You may know that, when it comes to business, there are two vital elements for it to work properly. We are referring to the business plan and the marketing plan.
The business plan showcases and guides the operational functions of the business, while the marketing plan showcases and guides the promotion of your business. A successful operation requires both of the above.
Given that no business can operate without a business plan – naturally - we should ask ourselves what would happen to a business with no marketing plan in place. After all, if we want to, we could skip such a plan and avoid the costs.
However, it is not that simple! For example, a law firm internet marketing will tell you what we just mentioned if you consult them – a marketing plan is vital for a business!
The Main Results
A business that doesn’t use a marketing plan to coordinate its actions will experience budget problems, potential low customer volume, and – in the worst case possible – even business closure.
Think of this situation in the following way:
You need a business plan to actually start your business and see if you can handle the costs.
You need a marketing plan to put the costs/expenses to use and make your business profitable.
Profitability can’t be based solely on a business plan. The latter is simply the infrastructure of your business, while the marketing plan is the façade that makes the infrastructure appealing and worthy of an investment.
For example, you can’t sell a watch if you present a client only with its mechanism, right?
Uncoordinated Promotion Strategies
Without a strategic marketing plan in place, your marketing, advertising, and promotion efforts are pretty much in vain or nonexistent.
This is because a marketing plan helps you and your business assess the market, then determine the target audience, and select the appropriate marketing vehicles to be used when promoting your company.
In order to create a marketing plan, you will have to do some research in terms of audience, as well as in terms of comparison shopping for ad rates. With no marketing plan, all of the above would be ineffective and pointless.
Ineffective Tracking
Moreover, a marketing plan also helps you determine which marketing approaches will result in the highest flow for your business. The lack of a marketing plan means that you do not have a formal system to assess the point of origin of your customers and leads.
In short, you won’t have any idea whether your marketing approaches work or not. You may lose money on advertising venues and marketing that are not fit for your business.
Budget Issues
With a proper marketing plan comes an effective marketing budget. The latter helps you determine how much can you spend on various marketing strategies and, in the end, calculate the number of customers that would result from each marketing initiative.
Without a marketing plan, your business would place ads, print promotional materials, and randomly run commercials. Naturally, you will end up spending a lot of money on poor results in this way.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, a business with no marketing plan would simply collapse. You’d have no idea where to put your money, in terms of marketing, and possibly make costly mistakes.
Given that there are companies investing millions of dollars in their marketing plans and strategies, it goes without saying why you must have such a plan for your business!