As part of our “Marketing Effectiveness” series, we’re discussing the effectiveness driver, Business-Driving Marketing Plans.
As business owners, we all share a common goal: to see our companies thrive and grow. But in today’s fast-paced market, achieving that success requires more than just a great product or service. It demands a strategic, well-executed marketing plan that aligns with your business objectives and drives measurable results. As a team who has worked alongside countless privately-held businesses, we’ve seen firsthand how the right marketing approach can transform a company’s trajectory. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to create a marketing plan that not only boosts your bottom line but also builds confidence and capability within your team. Are you ready to take your marketing effectiveness to the next level and unlock your business’s full potential?
Align Your Marketing Plan with Business Goals
For a marketing plan to truly drive business, it must be clearly connected to your overarching business goals. This alignment ensures every marketing activity is purposeful and drives profitable growth. If your company sells business-to-business, then it’s best practice to use a “go to market” plan that integrates both sales and marketing functional plans.
Key Steps to Achieve This Alignment
- Develop a marketing plan overview, including:
- Documenting business inputs and insights
- Conducting a Sources of Business Analysis
- Defining Marketing Effort by Funnel Stage
- Define Priorities & Tactics
- Priorities: Identify the funnel stage you’ll focus on, based on the Marketing Plan Overview, and briefly describe what you’re focusing on.
- Tactics: Define 3-5 activities that support the priority, referring to the Channel Strategy for additional guidance.
- Define Your Marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Define KPIs for each of the activities in your marketing plan by funnel. If your company sells B2B, then your KPI tracker will include both marketing and sales KPIs.
- KPIs indicate action and/or progress within the funnel. Here are some examples:
- Build Awareness – # Impressions (social, digital, traditional media)
- Increase Interest – % Post Engagement, New Website Visitors, # Downloads, # Introductions
- Gain Commitment – # leads, # Prospects in Pipeline, # New Clients
- Build Relationships – Client Satisfaction, Avg Rating, # Reviews, Marketing Email Open %
- KPIs indicate action and/or progress within the funnel. Here are some examples:
- Don’t track everything! And don’t just use an auto-generated report that might include data that you don’t need. If at all possible, focus your KPIs on the ones that will help you understand your funnel.
- Create a Tracker to track KPI’s and analyze results to enhance effectiveness. It shows how all marketing tactics work together during the time periods and over time.
- We start by creating an Excel worksheet with KPIs for all relevant marketing tactics that’s organized by the phases of the funnel, with the top being “Build Awareness” and the bottom “Build Relationships” so you can visualize the funnel and the gaps between the steps.
- It includes data from many sources pulled in a consistent way.
- Time periods (weekly)
- Type of data
- How the data is pulled
- Communicate So Your Marketing Plan Is Very Well-Known and Understood
- Analyze Your KPIs and Adjust Plans Based on Results
- It shows how the tactics performed in the current time period, as compared to a previous time period and trends over time.
- The Insights and Indicated Actions provide an explanation of the results and what to do to enhance results.
- Encourage open dialogue and feedback from team members to ensure clarity and understanding.
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- Schedule consistent marketing dashboard reviews with your team to discuss KPI results and identify areas for improvement. (We often review the KPI tracker weekly and the dashboard monthly or quarterly.)
- Be open to making adjustments, whether big or small, based on KPI performance.
- Regularly revisit your business objectives and adjust the marketing plan as necessary.
Now that you have your marketing plan overview, you can define the specific priorities and tactics you’ll use to achieve your goals:
The goal is to create a plan where every action has a clear purpose. Use the “So What?” exercise to ensure every marketing activity directly supports a business goal. Ask yourself, “So what if we do this?” until you reach a clear business outcome.
If you want more details about how to develop a marketing plan overview & marketing priorities, tactics & KPIs, check out our article, Marketing Plan Overview & Priorities, Tactics, and KPIs.
KPIs are your guideposts. They tell you whether you’re on track and help you measure the success of your marketing efforts. Clear, well-defined KPIs are essential for knowing whether your strategies are delivering the desired results. Establish a clear process for tracking and reporting KPIs, with defined roles and responsibilities.
Here’s how to get started:
Your marketing plan should not be a closely guarded secret. Instead, share it openly with your entire team. When everyone is on the same page, the cohesiveness and unity of your efforts will create a flywheel effect.
Develop a Results Dashboard, a summary of the most important marketing KPI’s by funnel stage.
If you want more details about how to develop a Results Dashboard, check out our article, KPI Tracker & Results Dashboard Overview.
Use the marketing dashboard consistently in meetings so it becomes a conversation about how together you can enhance your effectiveness and corresponding results.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you’ll create a marketing plan that not only propels your business forward but also brings your team together in a unified effort.
To see this Marketing Effectiveness driver in action, check out how we partnered with Steinhauser, a custom label printing company, to drive real results in our Steinhauser Client Spotlight.
Ready to get started on increasing your marketing effectiveness and deliver profitable sales? If you need more guidance or support, contact us today to discover how we can help you.
To learn more about Marketing Effectiveness and its 5 drivers, read our article, What is Marketing Effectiveness?