The Five Essential Elements of a Marketing Plan

Source: Accounting Today

The five essential elements are listed in the author’s order of importance.

The Firm

Define the firm’s mission, vision, values, core competencies, differentiation, and position in the market. Mission is an articulation of the reasons you are in business. Vision is your image of what the firm will be in the future (size, services, for example), say three to five years. Values are the rules that control your actions and decisions. Core competencies are the significant capabilities of your firm. Differentiation is what makes your firm different from competitors’. Position in the market is a statement of how your firm is viewed in the market (e.g., “a low-cost provider” or a “value-added provider”).

Evaluation of Services

This element is the annual analysis of strengths of your service offerings. You should evaluate each one in terms of:

• New clients brought in.
• New v. existing clients.
• Whether staff is able to sell and deliver it.
• How satisfied clients are.
• How productive you are in delivering it.
• Profitability.
• How many prospects you have.
• Factors outside the firm that affect it.

This process will help prioritize your marketing initiatives.

Target Markets

Describe the size and type of the ideal users of the services and how you will find them. Study your current client base to help in this process.

Determining Price

Here are the pricing models to consider:

• Hourly billing rates based on a multiple of each person’s hourly cost. Compare your charges to benchmarks such as AICPA PCPS MAP Survey and the Information Technology Alliance.
• Value billing. Read Ron Baker’s Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing. Consider creating packages of services (e.g., a small business service, including bookkeeping, payroll, tax returns, and financial statements).

Marketing Initiatives

This must be the last step in the marketing planning process, not the first. The previous steps will be important factors in creating the marketing plan. Initiatives might include advertising brochures, client roundtables, direct mail, networking, public relations, seminars, surveys, trade conference attendance, telemarketing, and Web marketing. Develop a marketing calendar to monitor your actions and measure results.

From Accounting Today, June 4, 2007, SourceMedia Inc., One State Street Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10004, 800-221-1809. For the complete article, click here, then select the article The 5 Ps of Marketing Your Firm from the June 4, 2007, issue.