Creating a Usable Marcom Plan

Once upon a time, marketing communications plans were dense tomes that took months to develop, hours to present, and a marketing degree to actually implement. Thank goodness those days are over.

Today’s marcom plan is all about being practical, straightforward, and nimble.

Who + What + How = Strategy

Start with a simple formula for articulating your strategy. Who do you want to persuade (target audience), what do you want them to do (desired action), and how will you do it (your means to inspire behaviors or actions)?

Let’s use an example of a possible strategy for our blog.

• Who: Potential clients that fit our niche
• What: Hire our firm for branding work
• How: By providing usable resources and thought-provoking content

Put it together as a strategic statement:

Our strategy is to inspire viable prospects to hire our firm for branding work by providing usable resources and thought-provoking content.

Map it out

Once you know your strategy, it’s time to map out your plan. Keep it simple, specific, and measurable. Indicate where you’re going (your goals), how you plan to get there (your strategy), and what you will do to accomplish your goals (tactics and channels). And remember to allow for ways to learn and adjust as you go.

Let’s continue with our example.

Goals: Increase new business leads from our website by 25%.

Strategy: Inspire viable prospects to hire our firm for branding work by providing usable resources and thought-provoking content on our blog.

Tactics & Channels: Develop a relevant content calendar; write one blog post per week; utilize thought-leading guest bloggers; promote website through social media; track site traffic; adjust topics based on visitor interest; revise content calendar quarterly; track origins of new business leads.

Live it

Once you have a plan, don’t file it away. Use it—daily if you can. Identify specific tasks and assign responsibilities for each tactic. Bring it to every marketing meeting. Track your progress, make adjustments, and refine as you go. Planning isn’t something you do once a year anymore. To stay relevant and current with your target audiences, it has to be something you do continuously throughout the year.