 | 6.29 |
2013 | 17.74 | 12.2 | 5.54 |
2012 | 17.65 | 11.32 | 6.33 |
Year | High | Low | Difference |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | 6.85 | 4.69 | 2.16 |
2022 | 8.08 | 5.89 | 2.19 |
2021 | 7.22 | 4.92 | 2.3 |
2020 | 4.41 | 2.62 | 1.79 |
2019 | 4.37 | 3.35 | 1.02 |
2018 | 3.64 | 2.92 | 0.72 |
2017 | 3.41 | 2.84 | 0.57 |
2016 | 3.87 | 2.65 | 1.22 |
2015 | 3.86 | 3.24 | 0.62 |
2014 | 4.82 | 2.81 | 2.01 |
2013 | 7.45 | 4.05 | 3.4 |
2012 | 8.22 | 5.8 | 2.42 |
Crop | Cash price | Delivery start 2024 | Future change | Basis | Basis month 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Corn | $4.30 | June | 0-6 | 4 | Sep. |
Corn | $4.04 | Oct. | 0-2 | -33 | Dec. |
Soybeans | $10.83 | June | 1-6 | -61 | Aug. |
Soybeans | $10.31 | Oct. | 0-2 | -76 | Nov. |
Tables from the 2024 Farm Resource Guide .
Author: Dave Bau, Extension educator
Permission is granted to news media to republish our news articles with credit to University of Minnesota Extension. Images also may be republished; please check for specific photographer credits or limited use restrictions in the photo title.
© 2024 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Updated: March 29, 2022
Published: March 11, 2022
While starting a company may seem easier now than ever before, entrepreneurs have an uphill battle from the moment they start a business. And without a clear, actionable business plan for selling, marketing, finances, and operations, you're almost destined to face significant challenges.
This is why crafting a business plan is an essential step in the entrepreneurial process.
In this post, we'll walk you through the process of filling out your business plan template, like this free, editable version :
Download a free, editable one-page business plan template.
We know that when looking at a blank page on a laptop screen, the idea of writing your business plan can seem impossible. However, it's a mandatory step to take if you want to turn your business dreams into a reality.
That's why we've crafted a business plan template for you to download and use to build your new company. You can download it here for free . It contains prompts for all of the essential parts of a business plan, all of which are elaborated on, below.
This way, you'll be able to show them how organized and well-thought-out your business idea is, and provide them with answers to whatever questions they may have.
The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.
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Click this link to access this resource at any time.
In the next section, we'll cover the components of a business plan , such as an executive summary and company description. But before we get to that, let's talk about key elements that should serve as building blocks for your plan.
For some entrepreneurs, the thought of writing a business plan sounds like a chore — a necessary means to an end. But that's a bad take.
A solid business plan is a blueprint for success . It's key to securing financing, presenting your business, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.
At the core, your business plan should answer two questions: why your business and why now?
Investors want to know why your business is entering the market, i.e. what problem it's solving and how it's different from what's currently out there. They also want to know why now is the right time for your type of product or service.
At a minimum, your plan should:
So back to the question of why and why now – consider three things:
Once you know the answers to these questions, you'll be equipped to answer the question: why your business and why now.
1. cover page.
Your business plan should be prefaced with an eye-catching cover page. This means including a high-resolution image of your company logo, followed by your company's name, address, and phone number.
Since this business plan will likely change hands and be seen by multiple investors, you should also provide your own name, role in the business, and email address on the cover page.
At the bottom of this page, you can also add a confidentiality statement to protect against the disclosure of your business details.
The statement can read as follows: " This document contains confidential and proprietary information created by [your company name]. When receiving this document, you agree to keep its content confidential and may only reproduce and/or share it with express written permission of [your company name] ."
Remember to keep your cover page simple and concise — and save the important details for other sections.
Why it matters: First impressions are everything, and a clean cover page is the first step in the right direction.
Example of a Cover Page
The executive summary of your business plan provides a one- to two-page overview of your business and highlights the most crucial pieces of your plan, such as your short-term and long-term goals.
The executive summary is essentially a boiled-down version of your entire business plan, so remember to keep this section to the point and filled only with essential information.
Typically, this brief section includes:
Why it matters: The executive summary is known as the make-or-break section of a business plan. It influences whether investors turn the page or not — so effectively summarizing your business and the problem it hopes to solve is a must.
