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4 minute read
A lot of hard work goes into developing a marketing plan so it can be frustrating when a leader or decision maker requests to see it at a lower budget point, or have elements removed from it.
It can feel quite demoralising after carefully thinking through what needs to be included to hit the objective, versus what doesn’t, for someone to then essentially re-write it.
I know the feeling because I’ve been there.
But on reflection, I could have done more to take leaders on the journey of my thinking so they better understand how all the elements are designed to work together, and removing one or more, or reducing budget would have an impact on the outcome.
Later in my career, I honed this skill however. Below are some key considerations that marketers can plan ahead for to ensure marketing plans get the seal of approval.
Ensure your clear on what success look like
Marketers aren’t magicians. We can’t magic up results from thin air. But without knowing what success looks like to the business, i.e. which metric is the business leader watching, we run the risk of designing a marketing plan that will deliver results, just not the right ones, or most important ones.
If the business is geared towards building market share, then that’s what the marketing plan needs to contribute to.
If the business is geared towards driving incremental revenue, then that’s the what the marketing plan needs to contribute to.
If the business is geared towards being number 1 in market… you get it.
If a marketing plan is geared towards the correct objective and you tell the story of how each element will contribute, the ears of leaders and decision makers will be tuned in.
Take a data-led approach to developing your marketing plan - and keep all the workings
Using historical performance along with other data and evidence, ensure that everything included in the plan either directly contributes to the objective, or supports another element in contributing to the objective and be ready to evidence this should leaders or decision-makers question it.
Also be ready to show the estimated impact on the objective if an element were removed, for example, if we remove or reduce budget of ‘x’, then that will reduce the number of new customers (or retained customers) by ‘y’, correlating with a ‘z’ deficit against the objective.
Use funnels to estimate impact of individual elements of the marketing plan, which can then be reviewed with leaders and decision makers to show the assumptions made in how an element goes from a number of impressions to a number of customers or revenue. Back-up the assumptions with the trends found in historical data to really impress.
Don’t be surprised if leaders question the funnel or assumptions and be open-minded and curious to learn if they have new information that changes your funnel - it’s all part of the process of building respect and trust with a data-led approach.
Alternatively, take leaders and decision-makers on the journey as you do the background workings, avoiding this situation altogether as they will have provided support with the funnels before the marketing plan is developed.
Taking this approach will make it much easier for leaders and decision makers to understand the impact of your plan and respect the process, making them more careful in any changes they request. They may still require changes but hopefully they’d be compelled to take a more consultative approach with you. For example instead of: “take $10k off the plan”, you may receive a “what would be your recommendation if the budget was $10k lower?”
Prepare three different scenarios
If the marketing plan was built using a data-led approach, it’s quite easy to prepare different scenarios based on varying budget envelopes. All the workings are there, it’s just a case of packaging it up in different ways.
You may have three different budget weights you want to position, or you may go with a ‘status quo’ (consistent budget with current envelope), ‘test and learn’ (current envelope plus a test and learn envelope), ‘growth’ (the budget required to achieve the business objective, within reason) approach.
Either way, decide which option is the one you want to get approved, perhaps the middle option. Think about not only the benefits of how that plan will contribute to the business objective, but think more broadly about dependencies into other teams, resource requirements and benefits to the business. This will help round out the plan pitch to be attractive. I.e. we could achieve ‘x’ with little dependencies or additional resource (i.e. no additional cost to the business), but we’ll see ‘y’ benefits (i.e. disprove or validate interesting hypotheses, find pathways to growth without wasting budget or time, etc.)
When you’re pitching your plans, start with the lowest budget or status quo and work your way up. By the time you’ve presented the highest budget or growth plan, the middle option will probably be looking pretty good.
Psychologically, this also gives leaders and decision makers the feeling of having choice, hopefully meaning their energy is pulled towards that choice and away from nitpicking a single marketing plan provided for approval.
Think like a leader, your marketing plan is a business case
Taking this approach is more akin to treating your marketing plan like a business case, which most leaders will really appreciate. Not only does it reduce their cognitive load by speaking their language (particularly if they’re not a marketer themselves), but it builds trust, respect and in time reliance on the marketer.
The added benefit of this approach is that when the results start coming in, marketers and leaders can compare actual results with the funnel assumptions from the workings, and make the necessary adjustments.
This data-led approach to optimisations is much less stressful and can avoid situations where a marketer is blamed for something not working as expected, the emphasis being on the data instead.
It also allows for quicker diagnosis of where an issue might live so time and energy can be directed in the appropriate place, rather than wasting time on the wrong exercise.
