By Andrew Hinkle, Director of Consulting

You probably don’t need me to tell you, but 2019 is only 89 days away. And if you’re keeping score at the office, that equates to 66 working days. If you haven’t begun to create you marketing strategy for next year, that is most likely a scary statement. Now, before you break into a cold sweat and begin freaking out; let me give you some good news. This blog is all about breaking the creation of your 2019 marketing strategy into 5 manageable steps.

As a marketing professional, someone that spends his days helping others create and execute marketing strategies; even I still get that moment of anxiety, thinking about putting together an annual plan. But by using the 5 points we are about to cover, I am able to assess and create a plan for the firms I work with.

To make this easier for you, I have also included an estimated number of hours to work through each step. Are you ready? Then read on…

1. Where Do You Stand?  The first thing you need to do is have an accurate understanding of the current state of your business along with your service offering. This knowledge will have direct bearing on the steps to come. The most common method to determine your position is by going through a traditional SWOT analysis exercise. By defining your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats you will paint a clear picture of the position you are starting from while also highlighting the path you will take and the tools you will use. (Time: 10-12 hours)
2. Who’s Buying?  If you are a frequent reader of our blogs, then you know the importance of identifying your client or customer. Start with the easy facts first; age range, gender, income, geography, marriage status and family makeup. Then dig deeper; lifestyle, job role, important values, hobbies and interests. You are looking to create a brief but focused description of your clientele. (Time: 6-10 hours)
3. What’s the Destination? Sit down and write out your business and marketing goals. In creating this list think through how you will measure the success of each target. (Time: 10-12 hours)
4. How Will You Get There? This will be the most time-consuming portion of your planning. Now that you know your company’s strengths and opportunities, who you are selling to and what you want to accomplish; it’s time to create the steps of execution. Drawing on each step you will need to map out a communication and sales strategy for both warm and cold (referrals and public) prospects. Finalizing your marketing plan will involve reviewing the prospect interaction of your sales team individuals along with the support the rest of your team provides. So, make sure you think through each step of leading a prospect from introduction to closing the sale. (Time: 20-30 hours)
5. What Will You Spend? To make money, you have to spend it; is the age-old adage. As we’ve stated before, your budget is going to be dependent on the goals you establish. If you are looking to duplicate or modestly improve on the success of 2018, then your marketing budget should be between 5-7 percent of your total revenue. For those that are taking steps forward in the growth of your company, you should plan to spend 9-12 percent on your marketing efforts. (Time : 3-6 hours)

Ok, so now you know that you need to find 50-70 hours between now and the end of the year to focus on building your own marketing plan. I would recommend breaking this down into small steps. Look at your schedule and pencil in time to complete the steps 1-3 by the end of October. This leaves you all of November to create, revise and finalize step 4. Once you have the heavy lifting out of the way, the time you allocate for December can be centered on step 5 and any actions to prepare you for putting this in motion come January 1st.