When you don’t want to act, plan.
If someone paid me my hourly rate equivalent (HRE) for all the time I’ve spent researching, pondering, debating and writing marketing plans that a) sat on a shelf, b) were outdated the minute they were published or c) never got finished, I’d be back in the 1990s.
But I’m smarter now. I know a waste of time when I see one.
When we first started Clicks ‘n Conversions, we did some marketing plans; but they were shorter than the hundred+ page tomes of yesteryear. And as the plans got shorter, they began to be more useful.
I agree planning isn’t totally without value. I wasn’t the first one to think of this, but the real benefit of planning is the discussions it inspires.
When you create a marketing plan, you force yourself to look at key elements of your business: what you’re going to sell, who is going to buy, how you’re going to get them to buy it, what and how you’re going to charge for it and how you’re going to get it to them.
This is good.
But it’s easy to let the plan and its planning stand between you and taking action. You know you’re caught in this trap when you say or think things like:
• That sounds like a good idea. Let’s look at it again when the plan is finished.
• We need to schedule an off-site meeting to kick off the marketing plan.
• No one here knows how to do a marketing plan. We’d better bring in a pro.
• It’s September; time to get started on next year’s plan.
The world’s shortest marketing plan
Part of the blame for excessively long plans, I think, goes to the many books and templates for generating marketing plans. Often, the templates themselves run upwards of 30 pages. I like to think this is because they are generic and must address every conceivable option known to man and not because the authors really believe a marketing plan needs to include all that stuff.
As Kelly Odell pointed out in a blog article some years ago, marketing templates may have their greatest value in showing you what you don’t need to worry about.
Kelly also first introduced the template for the World’s Shortest Marketing Plan, which was later revised by Guy Kawasaki in the World’s Shortest Marketing Plan version 2.0. Click here to get the template.
Take smaller steps
Nowadays its better to plan a little, test a little, adjust a little, review.
Elaborate marketing plans delay action and never really get used. Avoid that trap and you’ll get to the good part much faster.
Next article I’ll write about all you really need to figure out to have an awesome marketing program.
Meanwhile, what do you think about marketing plans?
February 24th, 2011 at 10:37 am
I’ve have the first one I’ve done in 15 years of marketing in-process. I ditched the online template after a while, and went to a power-point format. And accepted that as soon as this plan is presented, all that documentation won’t be looked at again.
But it is the process of research that was most valuable. Making sure I’ve got all the bases covered. And most importantly, make a few key decisions about what to *do*!
February 24th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Great information, a lot of hot, hot hot marketing plan tips.
Keep em coming, great stuff.
Thanks for sharing that it’s easy to let the marketing plan and its planning stand between you and taking action.
And you are so right on that When you create a marketing plan, you force yourself to look at key elements of your business.
By the way, if it’s OK with you I’d like to add that no marketing plan or marketing calendar should be set in stone!
If history has taught us anything, no matter how effective your plan may be, chances are, it will have to be altered at a given time; due to what your competitor(s), clients, future clients or suppliers are doing.
Here’s the kicker, don’t feel as if you have to be a psychic.
Don’t feel overwhelmed at the thought of needing a business and marketing plan so flexible that it takes away from the overall aim and goals that made you ‘hungry’ to market your particular business, product, service or idea in the first place!
No doubt about it, there’s an easy way to be sure that you can continue to have success in the future – if you just start off with flexibility in mind!
The best way to do so is to have a marketing plan and marketing calendar that is flexible and built to adjust itself when the time comes to do so.
Respectfully,
Sandy Barris
Fast Marketing Plan.com
http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com
P.S. Once you have your Marketing Plan complete, you may want to plug it into Fast Marketing Plan and you’ll get Monday Morning Email Marketing reminders about your marketing tactics you’ll want to get done during the week. Plus you’ll also get links for help getting most of those tactics done for you, if needed.
February 25th, 2011 at 5:51 am
I agree — and the most important step is to take action on those decisions you made!