Think of the Summary as a written elevator pitch (with more detail). While your business plan provides the nitty-gritty details, your Summary describes — in a compelling but matter-of-fact language — the highlights of your plan. If it's too vague, complicated, or fuzzy, you may need to scrap it and start again.
Example of an Executive Summary Introduction
"The future looks bright for North Side Chicago, particularly the Rock Hill Neighborhood. A number of high-end commercial and residential developments are well on their way, along with two new condo developments in nearby neighborhoods.
While the completion of these developments will increase the population within the neighborhood and stimulate the economy, the area lacks an upscale restaurant where residents and visitors can enjoy fine food and drink. Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will provide such a place."
In this section, provide a more thorough description of what your company is and why it exists.
The bulk of the writing in this section should be about your company's purpose – covering what the business will be selling, identifying the target market, and laying out a path to success.
In this portion of your business plan, you can also elaborate on your company's:
Why it matters: Investors look for great structures and teams in addition to great ideas. This section gives an overview of your businesses' ethos. It's the perfect opportunity to set your business apart from the competition — such as your team's expertise, your unique work culture, and your competitive advantage.
Example of a Values/Mission Statement
"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will be the go-to place for people to get a drink or bite in an elegant, upscale atmosphere. The mission is to be North Side's leading restaurant, with the best tasting food and the highest quality service."
Here's where you'll cover the makeup of your business's product and/or services line. You should provide each product or service's name, its purpose, and a description of how it works (if appropriate). If you own any patents, copyrights, or trademarks, it's essential to include this info too.
Next, add some color to your sales strategy by outlining your pricing model and mark-up amounts.
If you're selling tangible products, you should also explain production and costs, and how you expect these factors to change as you scale.
Why it matters: This section contains the real meat of your business plan. It sets the stage for the problem you hope to solve, your solution, and how your said solution fits in the market.
There's no one-size-fits-all formula for this section. For instance, one plan may delve into its ability to market in a more cost-effective way than the competition, whereas another plan focuses on its key products and their unique features and benefits.
Regardless of your angle, it's critical to convey how your offerings will differ from the competition.
Example of a Product/Service Offering
"The menu at Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will focus on Moroccan cuisine. The stars of the menu (our specialties) are the Moroccan dishes, such as eggplant zaalouk, seafood bastilla, tagine, and chickpea stew. For those who enjoy American dishes, there will also be a variety of options, from burger sliders and flatbread pizza to grilled steak and salads.
The food at Jay Street will have premium pricing to match its upscale atmosphere. During the summer months, the restaurant will have extra seating on the patio where clients can enjoy a special summer menu. We will be open on all days of the week."
It helps to reference your market research documentation in this section, like a Porter's Five Forces Analysis or a SWOT Analysis ( templates for those are available here ). You can also include them in your appendix.
If your company already has buyer personas, you should include them here as well. If not, you can create them right now using the Make My Persona Tool .
Why it matters: Having an awesome product is, well, awesome — but it isn't enough. Just as important, there must be a market for it.
This section allows you to dig deeper into your market, which segments you want to target, and why. The "why" here is important, since targeting the right segment is critical for the success and growth of your business.
It's easy to get lost (or overwhelmed) in a sea of endless data. For your business plan, narrow your focus by answering the following questions:
Example of a Market Analysis
"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will target locals who live and work within the Rock Hill Neighborhood and the greater North Side Chicago area. We will also target the tourists who flock to the many tourist attractions and colleges on the North Side.
We will specifically focus on young to middle-aged adults with an income of $40,000 to $80,000 who are looking for an upscale experience. The general demographics of our target market are women between 20 to 50 years old.
A unique and varied Moroccan-American menu, along with our unique upscale atmosphere, differentiates us from competitors in the area. Jay Street will also set itself apart through its commitment to high-quality food, service, design, and atmosphere."
Unlike the market analysis section, your marketing plan section should be an explanation of the tactical approach to reaching your aforementioned target audience. List your advertising channels, organic marketing methods, messaging, budget, and any relevant promotional tactics.
If your company has a fully fleshed-out marketing plan, you can attach it in the appendix of your business plan. If not, download this free marketing plan template to outline your strategy.
Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.
Why it matters: Marketing is what puts your product in front of your customers. It's not just advertising — it's an investment in your business.
Throwing money into random marketing channels is a haphazard approach, which is why it's essential to do the legwork to create a solid marketing plan.
Here's some good news — by this point, you should have a solid understanding of your target market. Now, it's time to determine how you'll reach them.
Example of a Marketing Plan Overview
"Our marketing strategy will focus on three main initiatives:
It doesn't matter if your sales department is an office full of business development representatives (BDR) or a dozen stores with your products on their shelves.
The point is: All sales plans are different, so you should clearly outline yours here. Common talking points include your:
Like with your marketing plan, it might make sense to attach your completed sales plan to the appendix of your business plan. You can download a template for building your sales plan here .
Why it matters: Among other things, investors are interested in the scalability of your business — which is why growth strategies are a critical part of your business plan.
Your sales plan should describe your plan to attract customers, retain them (if applicable), and, ultimately, grow your business. Be sure to outline what you plan to do given your existing resources and what results you expect from your work.
Example of a Sales Plan Overview
"The most important goal is to ensure financial success for Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant. We believe we can achieve this by offering excellent food, entertainment, and service to our clients.
We are not a low-cost dining option in the area. Instead, the food will have premium pricing to match its upscale feel. The strategy is to give Jay Street a perception of elegance through its food, entertainment, and excellent service."
Your investors may want to know the legal structure of your business, as that could directly impact the risk of their investments. For example, if you're looking for business partners to engage in a non-corporation or LLC partnership, this means they could be on the line for more than their actual investment.
Because this clarification is often needed, explain if you are and/or plan to become a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, LLC, or other.
You should also outline the steps you have taken (or will need to take) to operate legally. This includes licenses, permits, registrations, and insurance.
The last thing your investor wants to hear after they've sent you a big chunk of change is that you're operating without proper approval from the local, state, or federal government.
Why it matters: The last thing your investor wants to hear after they've sent you a big chunk of change is that you're operating without proper approval from the local, state, or federal government.
Example of Legal Notes
"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant is up-to-date on all restaurant licenses and health permits. Our business name and logo are registered trademarks, presenting the possibility of expanding locally."
Ultimately, investors want to know two things:
That said, be clear, calculated, and convincing in this section. It should cover:
Facts and figures are key here, so be as specific as possible with each line item and projection. In addition, explain the "why" behind each of these sections.
However, keep in mind that information overload is a risk, especially when it comes to data. So, if you have pages upon pages of charts and spreadsheets for this section, distill them into a page or two and include the rest of the sheets in the appendix. This section should only focus on key data points.
Why it matters: One of the most important aspects of becoming "investor ready" is knowing your numbers. More importantly, you need to understand how those numbers will enhance your business.
While it's easy to write a number down on paper, it's more important to understand (and communicate) why you need capital, where it's going, and that your evaluation makes sense.
Example of Financial Projections
"Based on our knowledge and experience in the restaurant industry, we have come up with projections for the business.
Starting with an expenditure of $400,000 in year 1, we forecast sales of $1,500,000 and $2,800,000 for years two and three. We expect to achieve a net profit of 15% by year three."
A detailed and well-developed business plan can range anywhere from 20 to 50 pages, with some even reaching upward of 80.
In many cases, the appendix is the longest section. Why? Because it includes the supportive materials mentioned in previous sections. To avoid disrupting the flow of the business plan with visuals, charts, and spreadsheets, business owners usually add them in the last section, i.e. the appendix.
Aside from what we've already mentioned – marketing plan, sales plan, department budgets, financial documents – you may also want to attach the following in the appendix:
Adding these pieces to the appendix enriches the reader's understanding of your business and proves you've put the work into your business plan without distracting from the main points throughout the plan.
Why it matters: An appendix helps the reader do their due diligence. It contains everything they need to support your business plan.
Keep in mind, however, that an appendix is typically necessary only if you're seeking financing or looking to attract business partners.
Writing a business plan shouldn't be an insurmountable roadblock to starting a business. Unfortunately, for all too many, it is.
