Writing the Dreaded Marketing Plan
It’s the beginning of a new year, and that means it’s time to kick off the execution of your 2017 marketing plan.
Right?
You know, the plan that your team developed during Q4 2016 that outlines your revenue goals and marketing strategy, along with the tactics and campaigns you’ll run in Q1 2017?
If you’re in corporate marketing for a big company, you’re nodding your head “yes” … or you’re too busy with execution to even read this article.
But if you work for the typical small to midsize enterprise (SME), you’re most likely taking a look at your budget (which is probably practically the same budget as last year) and brainstorming ideas on how to generate new leads, brand awareness, or sales over the next few months.
You know you’re supposed to write a formal plan, but it’s just not done yet.
And you’re not alone.
Creating a written marketing plan isn’t a fun task for most marketers. If you’re relatively new to the company, summarizing the positioning and brand strategy can be an incredibly time-consuming task, and almost impossible to do without the participation of others on the executive team.
And creating detailed campaign plans with projected numbers of impressions, leads, customers acquired and return on investment can be nearly impossible without access to historical metrics and good set of spreadsheets to handle the complex calculations.
Why Most SMEs Don’t Write the Dreaded Marketing Plan
The main reason that most SME marketers don’t write the dreaded marketing plan is because it’s challenging work that takes a lot of time that takes away from your main responsibilities: generating leads and customers.
But therein lies the conundrum: marketing activities are more important than completing the plan, but a good marketing plan makes those activities more effective and improves results.
Instead of avoiding the task altogether – and simply doing the same things as you did last year and expecting different results (which is the definition of insanity right?) – think about taking an initial step in the right direction:
Start small.
Instead of creating a full-blown, 40-page marketing plan that will consume two weeks of your time, create a “Cliff Notes version,” a high-level outline that addresses the key points of your strategy, identifying the key things to do in specific months of the year.
Call it your 2017 Marketing Outline. Use short summaries, bullet point descriptions and round numbers – estimates that you can refine later.
Marketing changes quickly. One of the problems with lengthy marketing plans is keeping them updated. They can be outdated before the ink has even dried on the paper, so ditch the full-blown marketing plan and just keep your outline updated.
Here’s a process to help:
- Block off 60 minutes and include any other members of your marketing or sales team that can contribute.
- Spend 15 minutes outlining the key points of your positioning and brand strategy in the marketplace.
- Spent 10 minutes describing the distribution channels you will use in 2017.
- Spend 10 minutes listing the key days and events throughout the year that affect your audience, industry and company.
- Spend 10 minutes listing campaign ideas for each of the dates above.
- Spend 10 minutes adding revenue projections to your budget spreadsheet.
- Spend five minutes scheduling at least 30 minutes once per week to fill out, update and improve specific parts of the plan.
Getting started is the hardest part. Take a small first step, now rather than later, and you will become a master marketing planner before you know it.
Here are some templates to get you started: