5 Advertising Business Plan Templates
Advertising is essential for any business. No business can survive if they do not utilize advertising. Small businesses use advertising to increase their visibility among their target market as well as gain new customers. Even large corporations, who have a large customer base and are continuing to expand their operations, use advertising to market their products across different platforms and different demographics.
Advertising, together with promotions, is a component of marketing, which has a bigger and more defined role when it comes to business. Marketing is not just putting up posters, posting on social media, or using mascots for promotional activities. Professional Marketing is involved in the research and analysis of internal and external business elements not only for the company, but also for competitors and other external elements such as government simple policies and natural environment changes.
Companies use marketing strategies and implement them in their business plans. These types of plans are only made when an individual or organization plans to start a business or to expand their current operations by venturing into another industry. Specifically, the business plan is used as a blueprint on how a business will be run in both the short-term and long-term. Business plans are not mere one-page research papers where one person finishes writing it in less than an hour. These plans require long hours of research and analysis since it involves the study of different aspects of business such as customer preferences (wants and needs), financial assumptions, advertising and promotion tools, socio-economic analyses, and abiding with government policies and regulations.
There are also some types of business plans that do not involve the analysis of different business aspects although they still require a comprehensive analysis and an extensive time period to be completed. One example of this type is an advertising business plan. An advertising plan is a component of a marketing plan although it can be written separately. If you are tasked by your company to write your advertising business plan, then here are some advertising and other multipurpose business plan templates you can purchase and use.
Advertising Plan
Advertising and Marketing Agreement Template
Business Plan Outline Template
Sample Business Plan Template
Startup Business Plan Template
Who makes the business plan?
If you are assigned by your company to make a business plan, then your answer is obviously yourself. It is no easy task as it requires a large responsibility on your behalf. Individuals who are tasked by their respective general managers or CEOs to create a business plan have a special role in their companies. They may be employed in the research and development department or in the marketing department. Despite their respective positions, they are trusted by the higher-ups with the responsibility of creating a business plan. Additionally, individuals who create the business plan collaborate with management especially on the data gathering and data analysis where some data might not be accessed by regular employees.
What do you include in the advertising business plan?
An advertising business plan is shorter than a regular business plan, but that does not mean that quality needs to be compromised when making these sorts of simple business plans. Your company will still make an investment depending on the results shown in the business plan, so you have to be careful with the data that will be incorporated in the said business plan. Here are some common items which should be included as the top of your priorities when it comes to writing an advertising business plan.
1. Company profile
A company profile is the most basic component of your business plan. Even if you are not presenting the business plan to external stakeholders, you still need the information to present to your middle (line managers, supervisors, etc.) or top management (CEO, CFO, CMO, etc.). The most basic information listed in the company profile in a regular business plan include the company name, products and services, company address and contact number, mission, vision and goals, financial assumptions, and marketing strategies. The company profile should be in the very first part of the business plan as it is presented as a summary to prepare the reader for what is to come in the rest of the business plan.
2. Advertising strategies
Since you will be making an advertising business plan, there is no need to add sections for finance, human resource, and information technology. Focus solely on marketing, specifically for advertising. One of the contents you need to include in your advertising business plan is the advertising strategies you are going to use. Some of the advertising strategies you can use for your own company include brand awareness, usage of advertising platforms, usage of SEO, and the analysis of your target market.
Brand awareness is letting your customers know about the distinct qualities of your product. This is one highly effective advertising strategy you can use so that your customers will be aware of your product. But, before you can create brand awareness, you first need to create a brand. Your brand has to be unique which will give you a competitive advantage and will also make you stand out from your competitors. Creating a brand is a must so that customers can easily identify your products and services. You may also see marketing plan templates
There are numerous advertising platforms. You can go with traditional advertising platforms such as modern newspapers, poster designs, and flyer designs, or go digital with platforms such as social media and online advertising tools like Google AdWords and Yahoo Gemini. (Digital and traditional advertising platforms will be discussed more below.) AdWords and Gemini are two popular pay per click (PPC) marketing tools that help you attract traffic to your websites and other online portfolios. Although quite pricey, PPC is generally effective and will help you gain customers and possibly a new market.
3. Digital and traditional advertising platforms
As previously mentioned, there are numerous advertising platforms you can use and write down in your general business plan. Traditional and digital platforms are heavily used by companies around the globe, with some even using both advertising platforms. Traditional advertising platforms are still very popular in this day and age despite the rise of technology. Creative posters, stylish flyers, and billboards still translate to sales for the business as people still like looking at large images of their favorite products. Newspaper templates are also very effective as they help customers remember certain products, helping to convince customers to make a purchase. Radio is another advertising platform which refuses to die as it provides a funny and interesting take on your product, and also provides a level of freedom as the ad will be played on the radio. Even if technology has taken over, customers still cling to a more traditional way of advertising as it brings them closer to the products they have been accustomed to buying over the years.
Technology has made it possible to create advertisements through the use of a desktop computer or laptop. Numerous graphic design software products such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Corel allow you to make advertising materials on the fly. Meanwhile, if you want to add special effects (visual effects or VFX) in your ads, you can always use Adobe After Effects, Autodesk, DebugMode Wax, and eyeon Fusion. The ads you see on Youtube, specifically the ones that play before your video, all use special effects software. Aside from that, the use of websites and other online tools such as social media makes it easier for you to reach out to your clients and potential customers. Furthermore, creating a website has become very cheap these days and this will save you numerous funds which can be used for other expenses in your business.
We hope you found our article on advertising business plans to be very informative. We also added some handy information on what contents to include in a business plan. Advertising is the key for every product to be sold at a higher rate since customers will be made aware of the product. Additionally, if a product is of high quality then customers will spread the word to other customers, making the product more marketable. Despite word of mouth being a great tool in advertising, an advertising business plan helps bring thoughts and business strategies together that will, in turn, make it easier for companies to have a unified marketing campaign.
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