Planning Season: Marketing Processes for Better ROI

This is the time of year for assessments and new beginnings. It is back to school, the days get cooler and shorter, and businesses start to get more intent on their objectives. Mediocre companies don’t stand a chance anymore. Almost every category you can think of has, or has the potential for, a clever operator to mine overlooked opportunities in the offering, the channel or promotion methods.

A legacy issue for leaders of “bigger small companies” has been a weak or non-existent marketing operation. These companies saw little need to formalize the business development process. Work came in, competition was manageable, and customers bought what you had for sale.

In order to sustain the future, a robust marketing function is essential. One that will, provide market perspective, assess customer expectations and build the brand. Once you know what you need you can create solutions to address every obstacle.

The sooner a business shakes the old stereotypes about marketing being bad advertising, it can realize that marketing is the intelligence center for managing a matrix of image building, posturing, sales and knowledge leadership. Marketing concepts must be embraced or you risk lower sales and lower valuation.

Creating or energizing a corporate marketing platform can be accomplished in as little as 3 steps.

1. Read a recently released, hardcopy marketing book. It shouldn’t take more than one or two to become inspired by the expectation of new opportunities. Share your reading list with others in the company and encourage managers of various other functions to discuss ways that marketing concepts might be introduced or better run.
2. Undertake a formal assessment of all your business development activities. This will include profiling your customers, understanding your internal strengths and weaknesses as well as those of your primary competitors. Check the Internet for Marketing Plan templates and Business Assessment tools for questions and concepts to consider. Author your marketing plan; include a section for Objectives, Background, Target Customers, Brand Statement and a series of Action Plan initiatives. (Don’t just think it, INK IT! Like writing anything down, it instructs and provides perspective that cannot be achieved by simply storing the plan in your head.)
3. Implement an action plan. The initiatives from this plan will serve as your “to do” list. It may take up to a year or more and you may never get to all of the initiatives, but that’s OK. As you progress, plans will change as ideas and assumptions are tested. The value of planning is not the plan but the process. You and your team will be better informed about the market and the business’ operations as a result.

Realistic dates and goals will need to be established as a part of tracking and measurement. This will ensure that you maintain a pulse on what is working best and is providing the most short and long-term return on investment.

Have you recently implemented a Marketing action plan for your business? How did creating a Marketing system impact your business operations?