Developing an online marketing plan is an absolute necessity for any organization attempting to promote its brand online. Statistics reveal that although half of all marketers have an active online program, they’re not incorporating any real strategy behind it.
The problem is that many companies think they already have too many plans and strategies on their plate to deal with and that by writing them down will create issues with ownership and integration. Some marketers think digital plans aren’t really useful since marketing approaches and new technologies evolve so quickly. In other words, they think they simply don’t have enough time and resources to sit down and actually write a plan down.
However, wouldn’t marketers benefit by putting a smart and useful online marketing plan in place? The answer is yes, and here are some reasons why you should implement an online marketing plan as well.
1. Provides you better focus and clear direction.
Organizations that don’t follow a written marketing approach likely do have some sense of their general tactics online and how to implement them, but probably don’t correctly define some of the most important aspects. Without clear and specific goals, it’s much more difficult to know and understand precisely what you need to be doing online in order to achieve your essential goals.
2. A central plan puts everybody on the same page.
Making sure there’s wide support regarding your online activity within your organization is no easy feat. But, it’s a great deal easier to implement if you have a core plan that clearly outlines the steps you need to take in order to accomplish your goals as well as determining how it works with your other marketing strategies. It also provides a way to measure its overall effectiveness. All of a sudden you have a plausible and workable online program to follow that can be defended as well as supported instead of just a good idea that you dabble in from time to time.
3. A solid plan will diminish duplication.
No matter how limitless your resources or tight budget you have, it means nothing without a solid plan in place so you can use them to their full potential.
According to Signpost, “Duplication is often seen in larger companies where different aspects of the marketing division are using or purchasing different tools in order to perform the exact same marketing tasks online. What’s the solution? A well-written strategy would prevent this from happening and get everyone better organized overall.”
4. You’ll use fewer resources.
If your organization is working off of ideas rather than real strategies, it will literally be impossible to determine ahead of time what your online marketing plan requires in terms of budget. Also, how will you know what types of skills your staff needs in order to incorporate it? Wouldn’t it be easier and more efficient to effectively make a case if you could present a long-term marketing plan for both your staff members and your budget?
5. Planning keeps you ahead of the game.
Every organization with an online presence will inevitably have analytics. However, not all senior managers ensure their staff takes the necessary time to review and act accordingly based on the data.
A sensible marketing plan will naturally incorporate testing into your particular program that will ensure you are constantly improving.
Another benefit of having a plan in place is optimization. Any good strategy will benchmark the activity of your team and clearly define what goals are necessary in order to measure what is and isn’t working.
Developing a good marketing plan isn’t a monumental, complicated task. You can start by writing down just some of your goals and go from there. That simple task alone will impact what you’re already doing online and encourage you to develop a more comprehensive plan in the near future.
