# data[].attributes.body
1. What is Primary and Secondary data?

2. List sources of Primary Data

3. What is the difference between Qualitative and Quantitative data?

4. List of types of Primary Qualitative and Quantitative data

5. List sources of Secondary Data

# data[].attributes.headline
Create a survey on the customer experience of your company website

# data[].attributes.subject
Create a survey on the customer experience of your company website

# data[].attributes.body
The survey is aimed at getting feedback on your company website. 5 questions only.

# data[].attributes.headline
Apply the PESTEL analysis to your company

# data[].attributes.subject
Apply the PESTEL analysis to your company

# data[].attributes.body
•Political

•Economic

•Societal forces

•Technology

•Legal

•Environment

# data[].attributes.headline
Using the budget methods below, research the following - for each a definition, factors influencing choice, typical industries and typical size of company

# data[].attributes.subject
Using the budget methods below, research the following - for each a definition, factors influencing choice, typical industries and typical size of company

# data[].attributes.body
% of Sales

Objective & Task

Competitive Parity

Zero Based Budgeting

Incremental Budgeting

https://www.perplexity.ai/

https://chatgpt.com/

# data[].attributes.headline
Create your own marketing strategy using the TOPPPSEED framework

# data[].attributes.subject
Create your own marketing strategy using the TOPPPSEED framework

# data[].attributes.body
Target Markets - wide net? Target smaller group?

Objectives - does your strategy help achieve the mission and vision?

Positioning - How do you want to be perceived in the minds of your target customers?

Processes - Automation? Training?

Partnership - what kind of partners?

Sequence - AIDA? (awareness, interest, desire, action)? RACE? (reach, act, convert, engage)

customer aquisition? retention?

Experience - what customer experience you promising?

Engagement - how are you assessing engagement?

Data - how are you monitoring data?

# data[].attributes.headline
Your company has an upcoming event in your local area to promote your product/services alongside similar companies (GROUP TASK) Please add your slide decks below - with your group names) 1 local supplier and 2 national suppliers. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Your company has an upcoming event in your local area to promote your product/services alongside similar companies (GROUP TASK) Please add your slide decks below - with your group names) 1 local supplier and 2 national suppliers. 

# data[].attributes.body
You have been given a budget of £2000 to get a stand built for this event.

Using the 9 evaluation methods, compare three potential suppliers - local / national. Add any screenshots of the stands they are offering / styles / anything else you find useful in your research. Create a slide deck presentation.

Cost evaluation, quality of service, social media presence, experience and expertise, scalability, technology, financial stability, cultural fit, reviews.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For a while now, you've been spearheading your organization's content marketing efforts, and your team's performance has convinced management to adopt the content marketing strategies you've suggested.

Now, your boss wants you to write and present a content marketing plan, but you've never done something like that before. You don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, we've curated the best content marketing plans to help you write a concrete plan that's rooted in data and produces results. But first, we'll discuss what a marketing plan is and how some of the best marketing plans include strategies that serve their respective businesses.

The purpose of a marketing plan is to write down strategies in an organized manner. This will help keep you on track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Writing a marketing plan will help you think of each campaign's mission, buyer personas, budget, tactics, and deliverables. With all this information in one place, you'll have an easier time staying on track with a campaign. You'll also discover what works and what doesn't. Thus, measuring the success of your strategy.

Looking to develop a marketing plan for your business? Click here to download HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template to get started.

To learn more about how to create your marketing plan, keep reading or jump to the section you're looking for:

If you're pressed for time or resources, you might not be thinking about a marketing plan. However, a marketing plan is an important part of your business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute resources and make decisions as your business grows.

I like to think of a marketing plan as a subset of a business plan; it shows how marketing strategies and objectives can support overall business goals.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy describes how a business will accomplish a particular goal or mission. This includes which campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software they'll use to execute that mission and track its success.

For example, while a greater plan or department might handle social media marketing, you might consider your work on Facebook as an individual marketing strategy.

A marketing plan contains one or more marketing strategies. It's the framework from which all of your marketing strategies are created and helps you connect each strategy back to a larger marketing operation and business goal.

For example, suppose your company is launching a new software product, and it wants customers to sign up. The marketing department needs to develop a marketing plan that'll help introduce this product to the industry and drive the desired signups.

The department decides to launch a blog dedicated to this industry, a new YouTube video series to establish expertise, and an account on Twitter to join the conversation around this subject. All this serves to attract an audience and convert this audience into software users.

To summarize, the business's marketing plan is dedicated to introducing a new software product to the marketplace and driving signups for that product. The business will execute that plan with three marketing strategies: a new industry blog, a YouTube video series, and a Twitter account.

Of course, the business might consider these three things as one giant marketing strategy, each with its specific content strategies. How granular you want your marketing plan to get is up to you. Nonetheless, every marketing plan goes through a particular set of steps in its creation.

Learn what they are below.

1. State your business's mission.

Your first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to your marketing department, it should serve your business's main mission statement.

From my experience, you want to be specific, but not too specific. You have plenty of space left in this marketing plan to elaborate on how you'll acquire new customers and accomplish this mission.

For example, if your business's mission is "to make booking travel a delightful experience," your marketing mission might be "to attract an audience of travelers, educate them on the tourism industry, and convert them into users of our bookings platform."

Need help building your mission statement? Download this guide for examples and templates and write the ideal mission statement.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

Every good marketing plan describes how the department will track its mission's progress. To do so, you need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs).

KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.

Let's take our example of a marketing mission from the above step. If part of our mission is "to attract an audience of travelers," we might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, "organic page views" is one KPI, and we can see our number of page views grow over time.

These KPIs will come into the conversation again in step 4.

3. Identify your buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title. Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business's current and potential customers. So, all business leaders must agree on your buyer personas.

Create your buyer personas with this free guide and set of buyer persona templates.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Here's where you'll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy. Because there's a laundry list of content types and channels available to you today, you must choose wisely and explain how you'll use your content and channels in this section of your marketing plan.

When I write this section, I like to stipulate:

Which types of content I'll create. These might include blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, and ebooks.

How much of it I'll create. I typically describe content volume in daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly intervals. It all depends on my workflow and the short-term goals for my content.

The goals (and KPIs) I'll use to track each type. KPIs can include organic traffic, social media traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic. Your goals should also include which pages you want to drive that traffic to, such as product pages, blog pages, or landing pages.

The channels on which I'll distribute my content. Popular channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Any paid advertising that will take place on these channels.

5. Clearly define your plan's omissions.

A marketing plan explains the marketing team's focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not focus on.

If there are other aspects of your business that you aren't serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content. You can't please everyone in a single marketing campaign, and if your team isn't on the hook for something, you need to make it known.

In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made.

6. Define your marketing budget.

Whether it's freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.

You can establish your marketing budget with this kit of 8 free marketing budget templates.

7. Identify your competition.

Part of marketing is knowing whom you're marketing against. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.

Keep in mind not every competitor will pose the same challenges to your business. For example, while one competitor might be ranking highly on search engines for keywords you want your website to rank for, another competitor might have a heavy footprint on a social network where you plan to launch an account.

Easily track and analyze your competitors with this collection of ten free competitive analysis templates.

8. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it's time to explain who's doing what. I don't like to delve too deeply into my employees' day-to-day projects, but I know which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and more.

Now that you know why you need to build an effective marketing plan, it's time to get to work. Starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming if you haven't done it before. That's why there are many helpful resources that can support your first steps. We'll share some of the best guides and templates that can help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.

Ready to make your own marketing plan? Get started using this free template.

Types of Marketing Plans

Depending on the company you work with, you might want to create various marketing plans. We compiled different samples to suit your needs:

1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans

These plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you'll take on in a certain period.

Forbes published a marketing plan template that has amassed almost 4 million views. To help you sculpt a marketing roadmap with true vision, their template will teach you how to fill out the 15 key sections of a marketing plan, which are:

Executive Summary

Target Customers

Unique Selling Proposition

Pricing & Positioning Strategy

Distribution Plan

Your Offers

Marketing Materials

Promotions Strategy

Online Marketing Strategy

Conversion Strategy

Joint Ventures & Partnerships

Referral Strategy

Strategy for Increasing Transaction Prices

Retention Strategy

Financial Projections

Best For

If you're truly lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I highly recommend using this guide to help you define your target audience, figure out how to reach them, and ensure that audience becomes loyal customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan

This type of plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish specifically on social media. A specific subtype is a paid marketing plan, which highlights paid strategies, such as native advertising, PPC, or paid social media promotions.

