Business Basics

Every good marketing plan should include two major parts - a definition of your target market, and a specific outline to market, promote, and sell your product or service.

Target Market
It's critical to clearly define your target market in your business plan - investors expect it. Tell about your customers and describe their defining characteristics in detail. Include information such as age, gender, geographic location, income bracket, buying similarities, and more.

The goal of this section is to build a demographic profile of your typical customer. The more clearly you pinpoint the defining traits of your customer, the easier it is to construct a marketing program to reach them effectively.

The information and research included in your target market section should originate from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources includes information that you discover or conclude from personal observation and research, such as personal studies, results of questionnaires, site visits, and conversations with experts in your industry. Secondary sources include such sources as journals, books, published reports, government statistics, or internet findings.

Marketing Program
After you define your target market, you need to determine specifically how you will reach them. Outline the details and steps necessary to reach potential customers and convert them from prospects to paying customers. It is important to demonstrate to investors that you have identified specific marketing avenues and procedures to effectively sell your product or service.

Answer questions such as the following in your marketing program section:

>> What specific marketing mediums will you use to reach your customer?
>> How often will each be used?
>> What will each cost?
>> Why did you choose these marketing avenues over others?

>> What marketing materials will you need? (business cards, brochures, website, etc)
>> Who will design your marketing materials? What will they cost?
>> Who will write the text for your marketing materials?
>> Why did you decide to employ these materials and not others?
>> Which publications and mediums will you target? Why will they run your story?
>> Who will write your press releases and manage the media process.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The following are the some of the most common mistakes found in the marketing plan section:

>> Defining your target market too widely, and assuming success will result from simply capturing a "small portion" of a larger market.
>> Unclear definition of your target market.
>> Attempting to attack an entire market instead of a narrow niche.
>> Making assumptions about your target market without research or concrete support.
>> Not specifically identifying the mediums you will use to advertise and promote your product.
>> Omitting details such as when, where, why and how you will reach your target customer - along with costs.
>> Making the assumption that simply lowering the price of your product will lead to increased sales.
>> Attempting to immediately fill several lucrative but unrelated markets.
>> Lacking clarity about how future changes might effect your market.