Marketing Planning - From Strategy to Tactical

All of the steps to effective marketing planning for entrepreneurs are exciting. But for me the transition from strategy to implementation is the best part. That’s when the plan comes to life. The vision becomes reality and your desire turns into realistic, tangible actions that each will bring you closer to your strategic goals.

Taking the first set of short-term goals derived from your Vision you are staging the tactics for the next 12 months. Here are the 6 subcategories for your tactical planning:

Research

Most of my clients want to skip this step or have come to me because they skipped it in the past. They are now paying the price for not doing their homework. Spending a little time before you get started to know what people really need, will save you from wasting precious years. Don’t lose massive revenue potential by trying to figure it out as you go.
Niches

The proven method of small business marketing. Choose aligned markets where you have the logical upper hand against your competition. Then grow visibility faster by not tackling all verticals at once. That’s the power of this marketing philosophy. Everything else is an unnecessary time and effort waste.
Products & Services

Shape them to suit existing needs otherwise you will have to have a massive marketing budget to educate your market on what you think they need. Not a smart move.
Communication & Positioning

How do you tell others about your wonderful products and services and differentiate about perceived competition? You may know what your markets want but if you fail to communicate clearly and position effectively against other providers, you won’t make the sale. In fact, you are working on behalf of your competition.
Tools

The marketing mix of tools are determined by budget, niche and internal strengths. Not everyone can afford a consistent PR budget and maybe you won’t need to use this as a tool to reach your audience. However, if you have exciting news to share you will want to determine as and when this tool should be part of your mix.
Competition

This is about your awareness of what else is out there and how do you compare. Don’t let this rattle you. Just know what alternative options your prospects may perceive to be the same as what you are offering. Then make sure you tailor your differentiation well enough. This is particularly true when you are in highly competitive industries like financial services, real estate or coaching/ consulting.

Next week we’ll look at marketeer’s tools on how to go about doing your research. We will share a client example who wasted $25,000 of her own money into something the market didn’t need. Now she wished she had spend time researching before developing her product.