Shane Snow's Marketing Plan for His Book Dream Team is a great example of a social media marketing plan:

When Shane Snow started promoting his new book, "Dream Team," he knew he had to leverage a data-driven content strategy framework. So, he chose his favorite one: the content strategy waterfall. The content strategy waterfall is defined by Economic Times as a model used to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

Snow wrote a blog post about how the waterfall's content strategy helped him launch his new book successfully. After reading it, you can use his tactics to inform your own marketing plan. More specifically, you'll learn how he:

Applied his business objectives to decide which marketing metrics to track.

Used his ultimate business goal of earning $200,000 in sales or 10,000 purchases to estimate the conversion rate of each stage of his funnel.

Created buyer personas to figure out which channels his audience would prefer to consume his content.

Used his average post view on each of his marketing channels to estimate how much content he had to create and how often he had to post on social media.

Calculated how much earned and paid media could cut down the amount of content he had to create and post.

Designed his process and workflow, built his team, and assigned members to tasks.

Analyzed content performance metrics to refine his overall content strategy.

Best For

I use Snow's marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it's linear and builds on the step before it, creating an air-tight strategy that doesn't leave any details out.

3. Content Marketing Plan

This plan could highlight different strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you'll use content to promote your business or product.

HubSpot's Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy is a strong example of a content marketing plan:

At HubSpot, we've built our marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of hundreds of employees. Along the way, we've learned countless lessons that shaped our current content marketing strategy. So, we decided to illustrate our insights in a blog post to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy, regardless of their team's size.

In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, you'll learn:

What exactly content marketing is.

Why your business needs a content marketing strategy.

Who should lead your content marketing efforts?

How to structure your content marketing team based on your company's size.

How to hire the right people for each role on your team.

What marketing tools and technology you'll need to succeed.

What type of content your team should create, and which employees should be responsible for creating them.

The importance of distributing your content through search engines, social media, email, and paid ads.

And finally, the recommended metrics each of your teams should measure and report to optimize your content marketing program.

Best For

This is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size - whether you're a team of one or 100. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you'll need, what type of content you should create, and even recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns. If you're aiming to establish or boost your online presence, leveraging tools like HubSpot's drag-and-drop website builder can be extremely beneficial. It helps you create a captivating digital footprint that sets the foundation for your content marketing endeavors.

4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan

This will be a roadmap for the strategies and tactics you'll implement to promote a new product. And if you're searching for an example, look no further than Chief Outsiders' Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product:

After reading this plan, you'll learn how to:

Validate a product

Write strategic objectives

Identify your market

Compile a competitive landscape

Create a value proposition for a new product

Consider sales and service in your marketing plan

Best For

If you're looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target one product versus its entire marketing strategy.

5. Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like we see in Venture Harbour's Growth Marketing Plan Template:

Venture Harbour's growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. Their template has five steps intended for refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle. The five steps are:

Best For

I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation always feels risky and unfamiliar, but this plan creates a framework for accountability and strategy.

In my opinion, this marketing plan is a masterclass for companies in the tourism industry. It's a comprehensive game plan that covers key strategies for events, tourism programs, meetings, and conventions.

It also divides its target market into growth and seed categories to allow for more focused strategies. For example, the plan recognizes Millennials in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville as the core of it's growth market, whereas people in Boston, Austin, and New York represent seed markets where potential growth opportunities exist. Then, the plan outlines objectives and tactics for reaching each market.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

The plan starts with a letter from the President & CEO of the company, who sets the stage for the plan by providing a high-level preview of the incoming developments for Louisville's tourism industry

The focus on Louisville as "Bourbon City" effectively leverages its unique cultural and culinary attributes to present a strong brand

Incorporates a variety of data points from Google Analytics, Arrivalist, and visitor profiles to to define their target audience with a data-informed approach

Colleges have a broad target audience, including prospective students, international students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff. This marketing plan does an effective job of outlining strategies for each group as they move through different stages in the funnel.

For example, students who become prospects as freshman and sophomore will receive emails that focus on getting the most out of high school and college prep classes. Once these students become juniors and seniors - thus entering the consideration stage - the emails will focus more on the college application process and other exploratory content.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

This marketing plan by Visit Oxnard, a convention and visitors bureau, is packed with all the information one needs in a marketing plan: target markets, key performance indicators, selling points, personas, marketing tactics by channel, and much more.

It also articulates the organization's strategic plans for the upcoming fiscal year, especially as it grapples with the aftereffects of the pandemic. Lastly, it has impeccable visual appeal, with color-coded sections and strong branding elements.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

This marketing plan by a nonprofit organization is an excellent example to follow if your plan will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization. It includes SMART marketing goals, deadlines, action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages, and metrics.

The plan is detailed, yet scannable. By the end of it, one can walk away with a strong understanding of the organization's strategic direction for its upcoming marketing efforts.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Wright County Economic Development's plan drew our attention because of its simplicity, making it good inspiration for those who'd like to outline their plan in broad strokes without frills or filler.

It includes key information such as marketing partners, goals, initiatives, and costs. The sections are easy to scan and contain plenty of information for those who'd like to dig into the details. Most important, it includes a detailed breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative - which is critical information to include for upper-level managers and other stakeholders.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

This marketing plan presentation by a cultural council is a great example of how to effectively use data in your plan, address audiences who are new to the industry, and offer extensive detail into specific marketing strategies.

For instance, an entire slide is dedicated to the county's cultural tourism trends, and at the beginning of the presentation, the organization explains what an arts and culture agency is in the first place.

That's a critical piece of information to include for those who might not know. If you're addressing audiences outside your industry, consider defining terms at the beginning, like this organization did.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Uses quality design and images to support the goals and priorities in the text

Separate pages for each big idea or new strategy

Includes sections for awards and accomplishments to show how the marketing plan supports wider business goals

Defines strategies and tactics for each channel for easy skimming

Cabarrus County's convention and visitors bureau takes a slightly different approach with its marketing plan, formatting it like a magazine for stakeholders to flip through. It offers information on the county's target audience, channels, goals, KPIs, and public relations strategies and initiatives.

We especially love that the plan includes contact information for the bureau's staff members, so that it's easy for stakeholders to contact the appropriate person for a specific query.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Visit Billing's comprehensive marketing plan is like Cabarrus County's in that it follows a magazine format. With sections for each planned strategy, it offers a wealth of information and depth for internal stakeholders and potential investors.

We especially love its content strategy section, where it details the organization's prior efforts and current objectives for each content platform.

At the end, it includes strategic goals and budgets - a good move to imitate if your primary audience would not need this information highlighted at the forefront.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Marketing Plan FAQs

What is a typical marketing plan?

In my experience, most marketing plans outline the following aspects of a business's marketing:

Strategies

Objectives

Target audience

Tactics

Each marketing plan should include one or more goals, the path your team will take to meet those goals, and how you plan to measure success.

For example, if I were a tech startup that's launching a new mobile app, my marketing plan would include:

Featured resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

What should a good marketing plan include?

A good marketing plan will create a clear roadmap for your unique marketing team. This means that the best marketing plan for your business will be distinct to your team and business needs.

That said, most marketing plans will include sections for one or more of the following:

Clear analysis of the target market

A detailed description of the product or service

Competitive analysis

Strategic marketing mix details (such as product, price, place, promotion)

Measurable goals with defined timelines

This can help you build the best marketing plan for your business.

A good marketing plan should also include a product or service's unique value proposition, a comprehensive marketing strategy including online and offline channels, and a defined budget.

Featured resource: Value Proposition Templates

What are the most important parts of a marketing plan?

When you're planning a road trip, you need a map to help define your route, step-by-step directions, and an estimate of the time it will take to get to your destination. It's literally how you get there that matters.

Like a road map, a marketing plan is only useful if it helps you get to where you want to go. So, no one part is more than the other.

That said, you can use the list below to make sure that you've added or at least considered each of the following in your marketing plan:

Marketing goals

Executive summary

Target market analysis

Competitive analysis

Marketing strategies

Tactics

Budget

Metrics

What questions should I ask when making a marketing plan?

Questions are a useful tool for when you're stuck or want to make sure you've included important details.

Try using one or more of these questions as a starting point when you create your marketing plan:

Who is my target audience?

What are their needs, motivations, and pain points?

How does our product or service solve their problems?

How will I reach and engage them?

Who are my competitors? Are they direct or indirect competitors?

What are the unique selling points of my product or service?

What marketing channels are best for the brand?

What is our budget and timeline?

How will I measure the success of marketing efforts?

How much does a marketing plan cost?

Creating a marketing plan is mostly free. But the cost of executing a marketing plan will depend on your specific plan.

Marketing plan costs vary by business, industry, and plan scope. Whether your team handles marketing in-house or hires external consultants can also make a difference. Total costs can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. This is why most marketing plans will include a budget.

Featured resource: Free Marketing Budget Templates

What is a marketing plan template?

A marketing plan template is a pre-designed structure or framework that helps you outline your marketing plan.

