Create a Powerful
Marketing Plan Outline

Creating a small business marketing plan outline is the first step to success in your home-based business. Preparing this business plan, however, may seem overwhelming to a new business owner, who just started a network marketing business, or small business from home.

First, what is a marketing plan outline?

It is simply a plan of action that will be an overview of your company, goals, target audience, strategies and tactics to achieve sales, and establish a budget.

It’s a road map to success. It does not have to be complicated, but every entrepreneur needs to be aware of what it is they need to do, who they need to reach and how they will attract their prospect or targeted market.

The Essentials of a
Small Business Marketing Plan Outline 

Do you need help writing a marketing plan? Are you concerned that you don’t have the skills, let alone the drive, to prepare a small business plan? Don't worry ... I will assist you!

So, get your coffee (or energy drink), sit at your keyboard, or pick up your pen and paper and let’s get started. I’m here to guide you, and I truly want you to be successful.

Start with Your Situation Analysis

Marketing plan outlines typically start with a situation analysis.  This is the first market plan component you will prepare. It's an overview of your business right now.

• Create a short description of your product or service

• Describe the problems you face in your business

• Give a brief overview of what needs to be done

For Example, Your Marketing Plan Outline May Read Like This...

Description - "Building a network marketing business with focus on skincare products.

Problems -  "Exhausted warm market of family and friends"

Needs - "I need to secure new avenues to promote my business an bring in qualified leads that want to build a home-based business"

Establish Your Target Market

Establish your target market. Now, don’t tell me you are targeting everyone to use your product or service.


That was my first mistake!


Specifically, who do you want to reach?  For example, if you have a healthy juice that you’re promoting that helps those with serious illness, disease, or to just stay healthy, you may want to target doctors and health food stores.

Setting Your Goals

Next, set your goals. If you want to know how to start making money, set short term goals (daily, weekly, monthly) and long term goals.


To be successful in network marketing, or any small home based business, goals must be written down, clearly defined and measurable by time. This is an essential part of your marketing plan outline.

Post these goals in a place where you can review them daily. Read them daily for maximum results.

Our subconscious minds are amazingly powerful. Even if you do not believe in yourself, or your goals, evidence shows that repeating something several times a day, whether positive or negative, truth or lie, we will actually come to believe in it.

If we believe in something, we are certainly less likely to give up or quit.

Strategies and Tactics:
Getting Leads to Come to You

... Without Having to Ask the Stranger in the Grocery Line if They Want to Start a Business

What are your strategies and tactics for reaching your goals?

It's imperative that you know, so that your business brings in a constant flow of leads and prospects.

This is the part where I suggest you take your time, brainstorm, write down every idea you can think of so you can achieve a large downline, big commission checks, and build a residual income.

Any marketing plan should have most of its emphasis in this category.

A strategy is what you are going to do, and a tactic is how you are going to do it. For example, when I created a marketing plan for my own network marketing business, my goal was to build a large downline.

My first strategy was to create leads to build my network marketing business.

The tactic that I employed was to create my own personal website, utilizing a company who is truly competent in educating me, (seriously, I’m not computer savvy) to generate my own leads.

I Received Some Serious Help with this Tactic 

Ken Evoy is a master at helping small businesses learn how to get out of their comfort zone and find the true potential of the Internet.

A good small business marketing plan can bring success by applying the tactics that Ken Evoy teaches.

The ten day step by step instructions that Dr. Evoy provides in building a personal site were so impressive, that I told my husband, Ben, that I would have paid the price of the website, just for the quality information and the education that I received on a topic that was foreign to me. That topic is promoting my business on the Internet.

Include in your marketing plan outline the strategy to learn more on using the Internet to sell your product or service. Educate yourself on creating, in my opinion, the number one best way to promote your business product/service, recruit business builders, and create lead generation. 

Don’t wait to build a presence on the Internet. This should be on your list of strategies and tactics in your marketing plan outline. Learn what it takes.

I’m sorry I didn’t create my personal website sooner. When I think of the lost revenues, I wish I would have started on day one of my business. Now I’m learning how to create multiple streams of Internet income and not just with my network marketing business.

