I worked with a client who knew that marketing was important and wanted to attract new customers but hadn’t given it much more thought than that. When a salesman called, he was able to sell the business this amazing (and amazingly expensive) marketing package but it didn’t help achieve what they wanted.

Another client, a charity this time, had been told how great TikTok is and spent a great deal of time trying to get it to work for them. TikTok simply was not the right platform for them and it cost them a lot in time and resources for no discernible benefit.

Both clients would have been a lot better off if they’d had some kind of marketing plan, no matter how brief or basic. There’s really no need to wait until you are a marketing expert before you write your plan. Aubrey, with its specialist marketing knowledge, is here to help you with business’ or charity’s marketing. But no one knows your work like you do so don’t be put off getting stuck in.

The marketing plan

Ultimately, your marketing plan will be a comprehensive (but not necessarily long) document. It’ll contain your business goals and marketing objectives, it’ll identify your target audience and your key messages, there’ll be valuable market research supporting your plan and activities. It’ll be enhanced with a timeline and budget. The tactics will all be covered, email marketing, blogging, brochures and banners, digital advertising, events, SEO, videos, networking and so on.

Can you really write a marketing plan without knowing about all these elements? It’d be better if you did but the risks of not writing one are far higher than writing just a simple one.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll look at each of these elements but there are very good reasons for not waiting until then to write your plan. Here are just a few.

Know what you want to achieve

When I set off on a walk, it is essential for me to know my destination otherwise how do I know if I’m making progress. My legs might ache, miles will be covered, and passers-by can offer advice but it’s all in vain if I don’t know where I am going.

It’s the same with marketing. If you don’t know where you are going, you can do loads of marketing (like that charity I mentioned) but you’ll never know if you’ve achieved what you needed. This is not a good use of your time or resources.

Stay on track

If you know what you want to achieve, you can set milestones to make sure you are staying on track. When I’m walking, it’s very tempting to detour to a pub and have a rest. That’s fine as long as I can manage my time so I don’t miss my objectives.

There’s always some new marketing opportunity to explore. You should definitely make the most of these but not if they leave you side tracked and missing your marketing goals. A marketing plan will keep you focussed working to your objectives and not the latest fads.

Keep your team in the loop

Having a clear and accessible marketing plan available to your team can do wonders for your business or charity.

Even when a team is not directly involved in marketing, a marketing plan can be transformational in terms of building a strong team. Moreover, it is practically essential. For example, if your production team don’t know that you are launching a major marketing campaign, they are going to be scrabbling around trying to meet the increased demand which they hadn’t anticipated. That won’t make them happy!

Track progress

The marketing activities you do are unlikely to be equally effective but only if they are identified and tracked from one end to the other will you know how effective they are. A marketing plan will allow you to spot the activities that work well and pursue them.

Conclusion

Organised marketers who have spent the time planning their efforts are 674% more likely to report success, according to the Trend Report published by CoSchedule. This is a massive number and yet the same report found that about two in five marketers did not have a written plan. A marketing plan is essential for all these reasons.

What is the takeaway here? Get something down on paper! Aubrey is here to help you and we would be delighted to work with you to develop your marketing plan. Get in touch for a chat … and get a marketing plan written.

P.S. I’ve used the illustration of walking in this blog. It’s reminded me of the excellent marketing podcast by my friend, Sam. Have a listen to his podcast, Marketing Meanders.