Market Planning Checklist

Market planning is the process of identifying strategies that can help the business have a wider scope of market reach, penetration and engagement. It is essential for market planning to always be organized and precise as results of this undertaking can affect the image that the business would like to portray – hence affecting the sales, credibility and both customer acquisition and retention as well.

• Strategic Planning Checklist Examples in PDF
• Marketing Strategies Checklist – PDF

If you want to come up with an amazing market plan, the first thing that you need to do is to develop a task checklist that you can use as a guide for the activities and other call to actions that you need to implement. This checklist should contain the essential elements that can make a market planning document relevant. Listed below are ten of the most important items that must be present in a comprehensive market planning checklist.

Restaurant Market Planning Checklist Example

1. Assessment of the Previous and Current Market Plans of the Business

Before developing a new market plan, you must first assess the results of the previous and current market plans that the business has. More so, there should be advertising and marketing examples that you have to look into. Doing this will help you to know the current market condition that the company is currently immersed in. More so, this will help you learn how marketing and branding activities are taken by the target audience of the business.

Knowing what you will be working on can make it more efficient for you to identify tactics that can provide benefits to the company and its marketing aspirations. If you will assess the marketing plans of the business, here are some items that you can include in your market planning checklist:

• The image that the business is known for
• The past marketing activities and strategies of the company
• A SWOT analysis of the current and previous market plans of the business
• The documented and recorded effects of specific market plans to the sales of the company
• The kind of market exposure that certain market plans can provide
• The stakeholders that are affected by the market plan especially those that are considered as economic drivers in the industry
• The statistical data relevant to lead generation and new customer acquisition

2. Setting of Market Planning Objective

Just like when making a strategic planning checklist, one of the most important things that you should include in your market planning checklist is the development or identification of specific objectives. You have to be aware of the reasons on why a market plan is necessary to be made so you can be guided accordingly with how you will implement call to actions leading towards the achievement of the listed objectives.

There are a variety of market planning objectives which vary on the marketing targets that the business would like to successfully have a grip on. A few of these market planning objectives are as follows:

• To improve future sales and sales processes in general
• To properly identify the potential customers that the company should tap based on demographics and market activities. You may also see blank checklists.
• To help the widening of market share through continuous exposure and customer interactions
• To ensure the development of sales volume
• To efficiently implement market sizing, segmentation and specification activities
• To attain the possibility of a faster return of investment
• To know the most effective marketing and distribution channels to use

3. List of Usable and Reliable Sources

How can the business support the market plan that you have in mind? Do you think that your marketing strategies and plans are truly beneficial to the business and its stakeholders? Your market planning checklist must have these questions as you need to develop a list of sources that can strengthen the market plan that you would like to execute.

You have to be specific on where you based the content of your market plan. Your checklist must have a particular list of all the sources that you have used. A few of the sources that are recommended to be used during market planning are as follows:

• First hand researches and interviews from the marketing team
• Primary sources of information like focus groups and people who have answered the survey questionnaires given by the company. You may also see training checklists.
• Relevant and usable details from industry-accredited associations
• Reports of credible organizations, analysts, researchers, firms, and professional consultants
• Secondary sources with links of research content basis like hardbound publications, online pages and blogs

4. Identification of External Factors That Can Potentially Affect the Market Plan

It is not only the internal factors that you need to focus on when making marketing strategies for small businesses and even for corporations. There are also external factors that you need to include in your market planning as these factors can also affect the results of your market plan. A market planning checklist may include the following external factors in its content:

• The direct and secondary competitors of the business
• The current share and position of the business in the marketplace
• The activities of the target audience of the company
• The updated branding of the business and how these brand is embraced by the market
• The particular marketing activities and initiatives of competitors

If you will precisely identify these factors, then it will be easier for you to veer away from getting full impacts from possible threats. External factors are as important to be looked into as external factors which is why your checklist must include these items. You may also see maintenance checklists.

5. Tactics, Activities and Strategies for Market Planning

Your market planning checklist must contain a precise list of the marketing tactics, activities and strategies that you need to execute. These items must also be backed up by call to actions and the entities who are responsible for the implementation of the things that you have listed. You may also see marketing flowcharts.

