I’m seeing this a lot lately, a Marketing Plan that is a list of tactics without a strategy.
“We’re going to do this, this, and especially this.”
But why do any of these tactical ideas make sense; how will they help the business achieve it’s objective?
David Ogilvy said,
“The essence of strategy is sacrifice.”
When crafting your Marketing Plan consider your strategy carefully. It should describes how you plan to achieve your objective. Use it to determine which tactics make sense and which don’t. It should be focused and notable for what it eliminates. It should be specific and clear as to how you plan to achieve your business objective.
For example, a customer relationship marketing (CRM) objective might be to grow organic revenue, that’s revenue from current customers, by 10%. As you consider how to achieve this objective, a corresponding strategy might be, “Retain and develop best customers.” Or you might want to improve the ROI on acquisition efforts by 20%.
Offing a 50% off coupon to every customer is not a valid tactic when it’s considered in this context. “Send a quarterly newsletter to best customers with insights and advice about the category and products,” and “focus advertising on heavy users of the category,” are valid tactics that follow through on the strategy.
Hip Shots
- Look carefully at your current Marketing Plan. Does it provide clear direction? Are the tactical ideas focused?
- Write strategies that are focused on the opportunities that are most likely to help you reach your objective.
- Be specific and write a statement that closes less efficient paths. Don’t try to solve all problems. Focus on the areas of greatest opportunity.
- Test tactical ideas against the strategy. If they fit tight, if the tactics are a logical extension of the strategy, then follow through. If they aren’t, keep planning.
Follow me on Twitter
