To invest your marketing budget purposefully in profitable advertising and marketing campaigns, some preliminary needs must be met; you need a marketing plan!
Welcome to Jessica Berg Marketing Consulting. My name is Jessica Berg and I want to show you in this video the way to a systematic marketing plan in 7 steps.
First, a few personal notes: Marketing planning is an important task for every business. A systematic approach is just as important as creativity and flexibility. Anyone who carries out only sporadic marketing campaigns with great effort may be disappointed at the end of the year because the sales numbers haven´t developed as expected. A marketing plan is derived from the corporate strategy and includes all actions and activities in order to achieve predetermined marketing goals. Furthermore, information about conditions, market potential, customer insights and other factors that justify and explain the actions and activities are considered.
A marketing plan can be created for a single product, a service, a brand or a product range. It may run over one or more years. A marketing plan is usually part of a business plan. Because marketing is responsible for selling the products, the marketing plan is also an important tool for sales support. A connection to the sales department must be maintained for the exchange of information.
So go on to plan your marketing structure:
Step 1 – Strategic Business Planning
As already mentioned, no marketing plan can succeed without centralised guidelines: The general business goals and strategy always form the basis of your marketing work. Everything we do in marketing must support the corporate objective.
Step 2 – Situation analysis and market overview
First you should get an overview of your market and your situation. The better you know and understand the market situation, the more confidently you can estimate the market opportunities and identify risks. Consider your external business environment in your analysis by looking at markets, your customers and your competitors. But don´t forget the internal examination. Answer the questions: What are your strengths and your weaknesses? And review your current marketing efforts critically.
Step 3 – The marketing objective definition
Each goal is a guideline for your actions in marketing. On the basis of step 1 and 2 you have to write down concrete objectives for your marketing work. From these objectives you will derive your later actions. These objectives are also necessary in order to measure the success of your actions. Without a defined goal, performance cannot be measured.
Step 4 – Define the marketing strategy
Make general decisions and explain how you intend to achieve your goals in principle.
Step 5 – Planning of assessing success
To check whether you have reached your marketing goals and the performance of your marketing efforts, you have to develop appropriate measurement concepts. Develop key performance indicators to measure success, taking the objectives into account. Think about milestones and check the indicators periodically to act on the plan with flexibility and to make adjustments.
Step 6 – Definition of the organisation
Consider if the setup of your marketing organisation can meet all requirements well and quickly and reach all goals easily. Where is the marketing department and how it is organised? Are all tasks defined clearly?
Are there relevant connections to other units? Which processes and procedures must be drawn? Who is working when, how, where and with whom?
Step 7 – Operational measures planning, considering budget and time
Finally you define the individual actions and activities you need in order to achieve the objectives. Remember that marketing does not only include the provision of brochures and a website. Be bold and creative. Give yourself an advantage by using the entire marketing mix. Plan the budget and a schedule. The result of this planning is also your personal plan. Then implement your actions consistently. Observe the results and the market movements continuously and adjust the plan if necessary.
If you need assistance with your marketing planning or are looking for a discussion about effective marketing plans please call or write to me. If you enjoyed the video – share or like it.You can read more about me and how I can help you with your marketing activities on my website www.jb-mc.com. Thanks for watching and see you next time.
Yours Jessica Berg