If you will have the above mentioned items in your checklist, then it is most likely that you can identify the steps and phases that you need to follow within the marketing processes in a faster and more efficient manner. This particular clause in your market planning checklist should have the following details:

• The brand marketing strategies that can help your business present its corporate message accordingly
• The list of the new products and/or services that you would like to launch either for exposure, development or re-branding purposes
• The tactics that can be useful for you to develop a stronger relationship with your current, new, and prospective markets
• The promotional activities that can help you gather more leads and get a wider market reach
• The necessary call to actions that you need to execute for purposes of image identification, trademark and/or copyright implementation and the like You may also see marketing research questionnaire.

6. Platforms, Mediums and Other Channels for Communication

The platform or medium that you will use to relay the information that you would like your market to be aware of is important to be assessed first. Your market event planning checklist must contain a list of the possible platforms, mediums and channels that you can use as well as the pros and cons of their usages.

How would you like to reach your target audience? Where do you want your business to be seen? These are only a few of the questions that you need to answer when thinking of your communication and marketing medium. You must ensure that it can help you brand your business the way you would like to. Some of the platforms that you can use for this undertaking are as follows:

• Online pages, websites and social media accounts
• Internet searches
• Email marketing, e-newsletters, updates, campaigns and messages
• Television advertisements
• Radio broadcasts
• Magazines, newspapers and other printed materials

7. Marketing Tools to Use

The collateral, paraphernalia and marketing tools that you will use can say a lot about the brand that you are promoting. The selection of marketing tools has to do with the image of your business and your ability to fund your marketing activities depending on the needs of the business and the demands of the market.

It is essential for your market planning checklist to include all the marketing tools that you plan to incorporate in the marketing activities that are included in the timetable that you have developed for the implementation of your market plan. Some of the marketing tools that you can use are listed below.

• Marketing journals and company magazines
• Business newsletters and updates
• Product brochures and catalogs
• Information sheets and manuals
• Advertising flyers and leaflets
• Billboards and banners

8. Plans for Business Exposure and Brand Awareness

If your market plan is targeting the full promotion of the business, you need to ensure that your checklist includes the list of the activities that will allow you to expose your business and its brand to the market. The awareness of the people with regards your presence can make your business become more relevant and desirable to consumers. You may also see vehicle checklists.

People should be knowledgeable of who you are and what you can provide them with. Hence, proper promotional and marketing activities are essential to be in the works. Listed below are some of the items that should be seen in your market planning checklist in terms of the plans that you have for business exposure and brand awareness.

• The assessment of your relationship to media practitioners and professionals
• The list of your distribution channels
• The marketing plans that you plan to execute and the channels where you will place them
• Your publicity stunts including information releases

9. Desired and Expected Market Planning Results

What do you want to achieve? What are the expected results of the market planning undertakings of the business that you would like to be realized? Your checklist should contain a list of the outputs that are already in the mind of the stakeholders of the company. This way, you can have a direct vision on how you would like things to go. You may also see social marketing.

The perception and impression of the people involved in the company, once translated to vision and output expectations, can make or break their trust to the efficiency and effectiveness of the business. This is the reason why you have to be keen when listing down the things that you would like to succeed on in relation to the market planning that you will implement. You may also see internet marketing.

10. Metrics for Success Evaluation

For your market planning activities to be deemed effective, there should be a set of metrics that will serve as the basis of your assessment and evaluation. This is important as this can help you compare a variety of market plans. Doing this will allow you to know which of these market plans have worked and which did not.

The metrics that you will use must be objective. More so, it must consider the weight and the effects of the factors that you will evaluate. An effective evaluation can help you even better the market planning that you have in mind. Adding this in your market planning checklist can make stakeholders be reminded that it is necessary for them to know the effects of the market planning – hence, not just focusing on implementation but also on thorough planning for objective achievement.

Already Knowledgeable of What to Put in a Market Planning Checklist?

If these elements are present within a market planning checklist, then you can easily discuss each of them in the market plan that you will develop. As we have mentioned, a checklist serves as the backbone of the development and implementation of your market planning activity. If you want to have a physical document that you can always refer to whenever you need an update with the proceedings of your market plan, then we highly-suggest the usage of a market planning checklist.

Once you have already made yourself aware of the elements that are essential to be included in a market planning checklist, it is already time for you to create a thorough market plan. Ensure that you will follow the organization of content as specified in the checklist so that it will be easier for you to arrange your market planning discussion.