Marketing and sales plan
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| marketing plan/ˈmɑːkɪtɪŋ plæn/ | 营销计划 | yíng xiāo jì huà |
| sales forecast/seɪlz ˈfɔːkæst/ | 销售预测 | xiāo shòu yù cè |
| conversion rate/kənˈvɜːʃn reɪt/ | 转化率 | zhuǎn huà lǜ |
| promotional budget/prəˈməʊʃənl ˈbʌdʒɪt/ | 促销预算 | cù xiāo yù suàn |
| call to action/kɔːl tʊ ˈækʃn/ | 行动号召 | xíng dòng hào zhào |
A plan makes marketing testable
- A marketing plan 营销计划 sets a target customer, objective, offer, price, route to market, promotion, budget, and review date.
- A plan is a set of linked choices. Changing the price can change the target customer, the promotion needed, and the number of sales required.
- Start with one clear objective, not a page of attractive ideas.
A promotion can shout; it still needs the right person listening.
Which item makes a marketing plan testable?
The plan needs linked choices and a time to check whether they worked.
Sales need a route
- A sales forecast 销售预测 estimates how many units the business expects to sell over a period.
- It should use assumptions: expected customers, conversion rate, price, capacity, and season. An assumption can be tested and revised.
- Conversion rate 转化率 is the proportion of potential customers who take the desired action, such as buying after viewing an advert.
A sales forecast should state assumptions that can later be tested.
Assumptions make a forecast revisable rather than a confident guess.
Spend where the customer will notice
- A promotional budget 促销预算 limits how much a business can spend to reach customers.
- Choose a channel because the target market uses it, not because it is fashionable. Track a measure such as enquiries, voucher use, or orders.
- A call to action 行动号召 tells a customer the next step: scan, book, visit, or order.
Match the item to its role.
One tells customers what to do; the other is where the message appears.
A student bicycle-repair service wants 20 puncture-repair bookings in its first month. It targets cyclists near campus, offers a fixed price and two-hour collection, uses a QR code in student groups, and reviews bookings each Friday. Its forecast is not “many customers”; it is a number with a route to test it.
Which measures could track whether the repair promotion works? Choose all that apply.
Each measure traces customer movement toward or through a sale.
Write one English target-channel-measure sentence for the bicycle-repair service.
Example: “To reach campus cyclists, we post a QR link in student groups and count weekly bookings.”
Target → channel → measure. “Cyclists use the student group, so we post a QR booking link and count scans and bookings” is a justified promotion choice.
Do not count views as sales. Attention may be useful, but a plan needs to measure the action that moves a customer toward buying.