How To Develop A Strategic Marketing Communications Plan
As Branding and
marketing professionals, we have an in-depth understanding of
the importance of a marketing plan. However, not everyone
recognizes the benefits of investing in a strategic marketing
plan prior to launching strategies and tactics that seem
intuitive at the time. The following few paragraphs attempt to
impart our understanding of a well-written plan's importance by
first defining some of key elements of the role of marketing in
most organizations.
Defines Focus: Your strategic marketing plan gives the company,
and everyone in it, a benchmark to measure all marketing
activities against. A well-developed strategic marketing plan
not only gives you a structured strategic and tactical outline,
but also defines your target audience, messages, goals, and
objectives, in a way that allows flexibility. A structured plan
provides a benchmark to measure all marketing activities and
ensure that the investment they require meet the needs and goals
of the marketing plan - preventing you from spending on wasted
efforts. It helps staff understand goals and become
customer-focused. It also empowers them to make decisions on
their own that are consistent with the company's objectives.
Tracks Costs / Measures Value: A marketing plan provides a
step-by-step guide to what you are spending money on and when.
It enables you to budget marketing expenses--helping you keep
control of your expenditures, manage your cash flow, track sales
to marketing expense ratio, and measure success of your
marketing efforts. It also ensures that product development
dollars are not wasted.
Charts Success: A marketing plan helps you chart your
destination point. It becomes a guide through unfamiliar
territory.
Captures Thinking on Paper: The finance department isn't allowed
to run a company by keeping numbers in their heads. It should be
no different with marketing. Your written document lays out your
game plan. If people leave, if new people arrive, if memories
falter, the information in the written marketing plan stays
intact.
Reflects the BIGPicture