Benefits of an Annual Marketing Plan

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!" ― Benjamin Franklin

2016 seems to have flown by and if you haven’t already, it’s time to focus on a plan for 2017. Regardless of your industry, developing an annual plan for your sales and marketing is key to having a successful year.

Here are some benefits of planning along with some ideas that might help you through the process:

1) Planning around your primary goals gives your organization a "North star" to follow.

Start with your big picture goals. These goals need to be measurable and focused. Make sure that they are the basis of what your organization needs for sustainable and profitable growth. Keep them simple. Your marketing plan will be built around these primary goals.

2) A solid strategy gives you a map to follow, making it easier to streamline production. Get your team involved and plan ahead.

Marketing requires a consistent and sustained effort to yield the best results. Looking at a plan from a high-level vantage point will allow your strategy to include and consider the seasonal events that are important to your business. From there we recommend a 30, 60, and 90-day planning process. A solid strategy allows you to stay on track with your plan and implement it in a creative manner.

3) A plan that can be measured gives you a true score card.

Part of your strategy will be to create a method to measure your efforts to see if you’re winning or losing. If losing, then you can adjust the sails within the context of a plan in order to get back on track towards your primary objectives.

4) An annual plan can save time and money by keeping you from chasing shiny things.

Staying on point and within the context of a plan allows you to stay on budget with your marketing investments in a manner that align with your annual revenue goals. Chasing marketing trends or "the next best thing" can be expensive and wasteful.

There are many more benefits to having a long term plan and building marketing assets that compound year after year. If you're not sure where to start, give us a shout and we can point you in the right direction relative to where you are wanting to take your organization.