It offers a starting point that you can customize for your specific business needs and goals. For example, our template includes easy-to-edit sections for:

Business summary

Business initiatives

Target market

Market strategy

Budget

Marketing channels

Marketing technology

Sample Marketing Plan

Let's create a sample plan together, step by step.

Follow along with HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template.

1. Create an overview or primary objective.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:

3. Identify your buyer personas.

Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.

For more useful strategies, consider creating a buyer persona in our Make My Persona tool.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Content pillars should be based on topics your audience needs to know. If your ideal clients are female entrepreneurs, then your content pillars can be: marketing, being a woman in business, remote working, and productivity hacks for entrepreneurs.
Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience's valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.
Then, determine any omissions.

5. Define your marketing budget.
We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform]. The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.
6. Identify your competitors.

I like to work through the following questions to clearly indicate who my competitors are:

Which platforms do they use the most?

How does their branding differentiate?

How do they talk to their audiences?

What valuable assets do customers talk about? And if they are receiving any negative feedback, what is it about?

7. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

Create responsible parties for each portion of the plan.
Our content pillars will be: [X, Y, Z].

Social media manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Content strategist: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Community manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

This marketing plan won't be focusing on the following areas of improvement: [A, B, C].

Sales strategists: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Sales executives: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Our marketing strategy will use a total of [Y] monthly. This will include anything from freelance collaborations to advertising.
Get started on your marketing plan.

These marketing plans serve as initial resources to get your content marketing plan started. But, to truly deliver what your audience wants and needs, you'll likely need to test some different ideas out, measure their success, and then refine your goals as you go.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure t o learn more about how we use AI.
Marketing will manage the content plan, implementation, and community interaction to reach the KPIs. Sales will follow the line of the marketing work while creating and implementing an outreach strategy. Customer Service will nurture clients' relationships to ensure that they have what they want. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].Project Managers will track the progress and team communication during the project. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how to write the perfect marketing plan, and check out real examples that are rooted in data and produce real results for their business.

# data[].attributes.body
At the end of the training you will be able to:

•Understand what a marketing plan is

•Understand the Ansoff’s Matrix and it’s purpose

•Understand the different types of marketing plans

•Be able to conduct a thorough marketing plan using SOSTAC

•Identify different types of competitors and be able to conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis using a variety of tools

•Be able to conduct an environment scan using multiple tools

•Understand budget-setting methods

•Understand different market research methods

•Understand how to create marketing briefs

•Evaluate potential marketing suppliers

# data[].attributes.headline
List who is your company's microenvironment and how they impact your business. 

# data[].attributes.subject
List who is your company's microenvironment and how they impact your business. 

# data[].attributes.body
•Suppliers (kinds of suppliers)

•Intermediaries

•Competitors (done previously)

•Publics

•Customers (kinds of customers)

# data[].attributes.headline
Analyse the internal elements of your company

# data[].attributes.subject
Analyse the internal elements of your company

# data[].attributes.body
•Resources

•System and processes

•Skills/people

# data[].attributes.headline
Conduct an analysis of your competitors for their marketing activities

# data[].attributes.subject
Conduct an analysis of your competitors for their marketing activities

# data[].attributes.body
Name, social channels, followers, how often do they post? What is their main content type? Do they post ads?

https://www.socialinsider.io/

https://adstransparency.google.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=GB&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all

https://library.tiktok.com/ads?region=GB&start_time=1664578800000&end_time=1721304769890&adv_name=&adv_biz_ids=&query_type=&sort_type=last_shown_date,desc

# data[].attributes.body
•What is the best benefit of your product from your customer’s view?

•How is your product/service completely unique?

•Why would a customer buy from you and not your competition?

•When will the customer be better off buying from someone else?

# data[].attributes.headline
Complete the website analysis for your competitors

# data[].attributes.subject
Complete the website analysis for your competitors

# data[].attributes.body
Name, Domain strength, Speed test, Content, reviews from other sites, google review, keywords they rank for

https://websiteseochecker.com

https://pagespeed.web.dev/

https://app.wincher.com

# data[].attributes.headline
Create a positioning map of your company and competitors

# data[].attributes.subject
Create a positioning map of your company and competitors

# data[].attributes.headline
Profile your competitors   3-5 from Task 1 

# data[].attributes.subject
Profile your competitors   3-5 from Task 1 

# data[].attributes.body
Name of competitor

•Background

•Product range

•Target market

•Pricing strategy

•Marketing strategy

•Distribution Strategy

•USP - unique selling point - what makes them better or stand out more from the competition.

# data[].attributes.body
Post your company name and the following -

Name of competitors (3-5) / type / how they are a competitor

Screenshots of Google map entries of top competitors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Ansoff Matrix Explained with Example

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Marketing in Two Minutes: APIC Marketing Planning Model

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOSTAC - how to write the perfect plan (in 4 minutes)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Market Mapping / Market Positioning Map | Marketing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Earned media vs. paid media vs. owned media EXPLAINED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SWOT Analysis - What is SWOT? Definition, Examples and How to Do a SWOT Analysis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Porter's 5 Forces Explained | External Analysis Course

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Setting SMART Marketing Objectives and Goals

# data[].attributes.headline
You need to outsource content creation to grow your TikTok channel, an agency has been found - Class Discussion.

# data[].attributes.subject
You need to outsource content creation to grow your TikTok channel, an agency has been found - Class Discussion.

# data[].attributes.body
You need to create a brief for that agency specifying the details.

# data[].attributes.headline
What have you been up too since our last session (describe what marketing activities you been working on in the workplace etc)

# data[].attributes.subject
What have you been up too since our last session (describe what marketing activities you been working on in the workplace etc)

# data[].attributes.body
Pick a real business and map its recent product or campaign activities onto the Ansoff Matrix (market penetration, product development, market development, diversification).

Recommend one strategy from the matrix the company hasn’t used—and justify the risks and rewards.

# data[].attributes.body
Use the SOSTAC framework build a mini-marketing plan for a product or service (real or hypothetical).

Include situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, action plan, and controls.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For a while now, you've been spearheading your organization's content marketing efforts, and your team's performance has convinced management to adopt the content marketing strategies you've suggested.

Now, your boss wants you to write and present a content marketing plan, but you've never done something like that before. You don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, we've curated the best content marketing plans to help you write a concrete plan that's rooted in data and produces results. But first, we'll discuss what a marketing plan is and how some of the best marketing plans include strategies that serve their respective businesses.

The purpose of a marketing plan is to write down strategies in an organized manner. This will help keep you on track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Writing a marketing plan will help you think of each campaign's mission, buyer personas, budget, tactics, and deliverables. With all this information in one place, you'll have an easier time staying on track with a campaign. You'll also discover what works and what doesn't. Thus, measuring the success of your strategy.

Looking to develop a marketing plan for your business? Click here to download HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template to get started.

To learn more about how to create your marketing plan, keep reading or jump to the section you're looking for:

If you're pressed for time or resources, you might not be thinking about a marketing plan. However, a marketing plan is an important part of your business plan.

Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan

A marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

A business plan is also a strategic document. But this plan covers all aspects of a company's operations, including finance, operations, and more. It can also help your business decide how to distribute resources and make decisions as your business grows.

I like to think of a marketing plan as a subset of a business plan; it shows how marketing strategies and objectives can support overall business goals.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

A marketing strategy describes how a business will accomplish a particular goal or mission. This includes which campaigns, content, channels, and marketing software they'll use to execute that mission and track its success.

For example, while a greater plan or department might handle social media marketing, you might consider your work on Facebook as an individual marketing strategy.

A marketing plan contains one or more marketing strategies. It's the framework from which all of your marketing strategies are created and helps you connect each strategy back to a larger marketing operation and business goal.

For example, suppose your company is launching a new software product, and it wants customers to sign up. The marketing department needs to develop a marketing plan that'll help introduce this product to the industry and drive the desired signups.

The department decides to launch a blog dedicated to this industry, a new YouTube video series to establish expertise, and an account on Twitter to join the conversation around this subject. All this serves to attract an audience and convert this audience into software users.

To summarize, the business's marketing plan is dedicated to introducing a new software product to the marketplace and driving signups for that product. The business will execute that plan with three marketing strategies: a new industry blog, a YouTube video series, and a Twitter account.

Of course, the business might consider these three things as one giant marketing strategy, each with its specific content strategies. How granular you want your marketing plan to get is up to you. Nonetheless, every marketing plan goes through a particular set of steps in its creation.

Learn what they are below.

1. State your business's mission.

Your first step in writing a marketing plan is to state your mission. Although this mission is specific to your marketing department, it should serve your business's main mission statement.

From my experience, you want to be specific, but not too specific. You have plenty of space left in this marketing plan to elaborate on how you'll acquire new customers and accomplish this mission.

