Welcome to the New Year!

So what are your plans for 2019? Is your Marketing Plan all set? Do you know what strategies you’re going to implement over the year? Or what activities you’re going to focus on in the next few months?

Maybe you’re still in the “planning on making a plan” stage.

If that sounds about right, this is a great time to take a beat and put a plan in place. It doesn’t have to be a big, time-consuming task. It just needs to be a plan.

Why You Need a Marketing Plan

Over the course of my career, I’ve worked at global advertising agencies, in marketing departments for small to medium-sized companies and even launched my own woodworking business.

The big difference I’ve noticed throughout my corporate career – and now as a consultant – between those companies that succeed and those that seem to just hit a wall or flutter out altogether, doesn’t have to do with the size of the company. It doesn’t have to do with the size of their budget. It has to do with the strength of their Marketing Plan.

Without a plan, you just wind up throwing money at random tools and tactics in order to plug a hole in the damn. Or falling victim to the shiny-object-syndrome and chasing one idea after another based on an article you read somewhere or a colleague who said it worked for them.  Without a plan for how to get from point A to point Z you just sort of wander and never really get anywhere.

But for many business owners, the thought of putting together a plan can be overwhelming.

It doesn’t have to be.

Not every business needs a 20+ page document detailing every element of the strategies and tactics they intend to implement over the next five years.

But you do need to have clarity and a commitment to the direction your business is headed. It needs to be written down. You need to have buy-in from key stakeholders. And you need to share it throughout the company so that everyone is sailing the ship in the same direction.

The Down and Dirty Marketing Plan

• Know Who You Are
  • Create a Positioning Statement and 2-3 statements that answer:
    • What is your product or service?
    • What value – or solution – are you providing?
    • What are your key features and benefits that make you different?

• Know Your Customers
  • What are the core demographics of your audience (age, gender, geography, etc.)?
  • What do they want?
  • What motivates them to buy?
  • Is the end-user the decision maker or is someone else?
  • Where do they go for information?
  • Are there any unique or unifying criteria (all attorneys, students, like coffee, etc.)?

• Know Where You’re Going: In order to know what actions to take, you need to have an idea of what kind of business you want to be in five years. Or even 10. Whether you are a planner that thrives on creating long-term strategies, or you prefer the short-term planning principals laid out by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington in “The 12 Week Year”, you have to have some understanding of where it is you are going.

Because the destination will always inform the path you take.

If you own a restaurant are you looking to open up several locations, take it nationwide or stick to your roots as a local, neighborhood hangout?

 

If you’ve started consulting, what does growth look like? Is your goal to take on a full-time staff one day? Or would you prefer creating aligned partnerships for those times you need a different skill set?

• Know What You’re Doing: Do you know all of the marketing activities you are currently engaged in? Are there certain events – whether holiday planning or a big annual conference – that seems to creep up on you every year? What items keep sliding to the bottom of the to-do list because there never seems to be enough time or resources to addresses them?

To help track – and stay on top of – it all, make a list that covers:

• Current activities | Timing | Estimated Cost
• Planned initiatives | Timing | Estimated Cost
• Key Dates and Milestones | Timing

When you have all of your activities – in progress and planned – written down in one place, you have a better chance of prioritizing those that are most important and determining the best time to implement them.

That’s it!

Are there benefits to a more comprehensive Marketing Plan? Sure. But having a plan – even a “down and dirty” one – is better than no plan at all.

So whether you are putting together a 20+ page plan outlining every detail and mapping the year out on a Marketing Calendar, creating an Action Plan to help guide you and your team in their marketing activities, or simply putting notes down on a series of index cards (though I’d recommend using a digital format that can be added to and adjusted easily), don’t underestimate the power of having a plan – however long or short it may be – in writing.

Having your marketing activities listed out will hold you more accountable, help ensure alignment with your team, and make it easier to shift things around when needed.

But most importantly, having a plan will help you stay focused on where you are going and how you are getting there. Instead of aimlessly following those shiny objects.

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Jacqui Genow

Brand & Business Strategist

J. Genow Marketing

Jacqui Genow is the founder and principal of J. Genow Marketing. She works with clients in aligning their brand message, building their marketing roadmap, and helping them stay on track to move their business forward. As a Brand and Business Strategist, her focus goes beyond marketing; making the connections between how marketing decisions made today can impact a client’s business in the future. You can find Jacqui on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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