The Strategic Marketing Plan is a brand’s road map to success.
It defines how all of your marketing tactics relate to and integrate with the big picture. You receive:
- A comprehensive analysis of the market, where your brand is within the market — and where it can be
- A clear understanding of how your strategic goals and objectives impact your marketing tactics
- An objective, fresh look at your brand; a chance to view it from outside the day-to-day needs
- A collaborative process that helps you build consensus for your marketing throughout your organization, thus minimizing impulsive special requests that are shiny for the moment but add little to the overall marketing efforts
- A clarifying assessment of all your marketing efforts, defining how they impact the goals and objectives you set, and how to allocate budget dollars to those that will have the greatest impact on these goals and objectives
Why Us?
Our experience has shown that marketing decision makers often don’t have the time or mental space to develop their own strategic marketing plan. They are busy running their departments, their days filled with deadlines, details, and detritus. Carving out time and getting a clear head is a luxury many can’t seem to find.
But you still want it to be your marketing plan, not one imposed on you.
Our Process
That’s where our collaborative process comes in. You can participate as much or as little as you want as we bring our years of experience and creative insight to the process. But whatever you choose, know this: the goals, objectives and initiatives will be yours.
We create the marketing plan in four phases, and you approve each phase along the way.
Phase 1 – Situation Analysis
We research and write an analysis that comes from interviews with key stakeholders, secondary research and your data. It includes historical market overview, company history, company today, brand position, the current market, product overview, competitive review, challenges and trends.
Phase 2 – Goals, Objectives, Messaging, Audiences
Working with your team, we determine and define you overarching goals and their supporting objectives. Key messaging and targeted audiences come from the existing brand work and research that you have developed to date.
Phase 3 – Initiatives
Also referred to as marketing tactics, these will be developed to support the goals and objectives and to reach the targeted audiences. All of marketing’s disciplines are included, such as digital, trade shows, social media, public relations, influencer marketing, research, advertising, collateral and education. Throughout this phase there will be a mix of brainstorming, developing, and reality checking to make sure your initiatives can be implemented within your budgets. You will know how and why to kill some sacred cows in favor of innovative and measurable programs.
Phase 4 – Timeline and budget allocation
Not all initiatives can begin at the same time. Next is the task of plotting out implementation and assigning dollars to programs. The timeline and budget allocation helps you determine where and when to spend your dollars to get the best return on your marketing investment. It helps you rationalize your decisions, to yourself and others in the organization.
End result
Your strategic marketing plan will be delivered as a written report. It will be your guide for the next three years. It will save you money because you will know where you are going, how you’re getting there and when to expect results.
And you will have created it while keeping up with everything else on your plate.