To achieve growth and profitability this year, keep your marketing plan simple. Align your marketing with your corporate priorities by creating a one-page, high-level marketing plan for the year.
The rationale is persuasive.
One activity that sets the most successful companies apart is their willingness to document their marketing strategy, according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). However, CMI found only 27% of B2C and 48% of B2B marketers use a formal, written marketing plan.
By writing out your marketing plan and keeping it simple, your team can jumpstart your 2017 marketing until you have time to finalize a more detailed plan.
How to Build Your 1-Page Marketing Plan
Use the following elements to create a concise yet effective marketing plan:
1. Objectives: In 2017, what results does your company want to achieve? (E.g. Boost topline revenue growth, cost efficiencies, market share through new markets, share of wallet among loyal customers, etc.)
2: Goals: Quantify how you will measure progress toward achieving your objectives. (E.g. Increase revenue by 20% by December 31, 2017 or boost brand awareness by 25%).
3. Strategies: How will your marketing team deliver on your company’s goals and objectives this year? (E.g. Position our company as the most authoritative thought leader in our niche or educate our audience on proven ways to improve customer experience.)
4. Metrics: Quantify what you want to achieve to help you determine whether you are successful. (E.g. Boost web traffic by 35% over 2016 or generate revenue of $2.75 million.)
5. Audience: Concisely summarize your ideal buyer persona, including their pain points, why they would approach your company and their potential reasons to resist choosing your company.
6. Benefits: Lead with your strengths by showing your unique value proposition to differentiate your brand from your rivals. How do you add value and deliver a superior customer experience?
7. Content Topics: Helping is the new selling, so share content that reflects topic areas in which you can be most helpful and valuable to your ideal customer. What do your prospects and customers ask your company about the most? How can you improve upon what others have shared? What are your rivals not sharing?
8. Calls to Action: What do you want your audience to do? (E.g. Download a white paper, watch your video, sign up for a webinar.)
Use this simple template as a strategic guideline for clarity and focus, and to help you achieve your corporate and marketing priorities in 2017.
Also, base your strategic marketing decisions on data insights to pinpoint what worked best last year (so you can invest in these things this year) and what didn’t (so you can eliminate them).
What is your top marketing goal for 2017?
Lisa Goller is a marketing and communications professional with over 15 years of experience serving B2B, technology and retail companies. She helps businesses tell their story through irresistible content marketing and strategic communications.
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