How to Prepare a Marketing Plan

You have your sketches, patterns and even your samples but what steps do you take to market your line? Write yourself a marketing plan and you are taking a step in the right direction. It is not as daunting as it sounds, I promise! Let me simplify it for you.

Your marketing plan should be used as a guide for what you PLAN to do in the upcoming year. Writing down your plan will help you to keep focused, and provide you with an overall view as well as the minute details you need to factor in. In fact, if you are looking to secure financing, a business plan is essential and your marketing plan is an integral part of that. You do not want or need to reinvent the wheel when writing a marketing plan, just follow these easy steps to success! It does not need to be long, a one page plan should suffice, use this as an outline and fill in your information or if you are especially adventurous, you can add graphs and charts, but this is not necessary.

Describe your product. Example: Victorian inspired evening gowns, fine art inspired t-shirts, tween activewear, vintage inspired handbags, jeweled headbands, etc
Define your customer: What is the age range? Gender? Where do they shop? How much do they spend? What is their lifestyle?
Price your product for both wholesale and suggested retail. Figure out how much it costs you to make each item and what you need to make off each item and you have your margins for wholesale. If you are taking on sales yourself, research stores you want to be in. Know their price points first before you set up an appointment to make sure your style and pricing are in line with theirs.
Research and list your competitors with similar style. Are these brands successful? If so, what did they do? If not, why? Learn from them.
Marketing goals: list them and the strategies you will implement to achieve them such as trade shows, runway shows, PR, sample sales, trunk shows, consumer driven fashion events, celebrity outreach and gifting suites.
Figure your marketing budget: PR, advertising, lookbooks, sales representative/showroom fees, and events (runway shows, vendor booths, trade shows, etc.)
Know your launch dates: list them for each buying season. Do your research! This is crucial as buyers order at VERY specific times a year. Be prepared to have your samples ready to show.
SWOT- List your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Examples:
Strengths= good marketing budget
Weaknesses= inefficient production capabilities
Opportunities= runway shows
Threats= not enough capital to fill orders.

This simple tool will help you on your way to successfully growing your brand. Make sure to mention the market niche you are targeting and how you will appeal to clients on this market. Keep it updated and refer to it often. Especially your goals.

- Rebecca Strong