Why You Need A Marketing Plan

The Importance of a Marketing Plan

"Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000% return on energy!" – Brian Tracy, author, and motivational speaker

Attracting clients doesn't just happen; like many things in life, if you want to see results from marketing, you need a plan. A simple marketing plan with clear actions helps ensure you are consistently focused on the success of your business, breaks down your ambitious goals into manageable projects, and enables you to assess whether your marketing is successful or not. These assessments show you where to focus your time, budget, and effort.

Once you've created your marketing plan, you'll have

• Facts on which to base decisions regarding your target market and competition
• Better budget and cash flow management
• Better management capabilities in slow sales periods
• Improved resource allocation
• Clarity on your unique selling proposition

A marketing plan is something every business should have to guide marketing efforts and keep goals in focus. View marketing as an investment and take the time to develop a plan for your business's success.

Components of a Marketing Plan

A Marketing Plan is a workable, metrics-driven, 12-month plan and framework to execute all marketing initiatives, resulting in greater revenue opportunities. A marketing plan does not need to be lengthy or complicated, but it does take some research and effort.

To develop a Marketing Plan for your business, include these sections (best completed with a Panalitix facilitator).

Components of a marketing plan include:

• Stakeholders: Define who the stakeholders are, who owns the development of the Marketing Plan, who will carry out activities within the plan, and who revisits the plan for adjustments.
• Vision and Goals: Briefly introduce your business to the reader and document the business's Vision Statement – the blueprint for 'who you are' and guides every expression of your business, including Marketing. Document the business's goals and desired outcomes; define the marketing-specific goals which support the business goals.
• Market Understanding: Define your understanding of your customers, their needs, the competitive environment, and trends in the industry resulting in accurate, astute decision-making in your market. Understanding your market is essential in order to successfully build, market, and sell products. Part of this involves understanding your target customers, especially regarding what 'drives' them to buy your products (or those of your competitors). Another part is understanding your competitors, that is, who they are and how they are perceived.
• Brand Guidelines: Define the 'rules' related to your branding. Branding is the perception of your business in the marketplace, and there must be guidelines on how your branding is created and maintained. Results of the above Market Understanding section influence which attributes to highlight. This is where key messaging, tag lines, colors, logos, etc. are defined for consistent usage.
• Channels: Define a clear set of rules around the media, or the channels, through which you publish content. Most often these rules include frequency and type of content, such as a monthly emailed newsletter, a weekly blog post, or a monthly client feedback questionnaire.
• Metrics and Budgets: Define what is measured and how these metrics are shared. For each marketing activity, create a month-by-month budget, including the thresholds for decisions to stop if it's not generating a sufficient return on investment (ROI), or alternatively, consider investing more if the ROI is high.
• Content: Identify and allocate resources to create the content you'll need based on your key message, where you'll be communicating, and how often. Bring clarity to the rules related to the 'message' and the development of content.
• Data Strategy: Define what data fields are needed, in regards to leads, for targeting and segmentation in your marketing. Identify gaps in your marketing database; optimize your database in a way that will improve future campaigns. The business should have a clear strategy around how marketing data is analyzed and used in the short and long term.

The Marketing Plan Has Been Created, Now What?

Now that you've invested in your business by creating a Marketing Plan, next comes consistent execution with accountability, including ongoing analysis of metrics and budgets. Revisit the plan when the business environment changes; if business goals and desired outcomes change, so should marketing goals and therefore the marketing plan. Revisit the plan at regular high-level company reviews. These reviews are the vehicle for you to turn your attention to the big picture, which is often neglected.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.