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STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR RATIONAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT |
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| Challenge: Strategic planning is a proven marketing method that can help your business grow substantially over time. Nevertheless, few companies actually plan a year or more ahead. Many business managers look for financial performance by the quarter, rather than seeking to build equity over the long haul. Marketing directors want the greatest number of qualified leads from each exposure, rather than considering the total effect of their branding opportunity. Today’s quick turnaround and ambitious performance expectations have eclipsed the tried-and-true methods employed in the day when consumer marketing experts utilized the power of a strong brand. They used simple, yet memorable messages to enhance awareness and build brand preference over time. The same applies to the B2B world. Of course, planning can be time consuming and complicated, but the results are always worth the effort. With the right help to guide you through the process, you can be on your way to a more rational program, and to more predictable growth. Solution: Strategic planning presumes that you know what your business and marketing objectives are for at least a year ahead. It also requires that you understand your company’s unique positioning in the marketplace, and that you will have the patience – and the budget – to map out a course of action and stick with it. If this doesn’t describe your business model, then the only course of action left is to implement short-term tactics and adjust them as you go, with no roadmap to the destination. If planning ahead makes more sense, then the following steps should be built into every annual program: First, start the planning process at least two or three months before the start of a new fiscal year. It will take you that long to identify your next year’s objectives and to evaluate the effectiveness of the current year’s activities. Get together with your business leaders and sales staff to find out what their goals are, and then define your communications objectives to support them. Make sure you know what message(s) you want to communicate specifically to which markets, then explore the media available to reach those audiences. If you’re buying print and on-line media, you can usually get much better deals and “value-added” offers if you give the publishers a full-year commitment. Build a spreadsheet to schedule and track budgets for all activities, including interactive, direct marketing, channel support, and media. Build an additional spreadsheet to keep track of web traffic during the year. Set aside some contingency funding for those inevitable unanticipated activities you’ll want to take advantage of throughout the period. When you’re satisfied that you’ve accounted for everything, let ’er rip. Getting it done:
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