It’s planning. Strategic planning, scenario planning, campaign planning, media planning . . . all of it is a problem. Year after year, planning season barrels through marketing organizations, knocking marketers off their feet.
With surprise budget cuts and the black hole of ad spend, marketing budgets are the obvious thorn in marketers’ sides. But a budget is not a plan. When CMOs can’t prove their impact on the bottom line, marketing organizations fall under fire for failing to deliver on the plan. As the old saying goes, “failing to plan, is planning to fail.”
Marketing leaders and their teams need a clear path forward. A better way to create, execute, and optimize campaign plans so that everyone from the CEO to the marketing automation specialist has a clear understanding of how the marketing plan impacts corporate strategy and revenue.
This blueprint to marketing planning guides enterprise marketing teams through the annual planning and budgeting process with a focus on keeping the marketing strategy aligned to corporate goals. However, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all marketing plan. It’s a framework that provides guidance to help marketers manage issues that were never taught in school or don’t get covered on a 20-minute podcast: How many campaigns are needed to meet quarterly targets? Does your marketing budget reflect your plans and goals? And so on . . .
This seven step planning process touches every level of the marketing organization and shows who needs to be doing what to help marketing teams eliminate that dreaded sprint to the finish line that happens every planning season.
There’s no marketing strategy without business goals. At least, not a good one.
The building blocks of an effective marketing plan are essentially the same across industries and verticals. The best marketing plans are anchored to the top three to five annual business goals. With those in hand, the real planning can begin.
For some companies, this might be three months before you’re expected to have campaigns in the market, or it could be as long as three years. For example, HubSpot’s marketing team starts strategic planning six months in advance, whereas at Unilever planning begins one year in advance. The timeline really depends on the size of your organization and your industry.
Oftentimes the financial plans and department budgets aren’t gilded by the CFO until much closer to the start of the year. However, planning takes time and one quarter is not enough time for the entire marketing planning process. Using last year’s total program dollars is a good place to start assigning a preliminary budget to headcount, campaigns, and functions based on the business goals.
There are two caveats you need to remember:
It’s more important to focus on how marketing’s strategy will support business goals over the fine strokes of your budget at this stage.
As marketing leaders think about priorities and budget allocation, a planning framework will prevent scope creep and keep their teams focused on key business goals.
Generally speaking, growth can only come from five key areas, or what Forrester calls “pillars of growth”:
Marketing can have a direct impact on productivity, offers, markets, and buyers. While ambitious executives may want to see growth in all five areas, it isn’t a realistic growth strategy.
Instead, marketing leaders should pick one pillar as the priority. Your other pillars are still part of marketing’s strategy, but you think of them in the context of the primary pillar and strategic priorities. Use these questions to help guide you:
How can we be more productive across our buyers, markets, and offers?
How can we introduce new offers to the markets and buyers we target productively?
How can we open new markets with our offers and buyers while staying productive?
How do we approach new buyers across markets productively with our offers?
Goal: Get health-conscious people to become customers.
Primary growth pillar: New buyer
Supporting pillars:
Goal: Add AI note taking capabilities to Teams Meetings.
Primary growth pillar: Offers
The differences are subtle but critically important. Without focus, marketing planning gets complicated fast. You can’t boil the ocean, and you certainly can’t please everyone. Ensure you are strategic and intentional when deciding which corporate goals to support with your marketing plans. Forrester’s five pillars of growth framework is a great place to start.
Aligning your marketing plan and budget around a key corporate strategic initiative will have more meaningful impact than spreading your teams thin.