A marketing plan is a critical component of any business growth strategy. The plan helps to define measurable marketing goals and objectives, to identify target audiences, to develop key messages, and to create a timeline and a tactical implementation plan. In addition, a budget is created to ensure marketing strategies occur on time and within budget. A well written marketing plan will directly reflect and augment the firm's overall business plan and growth goals. Marketing plans differ significantly from firm to firm, reflecting the key points of differentiation found within various companies. However, the main components of a strategic marketing plan are fairly consistent, as outlined below.

Executive Summary
The executive summary of the marketing plan should provide a high-level summary of the information contained in the plan. It will allow someone interested in an overview of the plan, to review the information quickly, without having to read through the whole document. This section should be written last, once the plan is completed.

The Situation Analysis: Where are We Now?
As its title suggests, the situation analysis offers a summary of the current situation – a snapshot of the firm today – and should answer the question, "Where are we now?" Let's assume a marketing plan is created for a technology consulting business. A number of questions need to be answered including: Who are the key clients and how were they attracted to the firm? What type of services does the firm offer? With whom does the firm compete, and in which areas? Does the firm have a business plan? What kind of client feedback have we received? What are the overall business goals (financial, staff, clients, etc.)? What are the strengths of the firm? What are its weaknesses (be objective)? What are the key marketplace opportunities? What are the demographics of your "ideal" clients (describe them)?

Statement of Marketing Objectives: Where Do We Want to Be?
Once a thorough situation analysis has been completed, the next step is to identify the marketing objectives by asking, "Where do we want to be?" This involves identifying where the company would like to be in terms of revenue, client base, service offerings, etc. Marketing objectives should be broad sweeping statements of the businesses overall growth and client service objectives and should cover areas including:

• Fully serving existing clients (cross marketing)
• Attracting new clients to the firm
• Increasing the firm's overall name recognition and awareness in the marketplace
• Ensuring that client needs are being fully addressed by the firm (type and level of service, responsiveness, overall client satisfaction)
• Expanding the services offered to clients

Target Audiences
After the marketing objectives have been determined, it is important to summarize who the target audiences are – who you want to "hear" the marketing messages and hire the firm. Successful services marketing requires the existence of very targeted messages which will be delivered to a highly targeted group of current or prospective clients or referral sources. For example, target audiences for a technology services consulting firm may include:

• Existing clients (to ensure the firm is fully serving the needs of its current clients)
• IT directors in large corporations
• Presidents of mid-sized companies
• Members of industry-specific trade associations attracting prospective clients
• Other firms with whom yours can develop strategic alliances
• Referral sources
• Trade/business media

Key Messages
For each target audience, identify audience-specific key messages (based upon the strategic objectives of the firm). Think about the firm's key points of differentiation with competitors. What makes the organization unique and a better choice than other similar firms? For example, "Each technology consultant has over XX years of business experience, and has achieved the xyz professional designation," or "XYZ firm offers clients a proprietary software package designed to allow them to..." Key messages should clearly and concisely communicate why your company should be hired over other firms offering similar services (your competitors).

Tactical Implementation Plan: How Will We Get There?
Once the plan has been defined, the firm needs to identify which tactics and marketing programs will be pursued to meet the stated marketing and growth goals. This portion of the plan addresses, "How will we get there?" For every category of your plan (i.e., client retention, attracting new clients, client satisfaction, increasing name recognition, etc.), identify cost-effective, results-oriented tactics. Generally, a tactical implementation plan for a professional services firm will include activities in areas such as:

• Advertising
• Client Satisfaction and Retention Strategies
• Contact Management and Individual Marketing
• Competitive Market Research
• Corporate Identity and Branding
• Individual Marketing
• Direct Mail (announcements, newsletters, invitations)
• Cross-marketing (selling additional services to existing clients)
• Internet Web Site Planning, Development and Promotion
• Marketing Information Systems (client and contact database management)
• Marketing and Sales Materials and Brochure Development
• Industry Marketing
• Proposals and Presentations for New Business
• Public and Media Relations
• Referral Source Marketing
• Association Marketing Strategies
• Sales Strategy
• Client Seminars
• Trade Shows

Action Plan
Once the tactical implementation plan has been agreed upon, create a detailed timeline to ensure you manage the progress of each marketing tactic pursued. The report will contain a summary of the activity being pursued, person responsible, next steps and deadlines, and most importantly, results generated. You may also want to track the cost of each activity to help measure the results from a cost versus return on investment perspective.

Measurement Ideas: The ROI on Marketing
Determining return on investment of marketing initiatives is a constant challenge. Not every marketing initiative will directly result in a new client. Therefore, in addition to attracting new clients, marketing success can be measured by:

Budget
Any good marketing plan should tie dollars to the strategies being pursued. How much of your overall budget are you willing to allocate to marketing initiatives? There is no magic formula for dollars spent versus marketing success. However, marketing is an investment in the future growth of the business. Generally speaking, the more a firm is willing to invest in results-oriented marketing strategies, the more likely it is that those tactics will pay off in additional work from existing clients, attracting new clients to the firm, increasing the firm's name recognition in the marketplace, ensuring the satisfaction of your current clients, and, most importantly, increasing total firm revenue.

In summary, a good marketing plan will address:

• Where we are now (situation analysis)
• Where we'd like to be (objectives, target audiences, key messages)
• How we will get there (tactical plan, action plan – with measurement components – and budget)