Marketing Focus – Marketing Planning

For this month’s Marketing Focus we wanted to go back to the beginning and look at the importance of marketing planning, as we are always surprised to see just how many businesses on the Costa del Sol start work without producing a solid plan.

A marketing plan doesn’t just randomly allocate actions to marketing. If it’s done properly it should produce an invaluable document which should be put alongside your business objectives at the centre of your activity.

It is an excellent way to fully evaluate your business to understand it from a customer’s perspective and issues brought to light by the planning process can be used to improve the company from a point of view of the product, service, positioning, price and promotion.

The plan should set objectives, identify strengths and weaknesses, evaluate your competition, marketing materials and brand identity and clearly set your target market before setting a detailed, timed and costed plan to work with over the next 3 months to 1 year.

We would strongly advise all businesses to start any campaign with a good plan for maximum chance of success. You can read our latest blog post for the 13 steps to take to producing a useful plan by clicking here.

There’s lots happening in the next month, with Christmas just around the corner, here are a few highlights:

5th December – The Concordia Christmas Gala
This annual gala at the Marbella Club is a perfect way to kick off the festive season in style with a delicious meal, entertainment, gifts and a special visit from Saint Nicolas himself. Tickets are 170€ per person, only a few remaining - Find out more here

7th December – 100 People, 1,000 Trees, Arboretum Marbella
This fabulous, family-friendly tree planting event takes place from 11.00-15.00 and includes a kids’ workshop and puppet show as well as the opportunity to really help this local environmental charity to kick off its planting season. RSVP on Facebook

10th December – Salotto Ristorante Networking Evening
This fun, friendly, networking event will take place on Tuesday 10th November from 19.00 and will offer great opportunities to make new business contacts and meet potential new clients. Bring plenty of cards and enjoy samples of Salotto’s new menu, wine, beer and soft drinks while making useful new contacts. Free to attend, but an RSVP to rocio@salottomarbella.com is essential

14th December – Reality Star Semi Finals Puerto Banus
Following many auditions and hundreds of video submissions the experienced panel of judges have selected their favourite 20 contestants to perform live at their semi-finals on 14th December at the Puerto Banus Grand Cinema. This will be a fantastic show, showcasing the best new talent in a stunning environment, and it’s a great winter evening out for all the family. Tickets can be ordered from www.reality-star.com and the first 100 are on sale for 20€ for 2

Shaw Marketing Services recently celebrated our fifth anniversary and are delighted to have added these new businesses to our exisiting base of loyal clients...

An IB school offering high quality, personalised learning in English for children from 3-18 years old. Since September we have been working as their virtual marketing department.

This contest is showcasing the best new musical talent from the Costa del Sol and beyond and Shaw Marketing Services have been contracted to promote the semi-finals and finals in December and January.

Salotto is a high class Italian restaurant situated in Nueva Andalucía, which offers a relaxing and exclusive place to enjoy authentic Italian cuisine. We are working with this restaurant to promote their Christmas Business Meals and promote and host a networking function.

We have worked with this restaurant to promote their White Truffle month by producing an email newsletter and a press release, listed the event on local websites and shared news on social media which has produced a large amount of exposure and increased customers.