There’s a lot written on the subject of planning in marketing and it’s clear there is a need for marketers to prepare a plan of action for any strategy or campaign. I’m a big believer in planning too and work with clients who use both six and twelve month planning cycles for communications, or with longer lead times for more strategic thinking.
However, it’s all too tempting when you’re in planning mode to simply recycle last year’s marketing plan. You might for example keep the same tactics but simply update the messaging. This is fine of course, assuming you are measuring your campaigns to identify which tactics are working and which aren’t. Hands up how many of you are able to calculate an ROI for every campaign?
If you decide to move away and create a new plan, you should be able to overcome any resistance to change by quoting performance metrics from the previous campaigns, if you have them of course. Winston Churchill was once quoted as saying:
There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction
and that of course is the trick. How do you know if your new direction will work?
Through effective planning, you should be able to better prepare to deliver an effective campaign, or what to do if things don’t work out. You might also be able to plan campaigns which offer a greater degree of predictability, such as..
- a direct marketing campaign where you can forecast ROI based on industry averages, or
- a telemarketing campaign where you tie an agency down to certain performance level agreement.
Of course, if you’ve already been measuring your previous marketing campaigns, you could use your own past performance to predict future performance.
If you are faced with the need to overcome some resistance to change, you could of course quote Dale Carnegie / Abraham Lincoln (those two and others are credited with this one):
if you always do, what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you’ve always got
I couldn’t agree more. Of course, when it comes to planning, whether for marketing or not, you might wish to consider this from Charles Nobel:
You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures
In other words, even if you plan well, some of your campaigns will fail. However, if your short term tactical planning all rolls up into a longer term plan, or vision, the sum of the parts will enable you to reach your longer term goal in the end.
Now surely that’s enough with the quotes for one blog post, but to sum up what I’m getting at…
- make sure you plan your marketing campaigns,
- try something new each planning cycle, and
- think both short and long term
So there you go, that’s the end of this Friday afternoon thought. To quote Sean Connery from Untouchables: “here endeth the lesson”.
Image courtesy of jurvetson photostream.
It is so true what you have posted here about marketing planning – consider change if it is change in the right direction and sometimes you just have to give it a go rather than re-hashing the old plan or planning. Great post with some good tips and food for thought! Thanks.
Thanks Sue. The challenge of course is knowing which direction is the right direction.
I really like that quote by Charles Nobel, it’s now sitting proudly on the wall in my office. Now when I get frustrated with my short term stuff ups at least I have a reminder to keep my chin up and look into the future.
I really agree with this post. If you can’t quantify something then how can you possibly tell whether it is working or not? Accountability is essential in all business dealings.
There’s another quote from Winston Churchill “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” and I am a very firm subscriber to that philosophy
Great quote Jan, thanks. You can normally rely on Winston for great quotes like this and they are 99% of the time spot on too.
We must not get frustrated and give up that could be the most important ,as giving up would not be the solution for any problem.
Try till the end,I just knew that Hard Work always Pays..!
“You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures”
The statement holds so true…..This statement holds true not only for marketing but also for real life situations.
“If you always do, what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you’ve always got…” That’s right. I think this could be applied to more than marketing. But I think that even if you do decide to stick to what you’ve always done, you might even start to fall back a little. Marketing is something that’s constantly evolving, and with newer generations coming into the picture with new perspectives and new tastes, it’s important to accommodate ourselves as a thriving business to suit those needs and tastes.
Nick – so what you are saying is that you need to adapt your marketing communications to match the needs of your customers. So for example, if everyone is looking to facebook and twitter for advice on which TV to buy, and you sell TVs, you surely need to be communicating on Twitter and facebook rather than relying on your traditional TV / radio advertising.
It is so true what you have posted here about marketing planning – consider change if it is change in the right direction and sometimes you just have to give it a go rather than re-hashing the old plan or planning. Great post with some good tips and food for thought! Thanks.
Great post with good ideas to think about and work with – love the quotes and thanks to Jan for her good one from Winston!
if you always do, what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you’ve always got………………..how very true
My mentor taught me a long time ago, “The only constant in life is change.” Being able to adjust is an important part of any business plan.
We call it, Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust!
Thanks!
Ron
There is a saying – you have to plan your work and then work your plan, my old boss told me that and he ewas right, now I own a multi million $ company selling LCD enclosures for the outdoor digital signage market.
Hard work never killed anyone.
Graham
Thanks for the comment Graham, sounds like you’ve made a reall success out of hard work and a well planned business. I’d love to hearn about how you identified the gap in the market for LCD enclosures, that’s pretty niche.
Planning is a virtue… haha Well, I suppose planning is one of the most essential things for any business. And the biggest problem for me is to go on a certain risk and choose a direction my campaigns will follow. As you’ll never know whether it will be a success or a huge fail. But on the other hand, that is what is called life or practical experience.
I really agree with this post. If you can’t quantify something then how can you possibly tell whether it is working or not? Accountability is essential in all business dealings.
There’s another quote from Winston Churchill “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” and I am a very firm subscriber to that philosophy
Hey Andy,
Firstly, you got one big plan on board up there. and secondly, i agree with your view on marketing planning..
Thanks,
Matt,
Yep, sure is one hell of a big plan, but then Google is a big operation. I just love the fact they have ‘Hire Richard Branson’ as one of their strategies. To be fair, why not, what better businessman is there..?