It’s the heart of planning season, so you’re likely creating or updating your marketing plan for next year.
You will benefit from having a simple and handy marketing planning checklist.
Here is one that I began using and I thank the folks at Trew Marketing for creating this powerful tool:
- Define your 1, 3 and 5-year business goals – define SMART goals for each time frame. You know them as Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Define how marketing can contribute to accomplishing those goals and the roles/accountabilities for key team members. Determine what sets your products or services apart from your competitors.
- Create an annual marketing budget – target 6-12% of your revenue based on company size, margins, previous marketing investment, economic conditions and revenue forecasts.
- Create a marketing advisory team — this can be up to five key stakeholders in the marketing process – head of marketing, head of sales, senior sales manager senior engineer/R&D and president or CEO.
- Evaluate current marketing actions and develop a SWOT analysis of brand positioning, content, website, leads, channel partners and marketing systems.
- Define at least 3 buyer personas as your target audience and market. Determine how your personas view your market, industry and company. Determine the best way to attract and engage those specific personas.
- Create three to five marketing campaigns and their corresponding marketing activities. Prioritize and define integrated actions for up to five focused campaigns. Campaigns can be centered on an industry, persona, and/or major product/service initiative(s).
- Establish success measures — define meaningful KPIs to measure your campaigns and actions compared to your business goals.
What type of guide or checklist are you using for your marketing planning?