Five Steps to a Successful Marketing Strategy and Road Map for 2012

Which way is your marketing going in 2012? 
A strategy shows you the way.

Hope your holiday's were fun!  Now it's back to work and time to start the New Year right with a strategy to guide you through the next 12 months.  Here’s how to get started.

A marketing strategy sits between your business plan and your marketing plan.  Your business plan defines your market—the group of people who have a problem you can solve—and states the message you want to use to explain the benefit of your product or service. 

Your marketing strategy states how you plan to attract those people.  Your strategy depends on:

1.  Your Budget.  Set a budget, even if it is only a small amount.  Don’t skirt the issue by asking “what will it cost?” or saying “Tell me what we need and I’ll get the money.”  It’s a waste of time to develop a $5MM budget if you only have $50,000 to spend.  It doesn’t matter what you need if you can’t afford it.  The goal is to maximize the impact of the money you do have.  If nothing else, start with 15% of revenues.  That should get you into the ballpark.

2.  Your Purpose.  What do you want to accomplish?  Drive people to the website to buy your product?  Educate prospective customers to nurture them toward a sale?  Build your brand in the marketplace so you make the RFP and short lists of major prospects?  Decide now, so you don’t spread yourself and your staff too thin.  The more purposes you have, the less successful you will be at any of them.    

3.  Your Goals.  Determine what metrics will best mark your success: leads generated?  downloads? Free trials?  Sales?  Visitors to the site?  Sign-ups for the newsletter?  Next, set realistic and stretch goals for those metrics.  Use last year’s goals as a guide, if you have them.  If your company is new to marketing, set modest goals.  Better to succeed and feel a sense of forward motion than to set high goals, fail and drain the energy out of the effort.   

5.  Determine Your Strategy.  States how you plan to spend your budget and use your resources.  What will you emphasize and what will delay until later?  Which marketing channels will you use first?  Why? (Do the research to find out how other businesses like your succeeded.)  

6.  Build Your Road Map.  The final element of your plan is your Road Map, which says what you will do each month and who will do it.  Keep your budget in minds as you determine which trade shows you want to attend, which publications you want for your articles and which websites or social media sites are best for reaching your customers.

A strategy and road map helps ensure your budget lasts the full year.  Too often, “things” come along during the first half of the year that consume your budget, leaving no money for critical end-of-year efforts to meet company sales goals.  A strategy and an eye on the calendar makes marketing more effective.

What’s the biggest marketing mistake you’ve seen that a good strategy would have prevented?  I’ll  give a shout out to the marketer who provides the best example.

Happy New Year, --Paige

MultiPlanet Marketing

For help developing your strategy, contact MultiPlanet Marketing.