It's already the last month of 2024. For the upcoming New Year of 2025, many companies will be considering marketing plans for next year. Marketing planning is an essential and challenging task for many marketers, team leaders, and department heads. It's because you need to set a company's strategic direction and present a viable roadmap. I'll tell you some tips on homework you want to do well and how to plan well for a marketing year that makes your company's growth goals a reality!
The reason why our team's annual plan was rejected
Including projects that have performed well this year, we have a wealth of new activities with bright ideas. However, the result has been disappointing, "request revision." If your well-written marketing annual plan has been rejected, there are two main reasons why.
First, there is a discrepancy with the management's priorities. The focus of the plan was different from what the company considers important right now. We need to gather management's opinions as much as possible and reflect the management's particular interest.
Second, return-on-investment (ROI) is unclear. When the expected performance of a marketing activity is unclear, the question arises whether you must do it. It's less convincing! It's important to clearly and specifically state what each activity will bring about and what ROI it will bring.
I brought some questions to consider at least once for a better marketing annual plan.
✅ Even if it's something you've been repeating for years, is it something you have to do next year?
✅ Are you ready with reliable data and statistics?
✅ If it's a new strategy you've never done before, add a specific action plan as well!
Marketing annual plan to persuade management
1) Results-based annual plan
Jim Lecinski, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business and a renowned marketing expert, recently interviewed Google to reveal how to plan strategic annual marketing. It's about setting up an annual plan based on results. It's not just an annual marketing plan that lists monthly activities, it's about making an outcome-based plan that recognizes them as key drivers of business growth. Simply put, it's about writing like an investment proposal, not an activity list.
First, define key performance indicators, such as sales and market share, that management considers important. Then, you recall the changes in customer behavior that are needed to achieve your goals. It is important to carefully analyze what the key changes to achieve your goals are - whether they are gaining new customers, increasing the purchasing power of existing customers, or increasing the frequency of purchases. Then, based on historical data and industry benchmarks, the average acquisition cost is taken into account to calculate the amount of marketing investment required to achieve your goals.
[example]
Maintains net profit margin over next three years, aims to increase gross operating profit by $2 million
→ Marketing team needs $100,000 marketing investment to generate $2 million profit
→ $100K WILL BE USED TO GET 1,000 NEW CUSTOMERS FOR THREE YEARS
→ The core activities required to secure 1,000 new customers are A, B, C
→ Writing action plans for each item A, B, and C: allocation of manpower, resources, and budget to be administered by item |
2) SMART Marketing Goals
The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reversible, Time-bound) goal management technique is a method proposed by Peter Drucker's MBO (Management by Object) to verify the validity of the goal. It is an extended goal setting technique by Professor Robert S. Ruben. This technique allows you to set up a strategic and actionable Key Performance Indicator (KPI), which can effectively promote your marketing strategy.
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① Specific
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Define your goals specifically and clearly.
Instead of "increase sales", we need to set it specifically, such as "increase online sales by 10%" to come up with a sophisticated action plan.
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| ② Measurable |
Goals should be measurable and able to assess progress.
Instead of "We will increase the number of customers", we express it in the same number as "200 new customers by 2Q".
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| ③ Achievable |
Goals should be realistically achievable.
Unrealistic goals can rather undermine motivation.
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| ④ Relevant |
The goals should be in line with the vision of the organization.
For example, if the goal of "increasing the number of SNS followers" is not directly related to the increase in sales of a company, it has little meaning as a goal.
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| ⑤ Time-bound |
Goals should be set in time to be achieved in a specific time frame.
Set clear goals in time, such as "Keeping customer repurchase rate at least 25% by the end of this year."
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SMART goal management techniques are useful for setting large organizational goals, but they can also be applied to individuals or small teams. In particular, team management allows team members to track their performance by checking their overall goals, and on the contrary, they learn how their work directly affects the performance of the organization.
What are your goals for next year? How does your marketing team contribute and produce results in that goal? I hope you create a great answer sheet to this question.
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