If you’ve noticed anything about us you will know that we are big believers in taking a bit of time out and planning for future success. We like to take a strategic approach to marketing and the only way to do this, in our view, is to stop the hamster wheel once and a while and THINK.
We also like to structure how we do things so that we have a consistent approach. This means over time we can look back and form a proper view on what we have been doing and look forward to see what we can expect.
Unfortunately, the only way to achieve this is to develop your marketing plan.
It’s amazing how this innocuous little word can strike terror into many a business owners’ heart, whereas for others all you get is a groan and a roll of the eyes…
We hear you!
So, for the purposes of this blog, can we just accept we need to do it? Humour me a little and in return I will accept that deep down you just don’t want to do it and map out a very quick and simple way to achieve this.
Deal?
To build out your marketing plan there are many different approaches available. Maybe you’ve Googled the subject and realised just how many there are? Maybe that’s how you ended up here? The important thing to realise is that whilst some are better than others, the key is to just DO IT! Do something to build your marketing plan and you will already be streets ahead of most of your competitors.
We’ve already established that no-one really likes to even contemplate the thought of a marketing plan so in reality most don’t. We’re going to be different though.
We’re going to have a go…
How I’m going to suggest you do it is through a tried and tested 6-step model that will allow you to frame your thoughts in the context of your company’s marketing requirements. Full disclosure: I’m not for one second going to try and re-invent the wheel here. There is a simple 6 step model developed by PR Smith which has served me well for many a year. The key is how you use it…
Whilst I am about to outline this simple 6-step model below what I’m also going to do is help you use it. There is no point spending six months writing the World’s most perfect marketing plan. For a start, who will be running your business whilst you do this? You see, what most academics don't realise is that whilst it’s great to pontificate about how you should do this and that, the business still needs to get done.
No matter what model we are going to use for marketing planning what we need to do MUST fit into our daily grind.
Our approach to get you started is to grab a pad and paper and as you read through the remainder of this blog take a few notes on anything that springs to mind. Be careful you don’t end up down any rabbit holes and lose your train of thought. Quick and dirty are the watch words for today.
Once you have read all the way through write down each of the headings and sub-headings we’ve talked.
Next, set aside an hour. That’s it. Just one hour and start working through each of these headings and writing out your thoughts and views regarding each topic. Don’t get stuck. Keep going. If you have questions that are unanswered move on to the next one and we can come back to these troublesome questions later. Perhaps even a note to look something up later on in the day when you’ve finished this exercise will be enough.
The trick here is that you are thinking. You are starting to think about your marketing plan and how you are going to use it to take your company forward.
At the end of your hour you should have a good couple of pages with lots of great insight into your company scribbled down. This is now the basis of your marketing plan.
Now that wasn’t too difficult, was it?
Careful… we aren’t done yet - but we’ve started! We are now a million miles away from that person who knew they should do it but haven’t got started. We have started and doesn’t it feel great!
Next, I would advise you get each section typed up, and whilst we don’t want to see an end to the rainforest, on just this one occasion we would suggest you print it out.
Look for the gaps in information and work out how you will plug them. Look at some of the questions you now have about your business.
It is amazing how the scales can fall from your eyes when you take this quick and dirty approach to planning. Some might say it’s an “enlightening” process (don’t worry even I groaned at that one!).
The next step is to think it all through and work out how you are going to take it forward. Whether it is an action on how to get this additional information or an action for the business, jot it down and there you have it. You now have the bones of a plan and you also have the start of an action plan to help take your marketing forward.
You mightn’t have all the answers yet but you're definitely on your way!
We know there may be some traditionalists who don’t buy into this heresy, but think about it… Do you really want to analyse your navel for months on end and have a beautiful report? No, we want to do something that helps bring in the business. It won’t be perfect and its not the end of our planning process but it will get us started in the first instance. As a business owner myself I know all about the importance of keeping the business running and the scoreboard ticking over ALL the time and fitting in the things that will make us better around the fringes.
So without further ado, what are these six simple steps to write your marketing plan?
Like most plans we are going to start at the beginning and look at our situation. Even our old friend Sun Tzu believed that if you know both your enemy and yourself you need not be afraid of one hundred battles. So who are we to argue? Let’s jump into our very own 4 C’s model:
Start with your company. Who are you? What do you do? What do you stand for? What do you want to achieve? What is your vision for the future? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Are there any opportunities or threats?
Who are your existing customers? How many are there? What’s your market share?What do they buy? What are their pains? How do you solve these pains? What else could they buy? How do they buy? How can we make it easier? Who are are prospective customers? What do they do? What are their pains? How can we solve them?
Who are our competitors? What do they do/ do differently? What is their point of differentiation? Have they a ‘big idea?’ What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they have any opportunities or threats?
This is all about the financials. Where does our money come from? Split this by customer and also by product / service. Find out where the revenue and margin is. Are we missing any opportunities here? Oh, and finally, what’s our marketing budget? How much can we afford to position ourselves as the company of choice for our market?
