So often I've seen Marketing planning being either last years plans with a couple of things "dialed up" or "dial down" or a list of tactics. On the basis that, we must do this and that and should do this and that.
But no actual strategy. What is it that you are trying to achieve as a business?
All Marketing strategies need to follow the overall company objectives and be aligned if not integrated with the sales strategies.
In the past, strategy sessions involved doing work from the top down and then the bottom up. Often we have presented different scenarios to the board. For "A" budget the Board will get "X" and for "B" Budget the Board will get "Y".
Why is is so important that you don't keep changing the strategy?
You need to change your marketing based on market conditions, what is working and what isn't working. For example, the introduction of GDPR in May 2018 will have had an impact on a number of your tactics.
The changes in people's attitudes to advertising, use of ad-blockers, email marketing, cold calling etc, will also have an impact.
In my previous company, we took a decision to switch more and more budget into digital, so away from events. And certainly with the impacts on buyer behaviours, there should be a switch into social. Not stuffing social with corporate content, but building relationships, nurturing and having conversations with people on social.
It was interesting that more and more CMOs keep coming to us and saying "Marketing isn't working anymore" and if it's not working for them, maybe you need to change (even slightly) what you are doing? Depends on the company strategy, of course.
For many digital marketing managers, the strategy behind the work can be fuzzy. According to a 2017 report on the state of digital marketing , the majority of marketing managers surveyed said content was one of the most effective aspects of digital marketing. Yet, only 53% reported that they had a documented content strategy in place.
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