Eight Steps to Develop a Marketing Plan for your Group
The first part of this help sheet, available by Clicking Here looked at the importance of
developing a marketing plan for your group or organisation including
the advantages it can bring in building your profile, influence, size
and ability to leverage, as well as the benefits to your bottom line.
It also looked at the groundwork your community group needs to take in
developing a marketing plan, including doing some research and defining
policy.
This help sheet outlines how your group can define and develop its
marketing plan.
Eight steps towards your group's marketing plan
Your group should be able to use these steps as a guide towards putting
together a marketing plan of its own. Think carefully before excluding
any of these steps.
1. Executive summary
The executive summary provides a quick run-down, or synopsis, of the
overall marketing plan. This helps your group as well as others quickly
identify the main points.
A table of contents should follow the summary so readers can easily
find more details about each point.
2. Current situation
This looks at the nature of your group's market, what you are going to
market and your competition.
It should include data on:
Stakeholders
Details of your group's members, donors, volunteers, supporters and
helpers – details such as: sex, age, income, occupation, education,
ethnicity, location, attitudes, opinions, interests, motives,
lifestyles.
Consider the following about your stakeholders:
What they need?
Where they stand?
What they think?
And, has any previous research been done?
Your competitors/colleagues/partners/stakeholders –
What are their goals?
What do they offer?
What don't they offer?
How do they operate?
And where are they going next?
The Government –
Where does it fit in?
What, if any, effect does it have on your group or organisation?
Performance
What are your performance indicators?
How many members/donors/volunteers/mailing list entries/special
event attendees did you have last year? The year before?
What did you receive from donors/members/volunteers/attendees
last year or in previous years?
Are you gaining, or slipping back?
Where are you gaining?
If you're slipping back, is it something you can fix with better
marketing?
Where are you weak?
Is everybody in your area of interest in the same situation, or
just you?
Context
Look at outside influences like the economy, demographics, social
or societal factors and what effects they are having on your group.
What trends or changes are occurring?
Could any changes or trends affect your group?
Is there a greater awareness of an issue your group is involved
in?
If so, can you take advantage of that to gain more members or
attract more donors?
Does the government, local, state or federal, have any effect on
your group?
If so what, and will this change in the near future?
Are any new rules/regulations/taxes on the horizon?
If so how are they going to affect your work?
Are any new technologies on the horizon in your sector?
If so how are they going to affect your work?
3. SWOT analysis
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis builds on the
information you gathered in step two and identifies the major
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with which your
organisation is faced.
Having done your SWOT analysis you can then work out the issues you
need to focus your plan around.
Your group should list the issues that the marketing plan will address,
and form goals and strategies to help you do that.
Next, objectives should be stated as goals. These objectives should be
phrased so that you can easily measure your results against them – for
example:
"We want to attract 100 new members by…." or
"We will finish this project and publicise the release of the
accompanying report within six months." or
"We will raise $2,000 in donations from new donors within six
months."
5. Marketing strategy
You can now outline a marketing strategy setting out the logic you'll
use to achieve those objectives.
This strategy will outline your target markets and give specifics of
the mix of the "6 P's" (Product, Price, People, Promotion, Place and
Positioning) your group will work with. Say how each strategy item
responds to the items identified in your SWOT analysis.
An example could be that your community group's marketing objective is
to seek 100 new members. The strategy it uses to do so could include
the following detail:
The strengths you have –
for example, the size of your group and its networking and referral
abilities and how they relate to the type of marketing you are going to
do to achieve your aim.
This could mean you use a direct mail-out to existing members,
inviting them to network and refer prospective new members back to you
through a "member-get-member" exercise.
The weaknesses or
elements that are lacking that might hinder the type of marketing you
propose doing.
For instance, using the above example of using a direct
mail-out: Maybe your community group have never done a direct mail-out
and is not prepared, or may need to update its current member database
in order to effectively seek out new members.
The opportunities there
are that may help you achieve your stated marketing aim and method.
Your group could take a stance or advocate on an issue in
society that has recently received a lot of media coverage – meaning
more people might want to jump on board and help you out.
The threats your group
may face that could hinder it reaching its goals.
This could include another group, similar to yours, staging a
membership drive through a recent direct mail-out, and/or if your group
is not as well known as the "other group" you may need to look at how
you can make yours different or alter your methods.
6. Action plans
Each marketing strategy can now be broken down into specific action
plans, or the actual things, your group plans to do in order to meet
your objectives.
Each action program should specify:
What will be done (for example, a direct mail-out to attract new
members to your group)?
When it will be done (started, reviewed and completed)?
Who is responsible for doing it?
How much it will cost (for example, maybe you will have to buy
access to a new list from a list broker, or factor in postage and
printing costs for a direct mail-out)?
What will the measurable projected outcome be (for example, 50
new members from the mail-out)?
When you've finished this you'll have a detailed plan to follow. Be
careful to ensure that all marketing activities are coordinated with
the other areas within your organisation.
7. Resources required
Operating an effective marketing plan requires resources in people,
money, and technology.
This section of the plan details the resources needed and through that
the marketing budget.
Once the required resources have been determined you may need approval
by your group's committee or board to go ahead and draw your marketing
budget.
8. Monitoring
The last section of the plan outlines controls that will be used to
monitor progress.
Review the results for each period, maybe each month or quarter, and
determine if the plan is meeting goals. Modify where necessary.
Outcomes of a successful marketing plan
A successful marketing plan:
Makes sure you possess the right services to meet the needs of
your 'audience', be they donors, volunteers, members, helpers,
fundraisers or special event attendees.
Defines your niche in the marketplace and what your group can do
to make the most of it.
Introduces your organisation to new people and engages them as
friends.
Builds on existing relationships to convert 'friends' into
supporters, donors, volunteers, members, fundraisers, etc.
Builds sustainability, reduces risk and increases accountability.
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