That's why we recommend using our free business plan template. Pre-filled with detailed section prompts for all of the topics in this blog post, we're confident this template will get your business plan started in the right direction.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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Donald Trump has pitched sweeping tariffs as a win for the US consumer, but only the wealthiest Americans will benefit from rising trade barriers, Paul Krugman wrote in The New York Times .
In Tuesday's opinion piece, the Nobel-winning economist took aim at Trump's recently floated idea to replace the US income tax with higher import duties .
Putting aside the wide gap between the revenue streams both provide, a simpler policy that would maximize tariffs and cut income taxes by the same amount still bodes ill for most Americans, Krugman wrote.
"The net effect would be negative for 80 percent of the population, especially for the bottom 60 percent, while extremely positive for the top 1 percent," he outlined, citing data from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
In this scenario, lower- and middle-income consumers would see their after-tax income drop, and would enjoy little benefit from the tax cuts. The opposite is true for the wealthiest Americans.
Krugman gave two reasons for this:
First, income taxes are mainly paid by the country's richest, while about half of the population doesn't pay these at all; instead, they're burdened by other taxes.
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Secondly, as tariffs apply higher costs on importers, these firms either pull their product away or raise their pricing. Both actions are inflationary, and can even boost the price of US-made products, research from the non-partisan Tax Foundation has shown.
And since lower-income families spend a bigger share of their income than the wealthy do, their pockets will take a greater hit from rising prices.
"So who would pay the tariffs that Trump will almost surely impose if he wins? Not China or foreigners in general," Krugman argued. "Everything says that the burden would fall on Americans, mainly the working class and the poor."
Trump's tariff plans go beyond their potential in replacing the income tax. The Republican candidate has previously preached the need for a universal tariff rate of 10% on all US imports, regardless of who the trade is with.
Some countries may even face higher rates, such as China: if Trump wins, Beijing could expect duties as high as 60%, he says.
If Trump is taken at his word, mounting trade barriers would boost inflation by 1.1 percentage point, Goldman Sachs' Jan Hatzius wrote on Tuesday. Higher prices would also hit at consumption, and US GDP would slump 0.5%.
Another Nobel-winning economist — Joseph Stiglitz — recently told Business Insider that he shares similar concerns of spiking inflation.
It's a recipe that would unwind the Federal Reserve's ability to cut interest rates, a hope that's contributed to this year's stock highs.
Instead, the Fed would likely turn hawkish again, raising rates as much as 130 basis points, Hatzius projected. That's equivalent to around five 25-basis-point hikes.
"A trade war between the US and China would significantly amplify our results, with a bigger increase in US inflation, a bigger hit to European growth, and a stronger case for monetary policy divergence between Europe and the US," he concluded.
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Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan. A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics. A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute ...
You need to have a solid understanding of your target audience before integrating your marketing efforts. Example: If your target audience is executives that spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, focus your social media strategy around placing branded content on LinkedIn. 5. Differentiate with creative content.
Marketing plan v.s business plan. While both marketing plans and business plans are crucial documents for businesses, they serve distinct purposes and have different scopes. Here's a breakdown of the key differences: Business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines all aspects of your business, including:
This SMART goal guide can help you with more effective goal-setting. 3. Identify your target audience and create buyer personas. To create an effective marketing strategy, you need to understand who your ideal customers are. Take a look at your market research to understand your target audience and market landscape.
A marketing plan is a document that a business uses to execute a marketing strategy. It is tactical in nature, and, as later sections of this article explore, it typically includes campaign objectives, buyer personas, competitive analysis, key performance indicators, an action plan, and a method for analyzing campaign results.
The following marketing plan template opens directly in Microsoft Word, so you can edit each section as you see fit: Download your marketing plan template here. Marketing Campaign Template. Your marketing plan is a high-level view of the different marketing strategies you'll use to meet your business objectives.
Strategy: Segmentation, Targeting and Positoning (STP) and the tactics forming the 7Ps of the marketing mix. Action: Budget, resourcing including team and tools and marketing technology (Martech) and 90-day action plans. As a marketer, every activity will fall into either an opportunity, strategy, or action.
A one-page business plan is a simplified version of the larger business plan, and it focuses on the problem your product or service is solving, the solution (your product), and your business model (how you'll make money). A one-page plan is hyper-direct and easy to read, making it an effective tool for businesses of all sizes, at any stage ...
