For many small businesses, a comprehensive annual marketing plan doesn’t make sense.
Businesses love to create robust annual marketing plans that seem to take almost as many hours to write as they do to execute. Those documents can light up c-suite eyeballs and foster a few “atta-boys”, but usually they’re forgotten by the end of Q1. And unfortunately a large proportion of those plans are not brought to fruition due to staff bandwidth, shifting priorities, or new and timely initiatives.
Here’s what I advise:
In your annual marketing plan, set your marketing goals, complete your competitor audit, and make note of your best converting tactics and themes. Then each quarter, create the tactical communication and content plan that will help you to fulfill your annual marketing plan and reach your marketing goals.
Consider businesses with a comprehensive marketing plan for 2020. You may as well have thrown that right in the trash by April 1! All that work wasted! A flexible annual document with clear goals and benchmarks will keep your marketing on track, no matter what’s on the horizon for your company, your industry, or the world.