For example, if your business's mission is "to make booking travel a delightful experience," your marketing mission might be "to attract an audience of travelers, educate them on the tourism industry, and convert them into users of our bookings platform."

Need help building your mission statement? Download this guide for examples and templates and write the ideal mission statement.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

Every good marketing plan describes how the department will track its mission's progress. To do so, you need to decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs).

KPIs are individual metrics that measure the various elements of a marketing campaign. These units help you establish short-term goals within your mission and communicate your progress to business leaders.

Let's take our example of a marketing mission from the above step. If part of our mission is "to attract an audience of travelers," we might track website visits using organic page views. In this case, "organic page views" is one KPI, and we can see our number of page views grow over time.

These KPIs will come into the conversation again in step 4.

3. Identify your buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a description of who you want to attract. This can include age, sex, location, family size, and job title. Each buyer persona should directly reflect your business's current and potential customers. So, all business leaders must agree on your buyer personas.

Create your buyer personas with this free guide and set of buyer persona templates.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Here's where you'll include the main points of your marketing and content strategy. Because there's a laundry list of content types and channels available to you today, you must choose wisely and explain how you'll use your content and channels in this section of your marketing plan.

When I write this section, I like to stipulate:

Which types of content I'll create. These might include blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, and ebooks.

How much of it I'll create. I typically describe content volume in daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly intervals. It all depends on my workflow and the short-term goals for my content.

The goals (and KPIs) I'll use to track each type. KPIs can include organic traffic, social media traffic, email traffic, and referral traffic. Your goals should also include which pages you want to drive that traffic to, such as product pages, blog pages, or landing pages.

The channels on which I'll distribute my content. Popular channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Any paid advertising that will take place on these channels.

5. Clearly define your plan's omissions.

A marketing plan explains the marketing team's focus. It also explains what the marketing team will not focus on.

If there are other aspects of your business that you aren't serving in this particular plan, include them in this section. These omissions help to justify your mission, buyer personas, KPIs, and content. You can't please everyone in a single marketing campaign, and if your team isn't on the hook for something, you need to make it known.

In my experience, this section is particularly important for stakeholders to help them understand why certain decisions were made.

6. Define your marketing budget.

Whether it's freelance fees, sponsorships, or a new full-time marketing hire, use these costs to develop a marketing budget and outline each expense in this section of your marketing plan.

You can establish your marketing budget with this kit of 8 free marketing budget templates.

7. Identify your competition.

Part of marketing is knowing whom you're marketing against. Research the key players in your industry and consider profiling each one.

Keep in mind not every competitor will pose the same challenges to your business. For example, while one competitor might be ranking highly on search engines for keywords you want your website to rank for, another competitor might have a heavy footprint on a social network where you plan to launch an account.

Easily track and analyze your competitors with this collection of ten free competitive analysis templates.

8. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

With your marketing plan fully fleshed out, it's time to explain who's doing what. I don't like to delve too deeply into my employees' day-to-day projects, but I know which teams and team leaders are in charge of specific content types, channels, KPIs, and more.

Now that you know why you need to build an effective marketing plan, it's time to get to work. Starting a plan from scratch can be overwhelming if you haven't done it before. That's why there are many helpful resources that can support your first steps. We'll share some of the best guides and templates that can help you build effective results-driven plans for your marketing strategies.

Ready to make your own marketing plan? Get started using this free template.

Types of Marketing Plans

Depending on the company you work with, you might want to create various marketing plans. We compiled different samples to suit your needs:

1. Quarterly or Annual Marketing Plans

These plans highlight the strategies or campaigns you'll take on in a certain period.

Forbes published a marketing plan template that has amassed almost 4 million views. To help you sculpt a marketing roadmap with true vision, their template will teach you how to fill out the 15 key sections of a marketing plan, which are:

Executive Summary

Target Customers

Unique Selling Proposition

Pricing & Positioning Strategy

Distribution Plan

Your Offers

Marketing Materials

Promotions Strategy

Online Marketing Strategy

Conversion Strategy

Joint Ventures & Partnerships

Referral Strategy

Strategy for Increasing Transaction Prices

Retention Strategy

Financial Projections

Best For

If you're truly lost on where to start with a marketing plan, I highly recommend using this guide to help you define your target audience, figure out how to reach them, and ensure that audience becomes loyal customers.

2. Social Media Marketing Plan

This type of plan highlights the channels, tactics, and campaigns you intend to accomplish specifically on social media. A specific subtype is a paid marketing plan, which highlights paid strategies, such as native advertising, PPC, or paid social media promotions.

Shane Snow's Marketing Plan for His Book Dream Team is a great example of a social media marketing plan:

When Shane Snow started promoting his new book, "Dream Team," he knew he had to leverage a data-driven content strategy framework. So, he chose his favorite one: the content strategy waterfall. The content strategy waterfall is defined by Economic Times as a model used to create a system with a linear and sequential approach.

Snow wrote a blog post about how the waterfall's content strategy helped him launch his new book successfully. After reading it, you can use his tactics to inform your own marketing plan. More specifically, you'll learn how he:

Applied his business objectives to decide which marketing metrics to track.

Used his ultimate business goal of earning $200,000 in sales or 10,000 purchases to estimate the conversion rate of each stage of his funnel.

Created buyer personas to figure out which channels his audience would prefer to consume his content.

Used his average post view on each of his marketing channels to estimate how much content he had to create and how often he had to post on social media.

Calculated how much earned and paid media could cut down the amount of content he had to create and post.

Designed his process and workflow, built his team, and assigned members to tasks.

Analyzed content performance metrics to refine his overall content strategy.

Best For

I use Snow's marketing plan to think more creatively about my content promotion and distribution plan. I like that it's linear and builds on the step before it, creating an air-tight strategy that doesn't leave any details out.

3. Content Marketing Plan

This plan could highlight different strategies, tactics, and campaigns in which you'll use content to promote your business or product.

HubSpot's Comprehensive Guide for Content Marketing Strategy is a strong example of a content marketing plan:

At HubSpot, we've built our marketing team from two business school graduates working from a coffee table to a powerhouse of hundreds of employees. Along the way, we've learned countless lessons that shaped our current content marketing strategy. So, we decided to illustrate our insights in a blog post to teach marketers how to develop a successful content marketing strategy, regardless of their team's size.

In this comprehensive guide for modern marketers, you'll learn:

What exactly content marketing is.

Why your business needs a content marketing strategy.

Who should lead your content marketing efforts?

How to structure your content marketing team based on your company's size.

How to hire the right people for each role on your team.

What marketing tools and technology you'll need to succeed.

What type of content your team should create, and which employees should be responsible for creating them.

The importance of distributing your content through search engines, social media, email, and paid ads.

And finally, the recommended metrics each of your teams should measure and report to optimize your content marketing program.

Best For

This is a fantastic resource for content teams of any size - whether you're a team of one or 100. It includes how to hire and structure a content marketing team, what marketing tools you'll need, what type of content you should create, and even recommends what metrics to track for analyzing campaigns. If you're aiming to establish or boost your online presence, leveraging tools like HubSpot's drag-and-drop website builder can be extremely beneficial. It helps you create a captivating digital footprint that sets the foundation for your content marketing endeavors.

4. New Product Launch Marketing Plan

This will be a roadmap for the strategies and tactics you'll implement to promote a new product. And if you're searching for an example, look no further than Chief Outsiders' Go-To-Market Plan for a New Product:

After reading this plan, you'll learn how to:

Validate a product

Write strategic objectives

Identify your market

Compile a competitive landscape

Create a value proposition for a new product

Consider sales and service in your marketing plan

Best For

If you're looking for a marketing plan for a new product, the Chief Outsiders template is a great place to start. Marketing plans for a new product will be more specific because they target one product versus its entire marketing strategy.

5. Growth Marketing Plan

Growth marketing plans use experimentation and data to drive results, like we see in Venture Harbour's Growth Marketing Plan Template:

Venture Harbour's growth marketing plan is a data-driven and experiment-led alternative to the more traditional marketing plan. Their template has five steps intended for refinement with every test-measure-learn cycle. The five steps are:

Best For

I recommend this plan if you want to experiment with different platforms and campaigns. Experimentation always feels risky and unfamiliar, but this plan creates a framework for accountability and strategy.

In my opinion, this marketing plan is a masterclass for companies in the tourism industry. It's a comprehensive game plan that covers key strategies for events, tourism programs, meetings, and conventions.

It also divides its target market into growth and seed categories to allow for more focused strategies. For example, the plan recognizes Millennials in Chicago, Atlanta, and Nashville as the core of it's growth market, whereas people in Boston, Austin, and New York represent seed markets where potential growth opportunities exist. Then, the plan outlines objectives and tactics for reaching each market.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

The plan starts with a letter from the President & CEO of the company, who sets the stage for the plan by providing a high-level preview of the incoming developments for Louisville's tourism industry

The focus on Louisville as "Bourbon City" effectively leverages its unique cultural and culinary attributes to present a strong brand

Incorporates a variety of data points from Google Analytics, Arrivalist, and visitor profiles to to define their target audience with a data-informed approach

Colleges have a broad target audience, including prospective students, international students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff. This marketing plan does an effective job of outlining strategies for each group as they move through different stages in the funnel.

For example, students who become prospects as freshman and sophomore will receive emails that focus on getting the most out of high school and college prep classes. Once these students become juniors and seniors - thus entering the consideration stage - the emails will focus more on the college application process and other exploratory content.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

This marketing plan by Visit Oxnard, a convention and visitors bureau, is packed with all the information one needs in a marketing plan: target markets, key performance indicators, selling points, personas, marketing tactics by channel, and much more.

It also articulates the organization's strategic plans for the upcoming fiscal year, especially as it grapples with the aftereffects of the pandemic. Lastly, it has impeccable visual appeal, with color-coded sections and strong branding elements.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

This marketing plan by a nonprofit organization is an excellent example to follow if your plan will be presented to internal stakeholders at all levels of your organization. It includes SMART marketing goals, deadlines, action steps, long-term objectives, target audiences, core marketing messages, and metrics.

The plan is detailed, yet scannable. By the end of it, one can walk away with a strong understanding of the organization's strategic direction for its upcoming marketing efforts.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Wright County Economic Development's plan drew our attention because of its simplicity, making it good inspiration for those who'd like to outline their plan in broad strokes without frills or filler.

It includes key information such as marketing partners, goals, initiatives, and costs. The sections are easy to scan and contain plenty of information for those who'd like to dig into the details. Most important, it includes a detailed breakdown of projected costs per marketing initiative - which is critical information to include for upper-level managers and other stakeholders.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

This marketing plan presentation by a cultural council is a great example of how to effectively use data in your plan, address audiences who are new to the industry, and offer extensive detail into specific marketing strategies.

For instance, an entire slide is dedicated to the county's cultural tourism trends, and at the beginning of the presentation, the organization explains what an arts and culture agency is in the first place.

That's a critical piece of information to include for those who might not know. If you're addressing audiences outside your industry, consider defining terms at the beginning, like this organization did.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Uses quality design and images to support the goals and priorities in the text

Separate pages for each big idea or new strategy

Includes sections for awards and accomplishments to show how the marketing plan supports wider business goals

Defines strategies and tactics for each channel for easy skimming

Cabarrus County's convention and visitors bureau takes a slightly different approach with its marketing plan, formatting it like a magazine for stakeholders to flip through. It offers information on the county's target audience, channels, goals, KPIs, and public relations strategies and initiatives.

We especially love that the plan includes contact information for the bureau's staff members, so that it's easy for stakeholders to contact the appropriate person for a specific query.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Visit Billing's comprehensive marketing plan is like Cabarrus County's in that it follows a magazine format. With sections for each planned strategy, it offers a wealth of information and depth for internal stakeholders and potential investors.

We especially love its content strategy section, where it details the organization's prior efforts and current objectives for each content platform.

At the end, it includes strategic goals and budgets - a good move to imitate if your primary audience would not need this information highlighted at the forefront.

Why This Marketing Plan Works

Marketing Plan FAQs

What is a typical marketing plan?

In my experience, most marketing plans outline the following aspects of a business's marketing:

Strategies

Objectives

Target audience

Tactics

Each marketing plan should include one or more goals, the path your team will take to meet those goals, and how you plan to measure success.

For example, if I were a tech startup that's launching a new mobile app, my marketing plan would include:

Featured resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

What should a good marketing plan include?

A good marketing plan will create a clear roadmap for your unique marketing team. This means that the best marketing plan for your business will be distinct to your team and business needs.

That said, most marketing plans will include sections for one or more of the following:

Clear analysis of the target market

A detailed description of the product or service

Competitive analysis

Strategic marketing mix details (such as product, price, place, promotion)

Measurable goals with defined timelines

This can help you build the best marketing plan for your business.

A good marketing plan should also include a product or service's unique value proposition, a comprehensive marketing strategy including online and offline channels, and a defined budget.

Featured resource: Value Proposition Templates

What are the most important parts of a marketing plan?

When you're planning a road trip, you need a map to help define your route, step-by-step directions, and an estimate of the time it will take to get to your destination. It's literally how you get there that matters.

Like a road map, a marketing plan is only useful if it helps you get to where you want to go. So, no one part is more than the other.

That said, you can use the list below to make sure that you've added or at least considered each of the following in your marketing plan:

Marketing goals

Executive summary

Target market analysis

Competitive analysis

Marketing strategies

Tactics

Budget

Metrics

What questions should I ask when making a marketing plan?

Questions are a useful tool for when you're stuck or want to make sure you've included important details.

Try using one or more of these questions as a starting point when you create your marketing plan:

Who is my target audience?

What are their needs, motivations, and pain points?

How does our product or service solve their problems?

How will I reach and engage them?

Who are my competitors? Are they direct or indirect competitors?

What are the unique selling points of my product or service?

What marketing channels are best for the brand?

What is our budget and timeline?

How will I measure the success of marketing efforts?

How much does a marketing plan cost?

Creating a marketing plan is mostly free. But the cost of executing a marketing plan will depend on your specific plan.

Marketing plan costs vary by business, industry, and plan scope. Whether your team handles marketing in-house or hires external consultants can also make a difference. Total costs can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. This is why most marketing plans will include a budget.

Featured resource: Free Marketing Budget Templates

What is a marketing plan template?

A marketing plan template is a pre-designed structure or framework that helps you outline your marketing plan.

It offers a starting point that you can customize for your specific business needs and goals. For example, our template includes easy-to-edit sections for:

Business summary

Business initiatives

Target market

Market strategy

Budget

Marketing channels

Marketing technology

Sample Marketing Plan

Let's create a sample plan together, step by step.

Follow along with HubSpot's free Marketing Plan Template.

1. Create an overview or primary objective.

2. Determine the KPIs for this mission.

For example, if I wanted to focus on social media growth, my KPIs might look like this:

3. Identify your buyer personas.

Use the following categories to create a target audience for your campaign.

For more useful strategies, consider creating a buyer persona in our Make My Persona tool.

4. Describe your content initiatives and strategies.

Content pillars should be based on topics your audience needs to know. If your ideal clients are female entrepreneurs, then your content pillars can be: marketing, being a woman in business, remote working, and productivity hacks for entrepreneurs.
Our business mission is to provide [service, product, solution] to help [audience] reach their [financial, educational, business related] goals without compromising their [your audience's valuable asset: free time, mental health, budget, etc.]. We want to improve our social media presence while nurturing our relationships with collaborators and clients.
Then, determine any omissions.

5. Define your marketing budget.
We want to achieve a minimum of [followers] with an engagement rate of [X] on [social media platform]. The goal is to achieve an increase of [Y] on recurring clients and new meaningful connections outside the platform by the end of the year.
6. Identify your competitors.

I like to work through the following questions to clearly indicate who my competitors are:

Which platforms do they use the most?

How does their branding differentiate?

How do they talk to their audiences?

What valuable assets do customers talk about? And if they are receiving any negative feedback, what is it about?

7. Outline your plan's contributors and their responsibilities.

Create responsible parties for each portion of the plan.
Our content pillars will be: [X, Y, Z].

Social media manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Content strategist: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Community manager: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

This marketing plan won't be focusing on the following areas of improvement: [A, B, C].

Sales strategists: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Sales executives: [hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations]

Our marketing strategy will use a total of [Y] monthly. This will include anything from freelance collaborations to advertising.
Get started on your marketing plan.

These marketing plans serve as initial resources to get your content marketing plan started. But, to truly deliver what your audience wants and needs, you'll likely need to test some different ideas out, measure their success, and then refine your goals as you go.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in April 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure t o learn more about how we use AI.
Marketing will manage the content plan, implementation, and community interaction to reach the KPIs. Sales will follow the line of the marketing work while creating and implementing an outreach strategy. Customer Service will nurture clients' relationships to ensure that they have what they want. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].Project Managers will track the progress and team communication during the project. [Hours per week dedicated to the project, responsibilities, team communication requirements, expectations].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is a Marketing Plan & How to Write One [+Examples]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how to write the perfect marketing plan, and check out real examples that are rooted in data and produce real results for their business.

# data[].attributes.body
i have been doing alot of linkedin work at my job, creating content and making job adverts, making month dumps and just interactive pots for the followers on my companys linkedin. i have also been doing site work and editing and making new blogs for the website!

