Marketing Plan Benefits are numerous and extensive. I come across so many companies that I work with that still don’t have any kind of structured, formal marketing plan. Even in this day and age.! When I get over my surprise and shock, and ask them why, the answer is nearly always the same.
They say that they don’t really need one, as all the information is in their heads, or they state that they have been meaning to do one for months or years. But have just never managed to find the time.
So in this post I’m going to try and convince you, once and for all, why your company should get some kind of marketing plan right now. if you don’t currently have one. As you’ll see from the following, it doesn’t have to be a long and gruelling experience, and it will probably prove invaluable in helping you to develop your company and move forward. Let’s get started.
It doesn’t have to be long or time-consuming
One of the most common reasons that client I work with did not have a marketing plan in place was that they had a somewhat out-dated and old-fashioned view that marketing plans have to be these long and very intense documents. That they have to take weeks or even months to put together.
Tthis can be the case for more complex businesses. Ones that have more complicated needs and require a greater degree of planning.
But the reality is that for most businesses, a simple and very concise marketing plan is just fine.
So how long does your plan need to be? For many companies, just aiming to get an initial plan that is about 10-15 pages long is fine.
It should just cover the basic fundamental areas of what a marketing plan should include, but even if it just covers the most important and relevant information in the form of short and highly concise bullet points – that’s much better than nothing.
It keeps you super focused
One of the key reasons to have some kind of formalised and structured marketing plan in place is that it really helps to keep you and any other staff you have working for you super focused on the job in hand.
Simply writing down your ideas and then formalising them into some kind of structured plan lays out clearly and directly exactly what you’ve got to do in the period that the plan covers. It also enables you to very quickly and easily apply some deadlines and target dates for each of the key tasks that make up your plan and strategy. This can ensure that you stay on track and don’t start letting key tasks slip, which over time can spell disaster for your company.
Even if you have all these ideas and plans in your head right now, you’ll typically find that something quite magical will happen once you formalise them and get them down into even just a basic marketing plan. Things nearly always look clearer and more focused, and this tends to make you aware of other key questions that need to be addressed before your company can move forward with any kind of real momentum and consistency.
It forces you to set targets (which is always a great thing)
If you complete your marketing plan in the right way, then at the end of it you’ll have some key objectives and targets to work towards. These objectives should of course be both specific and measurable, meaning that it’s going to be very clear exactly what’s expected to meet the objectives, and also it will be very clear if you fall short.
The setting of objectives and measurable goals has been proven time and time again to be a really crucial component of being successful in any endeavour. In fact it can often make the difference between success and failure.
So with it being so important to set clear objectives and goals for your company, the importance of having some kind of marketing plan becomes clear. It will force you to really think hard about these goals and targets for your company, and get something formally down in writing that you have to achieve.
It’s great for new employees
One of the most challenging things for new employees is trying to understand what your company really does and where you are planning on going, as quickly as possible.
Having even a short and highly concise marketing plan gives new employees an invaluable overview of the most important things they need to know in relation to the company’s marketing goals and objectives for the upcoming months and years, and helps them to understand what’s required of them in double quick time.
You can simply hand the plan to the new employer or freelancer, and within minutes they can be pretty much up to speed on all the important marketing information that they need to know to do the very best job for you. This is another key reason why your company should have some sort of plan.
It helps you to think creatively and identify options
A marketing plan forces you to think about various options for your company and very strategically make the right decisions.
It’s possible of course to think of these things without a plan, and make good decisions without one too. But more formally and critically analysing each option as part of a proper planning process simply can’t be beaten.
This way of working with regards to your marketing is always going to be superior. Compared to simply having all the pertinent information in your head. Then trying to make sense of it all that way.
Get the really crucial and important information down in writing in the form of a marketing plan. No matter how basic to start with.
Then you can run through everything in the most structured and logical way possible. This will help you to be more creative with your various options and ultimately make better decisions for your company.
So how do you take advantage of all these great marketing Plan benefits?
Are these all the marketing plan benefits that exist?
In this post, we’ve tried to very concisely cover the most important marketing plan benefits. We never want to make our posts too long and time-consuming to read though. Which is why we’ve not tried to cover every single benefit that exists. We’ve listed the explained the ones that are likely to be most pertinent to your business. So do check back regularly with us to look out for more on this in the future. We’ll no doubt cover some less obvious benefits at some stage.
Marketing Plan Benefits Conclusion
As you can see from the above, marketing plan benefits are numerous and extensive. It’s one of the most important stages of doing very good marketing for your business. Don’t overlook this essential stage of your marketing process. It’s certainly not one you can afford to miss out.