Your friend is developing a marketing plan for her new business. What should she put in this plan?

The answer

A marketing plan is a roadmap that connects who you are selling to with how you will reach them and how you will know it worked. For a brand-new business, your friend's plan should contain these core components:

• Executive summary – a short overview of the plan and its goals.
• Business goals and objectives – written as SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
• Target-audience research – who the ideal customers are, described with demographics, needs, and buyer personas.
• Situation / SWOT analysis – the market, competitors, and the business's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
• Marketing strategy and the marketing mix – the product, price, place, and promotion decisions, and which channels (social, email, SEO, ads, events) will be used.
• Budget – how much money is allocated to each activity.
• Marketing calendar / action plan – who does what, and when.
• Metrics and KPIs – how success will be measured (leads, sales, conversion rate, ROI).

Why each piece belongs

These elements are not filler; each answers a question a new owner must resolve. Goals define where you are going. Target-audience research keeps spending from being wasted on people who will never buy. The SWOT/situation analysis grounds the plan in reality: it forces an honest look at competitors and internal limits before money is committed. The marketing mix and channel choices translate strategy into concrete actions. The budget and calendar make the plan executable rather than aspirational. Finally, KPIs close the loop, letting your friend see what is working and adjust.

Why the wrong answers are wrong

Typical distractors on this question fail because they are too narrow or belong to a different document:

• "Just a logo and some social-media posts": these are tactics, not a plan; they skip goals, audience, budget, and measurement.
• "Only a sales forecast and financial statements": those are pieces of a business plan or financial plan, not the marketing plan's core (though goals should tie to them).
• "Only the company's mission statement": a mission sets direction but does not tell you whom to target, through which channels, at what cost.
• "Everything about operations, hiring, and legal structure": that is the broader business plan; the marketing plan focuses specifically on reaching and winning customers.

The correct choice is the comprehensive one listing audience, strategy, channels, budget, and metrics together.

The bigger picture

A marketing plan differs from a business plan: the business plan covers the whole company (operations, finance, legal, staffing), while the marketing plan zooms in on customers and promotion. For a new business specifically, keep it lean and revisit it often. Start with clear SMART goals and honest audience research, choose a small number of channels you can execute well, set a realistic budget, and define the two or three KPIs that actually indicate progress. A simple plan that is followed and measured beats an elaborate one that sits in a drawer.