Strategic Planning

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) defines marketing as “the management process of anticipating, identifying, and satisfying customer requirements profitably”.

Planning is one of the key elements of sound marketing management, along with budgeting, directing and controlling. You have a framework in which to anticipate and adapt to changes in the marketplace. It helps you to know clearly where you are going, and what you have to do to get there, step by step.  A Marketing Plan is pro-active, and should involve and include those members of your team who are helping you achieve your objectives. Through planning your marketing, you make it work together so that the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

Whether you are managing a marketing budget of millions, or, like some of our charity and “not for profit” clients, have a zero budget (but a lot of usable goodwill), careful planning makes it go further. A Marketing Plan keeps you on track, focussed on your objectives, over a fixed period of time. It gives you a framework to measure and monitor results, test new ideas, allow for contingencies, try different marketing techniques, and market sectors. Working to a plan means you don’t waste money on spontaneous offers, which are not in line with your objectives. It is organic, in that it will need to be reviewed at regular intervals, to take account of any changing business circumstances.