Foundational Marketing: Building Your Marketing Plan

Build your marketing plan Tying it all together for action

You need a marketing plan Marketing plans support your business plan Marketing plans guide you to success Describes strategies and tactics for the next year They provide guidance to accomplish sales and overall business goals They should generate high quality leads Partners with plans are more successful

Pre-planning Understand your target market See modules: Buyer Personas and Best Clients, The Buyer’s Journey Define your unique selling propositions See modules: Competitive Differentiators, Value Propositions and Elevator Pitches Think about what you want to communicate See modules: How to Tell Your Story, Content Marketing, Advocacy

Components of the plan Goals Sales forecast Budget Marketing tactics Editorial calendar Executive summary

Goals and objectives Focus on the desired results Be clear, specific, and measurable Examples of strong goals By the end of the year marketing programs will increase sales by 25% By mid-year we will have revamped all of our marketing materials so they have a consistent look By the end of the year, Cloud based solutions and services will represent 30% of our revenue mix

Sales forecast Consult with the Sales Team Reality Check Don’t set it and forget it, do periodic status checks Reality Check Have someone validate Does it make sense? Begin with previous forecasts Learn from actual results vs. plan

Set a marketing budget If you know the marketing tactics you will use Associate costs for each tactic If you don’t yet know which tactics Use a percentage of revenue If you don’t know which tactics you will use How much should you spend? 5% of revenues to maintain current state 10% of revenues to grow and gain market share

Inbound marketing tactics Used to attract prospects and clients Blogs Social media Podcasts Banner ads Digital case studies Infographics and videos Content syndication Search engine optimization And any other methods used to attract prospects and clients to you

Outbound marketing tactics Used to push out to prospects and clients Email Direct mail Telemarketing Cold-calling Print ads Radio and TV advertising Tradeshows and Events Newsletters And other methods of pushing messages and content out to prospects or clients

Create an editorial calendar Detailed schedule of marketing activities When to develop, build, write, and execute Keeps everyone on the same page

Executive summary The first part of the written plan is written last Describes the key elements of the plan at a high level

Review Now that you’ve learned marketing, you need a plan What are your goals? What is your sales revenue plan? Set a marketing budget to accomplish sales plan Determine marketing tactics Create an editorial calendar Write an executive summary