Write an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan
Writing an integrated marketing communications plan involves bringing all the different parts of a marketing plan together into a document that can be used as a guide during the implementation of the plan. As a key part of brand building, an integrated marketing communications plan encompasses all parts of a marketing campaign, from the product's background and description of the target market to print advertising and online promotions, and should offer a well-researched and effective method to get your message about your product or service to your target market at the most effective time and place. The following steps will show you how to write an integrated marketing communications plan.
Steps
- Collect all necessary information about your company, your product, your competition and your target market. Whether you have the information in print reports or on computer files, make sure you can access it easily while you write an integrated marketing communications plan.
- Outline your integrated marketing communications plan from beginning to end. Then go back and write out all of the parts of your integrated marketing communications plan. Make sure your grammar and spelling is correct, and check your facts and figures for mistakes.
- The executive summary precedes the body of the integrated marketing communications plan and introduces the plan by providing a brief, 1-page summary of the information.
- The background part briefly describes your company's history and gives a description of the product or service you will be marketing. Include features, structure, and other components of the product or service that are important to the marketing plan.
- Describe your target market, including its demographics as well as the product or service's benefits to the target market, and how the target market currently perceive the company. Be thorough and clear, as the better you understand your target market, the more effectively you can tailor your marketing campaign to it.
- Discuss your positioning in the market. This part of the plan describes attributes of the product or service, its benefits, and how it compares to the competition. If you can, describe your competitive advantage, which means something unique about your product or service, or your company's brand, that sets you apart from and above the competition.
- Create a SWOT analysis that pinpoints the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with marketing the product or service. This can include aspects such as price, availability, strong competition, and brand elements.
- Examine your local, national, and international competition. This is one of the most important aspects of your marketing plan as it allows you to see exactly what media and messaging they use in their own marketing campaigns, as well as how they reach their market and generate business. Also examine their target market to see if it's the same as yours. If not, discuss how it's different and analyze whether there's an opportunity to enlarge your own target market.
- Review the environmental factors that impact your marketing campaign. This can include economic factors, socio-cultural developments, or regulatory aspects that may affect your product, service, or brand.
- Determine the objective of your integrated marketing communications plan. Identify your goals, and indicate how you will measure progress.
- Specify what marketing tools and strategies you'll use to get your message to your market. Determine whether you'll use print, media, Internet, appearances, or all of the aforementioned. Motivate your decisions based on all of the information you've examined earlier in the report.
- Allocate a budget for each aspect of your marketing strategy. Determine which department in the company will take care of each aspect, or whether you will outsource part, or all, of your marketing plan.
- Review your integrated marketing communications plan. If there's anything you feel needs more research or additional information, do the extra work.
- Periodically review the results of your plan, and adapt any aspects you need to in order to achieve better results.
