How To Declutter Your Marketing Plan TSA

Without a plan, every idea looks like a good idea.

This is why it is so important to intentionally think about and plan your goals and what is needed to achieve them. Otherwise, you risk falling into the trap of creating insane marketing activity that follows the latest trend or just copies the competition.

I hear comments all the time that marketing is a waste of time and doesn’t work. But this is usually followed by an admission that there was no plan in the first place, and the company engaged in a random set of one-off activities. And here I agree: sporadic, unplanned activity is a waste of time.

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What exactly is marketing, and why should I care?

Simply put, it is a collection of activities that communicate your business model to customers and prospects. If your audience is intrigued by your model, they’ll want to know more.

This can cause them to interact with your real estate online, such as the company’s website or social media platforms, ask questions about you, or contact your business directly. The whole point of marketing is to intrigue them enough that they end up wanting to talk to you.

Get into the sales conversation.

To communicate effectively on your model, you must have clarity of your model. It may sound rudimentary, but many companies lack clarity and have not documented it. However, there are several steps that can be taken to lay the foundation for a meaningful marketing plan.

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The first is to define who your ideal customer is and the daily challenges they face, so that you know who to talk to and what to talk about. Understanding your value proposition will help explain the promise to buyers about how their business will improve if they choose to work with you. Another key part is defining and describing the sales process that you will use to help prospects decide if you have an attractive offer.

When you feel motivated by your story, planned communication becomes much easier because you know what you are going to say. Describe a plan for what you want to communicate by asking what you want people to hear from you, where they will engage and how often they will hear from you.

Plans not should be sophisticated or overly detailed, especially when you are starting out. The key to marketing planning is to start slowly – if you overdo it too soon or go overboard, it will be like starting the New Year with a plan to hit the gym five days a week. On January 15th, you failed.

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Instead, take small steps to go from cranking to running like a well-oiled machine. And don’t fall into the trap of over-planning and over-monitoring when you’re starting out. It will tire you out and derail you. Here’s how a thoughtful marketing plan should play out:

First year: focus on the essentials
If you are new to planning marketing activities, make your plan very basic. Focus on simple questions that can lead you to action. What are you doing right now? What is working that you should keep doing? what not work that should be eliminated? What’s one thing you would like to commit to for the year?

Second year: take it to the next level
After you’ve committed to a consistent activity, use the next annual planning cycle to take a more focused approach. What impact areas (website, LinkedIn, events) do you need to focus on for the year? Who will lead each effort?

If you are ready to take planning deeper, you can get more details in your plans and add details on activities, timelines, KPIs, budgets, etc. While the list of what you can do is extensive, what you actually need to do should be much simpler.

Always check and balance yourself with the question: what are we doing today and what should we not be doing? Eliminating waste should be as important as improving your efforts. In short, start slow and keep it simple. One or two things done right and consistently are much better than five things done haphazardly and sporadically. Achieve your rudimentary goals and congratulate yourself and your team. Next year, add something else to it and do the same every year thereafter.