Five mistakes to avoid when developing a marketing plan
Developing a solid marketing plan takes time and work, but it is necessary: without a good idea of where you want to go and how you want to get there, a company can waste a lot of time and resources to try a dozen different directions before hitting the right track.
But even with a plan, there are a number of things that can get overlooked when a team is putting together a project, especially at the start. To help you isolate some of the missteps to watch out for when getting started, members of Forbes agency advice talk about some of the most common issues that can arise with business plans, as well as discuss how best to handle these situations. Here is what they said:
Photos courtesy of individual members.
1. Budget Allocation Changes or Delays
Marketing budget allocations are subject to change or delay in any planning cycle. Changes and delays in confirming the “final number” then prompt a painful series of execution marketing and tactical fire drills. To manage this, I create two versions of my initial marketing plan: one based on a top-down budget and one based on a bottom-up budget. From there, I create a lean version of both that helps stakeholders understand the trade-offs of spend levels and the impact of the final budget on the plan, including pipeline, acquisition, revenue goals, operating costs and delivery. This approach provides immediate transparency and proactively answers questions early in the planning cycle so subsequent iterations can focus on innovation, efficiency, and early market explorations. – Serenity Thompson, A23 Advisors
2. Lack of content strategy
One aspect that can go wrong when crafting a marketing plan is the content strategy or more specifically the lack thereof. We see too many agencies starting a marketing plan without a foundation or content strategy. Our goal is to know the current and future objectives of our clients to develop our strategy. – Alexander Valencia, We do web content
3. Customers not following the agreed strategy
We’ve seen clients forget that we’ve strategized before we begin any creative work. This strategic manifesto should inform our work and the decisions of our clients throughout the mission. When things go wrong, we have an honest and open conversation to make sure things haven’t changed for them. -David Farinella, Farinella LLC
4. Misjudging the target audience
Lately, I see clients misjudging their target audience. People sometimes want to assume that they should be reaching out to everyone, instead of choosing specific targets and the best ways to reach those specific groups. With so many different channels to communicate from, targeted messaging is more important than ever. -Jennifer von Stauffenberg, Olive Creative Strategies, Inc.
Read more in Three tips for communicating better with an audience, taken from a decade of digital marketing
5. Not identifying the “why”
Not starting with the “why” can be a problem. Too often, marketing plans dive deep into tools, techniques, and methods, but miss the most important question: why are we doing this? An extremely clear and thoughtful answer to “why” avoids mistakes, communication breakdowns, poor work and missed opportunities. – Ryan Cassin, Asset Agency
