I read an article this morning on Entrepreneur.com that reminded me that I’ve strayed from some important basics within my own company.

At Northstar we launch a lot of new marketing initiatives. Sometimes we forget to outline a clear, concise plan before we move forward. That’s marketing 101, but even experienced marketers fall into the trap of overlooking fundamentals.

When I look back, I can see that failing to follow some basic rules of planning has cost us an awful lot.

I thought this was a nice reminder of how you can utilize a simple exercise to make sure that your marketing plan is headed in the right direction.

As Al Lautenslager explains, “Here’s a simple process to creating a marketing plan using just seven sentences”:

Sentence 1: What is the purpose of your marketing?

Sentence 2: Who is your target market?

Sentence 3: What is your niche?

Sentence 4: What are the benefits and competitive advantage?

Sentence 5: What is your identity?

Sentence 6: What tactics, strategies and weapons will you use to carry out your marketing?

Sentence 7: How much money will you spend on your marketing; what’s your marketing budget?

I’d suggest you go and read Al’s entire article, and most importantly, make sure you implement this simple strategy before your next market launch.