The lockdown may have smashed a gaping hole right through your marketing plan for 2020. You may serve sectors that have been particularly hard hit. Some of your prospects or existing clients may have already gone to the wall.
Many of the assumptions, aims and actions set out in your previous marketing plan may no longer hold water. Your marketing plan may not have been working anyway. And, whether through lack of time or knowledge, some smaller accountants don’t have a marketing plan, which may be limiting their growth.
Although many are understandably feeling slightly dazed and confused at the moment, doing nothing isn’t an option. All businesses must act if they are to get back on track, and creating a new marketing plan could really help your recovery.
“Planning is bringing the future into the present, so we can do something about it now”
Why create a marketing plan?
As once explained by celebrated American time-management author, Alan Lakein: “Planning is bringing the future into the present, so we can do something about it now”. Lakein is also credited with the often-quoted adage: “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.
This is a slight over-simplification, because businesses without marketing plans aren’t necessarily doomed to failure. Moreover, marketing plans don’t guarantee success, because things don’t always pan out as expected. But planning can increase your chances of success, while enabling you to make the most out of available opportunities.
You can develop a marketing plan for your entire business or just a specific product, service, market or customer type. Your marketing plan need not be long or intricate, in fact, the shorter and simpler the better (the KISS principle certainly applies). Most marketing plans are for periods of one to three years.
Marketing plan basics
In essence, marketing is how you get prospects and customers interested in buying your products or services (after that, you’re into selling). The marketing process involves research, creating a service or product (sometimes), promoting, selling and distributing your wares.
According to Susan Ward: “When you’re putting together a marketing plan, concentrate on four key components – products/services, promotion, distribution and pricing.” Success rests on offering the right things for the right price in the right way, while ensuring that enough people know who you are and what you sell. Ward says creating and implementing a marketing plan can help you to keep your marketing efforts better focused, so that you ultimately make more sales.
If your market knowledge is out of date or lacking, your marketing plan will be flawed. If necessary, undertake up-to-date market research. Your plan must also summarise your offer (including your USP) and your market (ie its size, value, trends, etc), your target customers, your competitors and your market position. All of the above should also be up to date.
“The most crucial marketing plan aims are linked to sales, expressed in numbers or percentages, linked to those detailed in your business plan ”
Setting marketing plan aims
Take enough time to consider your marketing plan aims, which should be SMART (ie specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound). If they’re specific, you know exactly what you’re trying to achieve. If they’re measurable, you can assess your performance.
Ambition is a great thing, but there’s no point in setting unrealistic marketing plan aims, because you’ll only fail. You should set milestones and a deadline for your marketing plan, because then you’ll be able to assess your progress.
Your marketing plan goals could include increasing awareness of your brand, launching new services and targeting new customers and entering new markets. However, the most crucial marketing plan aims are linked to sales, expressed in numbers or percentages, linked to those detailed in your business plan.
“If you spend time creating a sound marketing plan, it could make a big difference to your ability to survive and thrive in these challenging times”
Marketing plan strategy
Now you must decide your marketing tactics or marketing strategy, in other words – how you’ll achieve your marketing plan goals. Key options include search engine, email and content marketing, PR, social media and advertising, while word-of-mouth recommendations remain important to many small accountancy firms. Most businesses use a mix of tactics, and if don’t know which ones work best – test, measure and learn.
Once you’ve decided your marketing tactics, calculating their cost allows you to set and allocate your marketing budget. Closely monitoring which marketing tactics are delivering the required results will enable you to assess your return on investment. Over time, you’ll be able to allocate your marketing spend where it’s most likely to deliver your marketing and business plan objectives.
Finally, creating a marketing plan that you never use is pointless. If you spend time creating a sound marketing plan, it could make a big difference to your ability to survive and thrive in these challenging times. To quote another popular business adage, action without planning can prove fatal, but planning without action is futile.
• With 15 years’ experience as a leading writer of small-business content, Mark Williams is the founder of Dead Good Content, which specialises in writing bespoke and ready made SME blog and news content for accountancy firms and others that want to market their services to small businesses.
