Make Your Marketing Plan Matter

July 7, 2008

Source: Nielsen Small Business Resource Center


Help your marketing dollars go farther when you build a detailed marketing plan for strategically spending them.

By: MATT ALDERTON

When she started Applied Creative Technologies (ACT) in 1995, Julie Lenzer Kirk did it with just one client. One was all she needed to get it off the ground. But as it grew, the software and services company needed more clients. To get them, it had to market itself to new customers and existing prospects. So, three years after starting her business, Kirk developed a marketing plan for it.

"We had to really understand who our target market was, how we wanted to reach them and with what message," says Kirk, who sold ACT in 2005 and is now president and CEO of Path Forward International, an entrepreneurial consultancy based in Damascus, Md. She knew she had to promote her business, but had questions about where to market it and to whom; a marketing plan was the ideal vehicle for getting answers.

"The benefits of having the plan is that it gave us a roadmap for budgeting our marketing dollars," Kirk continues. "It gave us a framework for making spending decisions."

More than that, though, her marketing plan gave Kirk a framework for making strategic decisions. It helped her budget not only her money, but also her time and her energy. "Small businesses don't have million-dollar marketing budgets, so a marketing plan is even more important in order to make sure that efforts are coordinated and in the right areas," she says. "In order to be effective, you generally need to integrate your marketing efforts and make sure the right message is getting to the right customers. Doing that without planning it in advance is difficult."

Plans Beget Profits

Indeed, marketing your business without having a plan is like shooting a gun without having a target. Not only is it difficult, but it's also reckless, ineffective and even dangerous.

Silas Deane can attest to that. When he started his Nashville-based marketing agency, Logic Media Group, in 1999, he knew he had to practice what he preached. "Every banker will tell you, you have to have a financial plan," he says. "Every successful company also has to have a marketing plan. When I developed my company, it was critical to let people know we were here. My market was very competitive and we needed to find ways to break through the noise and clutter."

It was sink or swim and his marketing plan was Deane's lifesaver. "The saying goes that if you don't know where you are headed, then any road will take you there," he says. When your destination is success, however, it helps to have an itinerary. "A marketing plan quite simply is the roadmap to how customers are going to find out about your business."

Like a roadmap, Deane continues, a marketing plan is a guide; while you can veer away from your planned route, it's always a good idea to stay close to the main roads in order to reach your final destination.

Kirk echoes Deane. "A marketing plan is like smart insurance," she says. "It makes sure that you're spending your precious dollars in the right areas, going after the right customers in the right market in the right way."

Find Your Market, Define Your Message

Deciding that you need a marketing plan is easy. Building one, however, is not. It requires asking tough questions and giving honest answers. More than anything, though, it requires looking in the mirror and deciding who you are what you're all about.

"You want to hang the flesh and bones of your marketing plan around the heart, which is ultimately your marketing strategy," says Tim Berry, president of Palo Alto Software and developer of Marketing Plan Pro, the best-selling marketing plan software. "It's the interplay between who you are and what your customers want, who they are and how you're going to reach them."

The heart, as Berry calls it, has three pieces. First is identity, or who you are. The second part is target market, or who your customers are. The third and final part is focus, or how you're going to convince your customers that you can serve them.

Like a business plan, then, a strong marketing plan begins with finding your niche. "Developing a marketing plan involves really getting clear about the industry, your customers, your competition and where your product fits within all those," Kirk says. In other words, it's about knowing what you're good at, and finding a way to make sure that others know it, too.

"Define your message," Deane suggests. "Like, do you want to be known as the cheapest company in town? The environmentally friendly company in town? The most knowledgeable? How do you want to be perceived?"

Whatever your message, make sure it's as targeted as possible. "Don't be the best restaurant in town," Berry says. "Be the best Thai restaurant, the best sushi restaurant or the best date restaurant."

Embrace Details

While strategy is key, specifics are even more critical within your marketing plan, according to Berry. "A good marketing plan articulates a strategy, but then puts specific steps to it," he says. In his previous metaphor, if the heart of a marketing plan is its broader strategy, then its flesh and bones are its minutiae, including budgets, milestones and responsibilities.

"People are inherently good at strategy," Berry continues, "but they don't like fleshing out the details. Your plan is useless, though, without specific dates, deadlines, budgets, assignments and responsibilities."

Deane agrees, stressing the importance of specific numbers within a marketing plan. "Stick with your budget," he says. "The most important advice I can give to anyone is to avoid making emotionally-based marketing decisions. I have seen too many companies blow their marketing budgets because some advertising sales gimmick pressured them into making a rash decision."

The best way to avoid rash decisions is to make only premeditated choices; if it's not in your plan, you don't buy it. For that reason, it's important to include in your marketing plan not only a detailed budget, but also a detailed market target and specific media and milestones for reaching it.

It's in the Planning

Perhaps more important than what's in your marketing plan is the simple fact that you've written one, Kirk suggests. "Don't get hung up on the seemingly overwhelming task of writing a marketing plan," she says. "The actual process you go through is a valuable way to make sure you are spending your time and energy—and money—in the right places."

In fact, your marketing plan doesn't need to be a formal, bound presentation. It can be as simple or as intricate as you need it to be, so long as you go through the process of defining who you are, who you want to reach and how you want to reach them.

"A marketing plan looks however you want it to look," Deane says. "I have some clients who need a fancy presentation to share with the Board. I have others that carry it around in their suit pocket. It should be what you make it, but it has to be taken seriously."

And remember, Berry says: The process of planning is never complete. "A good marketing plan is never finished," he concludes. "It's a live thing. It's constantly evolving."