These are only a few starter questions for you. Feel free to add to these questions as the more you have the better your plan will be. As long as you answer them that is!
Setting goals and objectives is a crucial step in your marketing planning process as it means we have something to focus on and can measure whether or not we have done it. The psychological impact of setting goals should also not be overlooked as the very fact you have thought this process through and come up with a set of objectives means you will have a much better chance of achieving them. Just make sure they are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timely).
You also need to identify if there are any over-arching corporate objectives which need to be addressed as well as our marketing objectives.
Strategy is an interesting word. It conjurs up something that is very complex and difficult to understand. In reality however a strategy is simply a series of actions and tactics designed to meet a specific goal. You can have an overall marketing strategy to achieve X for your company and within this strategy you will also have a number of mini-strategies designed to achieve each of your specific objectives.
It’s also worth remembering that the best strategies are often articulated in just a couple of lines - not a huge document. Yes, you can have all your supporting research and analysis but at the very end all you need is one simple phrase or paragraph to succinctly pull it all together into one power-packed strategy. A strategy everyone can understand, relate to and most importantly follow!
In our eyes, one of the most overlooked go-to-market strategies fits in here perfectly. It is simply called S.T.P. or Segment, Target and Position. How cool is that? In fact, it is one of our favourites and so much so we even wrote a blog about it.
Put simply, look at your market and segment it into several groups. You can use a multitude of ways to do this such as by industry or customer type or you could get all technical and start to segment based on behaviour or attitudes. Segmentation can be as complex and sophisticated as you want it to be. The bottomline is you need to segment your market so that you can assess which particular segments you are going to Target.
This brings us nicely to the next step in S.T.P. - targeting. By analysing each of the key segments in your market you can start to get a flavour of the target groups you want to go after. First of all you will need to identify the 3 or 4 segments you want to target and then within this you will need to think about how you will get to each of these targets. Let’s call this, Positioning!
Specificity is a real success factor in marketing. Forget your critical success factors for a minute and let’s get real. A real success factor in your marketing toolbox is to be specific. The more specific you are the more likely you are to succeed. If you say you offer the best blah for the such and such market instead of simply saying you want to be a company offering blah, your marketing will be many times more successful.
Specificity works and to target your chosen segments effectively you need to position your company in a specific manner. The very reason you have chosen these groups is to allow you to have a focus and also bring a specific offering to each group.
Of course based on your marketing objectives you could have other strategies, for example, if customer service is key to your market or you have a particular issue with it, you may decide to address your customer service excellence with a particular strategy. It isn’t always about winning customers, we need to think about retaining them as well!
Right, this is where the rubber meets the road. We’ve finally decided what we want to do, we now need to get on with it and actually do it.
I for one am not a big fan of the Marketing Ps. Truth be told, I think this is because everyone rabbits on about them as if the 4, 5, 6, or whatever number of Ps there are these days, are the be all and end all of marketing. Say the magic phrase, “The 4 Ps” and you are now an immortal Marketing Guru! Easy? I wish it was…
In saying this, whilst I do think they are relied upon a tad too much, they do have a place - AND - this is the place. Let’s trot out the Ps I like to focus on, think them through and we’re starting to build a picture of what we have to do (Tactics) to follow our Strategy and achieve our Objectives.
Think about your Products (or services). What are they? how do they fit the market? Have we any gaps, etc.
Have you a Pricing strategy in place? What are your margins? How do you protect or improve them?
Whilst a lot of people think that marketing is just communications - i.e. let’s run a marketing communications campaign and that’s our marketing sorted, this really isn’t the case. Promotions fit in here to see what we want to promote and how we go about doing it.
Where are we going to do this? Online? Offline? etc, etc, etc.
Is very important as there is no point saying you want to do all these things if you haven’t thought about the very process by which you will do. This is even more important in today’s digital age.
Who is going to do all this? Have you the capacity to do it? Do you need a marketing team? What should you outsource to an agency?
That’s all from my end. Some people might argue with me about these Ps but I like to keep things to a round 6 and just get on with it.
This is one of my favourite parts of marketing planning. We’re finally looking at what it is we are actually going to do, how much it is going to cost and when we are going to do it. Again, we don’t need to spend ages doing this. Sometimes just one sheet piece of paper is all we need to capture a view of what it is we are going to do to achieve our marketing objectives. Sometimes the best approach is to simply write down each objective and write out what it is you need to do to achieve it. There you go. You now have an action pan. Add in your budget and timelines and you’re done.
Not so fast! Whilst we all want to shout hurray we aren’t actually there yet. Sorry to be a kiljoy but… how do we know when we’ve achieved what we want to achieve? How are you going to measure what you’ve done? Will you review it daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly? Or a mixture? What will success actually look like?
…and breathe! We’re done. Well, we’re really only starting as our plan is just our first step on the road to marketing success. Just remember to take that initial hour to blast through this list and fill in the blanks. This first cut may take sometime to refine but if you really are close to your business you probably have enough knowledge to make that first step and get started!