A marketing plan should
be a written document, not scratching on a cocktail napkin or recalled from
memory. To take your business to the next level requires preparing a written
marketing action plan every quarter.
Without a 90-day marketing GPS to guide you
to your destination, treacherous roadblocks and time-consuming detours can keep
you from reaching your goals. Even if you are a one-person sales department,
you should know where your leads are coming from.
Try not to look at planning as an
obligatory to-do, but as a way to solve tangible problems like generating
awareness and improving credibility. Think of it as a way to solve lead
generation problems before they arise. Here are some checklist steps to guide
you:
1. Attack strategy
quarterly. Begin developing a strategy-driven marketing
action plan every 90 days. Marketing plays a vital role in successful business
ventures, yet many sales people often overlook its systematic implementation.
Put down on paper how you are going to do three things:
-- Generate leads for
the sales team
-- Build awareness of
what your company sells
-- Enhance the
credibility of the organization
2. Think strategic
first. Too many individuals believe that the tactical
plan -- the newsletters, press kits, trade shows, banners, 800-numbers, display
advertisements, logos and giveaways -- comes before the strategic plan. Those
promotional, publicity and advertising tactics (and there are hundreds to
choose from) should be contained within a well-orchestrated marketing action
plan. But first create your strategic messages that will generate leads, build
awareness and enhance credibility.
3. Update what's
happening now. The situation analysis introduces the
company and includes:
-- A brief overview of
the product or service
-- A brief overview of
the personnel involved
-- A past history of
the company
-- Its present
performance
-- Financial
information, if appropriate
4. Profile away. Profiling is a bad word these days, but it works here. The product or
service profile provides information regarding the specific items you intend to
market. By addressing the following categories, a profile emerges. They
include:
-- Position Statement:
The niche the product or service is intended to occupy
-- Description: The
product or service described in detail
-- Pricing: The
methods used to establish pricing. Questions such as, "Will discounts be
offered?" are asked
-- Market maturity:
The overall market maturity is addressed
--
Quality/Reliability: What level of quality is being portrayed? What's the
relation to price?
-- New market
potential: The potential size of the market is assessed
-- Delivery of
service: An explanation of the service delivery mechanism is given
-- Packaging: Includes
overall presentation of the product or service and its delivery
-- Image: The
impression customers receive from employees, facility, furnishings, stationary,
etc.
5. Make the first the
last. The executive summary consists of a one-page,
top-level summary of the entire plan. It's placed at the front of the document,
but it's the last thing you'll write. Its purpose is to convey the gist of the
plan to stakeholders, investors and anyone else who needs to know these facts
in a hurry:
-- The scope of the
plan in an outlined paragraph
-- The product or
service being marketed
-- For whom the plan
is being prepared
-- The time period the
plan covers
-- The geographic area
where the implementation occurs
-- The strategic
messages and the tactics to get them to the target markets
If you manage to write
two or three paragraphs for each of the topics, you'll end up with plenty. But
no more than 10 pages, please. From there, you can refine your tactics. More
important, you've taken a big step forward because you've written your strategy
down on paper.
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