How to implement marketing plan if there is no money?

Are you having a headache with marketing? Is your cash flow broken and you have no spare money? You may need to make a thorough marketing plan! This article will teach you how to make a thorough marketing plan so that you will no longer be confused!

Maybe it’s time to think outside the “marketing” box .

In the past, when making a marketing plan, you first needed to know how much money you had, then see how much budget you would need for routine matters (such as annual conferences, various investments, product launches, etc.), what else you could do with the remaining money, and then think about what innovative projects you could have.

Later, various planning templates and methodologies became popular in the market. First, do market analysis, then use information room and timetable to make plans.

But this set of methods is mostly suitable for slightly larger companies, and there is a prerequisite - sufficient budget.

In today’s world of tight budgets or no money at all, marketing matters that have nothing to do with results are put on hold. How can plans be carried out?

Even if you rack your brains to come up with a plan that "sees the big picture from the small", you often face a soul-searching question: "How much performance can it bring?"

It has to be said that under the pressure of various uncertainties such as the overall business environment and technological changes, marketers must think more from a business perspective and do marketing well only if they can spend money and make money.

The marketing plan also needs to develop from 1.0 to 3.0. You can compare the current situation of your company and try to move to a higher level to improve your skills in a targeted manner. Let’s talk about it in detail.

1.0 Phase

The marketing department first submits the budget based on its own experience, in order to give the boss and the financial director a rough idea of ​​the magnitude of the money to be spent. Should it be 500,000, 2 million, or 10 million?

Many companies also estimate their marketing expenses based on a certain percentage of their turnover . For example, 10% is unreasonable for many technology companies, and is far from enough for mature consumer product companies.

For companies that think this way, the marketing department’s main job is execution.

Do as much as you are paid for. If you only have 500,000, then only do the big projects and cut the others. But there is no specific reason for doing this, it is just based on experience.

The evaluation indicators are not very clear. The boss's KPI is the marketing department's KPI. When the company achieves performance, the marketing department can get some symbolic performance or bonus.

After a long time, the bosses wondered if the money they spent had any effect. The customers they brought back from the exhibition did not follow up much, and they had a lot of followers on their official accounts, but which of them turned into sales?

So marketers are under pressure to explain why the money is being spent and what effect the money will have.

At this time, you start to learn MTL (market to leads methodology) and start to study policy trends, industry development, market trends, competition analysis... The marketing plan can be dozens of pages long or hundreds of pages long. Naturally, the work of the marketing department seems much more sophisticated.

But the problem is that after all this preparation, we still end up with a list of activities. There is always something missing in the middle (logically).

But at least it’s not just about execution, it’s about entering the next stage.

Phase 2.0

Are the macro-environment analysis and external influences mentioned above of any practical use for planning?

Yes, it is useful for senior management to make business strategy choices, but it is not very effective for market planning.

For example, after analyzing economic data and consumer habits, we found that customers have higher requirements for cost-effectiveness (although this is obvious, but digital talks). If there is no suitable product or the business direction does not match, this information is "in vain".

What do the bosses care about? Of course, is there any sound after spending money? Is there any visible effect? ​​For consumer products, it is about the conversion of planting seeds, and for enterprise services, it is about how many customer inquiries are there and how many are converted into transactions...

Marketers in the 2.0 stage are the most uncomfortable.

On the one hand, they do not participate in the sales process, but demand sales results.

On the other hand, other departments (sales, products, R&D, operations, supply chain, etc.) still think of the marketing department as executing activities, placing advertisements, writing copy, and shooting videos.

At this time, when discussing market professional quantitative indicators and requiring sales to follow up on conversions, it is often difficult to reach a consensus.

CMOs began to realize that the marketing department cannot be limited to "marketing" but must be more involved in the business and entered the 3.0 stage.

Phase 3.0

The CMO participates in the formulation of business strategy and works with other departments to understand how to achieve it and what the marketing department can do. For example:

The sales department wants to expand into fifth-tier cities, so what can the marketing department do?

The product department wants to launch a product targeting overseas customers. How can the marketing department help?

The channel department plans to recruit overseas partners. What resources and methods does the marketing department have to quickly help partners expand their markets?

Once you have them all listed, prioritize them.

For example, in the three strategies mentioned above, the development of fifth-tier cities is more important. The marketing department puts forward a professional "proposal", which includes ROI (input and output estimates) and the need for cooperation from the sales department, commissions/bonuses that the marketing department can obtain, etc.

If the proposal is approved, it will be implemented, and the same applies to others.

In addition to its own area of ​​expertise, the marketing department has also become an “internal solution provider”.

Of course, the difficulty and pressure are raised to a higher level, but it is truly engaging in the business.

Members of different marketing departments also need to make adjustments when making plans:

1. Director/CMO level

You need to truly understand the business (not just sales, but also products, supply chain, finance, etc.), pay attention to profit indicators, product strategies, market competition, etc. Only by aligning your strategy with your boss can you get approval for the overall plan, budget, and assessment method for the whole year.

2. Middle level

Put forward your own targeted suggestions to achieve specific business indicators. For example:

The head of digital marketing proposes plans for customer acquisition and operations based on the needs of developing small and medium-sized customers and can estimate the achievable business goals.

The product marketing manager proposes budget and sales forecasts, global promotion plans, etc. based on the launch plan.

3. Execution layer

Try to close the loop on what you do as much as possible.

For example, in content marketing, we should be more proficient in the global self-media promotion and conversion paths, while paying attention to output and using data to show the results.

Only when business thinking is established at all levels and work is broken down into quantifiable tasks, can plans be made to serve the company's business goals.

It can be said that the process from 1.0 to 3.0 is the advancement of marketers from executors in the past to business-oriented marketing experts.

This process was painful, but through close communication with the executive team and CEO, the marketing department’s voice and influence were strengthened.

The value that marketers are struggling with and the difficulty in communicating with sales have become less prominent. Everyone serves the business, with different divisions of labor, and only through collaboration can true knowledge be achieved.

Author: Hanni

Source public account: Time Notebook (ID: 1089517)