The New Year is upon us and, like most companies, you are probably in the midst of developing your strategic plan.

I don’t know of many companies who have their plans done by the end of the year, ready to hit the ground running when they recover from their New Year’s celebrations. If your company is one of the exceptions, let me know – I’m interested in how you actually accomplish the planning process during the last quarter of the year.

For the rest of you spending many hours of your day in planning meetings, trying to lay out your roadmap for the coming year, here are a few reminders about why you are doing this exercise and how you can make yours more effective.

An effective marketing strategy helps companies focus their efforts on initiatives that are key to the success of their business. In times of rapid change, we need to have a strategic plan on which to base our tactical decisions. If we only use business tactics, our plan will lack direction. If your company does not develop a marketing plan because of its perceived high cost and complexity, you should rethink this decision and develop even a simple one that helps you determine what direction you should be heading before you start your engines and head out to nowhere.

Marketing Strategy Benefits the Company …

Your strategy should define an action plan for influencing customer choices and obtaining a bigger market share. The outcome of your plan should consistently entice customers to buy your product or service by raising the customer perception of its value to them. Whether you are selling direct or utilizing partnerships, you need to constantly reinforce your value to your target customer, because no matter how good your product or service is, if the customer doesn’t believe that they will benefit from purchasing it, they won’t. Remember, customer perception is reality.

… And The Marketing Plan Communicates That Strategy Throughout the Company

Having a coherent marketing strategy is not sufficient if the people in the company do not know about it. The marketing vision should be written in a marketing plan. A good marketing plan IS your business roadmap. It will tell you what to do, when to do it, how often, and how much to spend. It should be the basis of the company’s product development, manufacturing, and financial forecasting systems. It should be continually reviewed and tuned to reflect the reality of the market.

The plan should be bought into by the other groups, especially sales, engineering, and manufacturing who should contribute to the plan. Without a written marketing plan that is shared among the key company groups, people have no sense of the company vision and what is expected of them. That vision should be constantly restated so that everyone from receptionist to CEO knows and understands it.

Remove the Complexity and Get to the Point

Developing a strategic plan does not have to be complex, however it should be clear, concise, and should answer the following questions:

• Who are your customers, and what do they need? – If you cannot answer this question clearly, you need to stop whatever you are doing and find out. Understanding who has a problem that can be addressed with your product or service is fundamental to all company plans, not just your marketing and alliance plans.
• What is the solution that you offer? – Being able to articulate what problem your product or service solves is key to reaching your target audience. If you don’t understand how your product or service benefits your customers and partners, ask them! Let them tell you what they believe your value is to them.
• How is your solution different from your competition? – Make sure your customers understand the benefits of your solution and how it is different from others. Determine what is unique about your company, product or service and whether it is noticeably better than the competition. Then integrate these messages into all of your marketing.
• How are you communicating this solution and creating customer enthusiasm? – Communicating with a message that the audience perceives as valuable should be the cornerstone of your plan and every program has the ultimate objective of getting that message in front of your target audience. Picking the programs that have the highest return on your investment is not rocket science, but has to be thought through.
• What is the budget required to successfully execute this plan? – Determining the priority of where you spend your resources is critical to your plan. If you take the time to think through what you are trying to achieve and how each program helps you get there, you can lower your budget and achieve the results you want. Constant ask what is the value of the program and if it should be executed at all.

As the ever-present saying goes, marketing strategy is ultimately about bringing the right message to the right person at the right time. To ensure you execute effective programs to attract customers and partners, a solid plan will keep you on course. Unfortunately, many executives blame poor results on poor tactics when, in fact, the lack of a clearly defined strategy is the root cause. The first step toward creating an optimized plan is to ensure good strategy and tactical planning, for nothing will make up for a bad strategy, a limited value proposition, or a lack of customer understanding.