You get assigned to create a marketing plan for your company’s new product launch. What is the best process to follow toward success? The following is the advice I often give clients.
Creating a Marketing Plan
Identify the stakeholders. Who is going to have knowledge that can be useful in crafting your plan? In some businesses, it can be a product manager or someone from the business development team. Usually, they have in-depth knowledge of the industry and the sub-category you are focused on with this new product.
Organize a preliminary meeting with one stakeholder at a time. Depending on the size of the organization, you may have five stakeholders you’ll need to work with on this project. Start at the lowest rung possible and work your way up the ladder. By doing smaller, one-on-one meetings with stakeholders (Sales, finance, etc.) you get more focus and attention and they get invested in the plan’s success.
Ask each stakeholder to answer some fundamental questions:
- WHO – Who specifically is the target to communicate with? Get the names of the company’s they work for, their titles and anything you can find about other influences on the decision. Build this into a database that you can access for direct mail, email or other communications.
- WHAT– What are THE top 3 selling points, advantages or benefit that the product has as you answer the critical question, what problem are we solving?
- WHEN – Get clarity on timing, Start, launch, finish and follow-up dates matter. Is a fixed date like a trade show critical to a tactical event like a press release?
- HOW MUCH– How much is available to spend. Spell it out as best as possible. Outline the cashflow and timing for everyone to see.
Propose a campaign idea – a concept, an approach
I like to jumpstart the project by sharing an idea. It helps to get the conversation moving along so that you can capture areas you might have missed. (in-store signs or video displays, for example). As you outline some preliminary thoughts, you can ask the subject matter expert (SME) to help the team understand who these people, where you’ll reach them effectively, etc. Think about AIDA (awareness, interest, desire and action).
Write the brief
Summarize in one to three pages the overall idea. Send it out to the stakeholders and ask for their input, edits or changes within ten days. Offer to meet with them in person. You may need to schedule one group meeting to review it all in person once you have settled on an approach. Don’t forget to see if you can present the plan to the sales team either at a meeting or on a quick conference call. Own it and take charge so that no one can say — why didn’t you tell me you were doing this.
You may have a top leader (EVP Marketing, CEO, Management Team) who should get a brief 15-minute overview. Offer to provide it to them but recognize that they too will want to tweak and alter your effort. Don’t review it too late in the process with that top person so you have time to make minor adjustments.
Execute the plan
While in execution mode, you will want to get stakeholder buy-in as you develop assets (digital or print). You’ll want to bring the group along with you and over communicate the action, even if it is just an FYI or status update. It also helps to remind everyone; the mailing begins September 1st; the ads run in Oct/Nov, and so on. Keep everyone updated via email so they know how things are progressing.
Review the Results
Most plans fail to do post-mortems that ask the question, how did we do against our success goals? Did we achieve them? If yes, hurray – if no, why? Did we achieve the momentum and hard-to-measure enthusiasm we wanted to gain?
Like most things, the real work is in the details. But with a well-structured framework, a clear communication path, and a follow-up review plan, you are off to a great start.
Ready. Set. Market.
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Do you need help putting some crisp planning processes in place? I can help. Plan on connecting here.
Photo: Free Creative Commons https://pixabay.com/en/building-plan-laptop-visit-plan-681317/
