A marketing plan: your super highway to success.

Everyone knows that McDonald's, United Airlines, 3M and other large companies use marketing plans to build their businesses, but many business owners and CEOs ask" Why should I bother to write a plan for my business?" The answer is simple: a marketing plan is your road map to success. It shows you where you are going and helps keep you on the super highways instead of the back roads and dead-end streets.

Marketing plans don't have to be long reports. In fact, the shorter they are, the more useful they become. Some businesses can put it all into one page, others need a longer format. Following are detailed guidelines on how you can write an effective marketing plan to put your business on the super highway to success.

Writing the Plan

Writing your marketing plan begins with the fundamentals: goals, target market, and market position. It takes some serious thought and research to complete these; however, once you have written them down, they generally do not change very much from year to year. Setting goals identifies the end result of your marketing effort. You need to know where you're going before you plan your trip. There are basically only seven goals possible and not all apply to every business.

Select only the ones that you need.

1. Generate Direct Sales -- applies to businesses with

order takers or cashiers, no sales force required.