Marketing Plan vs. Business Plan – Small Business Planning

Most people often misunderstand the difference between a marketing plan and a business plan. There is a clear boundary in between these two fields, and each document serve a specialized purpose

Business Plan: A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The success of your business depends on a good business plan. It describes and defines your strategy. It is the main plan which includes your strategy and tactics.

Whether you are a start-up or a running business. To formally develop a business plan is an excellent idea. Business Planning exercise presents many opportunities to improve the operations of your business, reduce costs, or set a course correction.

Typical a business plan has the following sections:

1. Executive Summary

2. Management Plan or Overview

3. Operational Plan

4. Marketing Plan

3. Financial Plan

Marketing Plan: A Marketing Plan on the other hand is a sub part of the over all business plan. However established business more so often engage in developing a Marketing Plan as the need for developing an overall Business Plan may not be able to serve immediate business need of increasing sales and revenue.

While for small businesses, the Marketing section in the Business Plan is more than sufficient, however in professional organizations a detailed Marketing plan defining the Marketing strategy and the tactics to implement it is developed.

A typical Marketing Plan may include the following sections:

1. Executive Summary

2. Situation Analysis

3. SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

4. Strategy and Goal

5. Target Market  / Market Segmentation

6. Sales Plan

7. Financial Plan

The difference: Business Plan overall comprehensive strategy to cover every aspect of the business. Marketing Plan narrower focus on defining the strategy to increase Market Share, Sales, and Revenue.