# data[].attributes.body
I've been working on...

Content calendar alignment across blogs, socials and the company newsletter

Building a messaging framework for the brand and its product solutions

Blog audit of old content

Purpose statements for content marketing pieces

# data[].attributes.body
Managing our Social Media accounts.

Planning a photoshoot trip for summer themed content.

Writing product descriptions for our AW25 launch.

# data[].attributes.body
I have started supporting with the Amazon account, with this i help with budgeting and spend trackers to see if we are on track

i have been doing a lot of campaign briefs for Prezzo account

# data[].attributes.body
I completed the LinkedIn course on HubSpot

I completed the Email Marketing Course on HubSpot

I've been doing a lot of design work - designing packaging for new products

I've been drafting an email campaign for one of our products

I've been drafting a LinkedIn campaign for another of our products

I've been redesigning the website too

# data[].attributes.body
Tomorrow Advertising Agency

Competitors are other advertising agencies

Omnicom

Publicis

Dentsu

Havas

(there was a lot of sponsored companies so i had to google this question instead of going on maps)

# data[].attributes.body
My Company Name : ID Card Centre, Northampton

Our top competitors:

-Digital ID

-The Plastic Card Company

-Lesar UK

-The Plastic Card Hub

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-5JUrcg_ppc3jYW4TVJw_PMPKYGJL0d61OBLv8MhVHQ/edit?usp=sharing

# data[].attributes.body
Terra Nova Equipment

Competitors - Rab, Berghaus, MSR...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m_EnLaNo5bABHFktiSj8wtvTBjYBE3BpQRRnIQaFB4c/edit?tab=t.0

# data[].attributes.body
Lifeline Fire and Safety Systems

OMP

Motorsport safety manufacturer that offer a mass market approach with an extensive range of products.

FEV

Manufacture specialist FIA-approved fire suppression systems (mostly to F1 teams).

Sparco

Motorsport safety manufacturer most known for driver equipment e.g. helmets, gloves etc.

# data[].attributes.body
Company name: Voicescape - (SAAS company for Housing)

Name of competitors: Mobysoft (Direct/Primary), Netcall (Direct), MRI Software (Secondary) (niche – software for UK housing) – all provide the same service = social housing management software (some more generic)

# data[].attributes.body
OMP Racing

Background: Founded in 1973, OMP is probably the most recognised motorsport safety brand in the world.
Product range: Fire suppression systems, harnesses, seats, helmets, racewear, steering wheels, accessories and pretty much anything you could ever need for racing cars.
Target market: Professional and amateur motorsport teams, racers in FIA categories e.g. GT, Formula 1/2 etc., track-day enthusiasts and anyone wanting to race cars.
Pricing strategy: Mid-to-premium but offer some cheaper alternatives due to extensive range — their pricing reflects their brand reputation and FIA approvals but it is competitive compared to Sparco.
Marketing strategy: Use of sponsorships (F1, WEC, touring cars), brand ambassadors and digital marketing.
Distribution strategy: Global distribution through dealers, race shops and direct e-commerce.
USP: Wide range of FIA-approved safety gear — customers can source pretty much everything they could ever want from one trusted brand.

FEV

Background: Established in 1990, FEV is a specialist in motorsport fire suppression, with strong links in F1, rallying and endurance racing.
Product range: FIA-approved fire extinguishers and suppression systems, handheld extinguishers and installation kits.
Target market: Motorsport competitors from club-level to professional rally and endurance teams.
Pricing strategy: Competitive, often undercutting larger brands, hence they appeal to cost-conscious race teams.
Marketing strategy: Relies more on reputation, FIA homologation listings and event visibility.
Distribution strategy: European dealer network and direct sales via its website.
USP: Specialist focus — 100% dedicated to fire suppression, giving them technical credibility and strong FIA relationships.

Sparco

Background: Founded in 1977, Sparco is one of the largest motorsport safety equipment manufacturers in the world.
Product range: FIA-approved racewear, helmets, seats, harnesses, fire suppression systems and lifestyle products.
Target market: Global motorsport market - anything from grassroots racers to F1.
Pricing strategy: Premium — Sparco positions itself as a high-end, lifestyle-driven brand.
Marketing strategy: Use of motorsport sponsorships (F1, WRC, esports), have strong branding that's trusted worldwide and they now have lifestyle crossovers e.g. gaming chairs.
Distribution strategy: Extensive global dealer network, strong online presence and even Sparco-branded shops.
USP: Strong global brand recognition and premium positioning — Sparco stands out for combining motorsport safety with lifestyle branding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Profile your competitors 3-5 from Task 1

# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m_EnLaNo5bABHFktiSj8wtvTBjYBE3BpQRRnIQaFB4c/edit?tab=t.nwb6uyw0s8ke

Tab 2*

No TikTok ads

Limited Google Ads

Brand - MSR B2B so no Ads

Couldn't find any ads from businesses that sell them either.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Conduct an analysis of your competitors for their marketing activities

# data[].attributes.body
OMP Racing

Facebook: ~161,000 followers

Instagram: ~96,000 followers

X (Twitter): ~4,170 followers

LinkedIn: ~8,214 followers

Post a couple times a week about products, updates, partnerships. No ads.

FEV Fire Suppression

Instagram: ~1,300 followers

Facebook: ~277 followers

LinkedIn: ~241 followers

X: not listed

Post about products but not regularly. No ads.

Sparco

Instagram: ~343,000 followers

Facebook: ~287,000 followers

LinkedIn: ~28,894 followers

Post a few times a week about products. No ads.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Lifeline's products are just better quality - they're lighter, they're smaller, they work faster and they're made in the UK rather than a 3rd world factory

2. The designs are patented

3. We're reliable and trustworthy due to our close customer relationships and high-quality customer service

4. If they want cheaper products

# data[].attributes.body
Tomorrow is a smaller advertising agency so there is more attention to detail when it comes to Account management.

It is unique because we also have our own creative studio inhouse.

The agency fee might be lower than bigger companies but we provide the same level of service.

If the Client is big and they have so many services or products they need advertising at the same time, it would be better to go with a competitor than can handle a big scale account.

# data[].attributes.body
BENEFITS:

Quality - Sustainable - British Made

Reliable relationship, repairs, customer service and communication points on socials.

UNIQUE:

Direct access to product designers through social media and websites. We also work with a lot of affiliates so the chance to promote and test products.

WHY US:

Made by people that use these products tried and tested in British conditions.

SOMEONE ELSE:

When they want camping gear such as rucksacks, jackets or sleeping bags.

# data[].attributes.body
• Voicescape’s housing software combines AI with behavioural science (USP) informed strategies and recommendations – this is a huge distinguisher in the market as the solutions are trained to consider behavioural factors (tenant interactions/predictions) in their automation capabilities – other solutions on the market don’t do this.

•Behaviour science and data science USP.

• It's a proactive software that considers tenant relationships more and provides more of an everyday strategy software to support housing officers that integrates with existing systems.

•If the products don’t align with budget, ROI expectations and management responsibilities.

# data[].attributes.body
1) i would say the best benefit of the products my company selld would be the quality. all id cards are fully recyclable and we really avoid packaging with single useplastic like bubble wrap or poly mailers

2) i would say a unique thing about the products we sell would be that all customisable items whether that be lanyards or cards are all printed, designed and packaged in house in our small northamptonshire warehouse, we have made lanyards for the monaco grand prix, ikea,rupauls drag race, the nhs and many more big companies and conventions

3) i think our team are very friendly and informative. the reviews we recieve are very lovely and we prioritise building longer term relationships with our customers, not just one off transactions.

4) i would say that our higher end products arent the cheapest. some of the luxury printers can be on the pricier side so i would reccomend if someone just wanted a personal printer for home use i would reccomend shopping elsewhere.

# data[].attributes.body
please ignore my handwriting haha

# data[].attributes.body
1 HQ office

Microsoft / Google suite sources

Marketing Campaigns --> HubSpot

HubSpot analytics / GA4 / Google Search Console

50 staff

Marketers / Sales / Developers / CSM / AM

Behaviour Scientists

# data[].attributes.body
Company website

internal dashboard with a collection of data from all the channels.

Google ads, Meta ads manager, indeed, Snapchat, TikTok, Indeed, Adobe

Account managers

Specialists in display, paid social, Sales, Finance, data and paid search

Around 50 people

# data[].attributes.body
Employees:

30 (+/-)

Product designers, sewers, sales, marketing, customer service, warehouse, finance, pay roll...

Ages from 15-65

System:

Design, sample, approve, market, sell, products arrival, warehouse distribution.

Resources:

Digital platforms, B2B Events, Customer shows, Physical sewing rooms...

