Want to feel better now about next year?  Then finish that marketing plan so you have that behind you – and frankly it isn’t all that complicated.

First, remember that in the b-to-b world, marketing is not “advertising”.  Effective marketing combines selling, customer retention, customer service, sales lead generation, sales tools, branding, website optimization and a host of communications tactics.

So start here – with your objectives

Your objectives are your broad, business-driven, brand-driven, market share-driven goals, and defining them is a cornerstone of your sales-and-marketing plan, for example:

1)      Increase sales revenue by $4 million

2)      Increase awareness of our brand in the Western region

3)      Improve our customer retention rate by 20%

4)      Successfully launch our new Z-2 product line, with at least $1 million in sales

Note that these are sales and marketing objectives, not “ad” related goals.

Next, define your strategies

Strategies are also somewhat broad.  Don’t confuse strategies with the next step, tactics; many people do.  Strategies must support each of your objectives, for example, these four that support the above four objectives:

1)      Grow new business sales by $1.5 million and grow sales from existing customers by $2.5 million

2)      Launch a branding / awareness campaign targeted at the Western region

3)      Conduct primary research with our customers to uncover detailed wants and needs

4)      Set aside a budget for publicity, promotion and demos for a independent marketing launch for our Z-2 line

Now, lay out your tactics

Tactics are the specific initiatives, tools and events needed to implement your strategies.  Each tactic has its role, timeline and budget.  Tactics should be managed by a marketing expert who is on top of today’s online and offline tools, resources and techniques.  Here are tactics to support just part of the first strategy from above:

1)      Tactics to drive new business sales of $2.5 million

1. Re-train sales force on product enhancements
2. Integrated sales lead generation campaign

i.      Install marketing automation software aimed at delivering at least 2 “sales ready” prospects to each sales rep each week

1. Pay-per-click ad campaign
2. Boost organic results of website’s top 4 keyword phrases via SEO
3. Direct mail campaign each quarter to 3,000 prospects
4. One white paper each month relating to technical advances and problem solving
5. Follow up our Fall trade show prospects after each day of the show via mobile marketing with video

As you can see, marketing planning is not all that complicated – but you do have to set the time aside to do so (hint: get out of the office to do this.)  Here are a few other tips:

Assess

In the planning stage, it’s important to assess your market presence, your selling environment, your uniqueness (what sets your company apart from your competitor), and your strengths and constraints.

Write

We recommend a written marketing / advertising / sales / communications plan.  You need the blueprint to refer to.

Creative

Make sure that your creative approach supports your marketing communications plan; that your identity, website, collateral, ads, packaging business cards, etc. are consistent in look, feel, and messaging.

Implement

Assess the scope of the marketing work and determine what human resources you’ll need to carry out the plan.  Get outside help if necessary.

Measure the ROI

With today’s robust analytics you can measure results from many tactics almost immediately, allowing you to re-assess tactics and adjust on the fly.

Integrate

Ensure that your marketing, advertising and support activities are always aligned with your sales goals, and that both sales and marketing personnel are part of the marketing strategy team.

Good luck with your planning!

The post Easy B2B Marketing Plan Outline appeared first on DIY Marketers.

In the b-to-b space, “task” budgeting is often the best method.

One of the most often-asked questions of b-to-b marketers, “How do I determine or set my marketing-advertising budget?”  Let’s look at some options…

The most common business-to-business marketing budget approaches are:

1)      A percentage of expected sales revenue

2)      A percentage of last year’s budget (up or down)

3)      A number given to marketing by top management

4)      The task method

We feel that the best way to arrive at your budget is the last one above, the “task” method.

Here’s how this budgeting approach works in b-to-b space, and why it makes sense:

• You have certain objectives to meet.
• You have strategies defined to support those objectives.
• You’ve identified the best methods (your tactics, or tasks) to support your strategies.
• Those tasks are defined in your b-to-b marketing plan (under “tactics”) and each has a cost.  The total cost of those tactics is your advertising-marketing budget.

So now you say, “Well, what if those tasks cost too much?  What if we simply can’t afford to spend that much on our ad-marketing plan?”

Here are a few perspectives on that, and why the task budgeting approach is still, we feel, the best and the most flexible method of b2b marketing budgeting:

First, if a budget is too rich for the corner office, tactics can be trimmed while retaining their purpose: either trimmed down in scope, or maybe there’s a different tactic available to achieve the same goal at a lower cost (example: online ads instead of trade magazines).  Or maybe the frequency of a tactic is trimmed.  The key is, your tasks must still support the strategies that you defined. So, trim down the tactics maybe, but keep your focus.

Second, your marketing staff needs to be realistic in terms of deciding on the tactics; both in terms of the scope and the cost of each tactic.  Therefore, marketing needs to educate themselves (perhaps with the help of a good advertising-marketing agency) on what tools and methods – from sales tools to online presence – are available out there to support the sales-marketing effort.  Education needs to be ongoing, as tactics – especially online ones – are changing constantly.  This way, your marketing budgeting is viewed – as it should be – as a process, not a one-time exercise.

Third, a sound marketing plan is a sales and marketing plan, so some line items in the task list can (should) come out of the sales department’s budget (example: a new CRM solution or a sales training program.)  We stress once again the importance of sales and marketing working together on the marketing plan, and for top management to approve sales-cost budgets that allow for investments that support the sales effort.

Finally, be sure that you take marketing budgeting seriously.  You spend time to budget for other things, plan for other things, research new equipment or software or processes for your plant or office – so you should devote the same amount of effort and focus when it comes to your marketing budgeting.

The post How to Set a Marketing Budget for Your Small Business appeared first on DIY Marketers.