How to Build a Better Marketing Plan

The key to a successful marketing plan is to clarify your business goals and your brand positioning in advance of building your marketing plan. This may sound simple but it really requires a step back with some objective evaluation, which can be challenging when you are immersed in the day-to-day management of your business. To this end, most organizations set aside an annual planning period and allow management to somewhat remove themselves from the daily demands of the business for a few days at minimum. This ‘planning period’ can be accomplished by picking an off-peak business period and allowing for planning sessions at an off-site facility. An objective focus on marketing planning is especially required when competitive disruptions are affecting your industry for example the emergence of new technology and or new competitive entries.

While much is written on business strategy and goal-setting not a lot is available on effective marketing planning. As a board member and on-going Council chair of the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) I had the opportunity to co-create a strategic marketing planning tool kit for the industry. Working with two other marketing leaders (representing a Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods company and a leading market research firm) we were able to develop tools and best practices for marketers to guide the planning process with their teams. This set of best practices was also vetted through our Council for value-added ideas and planning concepts.

What continues as a central theme to successful marketing planning in today’s ever changing marketing environment is the ability to stay focused and yet nimble in your planning approach. You need to be open to new industry and consumer trends and to be curious about new technology and even more curious about new competitors. Do not dismiss anything new entering your competitive space as a ‘flash in the pan.’ At the very least you should set up a system to monitor the changes that are occurring in your industry.

So without further ado, the following are the four key steps to guide your marketing planning process:

1.  Current Situation Assessment: This step helps you outline where you are, and where you want to be. To determine this, you can utilize various analyses such as a SWOT, competitive analysis, and/or an end user analysis.
2. Strategic Goals & Objectives: In this step you define specifically your revenue, profit, and market share goals, and determine if these goals are in line with where you are to where you want to go in other words, confirm that these objectives are in line with your overall business goals.
3. Build the Plan: The plan focuses on the development (or confirmation) of marketing strategies also know as roadmaps to achieve your objectives and tactics which are the how or what will be done to achieve your marketing strategies. Here an analysis can be done to help determine where the largest gaps exist between your current situations assessment and the ability to meet your objectives.
4. Measurement Framework: Beyond your basic metrics, a solid measurement framework includes an analysis of rational factors and emotional elements. You can utilize these analysis to build the framework specific to your brand. For this step, and all the others you can read the previously linked strategic planning toolkit for more information.

Don’t underestimate the value-add of an outside consultant and planning facilitation to bring added objectivity to your teams’ planning process. Alternatively, you can consider utilizing your management team across consumer and product segments to co-facilitate. Either way, with the steps outlined above you can build a more effective marketing plan.

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