6 Tips to build a marketing plan together

Marketing is not an accessory of the business. It’s not like the paintings hanging in your waiting room or the subscription to the magazine you never read.

“You must have clearly defined objectives.”

Your online marketing campaign is as essential as the person answering your office phone. It’s a part of the job you do.

I receive several emails every day asking for information and advice. I try to respond to everyone, compatibly with work commitments. I ask everyone to have a little patience and try to better formulate their requests. This applies to a question you ask me, but it is also valid when you seek help from a marketing agency, in an industry professional.

Do you think that whoever does this work is not a street artist and does not unleash ideas and creativity and then asks for an offer? Do not be enchanted by disco lights and impossible performances and fireworks.

Better yet: Take the initiative.

Speak clearly and tell me how you plan to make more cash this year. Maybe you want to improve your site’s organic ranking for several keywords, or you want to generate a 10% increase in online sales month by month.

Or you’re looking for new touch points on sales channels, so the sales team works with more qualified prospects …

1 – Make a list of goals

Exit the generic and make a list of goals that includes numbers and percentages. Good advice starts with reasonable data and proposes a targeted strategy. And do not be offended if I ask you for concrete objectives, budget availability, and adequate financial means. Taking off for reasonable requests only shows that it is easy to catch yourself by letting you see a spectacle of lights and colors.

2 – Clarify expectations well

Decide together how often and in what form, your company and whoever follows you, you will communicate with each other. You both have to agree on the frequency, the controls and the responsibilities if you want to work methodically and successfully. A bi-weekly conference call, a weekly report via mails or a face-to-face meeting when you decide you need it. The important thing is the clarity on the times and the means if you want to take a road to success.

3 – Understand the difference between an outsourced job and an employee job

If an employee works exclusively for your company during your time, one of your consultants could serve multiple customers at the same time. And while doing everything possible to offer a high level of answers, he also thinks that it is not realistic to ask and get an immediate answer in every question or request. Defining expectations in communication and response time well avoids a frustrating experience for everyone.

4 – A good consultant works with you, not for you

A good consultant does not just take orders and executes. A good consultant is a partner in your work, puts ideas on the table, suggests new ideas and proposes new ways of doing things, brings information and analysis useful for making decisions and promotes ideas when they are appropriate, or even archives their own if not they were. This creates a successful and long-term relationship.

5 – Choose a leader for your marketing team

A team is a collaborative whole, with different people putting their talent, their ideas and intuitions. But there must clearly be a designated leader, a recognized and valued commander-in-chief who makes the decisions and has the responsibility to move the car in the right direction. It is a question of authority and credibility, as well as of the confidence gained, given that important decisions must be made for the company.

6 – Share your experience

A successful relationship based on an open dialogue and a constant flow of information in order to use your knowledge of the industry to create relevant content for the main recipients.

Bonus – Take advantage of creative differences

Online marketing also involves a creative process. Sometimes a lot is in a text written with a persuasive copy or in a very significant image. And if it is important to have honest feedback from the people you work with, it is essential to make sure that the creative team continues to work peacefully. A fundamental part is to continue to write, to redesign, and to question every part of the process.

You will be pleasantly surprised to see how your feedback can turn any part into something that works best.