Marketing plan basics: Plan your work. Work your plan.

I’m a planner.  I like to have a goal, and a plan and timeline to meet that goal.  So, I like it when a client says they want a marketing plan.  This means they believe in the power of having a strategy and not just flying by the seat of their pants with last-minute, reactionary marketing tactics.

The first thing I always ask is, “What’s your budget?”  You may be surprised at how often this question goes unanswered. 

A marketing plan is an important part of your business.  It’s an investment.  Compare it to a significant investment in your personal life – like buying a house.  You wouldn’t go house hunting without knowing how much you can afford to spend. 

The same goes for your marketing plan.  You don’t want to waste time and money creating a plan that you can’t afford.  The key to an effective plan is figuring out how to most effectively reach your target audience within the constraints of your budget. 

Another question that is sometimes surprisingly tough to answer, but one that needs to be answered early in the planning process is, “What are your goals?”  If you don’t have a goal, then there is no way to measure the effectiveness of the plan.  And, even tougher for some is coming up with a measurable goal.  For example, “I want to increase sales” is not measureable, but adding “by 10%” is. 

Knowing this is a primary goal for the plan will influence the tactics.  I would focus on tactics that directly reach the end customer to generate measureable leads.  The message would focus on the benefits that are most important to the customer. 

And, you shouldn’t assume to know what those are.  Have you or your sales people come right out and asked what keeps your customers up at night.  There are a variety of ways to conduct inexpensive polls, if you have a strong customer database.

Other important aspects to a strong plan are assessing current market conditions, which often includes some type of market research and checking out what the competition is doing, and conducting a SWOT analysis (i.e., indentifying your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). 

It is important to know how you are perceived by your customer, and how that plays out with the competition and current state of the industry.  For example, if your customer thinks you are expensive, then your messaging needs to address this perception.  Talk about value and what the customer gets for their money…preferably something unique from the competition.

Once the plan is in place, it is equally important to stick to the plan.  This may sound obvious…why would you spend the time creating a plan and not follow it.  But, it happens more often than you may think. 

There are going to be times, of course, when an opportunity presents itself that you don’t want to pass up.  But, you should always make sure this opportunity accomplishes the goals set forth in the plan and determine how this impacts your budget.  Did you build in adequate contingency to cover this expense, or do you have to cut something from the existing plan in order to stay within budget.

Marketing plans can be a lot of work, but you don’t have to overengineer the process.  The key is having goals, setting a budget and determining what tactics will most effectively reach your target audience within that budget.  It is better to have a two-page strategy than nothing at all.

Happy planning!

Stacy Sarault