Many marketers complain about how their strategies don’t work as they’ve expected. The main reason of these failures is that most of these marketers perform a passive marketing program. It means they don’t have a comprehensive marketing plan to guide their budget. It’s like starting an important journey without a compass: it will take you a very long time to reach your objective, if you don’t get lost or run out of funds first.
Creating a good marketing plan certainly can be an intricate process. Clients often are very detailed. However, there are five simple best practice rules that all marketers should understand. If you consider to include these following tips, you will be fine on your way to proactive marketing:
1. Roles & Responsibilities
While some of the marketing activities will be executed by the marketing department, the “fun” part is usually spread a little wider throughout the firm. Usually, client service professionals will often contribute content and their expertise in speaking with the media. In B2B product firms, product managers will need to partner with the marketing team in developing the value proposition and messaging for new product launches. It’s important to clearly specify the roles and responsibilities for overseeing, executing and measuring the marketing plan.
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs or marketing metrics used to be negative terms before the digital marketing phenomenon moved in. The success of many marketing efforts, such as drip email campaigns, social media marketing and search engine marketing, are very measurable. By establishing KPIs and monitoring them, B2B companies can identify what’s working and what’s not, thus they can make adjustments throughout the year.
3. Marketing Infrastructure
Marketing infrastructure is the “stuff” that needs to (or should) be in place in order to execute marketing programs and campaigns. Some points that marketers should include in this section of the plan are: 1) website, 2) contact management system (CRM), 3) social media pages / profiles, 4) blog and 5) online brochure. Many clients have some of these things in place already, but they almost always need updating. Take an inventory of the marketing infrastructure that your B2B firm has and what needs to be built prior to your first external communication.
4. Target Markets
The days of “one size fits all” are gone long time ago. The success of any B2B marketing effort lies in how well a company can identify and solve the problem of specific marketing segments. Many firms take segmentation to P2P (person-to-person) level by creating buyer personas and tailoring their marketing messages to similar groups of people within a target market. However, to keep the simplest practice, be sure to define your B2B company’s target markets in your marketing plan.
5. Marketing Programs
Many times, marketing communications, including programs and campaigns, are where B2B companies start their plans, if they have one at all. Before any marketing campaign or program is executed, your firm should know who is doing what (roles & responsibilities); understand what it is trying to gain (KPIs); have the collateral, platforms and programs in place (marketing infrastructure); and craft a message that will resonate with the audience (target markets). There are many cost-effective marketing techniques in the B2B space.
Marketing is not a vain practice. It’s more like an investment. When you are able to craft and execute a proactive marketing plan, you will be well on your way towards getting a return.