Where are you headed? How will you get there? How long will it take? How much will it cost? And how will you know when you’ve arrived?

Nobody would set off on a trip without having any idea how to answer these basic questions. But far too many business owners and marketers—even corporate marketing professionals in mid-size to large companies—set off on the journey of managing a business without figuring this out. When it comes to marketing, it’s often easier to (a) keep doing whatever you’ve been doing, (b) do something different because you think you’re supposed to (a variant of this is “everybody else is doing it”), or (c) do whatever the most persuasive seller talks you into. Each is inherently risky, and none are likely to get you where you want to go.

What A Strategic Marketing Plan Really Is ….. and Why You Need It

Let’s face it: Creating a marketing plan is not the sexiest job around. In fact, most marketing directors and small business owners would rather do anything but. Develop a new marketing plan every year? Spare me. Don’t even think about a five-year plan. Let’s just jump into that new ad campaign! How about a new video? Isn’t it time for a website redesign?

Just one little problem: What if your business doesn’t actually need any of those things right now? If your company’s goals require an altogether different set of tactics than the sexy stuff vying for your attention, why let yourself be sidetracked? If you do, how will you ever meet your goals?

Then there’s the even bigger question: What are your company’s goals anyway? Can you name them? Are they specific? Measurable? Achievable? Does everyone on your team know exactly what they are?

If you haven’t sat down to figure out exactly where you are and where you’re going, there’s no hope of getting anywhere near where you’d like to be.

I never cease to be amazed at the number of businesses that don’t invest in developing a marketing plan. Why spend money on marketing—any type of marketing—if it’s not part of a strategic plan? Without a plan, you’re running a business based on impulse buying.

Advantages Of a Good Marketing Plan

At the very least, every small to mid-size business needs to hammer out a basic plan once a year. The advantages are huge:

1. A Good Plan Saves Time & Money

While we don’t advocate a completely automatic “set-it-and-forget-it” approach, a strategic marketing plan does have a plug-and-play component built right in. Once you’ve figured out the strategies that are most important this year, then decided on the best tactics for carrying them out, in line with the budget you can afford, you can pretty much work the plan and get on with business. The time and energy needed to monitor and adapt is miniscule compared to what it takes to create. Businesses without a plan end up spending a lot of energy making up a plan as they go along, grabbing a little of this, a little of that—which nearly always ends up costing more in the end, either through unbudgeted expenses or ineffective results.

2. A Good Plan Keeps You On Track

A good plan not only maps out what you need to do, it also blocks out what’s not a priority for your business right now. So the next time a persuasive sales rep sails in with a tempting offer and a persuasive pitch, you can file it away for future reference and get back to work. No detours. No getting lost on side roads. A good plan keeps you from spending money on stuff you don’t need.

3. A Good Plan Has Measurement Built Right In

A critical part of creating a marketing plan is defining exactly what you want to accomplish and how you plan to do it. When that’s written down and understood by everyone on the team, from executive suite to sales staff, it’s much easier to measure what’s working and how. A well-developed plan defines each tactic according to costs and measurable results. For example, “Increase retention by 5% through use of a customer rewards program” is measurable, where “Start a customer rewards program” is not. When the program itself – the specific tactic – is spelled out in detail, with how much it will cost to implement over the year, you can then measure results and your return on investment. All of that is contained in how the plan is laid out.

4. A Good Plan Keeps Your Team Focused & Boosts Sales

When you have a clearly mapped out strategic plan and communicate it clearly throughout the company, everyone can focus on their jobs and not worry about the big picture. The plan is the big picture, and when it’s clear to everyone, they know where their specific tactics fit into the whole. They know why their job matters. Individuals and teams working under a good plan are more motivated and generally more productive, because they know they’re accountable.

Next in Marketing Planning 101

Next in this series we’ll look at “What a Marketing Plan is NOT.” You think your company has a marketing plan? Is it in fact just a media plan—an advertising budget? Or a list of somebody’s favorite projects? Or are you thinking of that impressive brand strategy document the designer wrote up? Or that long-winded piece on messaging and positioning? All of those are interesting and can be very useful, but none are a plan. This next installment will help you avoid those mistakes.

Then we’ll get down to the nitty gritty: “How to Create a Custom Marketing Plan” will walk you through exactly that, with detailed instructions and examples.

Stay tuned.