What's the purpose of a marketing plan?

A Marketing Plan serves several functions:





1. It provides a %26quot;calendar of events%26quot; for your marketing tactics.





2. It helps you more accurately allocate your marketing dollars and spread them out throughout the year.





3. It enables you to see at a quick glance which tactics and programs have too much or too little support. (If you are launching five projects at one time, and then nothing happening the following two weeks, this may be a problem for you.)





4. A marketing plan also helps to %26quot;rally the troops.%26quot; When the sales or merchandising team is able to see that their products and programs have ample marketing support, it helps builds their confidence in the success of the program.





5. A marketing plan is invaluable when asking the corporate office for additional dollars or for justifying marketing expenditures. The main office will always expect to see exactly how the marketing budget is intended to be spent.





I have worked with clients with marketing budgets ranging from $25,000 to $12 million a year, and I can tell you that regardless of the budget, a marketing plan is is invaluable. Any marketer who charges into battle without one is asking for trouble.
What%26#039;s the purpose of a marketing plan?
the guy before me summed it up

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