8 Steps to
Creating a Strong Marketing Plan

FACT: Organizations that develop and follow a well-thought-out nonprofit marketing plan grow faster and make a bigger impact than those that don’t.

A holistic marketing strategy will help any size organization connect with prospects and strengthen current connections.

Whether you apply these steps to a single campaign or use them to inform your organization’s marketing strategy for the entire year, you can be sure they’ll help your team increase donations, grow membership numbers, deepen engagement and raise awareness.

Marketing Planning vs. Marketing Plan

Marketing Planning

Marketing planning is selecting a marketing strategy and the tactics to implement it to reach a defined set of goals.

Marketing planning…

• involves an assessment of where the company stands in the marketplace;

• is a determination of where the company wants to be in the future;

• is the creation of marketing actions designed to achieve that future desired position; and

• is a provision of determining how the effectiveness of those actions will be evaluated at the end of the operating period.

Marketing Plan

The actual Marketing Plan is the result of this planning process. It is a detailed blueprint that outlines all relevant information required to successfully execute any type of marketing tactic. It will include a detailed description of the tactics needed to reach certain objectives. This plan should be made available to everyone in the organization, so they can refer to these objectives and align their activities to it.

What does a Marketing Plan Look Like?

A simple marketing plan document should include the following sections: