SEVEN STEPS TO STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING

Seven Steps to STRATEGIC Marketing Planning

Marketing and sales people have proposed many variations of the so-called 80/20 Rule for as long as I can remember.  One of the most common versions of what some call the Pareto Principle, attributed to 19th century economist Vilfredo Pareto, is that we get 80% of our sales volume from 20% of our customers. This article applies this 80/20 concept to strategic planning for marketing.

Consider this: First we decide to go on a trip. Next we choose our destination, and lastly the best way to get there. The selection of the timing, the budgeting and the best route depends on many factors.

Likewise, it makes sense to think carefully before you engage in the tactics of spending money on marketing.  In fact, if there is any one flaw that keeps a business from achieving its full potential, it is this: Spending before developing a strategy that optimizes the limited resources available to the business.

We can apply the 80/20 Rule here to help us from making this mistake by investing 80% of our marketing time PLANNING and 20% of our marketing time DOING.  Busy business executives can easily fall into the trap which I call Ready, Fire, Aim. What I mean by this is jumping into whatever marketing tactic seems best at the moment or is sold to us by the most convincing salesperson.

This tendency to put tactics before planning shows up in all sizes of businesses, but definitely is far more common in smaller enterprises where a business owner is wearing many hats, in addition to being the “chief marketing officer”.

Now what prevents us from taking the time to do the planning that we all know is necessary?   We arrive at our business early in the morning with enthusiasm and full of ideas, but the day-to-day tasks keep us so busy that often there is no time left for strategic planning.   Our good intentions evaporate in a heartbeat and all of a sudden it's five, six or seven o’clock, and another exhausting work day ends without our finding the time to work on marketing strategy.

So what can we do to avoid this situation?

First off, set aside time to plan. My clients tell me it's tough initially to schedule even a half-day strategic planning session with me, but after the session, they are sure glad they did. Step Two is to accumulate as much data as possible to help make informed decisions. In Step Three, we let the data decide. Analyze your customers, their profit margins, and their payment history on your aging. Be certain you know where your business is doing well, and where it is not. The numbers don’t lie.

Step Four is to determine the most logical targets for business growth and development. Evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses. Do some market research and discover both the opportunities and threats that exist for your products and the markets in which they are sold. Learn what your competitors are doing. Our fifth step is to evaluate alternatives, especially the risk factors, and then we decide in Step Six on a course of action most likely to be successful, and we implement it. The seventh and final step of the strategic planning process is to measure our results and make adjustments as needed. Sometimes this means another planning session, refining our strategy to both produce the most immediate revenue and develop for the future.

Remember, your business can grow exponentially when you consistently and conscientiously apply the discipline of strategic planning to marketing. As the late management consulting guru John Butler wrote: Most managers are too busy cutting wood that they don’t take the time to sit down and sharpen the axe.

All Rights Reserved ? 2015 Ira T. Lovitch, MBA