How to Develop a Marketing Plan part 5

This is a conclusion of How to Develop a Marketing Plan

Welcome to part five.

You knew we were gonna get here. The bottom line. How much is your company's growth going to cost?

All marketing plans have a section for budgets. Be realistic about the costs. It's a good idea to estimate your spending and then add a contingency buffer; I like to over-budget by approximately 25% because, well let's face it, stuff happens.

You should allocate money for all expenses related to your goals. In addition to the obvious marketing expenses, consider these types of expenses:

• Advertising in the new market 
• New employees to handle the increased workload 
• Hardware, software, and other equipment you will need 
• Employee training (new hires, new procedures, new products) 
• Capital purchases: new space or trucks for delivery 

You should track all the expenses for these goals. You need to be sure that you are on track to hit the goal and that your increase in business will justify the expenses. Pick one and work on one at a time. Keep track of the goals and check the progress regularly. As you move forward, you'll probably need to adjust some of the steps of the growth. Adjustments are OK; this is where you decide whether to intensify, shift or revamp your efforts. At these critical points you may have to add more steps to pick up the pace, or scale back your objectives. Make changes in a calculated and organized fashion to avoid diluting your efforts.

As you make changes be sure to update your marketing plan and share it with all the necessary parties. Documentation of successes and loses gives you a useful paper trail and helps you learn for the future. All of these steps and notes will be extremely for your next marketing plan.

Marketing isn't a science, but it is a skill in which you can develop and use to your businesses benefit.

That is part five, the final segment in the marketing plan series. Please let me know if you have any questions. Marketing plans are not hard, but professionals can help guide you and share invaluable insights.

Penguin Suits is here to help and marketing plans are just one of our specialties. Let me know what you think and we will look forward to talking with you and visiting. Please check out our other blog posts and let us know how we can help. Thanks for listening!

Debi Lamb-Burrows

Head Storyteller
Penguin Suits
www.penguinsuits.com
830.816.8238