MY STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN
You may have the following question for me: "What would you do in the first 100 days in charge of our organization's marketing?"
Here is my detailed answer for the first 5 weeks, which would in turn inform my plans for weeks 6-14 of the first 100 days. Notice the unfolding priorities that direct the next day's and week's tasks. My objectives are to first understand the internal and external value relationships in your organization, then magnify the marketing team, and finally create a framework for continual optimization.
Here is my detailed answer for the first 5 weeks, which would in turn inform my plans for weeks 6-14 of the first 100 days. Notice the unfolding priorities that direct the next day's and week's tasks. My objectives are to first understand the internal and external value relationships in your organization, then magnify the marketing team, and finally create a framework for continual optimization.
Understand the Organization Week 1
A1) Executive Objectives - Understand leadership's history, goals, projects and plans. How will they measure success? (KPIs)
A2) Team Assessment - Understand the strengths & weaknesses of the team. What are their individual objectives? How can you help them? A3) Brand Assessment - Understand how the brand is perceived internally and externally. What are it's strengths & weaknesses? A4) Product Assessment - Understand the organization's value proposition and how it creates competitive advantage for it's products A5) SWOT Analysis - Gather executive and team perceptions of the stregths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats to the organization. |
"Job #1 is to understand the organization through the lens of its people, brand and product."
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"Job #2 is to understand the customers, the value they receive & the value they bring."
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Understand the Customer Week 2B1) Customer Data Assessment - Evaluate current customer database to learn it's formatting, find what's missing and identify opportunities.
B2) Customer Personas - Understand each customer group, their goals, their lifestyle, and their total lifetime value to the organization. B3) Customer Outreach - Meet with existing customers, Test customer email outreach campaigns, Run polls through Social & Website widgets. B4) Customer Experience - Understand how the brand is perceived internally and externally. What are it's strengths & weaknesses? B5) Analytics & Reporting - Look at customers through the lens of web analytics data & reports. Find & prioritize actionable items. |
Assess the Marketing Week 3
C1) Channel Assessment - Review and assess all current marketing channels. What is being used, and why? Optimize at least 1 channel.
C2) Technology Assessment - Review and assess the CRM, CMS, SaaS, tech partners, team software and hardware. Make recommendations. C3) Process Assessment - Review and assess the marketing department processes. Get team suggestions for optimization. C4) Budgetary Assessment - Review and assess the marketing budget and ROI by marketing channel. Eliminate waste, reallocate to the best. C5) Market & Competitor Assessment - Review and assess external factors and how they offer opportunities and threats. Add to SWOT! |
"Job #3 is to assess marketing like an athlete vs. itself and vs. the competition."
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"Job #4 is to magnify your team and their effectiveness."
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Teambuilding Week 4D1) Inspire the team - Motivate, clarify, focus, and direct the team to see their potential and convince them you will help them reach it.
D2) Sharpen the team saw - Teach the team and help them develop their skills by teaching each other. Encourage a culture of continual learning. D3) Measurement & Reporting - Encourage accurate & consistent measurement of team member KPIs and optimize reporting processes. D4) Develop the Marketing Plan - Unite the team in developing or optimizing the marketing plan. Assign responsibilities & rewards. D5) Testing & Optimization - Create a framework for consistent A/B testing and improvements along with sharing the results with others. |
Force Multipliers Week 5
E1) Keyword Research - Expand the keyword list, prioritize by value and discover new opportunities in the data for PPC, SEO & video.
E2) PPC Optimization - Test new creative and keywords in adwords then use the winning creative to improve, SEO, print ads, and email. E3) Email Optimization - Test new creative, new formats or offers and use the winning creative to optimize the website and social media. E4) Sales Materials Optimization - Use the results of the PPC & Email test to improve sales materials and measure the results. E5) Product Optimization - Discuss what was learned in the week's tests with the team and possible new or modified products. |
"Job #5 is to optimize the marketing channels that act as force multipliers."
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