Set Your Foundations

If Covid-19 has taught us anything it is to be prepared. No one predicted the impact of this pandemic, not even the mad scientists who claim they knew it was coming. If they did, surely they would have armed the world for what was to come.

Instead, we all sat back in disbelief as the facts started to become reality and the headlines became increasingly urgent. By now, there was not enough time to prepare and what unfolded were countless businesses making unsubstantiated impulse decisions. Luckily for some, these paid off but many are still paying the price.

As we enter into a new year we need to be more prepared, more aware, more ready for anything. Perhaps it is time to start taking the hypotheticals more seriously and plan even for the eventualities that may never happen … but could.

So many people approach plans by generating what becomes a dressed up to do list. What they often lack is the how, and the detail behind the action. The focus is generally very much on plan A but what about plan B and even C to address any curveballs?

Looking specifically at a marketing plan, a text book approach of utilising a SWOT, PESTLE and the four P’s (product, price, place and promotion) should help to cover most of the fundamentals. What is more important is how and when these basic principles are adopted. It is not necessary to model these diagrammatically though this can help to give visual clarity.

The layers of a marketing plan can seem complex as they are essentially made up of lots of mini strategies, which often include:

-        Branding

A brand strategy looks beyond just visual appeal. It analyses how a business communicates, both internally and externally. Branding sets out company goals, vision and voice to ensure consistent messaging, which enhances overall engagement

-        Content

A content strategy helps to break down core company messages and assigns relevant types and channels for these to be distributed through. Content type encompasses written, video and audio. Content strategies can also include web content

-        Website

A web strategy establishes goals for the website, ensuring it is promoted appropriately and designed to deliver an engaging user experience. Web strategies often include focus on SEO, retargeting and paid media such as GoogleAds

-        Media relations

A media relations strategy defines how a business intends to work with press. It sets goals on how to communicate with media, identifies target platforms and outlines style and topic of messages

With those foundations in mind, to give focus and purpose to each individual activity, you should also consider integrating the above with:

-        Company objectives

Identify short, medium and long term objectives. The plan needs to address how these will be achieved. It is also good to reference past achievements and any lessons learnt

-        Business processes

Understand internal and external business processes. The more you know, the more ‘marketing’ components you can introduce. This will also assist with developing internal marketing strategies

-        Customer journeys

Analyse your customer journey and make sure you include the dormant phase. This will help you understand your customer expectations and create sequence of comms that are tailored specifically for that customer