Plan Your Marketing: Don't React

Your Strategic Marketing Plan: Setting the Course to Achieving Goals

In my last Linked post (“Your Audiences Drive Your Message”), I contended that organizational messages are most effective when they address the needs of each target audience – and there are always multiple audiences.

Today, I’m delving into why it’s critical to have a strategic marketing plan in place before implementing specific activities. After all, implementing a marketing communications program without having a strategic foundation in place is analogous to flying a plane without knowing your destination (your goal) - or filing a flight plan (how to get there).

Practically every time I speak with a business executive, at least one of these challenges comes up in conversation – whether in the public, private, governmental or non-profit sectors:

1. Of all of our target audiences, which ones are most important? In what order? Why?
2. How do we align our messaging with the needs of each appropriate audience?
3. Which marketing tools effectively reach these audiences and will our efforts cut through the clutter?
4. Which of these tools are within our budget?
5. When a crisis occurs (and it will), are we ready to respond in a timely, fully-coordinated manner externally and internally?

The answers to these issues essentially become your strategic foundation and having a documented plan helps organizations reaffirm their most important priorities, synchronize their efforts and marshal the appropriate resources to best reach their goals.

So before you potentially false-start with just tactics, ask yourself:

1. What do we need to achieve (goals)
2. Whom do we have to engage to reach these goals (audiences)
3. In what order should we contact our audiences (prioritization)
4. How do we help these audiences meet their needs (messaging)
5. How can we reach these audiences while staying within budget (tactics)

In the end, when you start with a plan, there’s now an agreed-upon “destination” and “flight plan”. By sticking to the plan, and adjusting it as needed, your organization remains focused on those marketing activities which provide the biggest bang for the buck in achieving your goals. After all, focus on first things first.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback!