90 Day Marketing Plans, Easier to Manage And Just As Effective

George Washington Carver once said, “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” As business owners, all of us have a vision; an idea of what we want to accomplish in and through our businesses.

But as inspiring as having a vision is, where it falters is in failed execution. In the book of Habakkuk, the writer encourages us to “write the vision, and make it plain.” We’re told to have a plan – a written plan. And if we’re honest, many of us don’t have a plan for our business, and even fewer of us have a written plan for our marketing.

Marketing plan, friend or foe

Well, it depends on who you ask. But let’s start by defining what it is.

Simply put, a marketing plan is a roadmap of your current and potential marketing efforts. It pinpoints where you are, and maps out the best route to get where you want to go. And while marketing plans vary in form and fashion, all hope to accomplish one goal – to define who your target market is and identify the best way for you to reach them with a branded message that compels them to take an action.

Sounds easy enough, right? Ask the person who’s ever tried to write one. Getting into the nuts and bolts of these things can be a daunting task. There’s strategies, tactics, objectives and financials… projections, analyses, table of contents, and executive summaries. It takes some work to pull together and even more so to execute.

The 90 Day Marketing Plan, effective and manageable

While all plans still require soul searching and research, innovation and metrics, the 90 day marketing plan is a welcomed alternative to its long form cousin. Just consider these five benefits:

1.  Carving up your marketing initiatives into four snackable servings (at three months each, you should be able to get four plans into one year) makes you more nimble, increasing your ability to quickly respond to changes in the market.

2.  Shorter burst of activity keeps you engaged in the plan because you go in knowing that you only have three months to accomplish your goals.

3.  Because the plan only last three months, you get results sooner and can make tweaks. There’s nothing worse than waiting a year to figure out that your email marketing isn’t working.

4.  The kickoff of each plan forces you to return back to your initial vision for a gut check. Are you still on target or have you lost sight of your original message?

5.  Each plan will build upon itself. After a year, you have a full blown marketing plan, twelve months of consistent activity and results to use as a baseline for the years to come.

And just think, you started just ninety days at a time.  Get started today.