Your business will not succeed just because you are passionate about it, because you love pets, and you want the business to thrive. Pet owners will not flock to your doors just because you opened them. Instead, it takes careful planning and a thorough understanding of your marketplace to develop and implement a strategy that will create awareness, generate traffic, and increase revenues.

The marketing plan is a structured, written plan that guides the process of determining and defining an organization's target market, detailing that target market's needs and wants, and then fulfilling these needs and wants. While your business plan provides the vision and objectives for the entire operation, the marketing plan enables the business owner, operator, and employees to purposely define their market, identify both customers and competitors, and outline a process for attracting and retaining customers as well as identifying and anticipating change.

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success." - Stephen A. Brennan, Author

What are the benefits of a marketing plan?

Developing a marketing plan requires the investment of time and effort. In fact, the marketing plan could take several weeks to prepare. This investment, however, can have a dramatic impact on your business.

A good marketing plan will:

• Identify and explore the strengths and weaknesses of your pet care facility
• Examine the opportunities and threats that exist in the marketplace
• Force your facility and staff to focus on the needs of existing and prospective customers
• Allow the business to anticipate and plan for changing market trends, customer demands, and changes with local competitors
• Help your pet care facility reach its marketing and revenue goals while staying within its budget

An effective marketing plan will boost your facility's sales and potentially increase your profit margins because it provides the information needed to direct your company's positioning and branding. As a pet care facility owner, operator, or employee, you must be able to persuade customers to believe that you offer the best service at the best possible price. This is why your marketing plan is so important.

How do you get started?

Your marketing plan should be a straightforward, easy-to-follow document that will be referred to on an ongoing basis. It should provide clear direction for all marketing efforts for the coming year.

The first step is to gather information you will refer to in the development of your plan. This includes:

• Recent financial reports (from the past three years)
• A list and description of each target market you serve
• A list of each service and product you offer
• The company's organizational chart
• A description of your marketplace (geographical presence, competitive information, demographic and psychographic data on customers, trends impacting the industry)

There are numerous ways to format the content of your marketing plan; however, at the very minimum, you will want to include these key sections:

1. Purpose and Mission - This section outlines the purpose of the plan and provides background information on the pet care facility.
2. Situational Analysis - This section considers the business environment at the time the plan is being written. It evaluates the product/services offered, target market, distribution channels, competitors, and financial status of the business. It is here that we recommend that a SWOT analysis be conducted to consider the strengths and weakness of the company, as well as the potential opportunities and threats facing the facility.
3. Marketing Strategy and Objectives - It is here that the marketing and financial objectives are communicated. This section creates accountability and ensures that the plan results in measurable actions.
4. Tactical Programs - This section provides descriptions of the tactics that need to be implemented in order to achieve the objectives and goals described in Section 3.
5. Milestones - This section provides tasks, timelines and identifies who within the organization is responsible for ensuring that specific tasks get accomplished.
6. Marketing Budget - The budget section provides details on the projected financial implications of the marketing plan.
7. Controls and Evaluation - Bearing in mind that it is critical that marketing activities be monitored on a monthly basis, this section defines the means by which you will evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts and make modifications where necessary.

Go for it!

Yes! You can significantly and positively impact your pet care facility through the development and implementation of a well thought out marketing plan. To begin realizing the benefits described in this brief, grab your notebook and a pen and get started today!

Source: The Marketing Brief
The Third Eye Group
Pet Services Journal November / December 2007