A marketing plan includes analysis of the target audience, the competitors, and the market so that teams can determine the best strategy for achieving their goals. The plan's length and detail depend on the company's size and the scope of the marketing project. A marketing plan is useful for all types of marketing, including digital, social media, new product, small business, B2C, and B2B.
Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It's also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. After completing your plan, you can ...
The terms are often used interchangeably or together: marketing business plan. But each plan is different and here's what sets them apart. Business plans cover a business's overall strategy, from the branding strategy to the company-wide marketing strategies. A marketing plan solely concentrates on a specific marketing strategy or a branch of ...
Marketing Strategy: This section of a marketing plan details the business's unique value proposition and the channels that will communicate it. A robust marketing strategy addresses the touchpoints in a consumer's buying cycle and breaks down the 4 Ps (product, price, place, promotion) of the marketing mix.
A plan (the details of execution and the human resources, departments and software that will be involved) Reporting (what reports of progress will include and/or look like) We broke down those five functions into 10 actionable categories to help you create a marketing plan that is unique and effective for your business. 1.
A marketing plan is a business document used to execute a marketing strategy. It is tactical, and, as later sections of this article explore, it typically includes campaign objectives, buyer personas, competitive analysis, key performance indicators, an action plan, and a method for analysing campaign results.
The marketing and sales section of your business plan dives into how you're going to accomplish your goals. You'll be answering questions like: ... A marketing plan brings together strategic goals with tangible marketing activities designed to reach and engage your target market—ultimately convincing them to purchase your product.
Marketing Plan: A marketing plan is a business's operational document for advertising campaigns designed to reach its target market . A marketing plan pulls together all the campaigns that will be ...
Describe Your Services or Products. The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you're offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit ...
Marketing Strategy: A marketing strategy is a business' overall game plan for reaching people and turning them into customers of the product or service that the business provides. The marketing ...
You can think of a marketing strategy like a fingerprint. Your business has unique goals, and so the path toward success will also be distinct. Marketing strategy vs. marketing plan. A marketing strategy is closely related to a marketing plan, but the two things have different purposes.
Marketing encompasses every part of a plan to turn a prospective consumer into a happy and satisfied customer. It includes everything from market research to advertising. The goal of marketing is ...
A business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines a company's goals, strategies, and financial projections. It provides a detailed description of the business, including its products or services, target market, competitive landscape, and marketing and sales strategies.
Small business marketing today typically focuses on establishing a strong online presence, but your options aren't limited to just the web. ... That's why incorporating a marketing plan is an ...
Choose from the business plan PowerPoint examples featured to make your brand shine. Boost your business towards success for 2024 and the future! Presentation Templates
A well-executed marketing plan will help you: Define your business with SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat) Define your target audience with buyer personas; Tools you will need to execute on your marketing plan; Measuring and Optimizing your Marketing Efforts; Define your brand with proper visuals and messaging
CPPREP4102 - Market property (Release 1) Marketing Plan Part 2 Prepare a proposed marketing plan (on the following page) based upon the buyer profile you have identified in section [1] of this assessment and do the following; Select suitable marketing activities/strategies Detail a schedule of when the marketing will occur Detail the cost of the marketing activities Ensure the marketing is ...
This insight makes sense, since AI has the capabilities to cut down on the time requirements for several important tasks, from drafting communications to creating media to share in marketing campaigns. But since it's such an emerging technology, many small business owners don't currently possess the skills to make the most of these tools.
The Internet and AI tools are transforming marketing communications within a complex, interactive landscape called the echoverse. While marketing has evolved since the proliferation of the ...
Now in July, farmers must develop an exit plan for the 2023 crop and determine a marketing plan for the 2024 crop. Selling the 2023 crop Current prices available for 2023 corn are $1.59 below the low price in 2022 and the soybean price is $2.39 below the low price in 2022.
This is why crafting a business plan is an essential step in the entrepreneurial process. In this post, we'll walk you through the process of filling out your business plan template, like this free, editable version: Download a free, editable one-page business plan template. We know that when looking at a blank page on a laptop screen, the idea ...
Trump's proposed tariffs would benefit only the wealthiest Americans, Paul Krugman wrote in a new op-ed. 80% of US consumers would lose after-tax income, he said. Goldman Sachs also sees higher ...