Is Your Marketing Plan Working for You?

As your typical Type A personality, I love a good plan. Nothing makes me happier than to see an outline for my day, week and month laid out (and color-coordinated) in my handy planner. Being able to see a concrete roadmap for what I’m doing and where I’m going gives me all sorts of feels. (I’m literally Katherine Heigl circa 27 Dresses with her crazy Filofax.)

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you feel the same way. Whereas a lot of businesses typically underestimate the importance of a solid plan, you know that having a big picture in mind is more than a new website or brochure.

Hopefully you’ve read our post on how to develop a solid marketing plan and you’re well on your way to achieving greatness! Not sure? We have put together a litmus test to gauge just how well your plan is working for you.

Is everyone on the same page?

A solid marketing plan outlines your company’s goals and how you plan on accomplishing them. It breaks down who is responsible for different tasks and establishes a timeline to help keep everyone on track. By having this roadmap ahead of time, you are able to make sure that everyone stays on task and remain accountable throughout the execution of your marketing plan.

Have you seen continuity across the board?

One of the biggest issues that businesses run into is a lack of consistency in their overall brand image and messaging. A marketing plan allows you to define what you stand for and how you communicate your main message to influence your desired audience. It essentially allows you to create a set of brand standards that your employees reference to ensure they are consistently delivering a unified brand to the marketplace.

Do the numbers paint a picture?

If you have a successful marketing plan, you more than likely have measurable goals, which allow you to figure out what is working, what is not working and what steps you need to take moving forward to reach your goals. By including measurable goals in your marketing plan, you have the flexibility to try new strategies and make adjustments to your approach as needed.

Are you more productive?

With a marketing plan in place, you increase the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing efforts. You are able to identify new opportunities in the market, allocate your business’s resources accordingly and essentially get more bang for your buck in your marketing efforts. This also frees up your company’s time, since your marketing plan eliminates a lot of the guesswork of how to execute an effective marketing campaign.

Any of this sound familiar? Wonderful. You are taking full advantage of the benefits that a successful marketing plan can provide you. Well done, you!

But don’t stop now. Maybe you noticed these benefits at first, but some time has gone by and the marketing plan has lost its luster.

Keep in mind that the marketing plan you create one year may not be the same plan that will work the next year. As your business evolves and your goals change, your marketing efforts are going to need to change, too. Re-adjust and re-evaluate as needed. (And feel free to reference our marketing plan starter kit we talked about earlier.)

If none of these benefits sound familiar to you, don’t panic! You’ve come to the right place.

As resident marketing nerds, our team at TRIO actually loves putting together marketing plans for companies both big and small. It’s the first thing we recommend investing in before anything else. And we’d be happy to help you get started.