Planning is the root of all success. While luck can help you succeed from time to tome, when you want true, measured success you must plan for it. Perhaps Benjamin Franklin said it best, “When you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”.
Planning simply makes outcomes more predictable, and you want to be able to predict your success so you can duplicate it time and time again. Planning is important to your marketing success, as well as overall business success for many reasons including:
Planning Places You in a Position to Succeed
You want your business and marketing plan to succeed. For success happen you need more than want or hope. Instead, planning needs to take place. Your planning may involve questions such as:
- What is your product or business offering?
- Who is your target audience?
- How will you reach your target audience?
- What problem will you solve for your target audience?
- Do you have messaging that will build brand loyalty?
- Do you have a website that will serve your needs and the needs of your audience?
- Do you come across as a thought leader in your business?
This is just the tip of the iceberg when considering how to plan, but it is a great place to start. With some research and perhaps some guidance, you will be on your way to success.
Planning Allows You to Measure Progress
Without proper planning, you will have a difficult time measuring progress. True progress is measurable. When you have a concrete, actionable marketing plan, you’ll have hard numbers to look at that will allow you to determine, without bias, if you are making progress. If you aren’t making progress, you can look at your plan and see where things broke down. Without a plan, you may simply be treading water and not know it.
Planning Helps with Decision Making
Making decisions in business and marketing can be difficult. There are usually many factors that affect our decisions. Yet, when you have a solid plan, you will find that decisions are much easier to make because they are either in line with your plan or they are not. Approaching decision making from a point of how it aligns with your plan will reduce stress and allow you to move in the right direction every step of the way.
Stability and Organization
When you are implementing a new marketing plan, planning will help the process be much more stable and organized. Your plan will guide you, step by step. It’s easy to make knee-jerk reactions when implementing something new, but these reactions aren’t always conducive to your success. Referring to your marketing plan will make sure things stay organized and stable.
Convergent1 Can Help You Plan
Now that you know failing to plan is truly planning to fail, you may feel like you need some help. One of the best ideas in planning is calling on resources when you need them. We would love to be a resource for you. We call planning MAP, Marketing Action Planning. It is in-depth, detailed, actionable, and measurable and has allowed for companies like yours to succeed again and again.