Make Your Marketing Plan Matter

July 7, 2008


Source: Nielsen Small Business Resource Center

Help your marketing dollars go farther when you build a detailed marketing plan for strategically spending them.

By: MATT ALDERTON

When she started Applied Creative Technologies (ACT) in 1995, Julie Lenzer Kirk did it with just one client. One was all she needed to get it off the ground. But as it grew, the software and services company needed more clients. To get them, it had to market itself to new customers and existing prospects. So, three years after starting her business, Kirk developed a marketing plan for it.

"We had to really understand who our target market was, how we wanted to reach them and with what message," says Kirk, who sold ACT in 2005 and is now president and CEO of Path Forward International, an entrepreneurial consultancy based in Damascus, Md. She knew she had to promote her business, but had questions about where to market it and to whom; a marketing plan was the ideal vehicle for getting answers.

"The benefits of having the plan is that it gave us a roadmap for budgeting our marketing dollars," Kirk continues. "It gave us a framework for making spending decisions."

More than that, though, her marketing plan gave Kirk a framework for making strategic decisions. It helped her budget not only her money, but also her time and her energy. "Small businesses don't have million-dollar marketing budgets, so a marketing plan is even more important in order to make sure that efforts are coordinated and in the right areas," she says. "In order to be effective, you generally need to integrate your marketing efforts and make sure the right message is getting to the right customers. Doing that without planning it in advance is difficult."

Plans Beget Profits

Indeed, marketing your business without having a plan is like shooting a gun without having a target. Not only is it difficult, but it's also reckless, ineffective and even dangerous.

Silas Deane can attest to that. When he started his Nashville-based marketing agency, Logic Media Group, in 1999, he knew he had to practice what he preached. "Every banker will tell you, you have to have a financial plan," he says. "Every successful company also has to have a marketing plan. When I developed my company, it was critical to let people know we were here. My market was very competitive and we needed to find ways to break through the noise and clutter."

It was sink or swim and his marketing plan was Deane's lifesaver. "The saying goes that if you don't know where you are headed, then any road will take you there," he says. When your destination is success, however, it helps to have an itinerary. "A marketing plan quite simply is the roadmap to how customers are going to find out about your business."

Like a roadmap, Deane continues, a marketing plan is a guide; while you can veer away from your planned route, it's always a good idea to stay close to the main roads in order to reach your final destination.

Kirk echoes Deane. "A marketing plan is like smart insurance," she says. "It makes sure that you're spending your precious dollars in the right areas, going after the right customers in the right market in the right way."

Find Your Market, Define Your Message

Deciding that you need a marketing plan is easy. Building one, however, is not. It requires asking tough questions and giving honest answers. More than anything, though, it requires looking in the mirror and deciding who you are what you're all about.

"You want to hang the flesh and bones of your marketing plan around the heart, which is ultimately your marketing strategy," says Tim Berry, president of Palo Alto Software and developer of Marketing Plan Pro, the best-selling marketing plan software. "It's the interplay between who you are and what your customers want, who they are and how you're going to reach them."

The heart, as Berry calls it, has three pieces. First is identity, or who you are. The second part is target market, or who your customers are. The third and final part is focus, or how you're going to convince your customers that you can serve them.

Like a business plan, then, a strong marketing plan begins with finding your niche. "Developing a marketing plan involves really getting clear about the industry, your customers, your competition and where your product fits within all those," Kirk says. In other words, it's about knowing what you're good at, and finding a way to make sure that others know it, too.

"Define your message," Deane suggests. "Like, do you want to be known as the cheapest company in town? The environmentally friendly company in town? The most knowledgeable? How do you want to be perceived?"

Whatever your message, make sure it's as targeted as possible. "Don't be the best restaurant in town," Berry says. "Be the best Thai restaurant, the best sushi restaurant or the best date restaurant."

Embrace Details

While strategy is key, specifics are even more critical within your marketing plan, according to Berry. "A good marketing plan articulates a strategy, but then puts specific steps to it," he says. In his previous metaphor, if the heart of a marketing plan is its broader strategy, then its flesh and bones are its minutiae, including budgets, milestones and responsibilities.

"People are inherently good at strategy," Berry continues, "but they don't like fleshing out the details. Your plan is useless, though, without specific dates, deadlines, budgets, assignments and responsibilities."

Deane agrees, stressing the importance of specific numbers within a marketing plan. "Stick with your budget," he says. "The most important advice I can give to anyone is to avoid making emotionally-based marketing decisions. I have seen too many companies blow their marketing budgets because some advertising sales gimmick pressured them into making a rash decision."

The best way to avoid rash decisions is to make only premeditated choices; if it's not in your plan, you don't buy it. For that reason, it's important to include in your marketing plan not only a detailed budget, but also a detailed market target and specific media and milestones for reaching it.

It's in the Planning

Perhaps more important than what's in your marketing plan is the simple fact that you've written one, Kirk suggests. "Don't get hung up on the seemingly overwhelming task of writing a marketing plan," she says. "The actual process you go through is a valuable way to make sure you are spending your time and energy—and money—in the right places."

In fact, your marketing plan doesn't need to be a formal, bound presentation. It can be as simple or as intricate as you need it to be, so long as you go through the process of defining who you are, who you want to reach and how you want to reach them.

"A marketing plan looks however you want it to look," Deane says. "I have some clients who need a fancy presentation to share with the Board. I have others that carry it around in their suit pocket. It should be what you make it, but it has to be taken seriously."

And remember, Berry says: The process of planning is never complete. "A good marketing plan is never finished," he concludes. "It's a live thing. It's constantly evolving."