Introduction
I cannot stress enough the importance of taking the time to evaluate your marketing plan. You not only make sure that everyone is on board to support your overall goals and objectives, but you also make sure that your spending is getting the results you want. By the way, you also spend less when you plan ahead!
What Does Your Marketing Plan Look Like?
Do you know if you have a marketing plan, who developed it and when? You should know how often it is evaluated, who oversees the plan and who administers the plan. Are you aware of what products/services your marketing plan covers? What audience does it serve? What does your marketing plan cost? Do you know whether or not it's effective? What type of return are you getting?
How Can You Affect Your Marketing Plan?
I started my message to you with quite a few questions. I notice that usually when the topic of a marketing plan comes up with our clients, they don't know who has responsibility for taking the time to develop one and getting concurrence on the activities and budget. You can affect your marketing plan by:
- Developing it or revitalizing it
- Communicating the plan to all involved parties
- Implementing it
- Monitoring it
- Recommending change when change is needed
- Making sure that changes are instituted and communicated
- Documenting how it is more effective to have a plan than to not have a plan
- Encouraging others to adopt it and work within it
- Championing its vitality
- Measuring the return
It helps if you understand whether your company's marketing activities are spur of the moment decisions or well-thought out plans of action. You need to get a grip on what you're doing as a company in relationship to your entire marketing campaign. Ask yourself: Would my actions have been different if I had planned them a few weeks or months ago?
Gain Control of Your Activities
You need to know what you are doing right now and what your plan looks like by individual product and service. You should be able to look at your plan by:
- Month/quarter
- Activities
- Costs
- Results
- Effectiveness
Evaluate Your Plan
Make a table with the following categories across the top:
- Product/Service
- Activities
- Costs
- Measurement
- Results
- 1 Great — Keep going
- 2 Good — Keep an eye on it
- 3 Fair — Change something or cancel
Summary
This brief look at evaluating your marketing plan should help you make strides in developing and revitalizing your marketing plan as well as ensuring that the results from your activities are effective and getting results that give your the return you need.
