What’s The Difference Between A Business Plan And A Marketing Action Plan?

If you’ve wondered what’s the difference between a business plan and marketing plan, you’re not alone.

Of all the white papers available on my site for download, more visitors request The 12 Step Marketing Strategies White Paper than any other white paper.

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Back when I was chasing a career as a loan broker, reading financial statements and business plans was a daily affair.

But I noticed then that a lot of people weren’t certain of when should they create a marketing plan and when should they create a business plan.

Here’s a short answer explaining the difference…

Besides actual content, the primary difference that sets the two documents apart is the purpose of the documents.

A business plan is what you create when you want to wow investors and bankers into giving you money. A marketing action plan is what you create when you want to wow customers and clients into giving you money.

As a marketing strategist, I help clients create and implement marketing plans.

A good marketing action plan contains specific day-by-day marketing activities. This eliminates the guesswork of what to do today to bring in more clients, sell more to existing clients, and reactivate clients that may have drifted away.

The best marketing action plans contain ready-made ads, sales letters, email campaigns, and so on. Everything needed to implement the plan from day one.

Yes, every marketing piece is created well in advance of action date.

That way the business owner or marketing executive only needs to check the plan daily, weekly, or monthly. Then deliver the components for that day’s marketing activities to the appropriate ad agent, web designer, fulfillment company, or internal staff members.

That’s the ideal.

However, a business may also elect to design a marketing action plan more as a marketing road map than a step by step system. This gives the company and staff a direction to work toward. The road map approach gives them an outline describing how to get from point-a to point-b. But the individual components might not be included in the road map.

The road map approach is best suited for implementing each marketing milestone one step at a time, instead of designing each creative piece months or years in advance. This only makes sense in industries where constant change affects the content that needs to be factored into each promotion.

If you are looking to create a marketing action plan to increase sales, repeat purchases, and referrals… you may find the steps outlined in The 12 Step Business Growth White Paper along the lines of what you are looking for.

The plan provides a road map that can lead any established company towards making the maximum amount of money in the shortest time possible. More on this later.

So how does a business plan compare?

A business plan lacks this level of day-by-day marketing detail. Instead, common components of a business plan are:

* Executive Summary
* Market Analysis
* Company Description
* Organization & Management
* Marketing & Sales Management
* Service or Product Line
* Funding Request
* Financials
* Appendix

A company might also use a business plan to map out overall company goals and mission statements for internal use.

Aside from these uses, a business plan is pretty much useless. The majority are fluff. And they fail to be action-oriented from a marketing perspective.

If you are seeking to get investors or creditors to give you money, visit the sba’s site. There are tons of sample business plans just sitting and waiting for you to emulate.

But don’t expect to use business plan templates to attract new sales or clients. That’s not what business plans are for. Use a marketing action plan instead.

Need a marketing action plan that works? Grab your free copy of The 12 Step Marketing Strategies White Paper now.