The first component of an effective marketing plan is usually the most overlooked.
Most plans or strategies include the tactical aspects (i.e., the content we will post or the platforms we will use). In addition, most have some level of goals or metrics.
But few include what your plan should be based on:
A diagnosis.
The first thing you need to do before building your marketing plan is figuring out where you are.
What’s working?
What’s not working?
Where are your main challenges or obstacles?
Where are your main opportunities?
Few plans include a diagnosis. Instead, they jump right into tactics and set overly aggressive goals.
Few people take the time to step back and analyze the field of play before writing their plan.
Without this liminal space to understand the pulse of marketing and the business, you cannot create a plan that addresses the significant obstacles and opportunities.
The diagnosis is the first component of a good strategy, as Richard Rumelt defines it in his monumental book Good Strategy–Bad Strategy.
He defines the diagnosis as a judgment about the meaning of facts. That’s where this gets tricky.
We will all come to different meanings from similar data. To create an effective diagnosis, you need to be honest, leading to a plan that works.
Sadly, honesty and marketing are opposites. Rather than facing the ugly truth, we lie to ourselves that our current messaging or marketing is working or will eventually work.
This inability to be radically honest hinders the ability to lay an objective diagnosis.
This is why outside marketing help is often effective when creating a plan. They will be unemotional to your business and have an “outside the woods” view of your business and marketing.
I’m not advocating hiring a marketing agency to create your marketing strategy. Sadly, most agencies are specialized and will only push their specialty (i.e., SEO, content marketing, ABM).
Another workaround would be finding people in your organization that are open to giving their honest diagnosis of the business and marketing. Using others outside of marketing or management enables unique perspectives leading to a better strategy.
Do you include a diagnosis when you build out your marketing plans?
What do you believe is most important in a marketing plan/strategy?
🧠 + ❤️ // JO