Marketing Plan Template Example

If you need a marketing plan template example, my 12-Month Small Business Marketing Plans can help.

I came up with my 12-Month Marketing Plans for small businesses, as a way to inspire you with my easy, proven and sometimes out-of-the-box tactics, so you can effectively market and promote your business – especially if you have little marketing experience and a limited budget.

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Marketing Tactics That Really Work

Now, I have been in marketing a looong time. I can tell you first hand that the three most effective forms of marketing, in terms of actually generating sales, are:

SEO
Advertising
Email Marketing

Again, I am talking about generating sales, and agreed, this could vary depending on the type of business.

If you are just looking to create brand awareness, then Social Media definitely plays a bigger role. But, as I have proven in past blog posts, both social media and “influencer” marketing does not always result in sales (see my post: Proof that Social Media Mentions Don’t Always Results in Big Sales).

I am also a big believer in free Publicity, but again, that can go either way. It might not always result in a ton of sales, but it has longevity in providing you with creditability.

Add to that Sales Promotions, Alliance Marketing and Content Marketing and you have a well-rounded tactical plan:

Social Media
Publicity
Sales Promotions
Alliance Marketing
Content Marketing

Some of the Tactics in my Marketing Plans

I have 12-Month Marketing Plans for all types of businesses (with more coming), so here are some sample tactics to try:

If you sell baby products, pin a collage of your favorite baby items (include ones you sell) to Pinterest and entitle the pin, “Having a Baby” as this search phrase gets 5 million searches a month on Pinterest. You also need to use the hashtag #HavingaBaby in the pin description.
If you sell skincare, bath or beauty products, ask local AirBnB owners if you could be their official supplier or even just leave free samples for their renters to try.
If you sell vintage items, consider also selling your items on the vintage selling app, Evintage.
If you sell eco-friendly products, sponsor a reader poll with the blog Earth911 based on a question you provide. You get the exposure as well as the data gathered from the poll.

Try This Idea!

So, let me give you an tactic that can result in free publicity for you. Let’s say that you sell swimwear. Why not have a few product photos taken at a local hotel’s outdoor pool. You give a shoutout to the hotel and they will likely repost the photos on their social media sites as well, giving you exposure to their followers.

You can do this with almost any type of product. If you sell dog collars, for example, post a photo of your dog wearing one of your collars while sitting with you at a popular local outdoor bistro, and give a shoutout to the restaurant. Use location photos to your advantage!