This week I had the opportunity to review a new software developed by Palo Alto Software. This software package is called Marketing Plan Pro and it’s powered by Duct Tape Marketing superstar John Jantsch. I must admit this is the most extensive software that I’ve reviewed when it comes to creating a marketing plan. Review the pros and cons of this software and find out if it’s a good selection for you.

What I love about the Marketing Plan Pro software is it helped me by integrating my marketing activities and goals with a roadmap that I could follow. You can even use the software to measure your success and milestones. It creates a simple process that helps you to build supporting documentation for your marketing intiatives not to mention that fact that I absolutely love the charts, tables and the plans format. It’s easy to create, easy to read and most of all easy to follow. I even used the basic version and had my marketing plan created in 30 minutes.

You can read the full review about Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing on About.com

I’m not generally a fan of marketing and business planning software. But when you have Palo Alto Software (still my favorite) and Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch collaborating on marketing plan software, how can any small business owner say “no”?

Marketing Plan Pro also offers many helpful resources to help you actually implement the plan you’re writing at Mplans.com. There are links to free market research sources such as Harvard Business Online, Values and Lifestyles Psychographics Segmentation. You can also find marketing calculators.  Palo Alto has also formed partnerships with Logoworks.com for your logo and design work, Intuit’s Homestead web site development resource, and PresentationPro for PowerPoint templates. So you will have no excuse for not getting started.

Best Points
* Practical and easy to use — This is not your corporate marketing plan. It is intuitive and uses your natural entrepreneurial thinking. This makes it very easy and quick to fill out.
* Has audio guides and examples — I love that John Jantsch does these little introductions as audios – it feels like he’s coaching you through the process. There are also several examples for each section – you can read, get inspired or just copy and edit to change later.
* Resources reduce the risk of procrastination – Love the resources section! This will get you started on creating the business of your dreams.
You can read the full review at the Small Business Trends website.