Why Intentional Planning is Essential in Marketing
Have you ever gotten an amazing idea and felt the need to implement it now? It might have been a new product or service, a marketing angle, or an idea that would help your team be more productive. Whatever it was, it came with a burning need to get it out the door yesterday.
As business owners, we tend to be very action-oriented people. When we find a solution, the last thing we want to do is wait. This trait is actually a huge benefit, as it helps us shift and pivot whenever we need to. It allows us to take the risks and make the decisions that need to be made in order to grow a healthy, thriving company.
Left unchecked though, this trait can also be a drawback. Just as a fine wine gets better with age, some things in business have a better chance of success when we allow time for intentional planning.
Marketing is one of those things! It’s a complex creature with a lot of moving parts and putting the proper research and planning into it will absolutely increase your chances of success!
By the way, if you would like to learn more about how to effectively plan your marketing campaigns, don’t miss our January webinar – my Marketing Coordinator will be sharing the framework and strategies we use to plan, create, and execute our own marketing campaigns!
Taking the Time to Plan
I can’t emphasize this enough: unless you absolutely have to implement a marketing plan immediately, calendar in at least a few weeks (preferably 6-8) for your team to research, plan, and execute a strong marketing campaign.
I know this may seem like a lot, but marketing is not a “build it and they will come” proposition.
Marketing is both a science and an art. It’s not a means of convincing people they need something; rather, it’s the process of learning what your clients need and then showing them how you can fill that need in a way that benefits them. In today’s online world, people are being bombarded with hundreds of posts, graphics, and sales pitches daily. Breaking through the noise is easier said than done!
In order to properly market a product or service, your marketing team will need to:
- Meet with you to learn about whatever they are promoting
- Research what your audience will be looking for in the product or service
- Put together a marketing plan
- Create a marketing packet that includes the timeline, all of the social and email copy, images, videos, hashtags, and logistics for any other marketing vehicles you might use
- Go through the design, editing, and approval process
- Communicate the logistics to all team members who will be involved
- Execute and test all aspects of the marketing packet
- Monitor engagement, responses, and sales to determine when and where tweaks are needed
This really can’t be done well on the spot. When you allow your Marketing Team ample time to plan (and of course, provide strong systems for them), you are equipping them with what they need to do their job well!
Equipping Your Marketing Team with Systems
The key to planning, creating, and executing a strong marketing campaign is systems. The research, creative aspects, and implementation of a marketing campaign requires a lot of moving parts, and the only way to keep everyone on track and all the details straight is a proven framework and the systems that go with it.
At UYB, we have a system in place to create, approve, and implement various aspects of each marketing campaign 8 weeks out, 4 weeks out, and 2 weeks out; most of the time, this keeps us on track. Even when things get extremely busy, we still have enough leeway to implement everything well.
Having these systems in place allows us to keep things running smoothly, but they also allow my Marketing Team the ability to put the strategic, creative, and technical aspects of marketing in place while keeping the day-to-day tasks under control. In addition, these systems allow me to have a good idea of what’s going on without having to be in on all the meetings or micromanage my team.
The great thing about our Marketing Systems is that they grow with us. The systems I put in place when we were just starting out provided the foundation for the systems we have now, 2 ½ years in. Our systems have grown and expanded, but they are still based on the same systems I had when it was just me and a small technical team.
Systems work – and they’re essential at every stage of growth!
Calendaring Your Marketing Plans
Getting your expectations in place and creating the systems that will allow your team to excel are key to successful marketing, but proper calendaring is what will bring it all together.
Business owners often think of their calendars as the tools that hold their appointments, team and client meetings, and business activities. One thing that we often miss is calendaring in the timelines of our marketing plans.
Doing so will not only allow your team to properly plan for upcoming marketing campaigns, but it will also allow you to gauge when you and other key team members will be available to meet with your Marketing Team members or approve any plans, copy, images, or other assets. This keeps bottlenecks from happening and allows everyone to stay on task!
If you would like some help putting your business calendar together, check out our Calendaring Workshop – you and your team will get incredible training to layer in all of your Admin tasks and Marketing plans for the year.
Intentional planning is essential to your successful growth!