My Strategy: Write a Weekly Article

I wanted to further enhance my presence on the Internet, with my own MLM home based business and draw people to my site. Therefore, my strategy was to write a weekly article. My tactic was to make it available to publishers free on the Internet. I was looking for a low cost way to further promote myself. I took advantage of my home based business ideas and started to write to help others.

My Strategy: Create a Weekly Network Marketing Newsletter

Okay, here is my last example to help you out in this area. I needed to reach out to my downline, my clients, and my prospects to maintain my influence over them and keep a customer retention strategy in place.

This is very important to me because evidence shows for every month that you are out of contact with your client, you lose 10% of your influence over them.

So, I employed the strategy of creating a weekly network marketing newsletter.

An additional, very personal, way to maintain customer retention strategy is using a sophisticated, but very user-friendly, greeting card system right from your own computer.

No, these are NOT e-cards, but real greeting cards that you can send at a click of a button. Once you type in your personal message, which can be set to actually ready your scanned handwriting, you can select the link to 'send' and the greeting card is printed and placed in the U.S. mail to your client.

The cost per card is unbelievably inexpensive - I pay a mere .62 cents a card.

This greeting card system provides the ability to leverage your time, too, by selecting one card, and writing a general message, and then it can be sent to one or hundreds of people at the click of the 'Send' link. The salutation in each card can be customized to that individual person, automatically.


Do you see the big picture here on leveraging your time? Hundreds of greeting cards or postcards can be sent in five minutes, fully personalized at click of a link!

The best part is that 99% of all greeting cards are read!
 

Your Marketing Budget

Once you have listed at least five major strategies and tactics in your  marketing plan outline, complete the last step and consider your marketing budget plan. This is, unfortunately, one of the most overlooked areas in starting a home based business.

Nine out of ten people that I consult with in network marketing businesses have not established a budget to promote their business.

Sadly, they have been influenced by their upline or sponsor that financial rewards can be achieved just by sharing their product with others using word of mouth.

Well, maybe a tiny percentage of people can do this – but I don’t recommend it. Only 3% of the people who start in a network marketing business opportunity will actually succeed. Most ‘business builders’ will quit within two to three months.

It makes sense to create a budget plan to truly be professional and work like the ‘big boys’ do. This is not just good home based business advice, this is a absolute necessity to stay at home with kids, finance your children’s college, get out of debt or to get out of that job you dread going to day after day.

If you are on a tight budget, then set aside a minimum amount each month you can work with. For example, the first month I started my network marketing business, I set aside $50 a month. As my network marketing strategy was implemented and my business began to grow, I increased my budget monthly.

Okay, now your fingers are tired (I know mine are!) and your head is spinning out of control. What have you gotten yourself into, this crazy idea of starting a small business?

Relax! Take a deep breath, hold for three seconds, and now breathe out at the count of six. Slowly. Do this four more times.

I’m serious – get breathing!  Now are you feeling better and ready to move on? We are almost done with our marketing plan.

I do agree it can feel overwhelming to build a stay at home business. I have two successful home based businesses and can never go back to the corporate world or working for someone else.

Trust me here, if you have the need or the desire, and you put your mind to it, you can achieve the freedom that starting a small business brought to me. This includes freedom from all debt and freedom from a boss.

Marketing Plan Outline Review

Here is a final review of what we have just covered.

Situation Analysis: In a few words list your description of your small home based business, and what challenges you may face in the industry.

Target Audience: These are the people you want to reach to sell your product or services. It cannot be just “everyone.”

Goals: Set your long and short term goals, make them measurable and bound by time and be sure to write them down where you can read them daily.

Strategies and Tactics: This is the meat and potatoes of successful home based businesses. List at least five strategies with the tactics to go along with them.

Budget: Establish your small-business-marketing budget.

That’s it! You have done a great job and have been a very good student today. Congratulate yourself! As you continue to grow you will manipulate, change (yes, change is good!) and rewrite your small business marketing plan.

Keep it fresh and keep it simple.

Would you like a step by step of a marketing plan outline that I use for my own network marketing business and team? Anyone who joins my team automatically receives this to jumpstart them in their own business.

This is one step that you won’t have to do on your own when you join me.

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