Developing a Marketing Plan Outline and Writing the Plan

Do you have a written marketing plan to help guide your decisions throughout the year? If not, it is time to write one. The traditional time for plan development is at year-end, when budgets are being set. If you have formal budgeting in place, this makes sense. A marketing plan, however, can be developed or updated at any time because it helps with day-to-day, as well as long-term decisions.

Planning need not be scary or difficult. By taking the process a step at a time ― first creating the marketing plan outline, then writing the plan from the outline ― it becomes manageable. You will need to set aside quality time for creating your plan, whether a single day or several sessions. There are different ways to write a marketing plan, ranging from simple, one-day plans to book length documents. One way is to develop a marketing plan outline using a five-step process, then writing the plan at a level of detail applicable to your situation.

Marketing Plan Outline

There is no single "correct" way to develop the outline. There are, however, some generally accepted topics to be covered in a plan. I've included some common sections in a printable marketing plan outline PDF here.