Create an introduction section to describe the university and outline its strengths. State and explain the university's mission statement.
List your marketing objectives, such as increasing enrolment or increasing public awareness of the university. Be specific with clear, measurable outcomes within a time frame. Focus on the outcome you are seeking.
Provide a context and rationale for your marketing strategy with a situation analysis. Research external and internal factors that influence your marketing approach. Look at the university's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and hindrances, and list the resources that either help or threaten marketing efforts.
Add relevant data that influences your situation analysis, such as a review of the success or failure of past marketing efforts. Include economic, demographic and social trends that might impact your strategy. Identify potential partners and allies. Create a competition analysis that identifies differences between your university and competitors such as products, service quality, prices and location.
Identify your target markets. Consider the characteristics of the people you are trying to reach such as age, income, lifestyle and where they live. Determine whether or not the target audience is new to the university or has had previous contact.
List the strategies you intend to use to fulfill the marketing plan's objectives. Some possible activities are advertising, public relations, relationships with the media, general and degree-specific recruiting materials, direct mail, special events and Internet marketing.
Add plans and procedures for tracking marketing activities and measuring their effectiveness. For example, the university can count the hits on a special Web page for a specific department.
Wrap up the marketing plan with an evaluation section. Describe how your objectives will be met and the methods you will use to measure your success. Use your tracking information to help you. Review and assess your marketing plan on an annual basis.
Write an executive summary that outlines the main points of the plan and insert them in the beginning of the document. The synopsis lists past marketing efforts, future plans and the methods used to achieve these goals. Writing the summary as the final step enables you to check that your plan is clear and covers important points.