How to create a marketing plan

1. What is a market plan?

A marketing plan is a document that outlines the marketing activities a company plans to undertake within a certain time period. Many marketing plans span 12 months, while others are set quarterly.

A marketing plan should not be confused with a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy has a longer perspective, typically 3 to 5 years, and defines what the company aims to achieve with its marketing and what focus and approach it should have towards the market to succeed.

markedsstrategi

2. Why do you need a market plan?

While the marketing strategy provides long-term direction, the marketing plan ensures that you achieve the goals you set on an annual basis. There are at least four reasons why you should have a marketing plan:

You avoid ad hoc

The opposite of a planned approach is "ad hoc." Everyone who has worked in marketing knows that it is something to be avoided. The end result is poorer, and the execution becomes more expensive. In other words, it is poison for your marketing budget.

You ensure access to resources

Whether you do everything in-house or use an agency, it is important to have the right resources available when needed. A good marketing plan ensures this.

You prioritize activities based on a strategy

The marketing plan should be derived from the company's marketing strategy and the goals you are working towards. The activities are there for a reason. It makes it easier to deprioritize suggestions for activities, like: "We have to be on Facebook!"

Tool for follow-up

A marketing plan gives you ongoing control over when activities should be carried out, what effect they have, and what cost they incur.

markedsplan-planlagt-utfoert-og-avbrutt

3. This is what you need to have in place first

There must be a marketing strategy underlying the marketing plan. It points out the long-term direction and sets guidelines for what the company should focus on in the next period. The strategy must provide the person responsible for the marketing plan with an understanding of:

What are the company's objectives?

What is needed to succeed with the strategy?

What should marketing do for the company?

Are there specific parts of the sales process that need support?

Is it important to attract customers from a specific market segment?

To what extent does the company need to create or stimulate demand in the market?

4. What should a good marketing plan include?

Time Specification

The marketing plan must specify when the activities are scheduled to be carried out. Often, this is a from-to date. Marketing plans that follow the calendar year are usually detailed down to the weekly level and have a timeline from January to January. See fig. 2.

In some companies, it is not practical to operate with dates. This is especially true in project-driven organizations, which may need a plan per project. Possible alternatives could be to indicate time in "+number of weeks" or "-number of weeks" from a zero point, or to find defined milestones that indicate the project's progress. In such cases, the company will have several parallel plans. A marketing plan that lacks a time specification, or uses a time specification that cannot be applied in practice, will quickly become worthless as a follow-up tool.

Measurement Setup

For each activity, you should specify a parameter you can measure. These parameters are called KPIs (key performance indicators). See fig. 3 for an example setup.

kpi-beskrivelse

Budget

The marketing budget and marketing plan do not need to be combined in the same document, but it has its advantages. If budget changes are made during the period, it will be very easy to get an overview of the consequences for the marketing plan. See fig. 4.

The marketing plan is dynamic, and as you gain experience with activities—whether they are positive or negative—you will be able to change priorities. If the budget is included in the marketing plan, it is easy to assess the financial consequences of reprioritization.

markedsplan-budsjett

Tip 1

The proposal for the marketing plan should be prepared before the financial framework conditions are established. This ensures a "bottom-up" approach to planning, and that those who allocate funds for marketing can make an informed decision.

Tip 2

Distinguish between campaigns, programs, and event-triggered activities. Marketing activities that are carried out continuously are called programs (for example, corporate blogs or newsletters). Campaigns, on the other hand, have a beginning and an end (for example, an advertising campaign for a conference). Event-triggered activities are activities that we only perform when something specific happens (for example, customer inquiries, competitive campaigns). These activities should often be carried out "on impulse" and should be extracted into a separate overview to ensure focus.

5. Selection and prioritization of activities

Search engine marketing, social media, blogging, trade show participation, direct mail, sponsorship, PR, websites, own events, TV and radio spots, and so on. There are countless possible marketing activities, and many find it difficult to prioritize.

To come up with a shortlist of activities, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Does the activity support the marketing strategy?

If yes, does the activity belong in this year's marketing plan?

Once you have a shortlist in place, you can start prioritizing based on the resources you have available, as well as your level of ambition. Which measures will provide the most value for each dollar? You answer this question by asking a new one: To what extent can we rely on a buyer initiative in the market?

The term "buyer initiative" was introduced by Professor Otto Ottesen in the book Market Communication (1997). The buyer initiative in the market refers to buyers who approach the company on their own initiative, with orders or inquiries. The simplest example of this is when a potential customer calls you or sends a contact form via your company's website to schedule a meeting, order a service, or similar.

A buyer-initiated contact will normally yield better profitability than a seller-initiated contact. There are two reasons for this:

Greater likelihood that the inquiry leads to a sale

Lower costs to reach the customer

It is therefore important to understand the buyer initiative in the market and its scope. The degree of potential buyer initiative will vary from industry to industry.

Typical conditions for a buyer initiative to be present:

The potential customers have a recognized need

The recognized need is important enough that it will lead the potential customer to seek a solution (high involvement)

The potential customers are able to articulate their need

You should prioritize the activities that allow you to maximize the benefit of the buyer initiative present in the market. Inbound marketing is a comprehensive strategy that is based on the buyer initiative. Download our popular e-book Create Results with Inbound Marketing to learn more about this.

TIP: Define a set of qualification criteria that an activity must meet if it is to be included in the marketing plan. Break down the criteria into several levels, so that many activities can quickly be dismissed without further qualification, data collection, or testing.

Example:

Does the activity support the overall marketing strategy?

If yes to point 1: Does this activity help us achieve this year's goals?

If yes to point 2: Do we have sufficient information or experience to assess the effect of this activity?

If yes to point 3: Does the assessment suggest that we should include the activity in this year's marketing plan, and which other planned activities might it replace?

Even if your company is in a situation where it can largely rely on buyer-initiated contact from potential customers, it is often wise to carry out some seller-initiated activities, even if these are less profitable. Examples of seller initiatives are advertising and proactive sales. This is often necessary to stimulate future buyer initiatives, in addition to the experience itself being an advantage—especially in a slow market.

6. Ongoing follow-up and adjustments

Conduct regular follow-up meetings where you evaluate the activities carried out since the last meeting. Are the results as expected, or is there a need to make changes for the upcoming period? If the effect of an activity deviates from expectations, you should consider whether it should have consequences for the budget and execution of planned activities.

Also, discuss new proposals for activities. If there is room in the budget to experiment, the activity might be tested without having to prioritize away other planned activities. At least once a year, you should discuss whether the assumptions underlying the marketing strategy have changed. New competitors, laws, crises, and new substitutes are examples of external factors that can completely change the assumptions for the company's marketing. In such cases, it is important that the marketing plan is adjusted as quickly as possible.

7. Execution and alignment within the organization

A marketing plan is harder to execute than to create. It is better to implement a simple marketing plan well than to fail with a complex one. Become comfortable with the work style and necessary routines before the plan becomes too complex.

Maintain a continuous focus on profitability. If acquiring new customers is important, form an idea of how much a new customer is worth. If we do not know how much a new customer is worth to us, it is difficult to assess the cost of various measures. Combined with empirical data from the measures you test, it provides a solid basis for evaluating activities against each other.

Marketing planning is not a "one-man show." Remember that others besides decision-makers and those who will execute will appreciate an orientation on what is happening. It is also advantageous if as many of your colleagues as possible understand why the company acts as it does. This helps to anchor marketing within the organization.

Hvordan lage en markedsplan?