Marketing planning and strategy

Everyone needs a plan

What you want

You want results, profile, leads, value for money from your marketing: exactly what we’re experts at achieving.

First things first

Without a marketing plan, there is no direction, no goal, no purpose.

The marketing plan is the first stage of marketing for your business.  The marketing plan and strategy is intrinsically connected to your business plan: and the overall aim of your marketing plan is to fulfil your business aims.  Whether the aims of your business are to grow, to sell, to float, to break into new markets, to cross-sell or to retain your existing clients – you need to know what you want your marketing to achieve.

SMART objectives

You then need a time-frame, you need to decide when you want to achieve these goals and why.  Are you aiming to float in a number of years, expand your client base, is a competitor breaking into the market and posing an immediate threat?  You need to prioritise your aims and set realistic time-frames.

Marketing budget

What to spend on marketing is always important.  Knowing what you want to achieve and by when, will help to give a direction to the amount you will need to spend.

A figure often given is that a business should spend in the region of 10% of their turnover on marketing and 50% of their time.  The time can be in the form of talking to clients and improving internal processes that will make doing business with you better for your clients.

However, it all depends on what you want to achieve.  If your brand is going to add significant value to your business, then you will need to invest more on this: for some companies image is everything.  However, if your aim is to look after your existing clients better and they already know you and already work with you, then you will not need to invest so heavily in promoting your brand.  Instead you will need to invest in ensuring they have the best possible experience when dealing with you, and marketing to them might include improving your services and better communications.

How we help

At its ultimate we investigate political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental issues that will affect your business, and show you how to market accordingly.  As a minimum we look at the current aims of your business and the best way to use marketing to achieve those aims.

We are experienced in developing marketing strategy and marketing plans that help you achieve your business aims.  As well as MBA-qualified staff, all of our people have highly relevant qualifications which are continually developed, as well as years of successful, practical experience.  We help you use marketing to achieve the aims of your business, and we advise you on time-frames and budget.  We then work closely with you to achieve it, and manage the whole marketing process on your behalf.

Examples of success

• Our planning has brought focus to many companies’ marketing campaigns
• We have helped one company save in excess of £100k on their marketing spend by putting a focused plan in place
• Our marketing plan has helped one company significantly increase their turnover in a short space of time

To find out marketing planning and strategy can help your business, please call 01252 843350.