A practical guide to building a marketing plan for a start-up

This session will guide you through defining what your plan needs to accomplish, which varies for each startup. The clearer your objectives, the easier it becomes to select the most relevant parts of the marketing plan toolkit. We'll take a step-by-step approach to cover all the essential elements of crafting a plan.

Ultimately, the best plans come from a blend of understanding the available tools and concepts and the business owner's insight into what's best for their specific venture.

Session outline

Key elements of the marketing plan toolkit

• product/service description
• brand, vision and values
• sales/marketing objectives
• situation analysis
• Product/service - Value proposition
• Customer – pains and gains
• Industry/sector/market
• SWOT/competitive
• competition/ competitive advantage
• Budget
• Outline marketing & promotional strategies
• Results analysis

About our Business/Marketing Specialist - Alfred Showunmi -BIPC

Alfred has10 years experience in Marketing in trade and IT industries.

Studied Business and Marketting at University of the West of England, and has worked in Market research for Ipsos MORI as a Market Research Associate exclusively for 2 years.

About our Business/Marketing Specialist - Paul Kelson -BIPC

Extensive career in communications/marketing in corporate, agency and through his own firm. Degree in economics and MBA.

In advance of the meeting we will send out a brief questionnaire so that you can tell us some background information on your business idea, to help us tailor the session and to confirm your business details or pre-start plans.

All of our support is fully funded and is therefore free to access.

It is a requirement of our funding body that we record every organised interaction with pre-start and start-up businesses at BIPC Bristol. Please therefore take a few moments to provide us with the relevant information needed so we may provide our service.

Starting a business requires dedication, hard work and perseverance. It also involves learning and developing a myriad of new skills and understanding. This programme of interactive 2 hrs workshop will focus on building up these skill in four core business needs.

• Business essentials for pre-starts, planning, IP & research
• Marketing
• Accts/bookkeeping
• Sales

These workshops will run on a regular basis throughout the year. In addition. we will supplement these core areas with a range of additional stimulating 1-1s and workshop sessions covering other areas like recruitment, branding, website design and build, planning and even business coaching These will change over time with new ones being added. Keep an eye on our Eventbrite page or sign up to our newsletter to stay connected.

At BIPC Bristol we help and support aspiring entrepreneurs, start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across Bristol and the surrounding area. We offer a range of business services across four main themes:

• Intellectual Property guidance, help and legal advice
• free access to business intelligence resources and databases including market research, grants, company data and reports
• one-to-one sessions with advisors and experts, workshops and networking events
• spaces to meet, study and research your business planning

The Business & IP Centre Bristol supports people to start, protect and grow their businesses. Visit Bristol Central , Junction 3, Knowle and Southmead Libraries to access our free market research and intellectual property databases and take part in our regular programme of workshops and events.

BIPC Bristol is part of Bristol Libraries and the BIPC National Network.

This course is provided by BIPC Bristol and is free of charge for residents and businesses based in Bristol and the surrounding area.

This workshop will be held face to face in Bristol Central Library public meeting room. Numbers will be strictly limited. We anticipate that the course will be oversubscribed and that there will be a wait list. If you book and later find you cannot attend please advise us ASAP so that someone else can benefit from your place. Please register at the BIPC desk on the ground floor next to the café.

Tea and coffee will be provided, alternatively there is a café on site.

What is your refund policy?

Our events are free, but places are limited and events are usually oversubscribed. Please give two working days’ notice via email if you wish to cancel.

Can I attend if I'm not a member of the library?

Absolutely! Any Bristol and surrounding area based business or person with a business idea is welcome. Though we always recommend joining the library as it's free and will make accessing our databases, books and publications much easier.

How can I find out about any news & upcoming events?

Follow us on Eventbrite and you can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and events. For more information on BIPC Bristol check out our web pages: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/BIPC

After you have attended one of our events we ask that you complete a short feedback form. We will use the information you provide to improve the services we offer in line with our legitimate interests. This information is collected and transferred to us by our third-party processor, Impact Reporting using their Impact Assessment Tool. Impact Reporting will retain your data to save time when completing any future feedback forms we may send you. For more information about how they use personal information, please see their privacy policy online at https://impactreporting.co.uk/legal/privacy-policy/

For information about how the British Library will use your personal data, you can view our Privacy Policy at https://www.bl.uk/about-us/privacy-policy

For information about how Business & IP Centre Bristol will use your personal data, you can view our privacy policy at: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/about-our-website/privacy

Host or Publisher Business & IP Centre Bristol