5 Top Tips for developing your optimal Marketing Plan
Effective marketing starts with diagnosis
Most marketing teams are drowning in data these days but they don’t always have the structures in place to translate this data into meaningful insights. So, when the deadline is looming to submit a marketing plan for next year, where do you start?
All too often, annual planning can be driven by Finance deadlines, as opposed to marketers taking the opportunity to step back, review objectives, diagnose last year’s investment and build a plan that will deliver both on your key metrics (revenue, market share, customer penetration etc.) and on long term brand health and business growth.
Don’t be dragged into budget discussions before you’ve had time to stop and think. The case for marketing is strong, the data is available. Even McKinsey has contributed to this debate - stating that companies need marketing ‘all the time, to bounce back more quickly from downturns and achieve long term growth objectives’.
But when it comes to marketing investment, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. Ineffective or inefficient marketing is the scourge of our industry and gives everyone a bad name. Your data is your greatest asset, it will help you tell your investment story. It will also help you to cull the investment that’s not working.
5 Top Tips when developing your marketing plan:
1. Start with diagnosis, don’t start with last year’s plan! The temptation is always there to pull the previous year’s plan out of the drawer and do a quick refresh. But that results in a wasted opportunity. What did you set out to achieve last year? How did you do? What went wrong? What would you do differently if you could start over (because, guess what, you can)? Use your data!
2. Clear objectives - What ‘problem’ are you trying to solve next year? Be clear. Be selective. Trying to accomplish too much is a human trait, most commonly found in marketing types. Do this work with a small team. The importance of aligning on your objectives and demonstrating how these ladder up to the business goals cannot be over-stated.
3. Who are we for – And how will we serve them? Be clear on your bullseye target audience for next year. The easiest way to dilute the impact of your marketing investment is to try to be for everyone and speak to everyone. Identify your target and be ruthless in pursuing them.
4. Metrics & measurement – how will you know if you are on the right track? What metrics are you going to use this year? Be specific when you select them and set yourself targets. Share these widely - internally and with your agency partners. Do quarterly reviews, half year reviews. Stick to the agreed KPIs, don’t get distracted. Optimise on the short term, activation activity. Give the longer term brand building activity the oxygen it requires – don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
5. Resource to deliver – do a capability assessment. Do you have the right resource to deliver your plan – internally and across your partner ecosystem? Ensure everyone understands the objectives and the full plan, not just the bit they are working on.
Over-communicate, build a culture of marketing effectiveness, ruthlessly seek out the truth, ensure there’s permission to fail.
So, what are you waiting for?!