Treat these notes as a starting point - it is a good idea to talk it over with your local advisors too.

Overview
Purpose of a Marketing Plan
How to succeed in marketing
The importance of stakeholders

The Marketing Plan Outline
Current marketing situation
SWOT analysis
Objectives
Marketing strategy
Action plan
The budget
Controls

Overview

Purpose of a Marketing Plan
The purpose of creating a marketing plan for community groups and not for profit organisations is to answer the following questions:

• Where is the organisation now?
• Where does the organisation want to go?
• How should the organisation manage its resources to get there?

How to succeed in marketing

• An organisation will succeed by focusing on what customers/stakeholders want rather than on what the organisation thinks it should create or provide.
  
• To successfully implement a marketing plan requires the understanding and acceptance of everyone in the organisation.
  
  

The importance of stakeholders

• Every organisation is greatly affected by the environment around them. It's of vital importance to know what influences your organisation and how the environment is changing.
• Stakeholders include both primary and secondary contacts. They come from the external environment and from within your organisation. Without them, your organisation wouldn't exist.
• Identify who your primary contacts are e.g. clients, employees, your trustees or members, and the community.
• Secondary contacts are those who your organisation relates to less frequently e.g. funders, Government, suppliers and agents.
• Once your organisation has identified its primary and secondary contacts or customer groups it needs to find out how each group operates and how they feel about your organisation. This can be achieved through focus groups, surveys and market research. You should now have a solid base with which to start your strategic planning

The Marketing Plan Outline

Current Marketing Situation

• Where is your organisation now?
• Who are your customer groups? What are their needs and requirements? How large and diverse are they?
• What kinds of products and services do you currently provide
• how do reach your customer groupings
• do you have any competition
• What in your environment has an effect on your organisation

S.W.O.T. analysis
This identifies key issues and opportunities for your organisation and it comprises an analysis of your internal operations

• Strengths
• Weaknesses

Also those external factors, which effect your organisation

• Opportunities
• Threats

Objectives

• Having identified the key issues affecting your organisation you can make some decisions about future objectives. These guide the development of strategies and action plans.
• Objectives should meet certain criteria e.g. financial, and marketing which will be customer focussed.
• They should be clearly stated, measurable and listed in order of importance

They should be attainable and consistent with your organisation's culture.

Marketing Strategy
This is the game plan that needs to be implemented to achieve the objectives. It addresses the following:

• Whom are you now targeting?
• What do you want your position to be in terms of new product/service delivery?
• Do you want to change your organisation profile and will you need to rebrand your organisation?
• Will you change the way you promote and advertise yourself?
• Will there be any changes in how you reach your customer groupings?
• Any changes in staff?
• Is there a need for more research?

Action Plan
This describes:

• What will be done
• When will it be done?
• Who will do it?
• How much will it cost?

The Budget This is essentially a cash flow and profit and loss statement to support the marketing plan

Controls
This monitors the progress of the plan to determine if anything needs changing. It would include a contingency plan in case something adverse should happen.