# data[].attributes.body
Resources

Manufacturing facility within the headquarters

A lot of manufacturing equipment

Patents

Systems and processes

HubSpot for all marketing efforts

Progress Plus for organising the manufacturing processes

Security cards for getting in/out the building

Skills/people

Around 10 engineers and designers

Probably about 25 warehouse workers

A small sales team of 3

A couple of HR/payroll staff

Myself

Managers and directors

# data[].attributes.body
Suppliers:

Material suppliers

Intermediaries:

Outdoors shops eg Blacks Outdoors

Publics:

Wild camping preventors

Customers:

Nature tour guides

# data[].attributes.body
suppliers: printing companies such as canon, zebra, magicard, evolis etc

customers: educational sectors such as primary schools, colleges and univerities, foor both staff and students.

festival, concert and event wristbands for big uk gigs as well as abroad

access conrol, key fobs and cardholders for offices and business settings

# data[].attributes.body
Suppliers

Clients reach out for our services

Intermediaries

Social media

Google search engine

YouTube/display websites

Publics

Account managers check performance and make sure things are in track for campaigns

Customers

Any industry that needs advertising

# data[].attributes.body
Suppliers - External Developers (software)

Intermediaries - Agencies/Sales team

Publics - Government

Customers - Housing associations and Local Authorities (Councils)

# data[].attributes.body
Suppliers

Material manufacturers e.g. steel, aluminium, cotton, nylon.

Fuel/suppressant manufacturers e.g. Monnex, FK-5-1-12.

Equipment manufacturers e.g. spring machines, sewing machines, 3d printers.

Intermediaries

Steve - well known in the motorsport industry for being a go-between for different businesses.

Competitors

OMP

FEV

Sparco

Publics

FIA (regulate motorsport)

Those interested in preserving the environment

Customers

Motorsport dealers

# data[].attributes.body
Political - regulations on advertising, for example in Scotland you can not put alcohol in advertisements.

Economic - we need to keep in account exchange rates and tax amounts for example Google we have to add a tax amount of 2% and for LinkedIn and google we need to change $ to £.

Social - Since we are advertising to potential customers we need market and consumer awareness.

Technological - AI has become really important, now for display there is an automatic bidding system when it used to be manual.

Environmental - Brand imaging has to be environmental friendly and sustainable

Legal - We have to follow relegations from the government about advertising. For example the HFSS Restrictions.

# data[].attributes.body
Political

Motorsport regulations from bodies like the FIA and MSUK dictate product standards. Brexit has introduced additional export paperwork and costs, impacting European sales. Tariffs are also now impacting our shipping to the US. Defence contracts are also influenced by government policy.

Economic

Varying material and energy costs affect production. Exchange rate changes impact global competitiveness. Economic downturns can reduce motorsport spending, while elite motorsport sectors like F1 remain stable.

Social

Growing emphasis on driver safety increases demand for advanced suppression systems. Customers expect reliability, fast support and environmentally-friendly products, all for lower and lower prices.

Technological

Innovation in lightweight materials and clean agents improves product development e.g. for our F1 system. Increased use of digital platforms (website, LinkedIn etc.) supports marketing and customer engagement. Advanced engineering tools improve R&D.

Environmental

Stricter environmental rules phase out harmful suppressants (e.g., FE36). Motorsport is under pressure to adopt greener solutions, creating demand for Lifeline’s clean agent systems and EV suppressants.

Legal

Compliance with FIA standards is mandatory for motorsport use. Restrictions on certain extinguishing agents affect product design. GDPR governs handling of customer and dealer data. Workplace H&S applies to manufacturing.

# data[].attributes.body
political

uk government wants stronger identity and security

public sector like schools, nhs and councils use id cards

laws target people purchasing for fake id equipment

economic

market for id printers and cards is growing

reasonable prices despite rising costs for plastic, chips and machines

higher prices for luxury printers can squeeze profit

social

demand rising in schools, banks and government

people want contactless and biometric ids

eco-friendly cards and less waste are important

safety and easy access are expected

technological

move from mag stripe to smart and contactless cards

printers are smaller, faster and more secure

biometric and ai tools are being added

legal

gdpr rules cover personal data in id systems

laws ban making or selling fake id equipment to prevent fraud

all content must meet industry standards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Apply the PESTEL analysis to your company

# data[].attributes.body
strengths

strong linkedin presence with consistent posting

trusted brand in the id industry

good product range with printers, cards, lanyards and software

positive reviews build trust online on things like reviews.io and trustpilot

supportive team and space to try new marketing ideas

weaknesses

website could be improved for seo and user experience

not as well known on other social media platforms like instagram or tiktok

limited video and interactive content

opportunities

grow followers and engagement further on linkedin

expand into platforms like instagram, tiktok and youtube

create more blogs, guides and tutorials for seo

promote eco-friendly and sustainable products online (our manager ben is big on sustainability)

continue to use email campaigns to boost repeat sales

threats

strong competition with cheaper online sellers who advertise heavily

google algorithm changes could affect search rankings

new social media trends can move fast

negative reviews or comments can spread quickly online

# data[].attributes.body
Strengths -

Clear mission

strong client list

offers a lot of services

great team with creatives and strategists

Weaknesses -

small team may struggle with big clients/projects

only has a team in UK so it is hard for clients outside of the UK to be appealing to them

Opportunities -

they can explore other sectors sports, fashion etc

they should market the brand more and create ads for B2B to expand their cliental

Boost awareness

Threats

London is competitive

# data[].attributes.body
Strengths

Over 30 years of expertise in motorsport fire suppression and safety systems - strong reputation and trusted brand.

In-house UK manufacturing ensures high-quality products with quick lead times.

Innovative, effective, high-quality systems.

Wide and growing product range covering motorsport, defence, and industrial sectors.

Strong design-led team passionate about motorsport.

Weaknesses

Higher production costs compared to overseas manufacturers.

Not really known at all outside of motorsport compared to larger lifestyle brands e.g., Sparco, OMP.

A lack of marketing.

Inefficiently ran by management.

Opportunities

Establishing a name for themselves in the defence industry after recent diversification.

Industrial sectors could be a big opportunity if they can start to enter into these markets.

Motorsport is the fastest growing sport in the world.

On top of utilising environmentally-friendly suppressants.

Employed first marketing employee.

Bought a competitor company last year.

Threats

Strong competition from global motorsport brands (OMP, FEV, Sparco).

Changing FIA regulations are increasing costs e.g. for R&D.

Rising raw material and energy costs.

Difficult economic times reduce amateur motorsport budgets.

Potential negative impact from counterfeit or low-quality competitors in the market.

A lack of willingness to utilise social media.

# data[].attributes.body
T - Restaurant goers in the UK that eat Italian food.

O - the objective is to get as many table bookings. the KPI is table bookings.

P - want to be perceived as the go to Italian restaurant, new refurbs happenings all over everything is looking modern and up-to-date.

P - Customer service and good booking system

P - no partners

S - covert

E - we promise great Italian food that is affordable

E - we look at engagement from social & search channels.

D - weekly reports to monitor Table bookings.

# data[].attributes.body
TERRA NOVA X NO FUSS

T - Small target range of camping coffee lovers.

O - Yes, spreading the love for camping and how you can take away the complexity of something like making coffee.

P - Educational, inspiration, genuine company.

P - Testing the product before sending out to know what to expect.

P - Partnering with an instant coffee brand to give out coffee bags to campers.

S - AIDA

E - Positive impact with followers sharing pictures.

E - Creates repost content bringing the conversation back to terra nova and where people are making their coffees.

D - Social Media

# data[].attributes.body
T - Target smaller groups (Housing Providers & Local Authorities)

O - with a content marketing strategy that supports sales conversations, this content strategy helps assert Voicescape’s mission and vision to prospects and potential customer.

P - Automation / Product training demonstrates Voicescape’s value – need a solution that integrates with current technology system and helps housing teams’ caseloads

P - independent behavioural scientists can bring in expert opinion on product portfolio and presentation

Sequence - Strategic content can support with AIDA and generating awareness and product education

Experience - customer experience expectations: information on solving housing challenges and how learning how Voicescape’s product can solve that

Engagement - content performance will be based on clicks/engaged sessions/keyword performance, monitored via LinkedIn engagement analytics/Hubspot Analytics/Google Search Console etc.

Data - prospect/customer data will be monitored through analytics tools and by how many leads were assisted with content during sales conversations.

