Building
a Marketing Plan That Makes Sense – Part Two
By Karin K. Schaff Glazier
Earlier this month, we defined marketing and talked about the importance of
focusing on customers in your marketing activities. Now we're going to go over
the value in having a marketing plan and the basic outline. As we said, plans
should be flexible - but you should start with a solid foundation.
A marketing plan provides you and your business with the necessary strategic
direction to stay on track and ahead of the competitive curve. A good plan
takes customer, employee, competitive, and industry research and ties it all
together into a clear, concise strategy. Then you use this strategy to plan,
build, implement, and track your marketing activities, programs, and materials.
In addition, a well-rounded plan ties your sales goals and processes directly
to the overall marketing objectives and activities. Without sales, you won't
have marketing -- and without marketing, you won't have sales!
A plan is more than a sheet of paper with words on it -- it's the critical,
living documentation you need to ensure that your marketing efforts and dollars
are maximizing your bottom line. Effective marketing isn't about how much budget
you spend -- it's about how you spend it!
Getting Started
Who should be involved in the development process? Probably more people than
you'd think. Unfortunately, many businesses forget that there are more departments
than just marketing when it comes to building a marketing plan. Your plan needs
input from many divisions within the company, from sales to customer service
to accounting. Keep away from the "the vacuum-made marketing plans" where
only one specific group or individual builds the plan. Input from key departments
will help to ensure ownership and acceptance of the plan throughout your organization.
It will also encourage all departments to be involved with the implementation
and return on investment (ROI) tracking stages.
The Nuts & Bolts
Whether you create one yourself or use an outside marketing agency, be sure
to consider these essential elements of a marketing plan:
Situation Analysis
Target Audiences
Objectives
Strategies
Tactics
Return On Investment (ROI) Measurements
Timeline
Budget
Now let's look at each area in a bit more detail...
Situation Analysis
Take a good, hard look at your industry, your competition, and your company.
Where are your strengths? What are your challenges? Where do you see growth
opportunities?
Be sure to talk to others in your company and in your field. For outside research,
you can use trade publications, Web sites, and industry associations. And of
course, look to your current customers!
Remember that this is largely a snapshot in time, and your situation will
change - that's why these plans are flexible and adaptable. But it's important
to take the time to do an analysis of your business and "take the temperature" of
the market on a regular basis.
Target Audiences
Think about whom you're trying to reach with your marketing efforts. Existing
customers and prospective ones are obvious targets - but you may also consider
including:
 Employees
and prospective employees
Shareholders/Stockholders
Industry
consultants
The
general public
The
media - local and national trade press
Objectives
Define your objectives as narrowly as possible. We recommend keeping the number
of objectives to five or fewer - keep it manageable and realistic. You want
objectives that will require you and your team to stretch your capabilities,
but not those that are most likely unattainable. Consider including long-term
and short-term objectives - for example, monthly quotas and year-long forecasts.
When outlining short- and long-term objectives, be sure to specify a timeline
for implementation. Your marketing plan is a mix of complimentary activities
and programs that leverage each other to reach your objectives. And when possible,
use numerical objectives so you can more accurately track and measure your
return on investment.
Strategies
Think about how to reach the objectives you just defined. How will you communicate
with the target audiences - and what will your messages be? This is the stage
where you should carefully craft your approach to your market, and plan how
you want your company to go forward. You may decide to promote specific products
or services, design a new pricing model, create an overall brand imaging campaign,
or even go after new customer segments. Remember to view the strategies as
your building blocks for developing, executing, and tracking your marketing
game plan!
Tactics
Now you can determine which vehicles to use to deliver the messages and strategies.
Many of your tactics can be customized for different audiences, so be sure
to take into account the best way to reach each target group. There is an ever-growing
list of possibilities - from public relations to direct marketing to advertising
campaigns. Here are some of the tactics that you may consider:
Annual
Reports
Banner
Ads (Online)
Broadcast
Ads (Radio, TV)
Brochures
CDs
Community
Relations/Good Cause Programs</li>
Direct
Mail
Media
Tours
Newsletters
Press
Releases
Print
Ads
Product
Promotions
Sales
Kits
Sell
Sheets
Seminars/Trade
Shows
Videos
Web
Sites (or "sitelettes" that are part of your established site)
Return On Investment Measurements
Having tactics is one thing - but knowing that they worked according to plan
is another. Too many marketing plans are built around "creating and executing," and
don't ask the hard questions: "Was it all worth it?" and "Where
did we get the most return for our monetary investment?" ROI planning
needs to be a key part of any quality, results-driven marketing plan. Knowing
which tactic(s) made the most impact on your objectives will help you justify
those tactics, and even the plan itself. When putting together each tactic,
tie in key ROI measurements that link directly to the core objectives in your
plan. This will help you see which marketing activities deliver the best results
to your bottom line. Then, as you revisit your marketing plan, you can adjust
it based on reliable results data.
Timeline
This will keep you honest! Develop a realistic timeline for each tactic. Many
times, it makes sense to work backward:
You
want to send your direct mail piece right before the trade show? Pick the
date, and then incorporate time for addressing, figure in printing, then
creative development and approvals, etc.
Have
a date that you want to launch your Web site? Talk to the
programmers; make sure you have time to test it "live." Find
out how much time the creative development team needs.
And then plan on giving product managers and other sources
of information an appropriate amount of time to gather
the necessary materials.
To see all the activities and how they work together in the execution stages,
incorporate a visual element to the plan. You can use a basic dated calendar
that outlines different activities. This will help you see what's happening,
when, and how often - all in one centralized view.
You'll probably realize that you should have started everything yesterday.
However, this is the best way to motivate your team - and yourself - and to
make sure that projects stay on track according to plan.
Budget
Whether you use an outside resource or do it yourself, you'll need to set aside
some funds for marketing -- for example, if you're going to employ advertising,
plan on expenses for buying media, developing creative and perhaps even conducting
focus groups to test prospective campaigns. Direct mail will require printing,
postage, fulfillment (assembly), and possibly mailing list purchase costs.
Be sure to research this area carefully, so there are no surprises in the middle
of a great marketing effort.
Budgets can be broken out in several different ways. You can have one all-inclusive
budget to cover all marketing-related activities - or you can divide the budget
into "buckets" for areas such as sales, marketing, public relations,
etc. This process and decision will depend on how your internal budget and
Profit & Loss Statement (P&L) structure is set up.
Ready? Set? Go!
We've given you a lot to think about - now we'd like to offer some additional
resources. Call Pinpoint Positioning today for help in building your marketing
game plan!
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this article is allowed without written consent by author.
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