Making a Marketing Action Plan

Video Transcript

"Congratulations, you've landed a client. Now what do you do? Hi, I'm Peggy Collins, let's spend some time together making a marketing action plan. For any marketing project there are certain steps and checkpoints you must observe if you're to finish the job on time, and on budget. First, determine what exactly you want to do, how you'll get there, and what are your expectations. And more importantly, this first step can be called a plan summary, or executive summary, no details here really, just a narrative of the whole project. Next, provide the client and your staff with an overview for the business your client is in, you must know the landscape before you can do anything else. This landscape will include the target market for this campaign. Again, until you know who your customers are, and how they think and react, you can't possibly be an effective marketer. Next, you'll want to determine exactly what you want to accomplish. This will involve the detail discussion and expectations. Theirs and yours. Until you know what they're thinking it's guesswork. If the client needs to sell fifty-thousand widgets, then you can devise a plan to sell that many. Next up strategy, what are you going to do? This is where you discuss all your options for telling people about your widget. Find your target, and hit them with every manipulation of the medium they're using. Always, always base the strategy around the internet and live streaming audio and video. Geo target the most likely widget buyer, and ignore everything else. Putting the plan into action is extremely important, because, to sell widgets, or anything really, is timing, maximize your budget by considering a coordinated launch of a website, viral videos, blogs, etcetera. To coincide with a companion campaign using traditional media. Your budget will be determined by the amount of money it costs to reach enough people who are likely buyers of widgets. And how long it might take to reach that goal. How will you know if the campaign is successful? I think it depends a great deal on how you as a marketer have been able to manage the expectations of your client. If they've been actively involved in the campaign you will know, you'll know because you've taken the time to get to know the key players on the client side. It's like everything else - the more the client is involved in the project, the better the communication will be on all facets of the campaign. This is always on my project list, no surprises, see if that's not a good place to start. I'm Peggy Collins, wishing you good luck and good business."