Marketing is not branding. Marketing is the process of leveraging a brand to approach, secure and sustain a market of customers.
In other words, marketing is the tactical implementation of a larger branding strategy driven towards achieving the company’s strategic plan.
But marketing is also not sales. Marketing supports sales, which is the act of culminating an integrated branding-and-marketing process.
Marketing is tactical: tools & timelines, roles & responsbilities.
Typical Approach
My approach to building a marketing plan is therefore very different from the process that I use for a strategic plan. Building a marketing plan is not a matter of conducting research and building consensus; that work should have already been done. Now, it’s time to attack — and I want to work with you to build the best battleplan.
How do we do this?
- Assess the available assets to support the marketing plan:
- Cash for marketing purchases (advertising, print collateral, events, etc.)
- Staffing time (hours available per week/month/year)
- Staffing talents (i.e. we won’t integrate blogging if no one can write a decent sentence)
- Define the goals (ultimately this is sales, though other goals lead up to it)
- Select the specific tools to be employed — and, more importantly, the tools we won’t use. We will focus on the highest yield activities based on the available assets and the types of customers we seek. Typical tools include:
- Web site (regularly updated!)
- Social media
- Blogging
- Emails
- Print collateral
- Direct mail
- Advertising
- Media outreach (i.e. press releases)
- Events
- Integrate the messaging as much as possible for coordinated campaigns; for example, a quarterly direct mailing to active customers is supported with emails and social media outreach that use the same images/copy to reach out to those same constituents with a consistent message across all platforms.
- Develop at least a 12-month calendar of daily/weekly/monthly activities, deadlines, etc. that are tied to a complementary calendar of goals and benchmarks
- Assign tasks/responsibilities to the team that will be implementing the plan
- Determine need for additional/replacement team members and/or training
- Assess, adjust, revise.
The latter is essential on an on-going basis. The marketing plan should be reviewed at least monthly, with at least a quarterly in-depth review. While the consultant can be involved in this process, the ideal plan has equipped the staff to do the majority of this work and not rely on the consultant except for occasional support.
