Creating and Implementing a Marketing Plan

The first of the year is an appropriate time to implement a marketing plan. The marketing plan is the primary base for the business – without customers or clients there will be no business. A marketing plan has the same process as any other strategic (long-term) plan: set goals, determine an action plan to implement and realize the goals, and reassess the effectiveness of the action taken. If you have never made a marketing plan before (or a strategic plan of any kind), the important thing is to get something on paper and start implementing. The plan can be supplemented, corrected, and assessed after it has been implemented, but before implementation it is nothing and of no help. Do not let paralysis of analysis delay action.

Set reasonable, specific, and measurable marketing goals in the relevant areas of concern. Identify and describe an ideal customer or client. Do this from recent experience and from what is apparent about the marketplace. The relevant areas of concern for a marketing plan are current customers or clients, centers of influence for referrals, networking, and principal customer or client recruiting.

Generally, consider the dynamic of the marketplace. What is the nature of the demand for your service or product? Is it elastic, where there is competition and price has a great effect on sales, or is it inelastic, where an increase in price does not decrease sales proportionately. What has changed in the last year? Have customer or client needs changed? Determine the demographic for the ideal customer or client and describe it in detail. What centers of influence exists for the ideal customer or client? Identify all referral sources from the last year. Does the description of the ideal customer or client suggest that there are referral sources that are not sending referrals to the business? If so, identify these referral sources.

With respect to customer or client referrals, consider a goal to increase the percentage of customers or clients that refer you business. What is the present percentage of customers or clients that refer business? Set a goal based on past results and devise a method of monitoring the accomplishment of that goal.

Centers of influence are resources that can provide a sustainable source of new clients. Consider a goal of establishing a relationship with a definite number of centers of influence in the next year. Who are the centers of influence relevant to your marketing? With how many do you have a relationship? Set a goal based on past results and devise a method of monitoring the accomplishment of that goal.

 Networking includes Internet and face-to-face interaction designed to present the business and its management as a competent and responsible member of the business community. The activity of networking allows information to be shared in the business community that can be beneficial to the business through the establishment of its competency and integrity as a matter of general reputation. Consider a goal of effectively participating in community and informational activities that enhance the reputation of the business. Devise a method of monitoring new business activity attracted or enabled by networking activities.

For a potential customer or client who is known, consider a goal of gaining the business of that customer or client within a set period of time.

For each goal, list the actions to be taken to realize the goal.  For example, for customer or client referrals, consider the development of a referral process utilizing thank-you cards, surveys, or meetings; use special events (dinners or social occasions) to keep in contact with customers or clients and create opportunities to introduce friends or relatives to the business; or provide information through scheduled notices or newsletters. For centers of influence, consider specifying events to attend where new centers of influence can be met, joining associations where centers of influence are active, offering to speak to gatherings or write for publications involving centers of influence, and using social networking sites to reach out to and identify centers of influence. For networking, consider developing effective marketing collateral including business cards, capability brochure, information about the business and its story, product or service sheets and capability brochure or information; advertising in appropriate venues; using direct mail as is appropriate; hosting a television or radio show; writing articles for Internet and local publication; hosting public workshops or educational courses; writing press releases on a regular basis; building a website that clearly conveys the capabilities of the business and provides educational resources to prospective and current customers and clients; developing informational and relationship content through blogs, podcasts, webinars, and videos; joining and contributing to social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook; implementing a Google Ad Words campaign or some similar variation; and participating in online directories and referral sites. For principal customer or client recruiting, consider sending direct mail to targeted customers or clients, initiating social activities with the potential customer or client, and providing informational resources to the potential customer or client.

To budget the plan, list the goals with the actions to be taken in the left-hand column of a spreadsheet. List the months of the year in the top row of the spreadsheet in the succeeding columns. For every month in which an action is to be taken, place an x for that activity. After that has been done for all activities, replace the x in each month with the cost of that activity. For example, if one activity is to join the Chamber of Commerce, the initial month may contain the cost of the annual dues, and the succeeding months may show estimates of incidental costs involved with attending certain activities. Once all the x's are replaced with numbers, the columns for each month should be totaled and a total column run for each activity row.

To implement the plan, create a marketing calendar setting forth the days of the month when activities should be initiated and completed. Estimate dates as necessary, remembering that what is being created is really a checklist not a calendar. Monitor the plan by making sure that customer or client information is collected to ascertain the source of new clients. On a monthly basis review the implementation of the plan and the monitoring of its effectiveness.

Now that the critical strategic plan for a business, the marketing plan, the success of the plan will depend on adherence to the plan and revision of the plan as monitoring shows what actions are most effective to realize the goals of the plan.