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MARKETING STRATEGY
A marketing plan is a roadmap for your business to be able to head towards its destination and meet its objectives.
It will deliver a framework to help you prioritise your activities and ensure you are contributing to the aims of the business. It will give you a good sense of what factors inside and outside the business you'll need to contend with, and help you keep on track by defining a set of measurable goals and objectives.
Critically it will mean you can construct a budget and justify why you need it. It will tell you what sort of content you will have to create and the best channels for getting that content to your audiences. If there is just one of you and the budget is tight, all the more reason to make sure you spend those precious resources the right way.
"Framing the brand story through the single lens of innovation delivered a dramatic increase in the market profile of our new data centre and a 97% rise in leads to the sales team".
Andrew Fray, Director, Telehouse
There are many kinds of marketing plan, and countless books written on
the subject, the following plan is focussed on small business needs and is based on the same principles as the Brand Arrow® process - a rigorous strategic process coupled with practical steps the whole team can engage with and implement.
BRAND
AUDIT
Using the completed Brand Arrow, the current brand and its sales and marketing collateral, (web site, sales decks, logo) are audited to see where the current presentation falls short of the new brand strategy. It will define gaps that need addressing, bridging the 'old' presentatio
COMPETITIVE MAPPING & POSITIONING
A structured approach to reviewing both direct competitors and the competitive landscape - keeping abreast of the market provides both learning opportunities and ensures that brand is clearly differentiated. Once done, the current market positioning of the brand will be reinforced or a new positioning will be developed based on the brand strategy.
AUDIENCE
PERSONAS
This involves creating detailed profiles of the audience the brand is targeting to understand their key challenges, motivations and behaviours. It will help shape the messaging and the channels to place that messaging. It can also provide guidance on how to best tailor products and services we well as opportunities to review and enhance the customer experience.
BRAND
STRATEGY
A summary of the key points of the brand strategy that will guide the marketing plan and introduce the brand to the team if needed. the summary includes the brand's vision, barriers and drivers to achieving it, value proposition and brand values. This ensures alignment across activities and reinforces strategic direction.
MARKETING GOALS & OBJECTIVES (GO PLAN)
Responding to the brand vision and informed by the audit, mapping and barrier work the goals are the ambition the brand will want to achieve and the objectives are the mechanism put in place to start to make progress towards that ambition. The GO Plan will include the team member responsible, the timeline, action plan, KPI’s/KDI’s, and budget required.
MESSAGING
FRAMEWORK
By assigning a key message to each quarter (or 2 month period) it ensures that all communication channels focus on that message for the time period as well as provide notice for any research or content development needed for future quarters. This cohesive approach delivers clarity across channels and ensures that within 12 months all the brand key messages have been communicated.
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