Be Heard Marketing

The risks your business is taking as it charges through another year WITHOUT a marketing plan …

by Denise B. Hearden

Every day, I work with CEOs, presidents, VPs and marketing directors making budget cuts, taking short-cuts and avoiding some marketing channels altogether, all in an effort to reduce their marketing spend. They are brilliant business-people, and highly regarded thought leaders in their industries. But, you may be surprised to hear that many of them make the same grave error in judgment. One that is literally costing them thousands, if not millions, of dollars each year.

So what’s their major blunder? They don’t have a marketing plan in place.

Is it that these business people just don’t know any better? Not likely. Most of them would admit their folly, chalking it up to one or more common excuses, such as:

• Who has time to prepare a marketing plan?!
• Who needs to put it to paper? We all know what needs to be done.
• Where would we start? What would go in a marketing plan?
• No one’s going to pay attention to it anyway.
• We don’t have the staff to put a plan together.
• No one here is qualified to prepare a marketing plan.
• We don’t have the budget to hire someone to prepare a marketing plan.
• Action is what we need … we can’t be wasting time on planning.
• Management doesn’t see any real value in a marketing plan.

What’s the big deal? What’s so great about a marketing plan?

In a future blog entry, I’ll cover the benefits. But, first, I think it’s important right now for you to understand what’s happening to your business as it operates without the solid foundation of a marketing plan.

-          All sales and marketing functions within the company — from Sally in PR, to Vic in sales, to Jane who handles trade shows, to Jim who maintains the website, to Pat the media buyer consultant, to Roger the brand manager and head of graphic design – are taking place in their own little separate worlds. All the discrepancies in targeting and segmenting, messaging and in presenting the company’s identity add up to a highly inconsistent brand; and one that is easily disregarded by the marketplace.

-          Company execs, directors and managers alike, may or may not be on the same page in terms of how they should be allocating budgets and resources appropriately. Are they allocating based on their personal interests and biases, or are they distributing their funds and personnel based on facts and profitability?

-          Sally in PR is spending a lot of time researching and preparing publicity efforts for the woodworking market. Jim on the web team was told that the woodworking market is not a target audience. When Sally’s media contacts reference the site, they’ll quickly discover the company isn’t catering to the needs of their readers. Do you think Sally’s PR efforts will be successful? A marketing plan would help all players understand your target markets and audiences, where they are, what makes them tick and how to reach them.

-          While a plan will incorporate all of the “basics” that you think your people may know already, it will also include specific strategies and tactics to serve as a step-by-step guide to how the company will promote itself via all channels. Without this guide, companies will waste valuable dollars and time each and every day on tasks that are literally stalling your business’ ability to capture sales leads, convert leads to sales, and convey a positive image in the marketplace.

-          Exhibiting in the wrong trade shows; advertising in the wrong publications; banner ads targeted to the wrong audiences; making irrelevant offers; lack-luster media relations; unhelpful website content; graphic design aimed toward the wrong decision-makers; collateral, ads and press releases without calls-to-action and measurable metrics … these are the costly consequences of operating a business without a marketing plan.

If your organization wants to increase sales, boost resource productivity, enhance its credibility in the marketplace, or capture more marketshare, you absolutely, unequivocally need to put a professional marketing plan in place, and pronto. If you choose not to, it will be impossible to realize the full potential of your marketing dreams.

Link to Marketing Plan Blog Series Introduction: Your #1 Marketing Flaw Revealed

Stay tuned for the second entry of the MARKETING PLAN BLOG SERIES: coming next week.

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing
denise@beheardmarketing.com