How To Create A Real Marketing Strategy Plan: Part 1

Yesterday I kicked off a series on what to do before you buy any advertising. Today, we’ll expand starting with the first point:

You need to know who you are from 4 different perspectives:

1. Your insider knowledge of who you are.

Knowing who you are and who/what your business is what will help you not just decide what to do with your advertising, it is a critical bit of information needed as you plan your future.  If you are the founder of your company, you may have this information locked in your head.  If you are further down the food chain, you need to do some digging.

Start writing stuff down.  Not a detailed inventory list per say, but a list of the stuff you/your company does/sells/provides.

You will need to ask some pretty basic questions.

Such as:

What do we do?

What do we make?

What do we sell?

And then as you go along and jot down your answers, start asking additional questions:

Why do we…

How do we…

Where do we…

This is not a 20 minute exercise.  This will take some time.

Dig deep. When someone answers a question, respond with, “Tell me more…”

Depending on the size and scope of your business, you may need to talk to several others and ask these questions over and over.

And always ask each person before you are done, “Is there anything else we haven’t talked about?”

Keep this process conversational, not like a cold, formal interview.

A day or two after each of these conversations and note taking exercises, go back to each person if possible and review with them the notes you took during your conversation and ask them if there is anything they would like to add.

Or if this is a solo exercise you are doing, put your notes away for a day or two and then pull them out and read what you wrote and see what else you would add.

Once you have completed this process, you will either have gained some insight on your business, or at least clarified your business model.  Either way, it is important to have this knowledge.

You need to know where you are before you can map out a plan to reach your destination.

We’ll continue this tomorrow.  Need help? Contact me.