With the Thanksgiving week so close at hand it can be hard to concentrate on some of the important tasks necessary to keep companies growing and prospering. One task that companies should begin to address now is the development of their 2012 marketing plan.

Written marketing plans are important for a business of any size. They are the roadmap and plans for reaching a company's goals for the next year. They are also the perfect time to review what has worked well in the past and what needs to be changed. In addition, they are an ideal opportunity for companies to begin utilizing new marketing methods (online videos, social media, press releases, etc.) that they have been intending to implement, but for one reason or another have not.

Marketing plans can range from a simple outline to a comprehensive plan of action. Whichever route your company chooses to go, we suggest you include a budget, specific goals, timelines, assigned tasks and a method that will be utilized to examine the plan's effectiveness over the coming year.

Below are some topics that should be included in a marketing plan:

Goals - Document your goals covered in the marketing plan. This could be to increase sales by a certain amount, to reach out to a certain number of existing and potential customers, or to implement new marketing channels.

Methods - Write down how you are going to reach the goals in the marketing plan. If you want to reach out to potential customers how will you do it? This could be through electronic newsletters, social media, direct mail, public speaking, internet hits, press releases, exhibiting at tradeshows, getting articles published, online videos and so on.

Frequency - Marketing and sales are both number games to some degree. You can have the best product or service out there, but if no one knows about it then there won't be sales. Marketing also takes repeated exposures to be effective. Few times can a company run one print advertisement for example and expect to see results. In fact, many marketing experts say that a message needs to be seen at least 7 times before it is even noticed, potentially many more times before it leads to a sale. With this in mind set frequency goals for the marketing efforts outlined in the marketing plan.

Timeframes - Many well meaning companies establish goals and methods to reach those goals, but have unfortunately neglected to set timeframes. For example, if a company wants to establish an electronic newsletter in 2012 then also establish dates for each issue to be sent, etc.

Assign Tasks - Particularly for companies that don't have a dedicated marketing department it is essential to assign tasks to individuals or teams. Many small companies, that due to their size require employees to wear many hats, may find that marketing functions are often given the lowest priority because employees have to deal with situations that arise daily. If a marketing task is assigned to someone then they will take ownership and should see it through to completion.

Budget - Establish a budget to be able to achieve the marketing goals. If the budget is low then try to maximize marketing efforts that require little capital. These include electronic newsletters, websites, social media, press releases, public speaking, online videos and having articles published are just a few possibilities. If the budget allows it then be sure to include things like paid advertising, tradeshow exhibiting and perhaps paid internet advertising.

Methods for Evaluating Success - Many aspects of marketing take time and repeated exposures so keep that in mind when you establish how you will measure the success of your marketing plan. Certainly increased revenues is one method, but also look at such factors as hits to the company website, emails, volume of inbound phone calls and other forms of business inquiries.