# data[].attributes.body
id card centre marketing strategy (topspeed framework)

target markets

wide reach: universities, schools, nhs trusts, councils, large companies, and online buyers.

smaller focus: small and medium businesses in northamptonshire, healthcare, education, government, hr and facilities managers.

objectives

win more local business in northamptonshire.

grow online sales across the uk.

be trusted as the main supplier for id and security products.

keep more customers returning.

positioning

seen as reliable, quick, and knowledgeable.

promise: simple and stress-free id solutions.

processes

automation: email reminders, follow-ups, reorder prompts.

training: regular staff training and customer support guides.

partnerships

technology partners: access control and hr software companies.

local partners: northampton chamber of commerce, councils, universities.

suppliers: strong ties with manufacturers.

sequence (customer journey)

reach: seo, google ads, linkedin ads, local press.

act: free guides, templates, live chat.

convert: bundle offers, discounts.

engage: loyalty scheme, reorder reminders, customer surveys.

experience

easy ordering, clear product info, fast delivery, helpful support.

engagement

measure email clicks on maxemail, website visits, social media activity, customer reviews.

data

track sales and customer data in analytics and crm.

measure cost to gain a customer, lifetime value, repeat purchases, conversion rates.

test and improve ads, web pages, and emails.

# data[].attributes.body
Target market

Niche as not many people race cars anymore and there's only a limited number of militaries worldwide

Objectives

Increase brand awareness and sales through LinkedIn, SEO and Email Marketing

Establish Lifeline as authority figure on motorsport info (rules, regulations, how tos etc.) through the same channels

Both of these help achieve Lifeline's vision of becoming the world's leading motorsport safety manufacturer

Positioning

'Champions of Safety'

High-quality, premium products with industry-leading customer service

Processes

Using HubSpot to automate some marketing and sales processes

Using progress plus to automate some of the manufacturing planning

Partnership

Work with motorsport retailers, the FIA, M.O.D. and any influencer that wants to use the brand

Sequence

A - LinkedIn, trade shows, search engines, word-of-mouth

I - website, leaflets

D - technical packs, contact forms on website, telephone/email

A - sales team contact

Experience

Reliable, trustworthy, polite, easy to use, on-hand support

Engagement

Not at the moment but will be through HubSpot (website, LinkedIn, email etc.)

Data

Again, not at the moment but will be soon through HubSpot, Google Analytics etc.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Percentage‑of‑Sales Method

Definition:
This budgeting method calculates expenses or budget items as a fixed percentage of expected sales. It's based on the assumption that certain costs (e.g., marketing, production) are directly proportional to revenue.

Factors Influencing Choice:

Simplicity and speed

Works well when there’s a strong historical relationship between sales and expenses

Less suitable for fixed or discretionary costs

Typical Industries:

Retail

Consumer goods

Hospitality
These sectors often experience predictable relationships between sales volume and associated costs.

Typical Company Size:

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Startups in early stages of revenue planning

2. Objective & Task Method

Definition:
This approach involves defining specific objectives, outlining the tasks required to achieve them, and estimating the cost of each task. It’s commonly used for marketing and advertising budgets.

Factors Influencing Choice:

Focus on strategic planning and accountability

Useful when objectives are clearly defined

Requires detailed forecasting and expertise

Typical Industries:

Technology

Consumer products

Services (especially marketing-driven firms)

Typical Company Size:

Medium to large companies

Organizations with dedicated marketing departments or project-based planning

3. Competitive Parity Method

Definition:
Budgets are set based on competitor activity or industry averages. The idea is to stay competitive by aligning spending with rivals.

Factors Influencing Choice:

Need to maintain market position

Availability of industry benchmarking data

Often used when internal performance data is limited

Typical Industries:

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)

Telecoms

Automotive
Highly competitive sectors where under-spending can risk market share.

Typical Company Size:

Medium to large businesses

Firms with access to competitive intelligence or market research

4. Zero‑Based Budgeting (ZBB)

Definition:
In ZBB, all expenses must be justified from scratch each budgeting cycle. Nothing is carried over from the previous period without re-approval.

Factors Influencing Choice:

Desire for cost transparency and control

Organizational change or cost-reduction drives

Requires significant managerial effort and time

Typical Industries:

Public sector

Large multinationals during cost-reduction phases

Manufacturing or logistics undergoing restructuring

Typical Company Size:

Large corporations

Governments and non-profits during efficiency reviews

5. Incremental Budgeting

Definition:
This method adjusts last year’s budget by a set percentage (e.g., for inflation or minor strategic changes). It assumes current activities and costs will continue into the next period.

Factors Influencing Choice:

Stability in operations

Time or resource constraints

Risk of continuing inefficiencies if not reviewed carefully

Typical Industries:

Utilities

Education

Government bodies
Sectors with stable, predictable expenditures.

Typical Company Size:

All sizes, particularly common in large, established organizations

Often used where changes are gradual and predictable

# data[].attributes.body
% of sales

definition:
budget is set as a fixed percentage of past or forecasted sales.

factors influencing choice:

predictability of sales revenue

ease of calculation and control

management preference for stability

typical industries:

retail

consumer goods

e-commerce

typical company size:

small to medium businesses that want a simple, low-effort method

objective & task

definition:
budget is set based on specific marketing objectives and the tasks required to achieve them.

factors influencing choice:

clarity of business goals

availability of detailed planning resources

desire to link spend directly to outcomes

typical industries:

b2b services

technology

pharmaceuticals

typical company size:

medium to large businesses with structured planning teams

competitive parity

definition:
budget is set by matching or benchmarking against competitors’ spending.

factors influencing choice:

competitive landscape intensity

access to competitor data

need to maintain market share

typical industries:

telecoms

fmcg (fast-moving consumer goods)

automotive

typical company size:

medium to large companies in highly competitive markets

zero based budgeting

definition:
budget starts from zero each year, and every activity must be justified before funds are allocated.

factors influencing choice:

need for cost efficiency

pressure from shareholders or leadership

desire to avoid “automatic” spend on ineffective activities

typical industries:

manufacturing

finance

large corporates under cost scrutiny

typical company size:

large organisations with complex structures

incremental budgeting

definition:
budget is based on the previous year’s spend, with adjustments (up or down) for changes in goals, inflation, or performance.

factors influencing choice:

historical data availability

stability of the business environment

ease of implementation

typical industries:

traditional sectors like utilities

government departments

education institutions

typical company size:

medium to large organisations with stable operations

# data[].attributes.body
Percentage of Sales
Definition: Set budget as a fixed percentage of current or projected sales.
Factors: Simplicity, historical sales correlation, industry norms.
Industries: Retail, FMCG, stable markets.
Company Size: SMEs, large firms with steady sales.

Objective & Task
Definition: Budget based on specific objectives and required tasks.
Factors: Strategic goals, accountability, measurable outcomes.
Industries: Marketing, consulting, project-driven sectors.
Company Size: Large organizations, growth-focused SMEs.

Competitive Parity
Definition: Budget matches/aligns with competitor spending.
Factors: Industry competitiveness, market share goals, available benchmarks.
Industries: FMCG, insurance, telecoms.
Company Size: Medium to large companies in competitive markets.

Zero-Based Budgeting
Definition: Start from zero; justify every expense each cycle.
Factors: Cost control, efficiency focus, organizational change.
Industries: Manufacturing, retail, public sector.
Company Size: Large organizations; some resource-intensive SMEs.

Incremental Budgeting
Definition: Use prior period’s budget, adjust for change (e.g. inflation/growth).
Factors: Stability, predictability, ease.
Industries: Public sector, manufacturing, non-profit.
Company Size: All sizes, especially with stable operations.

# data[].attributes.body
% of sales

definition:
budget is set as a fixed percentage of past or forecasted sales.

factors influencing choice:

predictability of sales revenue

ease of calculation and control

management preference for stability

typical industries:

retail

consumer goods

e-commerce

typical company size:

small to medium businesses that want a simple, low-effort method

objective & task

definition:
budget is set based on specific marketing objectives and the tasks required to achieve them.

factors influencing choice:

clarity of business goals

availability of detailed planning resources

desire to link spend directly to outcomes

typical industries:

b2b services

technology

pharmaceuticals

typical company size:

medium to large businesses with structured planning teams

competitive parity

definition:
budget is set by matching or benchmarking against competitors’ spending.

factors influencing choice:

competitive landscape intensity

access to competitor data

need to maintain market share

typical industries:

telecoms

fmcg (fast-moving consumer goods)

automotive

typical company size:

medium to large companies in highly competitive markets

zero based budgeting

definition:
budget starts from zero each year, and every activity must be justified before funds are allocated.

factors influencing choice:

need for cost efficiency

pressure from shareholders or leadership

desire to avoid “automatic” spend on ineffective activities

typical industries:

manufacturing

finance

large corporates under cost scrutiny

typical company size:

large organisations with complex structures

incremental budgeting

definition:
budget is based on the previous year’s spend, with adjustments (up or down) for changes in goals, inflation, or performance.

factors influencing choice:

historical data availability

stability of the business environment

ease of implementation

typical industries:

traditional sectors like utilities

government departments

education institutions

typical company size:

medium to large organisations with stable operations