Time for a marketing plan?

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MORE FISHBOWLS

Tuesday, 21 June 2011 Written by Francine Pickering

Category Strategy

Lyn and Lynne ask “Is it time for a marketing company?” I’m glad they’re asking the question, and that the other fishbowlers are also giving thought to how they should build their customer bases.

But the first question that I would ask is, “What do you want a marketing company to do?” If this company is one that provides marketing services such as design, direct marketing or PR then they will need a brief from you. And to do that you need to know what you want to achieve by engaging them. Don’t rely on them to know this. After all, it’s your business, not theirs.

That in turn means you need a clear vision and achievable objectives. Which is why I ask, “Is it time for a marketing plan?”

There is a view that a plan ties you down and limits your options and so is more of a hindrance than a help to a small business. I’d argue that it provides a framework for making marketing decisions and so allows you to:

• Pull together all the great ideas you have and have been given to make best use of the resources you need to put them into action.

• Avoid piecemeal dabbling and spreading your resources too thinly to be effective.

• Assess any opportunities that come your way in the context of your ambitions, to ensure they are, indeed, opportunities and not distractions from your goals.

• Monitor and evaluate your activities as you go along and amend them if necessary.

• Implement your plan within the context of a sometimes complex combination of factors affecting your business.

• Adapt flexibly and with purpose as your circumstances change.

• And then brief any marketing services providers fully to help achieve your goals.

Each business’ marketing plan will, of course, be different with different goals. Lyn and Lynne are looking for ways to increase business by moving out of the physical limitation of their premises’ space. George, on the other hand, is looking at bringing people into his premises – a different problem with a different market. Claire is launching a brand new product into the world and is taking it out to meet it head on, despite other demands on her time. All very different marketing challenges and all with their own specific requirements – “one size fits all” won’t do.

It’s often tempting to charge ahead with all kinds of creative ideas to “get the word out” but without a focus for your actions you can end up being a “busy fool”. It’s really worth taking some time out to get a sound marketing plan in place to save time, money and effort in the longer term – if you want a quick start, you can use this free marketing plan template.

Good luck.