Time and time again, I’ve been meeting small or medium-sized companies, even start-up businesses, to discuss their marketing needs, and in these chats, the situation has often got a little distressed about spend, activity, lack of direction and general uncertainty.

That being the case, one of the first things I’d suggest in this instance is to turn to your marketing plan – and if you don’t have one, I’d highly recommend that it’s something you invest in.

“Why?” you ask, “It’s unnecessary and expensive, and I won’t use it.”

 Planning saves money

An effective marketing plan will allow you to spend the best budget in the right place at the right time. This is a no-brainer for any business and/or start-up. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Effectiveness

Having a marketing plan in place will allow you to know what should be effective, measured and rewarding for your business in terms of marketing spend, collateral and brand building. If you’re effective in the channels used and media produced, this will result in a great foundation for your activity.

Measured

Each activity can be measured – sometimes using smart data and based on performance results at other times – but if you don’t plan this in advance, then why guess at the potential? If you measure the activity based on the plan, you’ll really see patterns in what’s working and what isn’t.

Data

Building a database of activities and engagements centred on your plan will help you to have a more refined and effective set of activities come the next quarter spend. This gives you tools to engage and deliver effective results from your marketing investment.

Brand building

An effective plan will form the bedrock of your brand building as the activity progresses in any given year. If you qualify this with measured reporting, the long-term results can be very effective regarding brand recognition vs the campaign and strategic work in any given year.

Time and planning

Who has spare time? You may be asking yourself this: “When should I do this activity?”; “How often should I do it?”; “What’s the best time to launch this product/service?”; and “When should I go to live events or to networking?” The plan will help you to implement all of this activity in any given quarter, and therefore it will help you to be effective, as well as being measured on budget and on time.

These are just a few points on why investing in a marketing plan with an integrated agency can be one of the better business decisions you’ll make. Whether your business is a start-up company or an established organisation, marketing has a key role to play in your success; if you want a better roadmap, then plan before you execute.

If you aren’t sure and want to have a no-obligation chat, please get in touch. richard@forty49.co.uk or call us on 01283 533196