What are the three free sources of a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a report that details the next year, quarter or month of your marketing campaign. A marketing plan usually consists of an outline of the marketing and advertising goals of your company. A summary of the present marketing role of your company. To gain knowledge that will lead to wise marketing decisions, there are three key types of marketing information marketers use which are.

• Internal data

Internal data consists of the information businesses gather, usually as part of their internal activities, about their clients and prospective customers. For example, marketing departments retain details about the interest and leads they receive from potential clients and how they communicate with these contacts. They can capture information such as geographic location, gender, age, purchasing habits, and contact preferences used for segmentation and targeting purposes. Another valuable type of internal data may be information about visits to web pages, traffic, and other customer interaction activities. In addition, sales people gather and retain data on who is purchasing the product, where customers are located, trends of purchase, and habits. Sales and marketing teams may also retain customer reference details, success stories, and how prospective customers are advancing to become new customers. Other sections of the company also gather and preserve information that could be useful for marketing information. Accounting and billing units monitor customer details, such as how much they spend with the company, what they buy, and other payment information. Brand managers and customer service organizations maintain knowledge about the introduction or use of products by consumers, concerns or challenges they encounter, and levels of satisfaction with the business and products. Largely, by using information systems and databases spread through various departments, companies collect and retain internal data. A database is a computer-accessible collection of structured data and the data can be arranged such that it is available for a range of different purposes, such as marketing or financial analysis. Large enterprise systems designed to support business processes and operations, customer support systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, among others, can include shared information systems.

• Market research

Marketing research, using consumer insights obtained from the compilation and review of marketing information, is a systematic method for finding marketing opportunities and solving marketing problems. The issue to be solved or the potential to be explored, as well as the knowledge needed to answer research questions, are defined by marketing research. It also includes knowledge collection, review, identification of observations, and reporting of conclusions and suggestions to those who will take action on the basis of the results. Marketing research can cover a wide range of consumer, commodity, and market competitive topics and can use a variety of research methods (which will be discussed later in this module). Marketing research requires some additional knowledge in general, beyond what advertisers have at their fingertips (like, say, internal data) It is often important to explicitly obtain new primary data from target populations, such as existing or prospective clients. Marketing analysis uses secondary data previously captured by another company in other contexts. In order to provide a more complete response to a marketing problem or query, marketing research can combine internal data and/or competitive intelligence.

• Competitive intelligence

Competitive intelligence is marketing knowledge that helps an organization's marketers and other participants better understand their rivals and the nature of the competitive sector. The following are common kinds of competitive intelligence:

Product information: Who produces goods in competition with your offerings? What attributes or features make these items appealing to potential customers? How do they equate these characteristics to yours? How are items packed and sold to consumers?

Market share and penetration: The businesses offer the most goods to your target market in your competitive market, and how much are they selling? What companies are considered the leaders of the market? How does market share change over time?

Pricing strategy: What are rivals charging for their goods? What structure and methods are they using for pricing? What specific rates or discounts do they offer? How does this impact your ranking and position compared to rivals?

Competitive placement and messaging: What do rivals mean about themselves? What are they talking about your company or goods to existing and prospective customers or other stakeholders? How successful are their messages in creating interest or declining interest in competitor products? What keywords overpower rivals in search engines?

Analysis of win/loss: What percentage of new revenues are you winning or losing? Why are individuals preferring your product over rivals ? Why are they choosing products from a rival instead of yours?

Companies tend to closely protect confidential data, such as accurate product cost details, price structure, and market share. In fact, since it can be so hard to access, there are market analysts who specialize in competitive intelligence.