Once the strategic plan and annual business goals have been documented the marketing plan can be developed. By following this process entrepreneurs and their staff can focus activities on what’s important to the success and growth of the company. I often find working with entrepreneurs that they rush into the marketing plan without the previous planning stages running the risk of wasting time and money. If the wrong marketing tactics are used failure is a likely outcome. If you’ve ever heard yourself saying, “oh we tried that and it didn’t work,” check to be sure the marketing plan was written after the strategic plan and business goals.

So now it’s time to write the marketing goals.  I bet you thought you were done with writing goals? The marketing plan needs a solid foundation of measurable, achievable goals to focus the marketing team and your marketing vendors on successful outcomes.

It should be easier at this stage to choose the marketing tactics, assign budget and build campaigns. You need to focus on the target now in terms of what types of communication they respond to for assigning the right tactics. At the same time you’ll need to integrate your brand awareness efforts such as social media and public relations. Obviously resources will determine how much you can accomplish.

Lastly, don’t forget to build in budget and time for testing to ensure you are always working to improve the outcomes. As you can see from the first 3 blogs in this series planning is the foundation for successful activities that lead to successful company growth.