Your business plan sells your company — to investors, lenders, partners, key employees, and associates — whereas your marketing plan tells how you plan to sell your products. Because selling your products is fundamental to your company’s success, it’s essential that your business plan include an outline of the marketing plan you’ll follow to achieve sales success.
A marketing plan includes the following components:
Description of your market situation, including your customer profile and descriptions of changes affecting your customers, competitors, and business climate
Your marketing goals and objectives
Your company’s positioning and brand statements
Your marketing strategies, including plans for your product, distribution, pricing, and promotions, along with plans for retaining customers, gaining repeat business, and building loyalty
Your marketing budget
Your tactical and action plans
Your long-range plans
Detail all these essential topics in your marketing plan. In your business plan — in the part where you discuss your company strategy — include a summarized version that provides the highlights.
Your business plan is mainly for external audiences — financial backers, business advisors, and key partners — so edit out details that people outside your business don’t really need to know and that you may want to hold close to your vest. These include your tactical and action plans and details of how you plan to allocate your marketing budget.