I had a meeting recently with the national CEO of a healthcare advocacy organization. This organization has been in existence for many years and is greatly valued for its education and outreach to patients, providers, caregivers, etc. I was asked, “If you could give me one piece of marketing advice to take this organization to the next level, what would it be?” Well, I immediately thought of about 50 suggestions, but I asked to first see their marketing plan. The reaction was a blank stare. Then, the questions began: “What marketing plan? …Isn’t that for big businesses like Ford, Coke and Microsoft?” “We can’t afford to have a marketing plan, can we?” My first reaction to this barrage was, “You can’t afford not to have one!” 

Every organization needs a marketing plan, whether you are a one-person business or a Fortune 500 company. Your plan can be as simple as writing down the answers to several questions: 

• What are you selling? Is it a product or service? Can you explain it to me in less than 50 words? 
• Who are your competitors? What are they doing?
• What makes your product or service unique? What are the advantages and disadvantages for your product or service verses theirs?
• Where are you selling your product or service? Are there opportunities to be leveraged?
• Who are you selling the product or service to? What distinguishes these buyers?  
• What message or selling point will drive buyers, members or constituents to you?
• What is the best way to contact or communicate with your potential buyers? For example, one-on-one sales, advertising, PR, online, social networking, etc.
• What resources do you need to be successful?
• What is your budget?
• What does success look like? How are you measuring results?

Once you have the answers to these questions, put them on paper and share it with everyone in your organization. Everyone needs to buy into this marketing effort. Perhaps they might have additional ideas or recommendations to incorporate into the plan.

A marketing plan is not an exercise to be completed once a year and then filed on the bookshelf until next year. It is a guide for success. Don’t let the fear of writing the perfect plan keep you from getting started. Spend your time thinking through the answers and implementing the actions. Now, after you have done this, come back to me and I will give you my original 50 suggestions!

Tags: business marketing, business success, Marketing, marketing plan

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Marketing, The Big Picture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.