How important is the marketing plan to the business plan?

You heard the saying, "Build it, and they will come!"

I know a lot of budding entrepreneurs have heard it, too! I know because I see all sorts of businesses pop up, and fade away. This mindset is especially easy to watch right where you live. Typically, a restaurant will open, hang out a "Grand Opening" sign...and wait....and wait...and...

Give me a reason to want to eat there! I don't want to the first. And, I sure don't want to be the only one! Talk to me! Mail me a coupon -- buy one get one free. Something! Anything but the mindless sign!

More to the point, motivate me to change my driving pattern, my shopping routine, my Internet browsing session...with a detour to YOUR business. Ü

How do you do this? With a marketing plan.

Every lender is different, and yet it seems pretty safe to assume that without a plan to "get" customers, there might not be any money to pay principal and interest on a loan. And, who wants to loan money where there's no plan to pay it back?

So, at the very simplest level, the marketing section of the Business Plan should start to answer two questions:
1) How will prospective customers find you? And, just as important, 2) how will you find prospective customers and motivate them to take that first detour?

Marketing plan example: When I was a kid, anything and everything was being advertised on TV. Today -- not so much. Most of the "anything and everything" variety has shifted to the Internet. But, can you think of which business niche is HAMMERING the TV with its marketing plan...and why?

Aging Baby Boomers: They're getting darn old. Many can turn on a computer and use a cell phone. Most find their entertainment on the TV. And, oh so many of them have aches and pains.

If you happen to be a industrial-grade pharmaceutical manufacturer today, how will your customers find you? The answer: Most of YOUR customers are watching TV. It is mind numbing how many drug ads flood TV...promising youth to the Boomers...fewer wrinkles...increased libido...no more getting up 5 times a night...etc. Some day I'll be old, but for now, give it a break! But I digress.

Manufacturers don't just make a drug and hope the exciting pill will draw in the customers. They have to tell somebody!

This is precisely what a marketing plan must do -- it must state "who" your prospective customers are, what strategies and tactics the business will employ to target these prospects, and what steps the business will take to convert the prospect to "Sold!"

Big Pharma companies tell the boomers via TV, AND they're telling doctors and nurses and their staff about their products, and they give them several thou$and rea$on$ via paid vacations, trinkets, etc. to mention these drugs to their patients. A textbook example of a marketing tactic.

Think about it, if you were going to "loan" someone any amount to start a business, say $10,000 -- wouldn't you want to them to have some idea how they were going to pay the money back? Investors in drug companies want to know. Investors in practically any other business want to know.

A marketing plan helps provide the explanation.