When you’re marketing a product, putting together a written marketing plan can help you create a guide to follow and achieve the sales goals of the product. A marketing manager or business owner tends to be responsible for putting the marketing plan together, but if you have employees such as a finance manager or operations manager, their input can be a valuable component to putting together a comprehensive marketing plan that considers marketing the product from all angles.

Describe the product and sales goals. Start by writing down a description of the product you’re marketing. Rather than focus on the features of the product--size, style, color--use the description to describe how the product benefits your customers. Also, state the goals you wish to accomplish with the product, such as sales number goals. Place a deadline or time frame on each goal, so you may set a goal such as achieve sales of $5,000 per month within six months.

Put together a market analysis. The market analysis is an evaluation of the internal situation of the business marketing the product, the competition and the market conditions that exist for the product. Start by listing the strengths and weakness that exist internally and with the product. Then list the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. The purpose of this analysis is to determine how your product is different from the competition so you can use this uniqueness to create marketing messages and strategies that leverage the strengths of the product. The analysis should also include a statement of the current or expected market share for the product for your company as well as the competition.

Describe the target market. The target market is a description of the individuals or groups that use the product or who would benefit the most from the use of the product. This section should contain as much detail about the market segments as possible. In essence, this is a description of the ideal customer for the product including age, household income, geographic location, work situation.

Create marketing strategies. Consider the strengths, brand and quality of the product to use these items as leverage in creating the marketing strategies. Marketing strategies are the specific steps you plan on taking to promote the product. For example, an online marketing strategy may include establishing social media network accounts for the product and establishing a company blog as a way of sharing information with customers, receiving feedback from customers and ultimately driving visitors to the company website where they can buy the product. Marketing strategies describe how the product is promoted, distributed, priced and packaged.

Create the marketing budget. Decide how much money can be allocated to the marketing and promotion of the product. Working with the budget, determine marketing strategies that fit in with your marketing budget.