Most Popular ArticlesAugust 11, 2009
Step 2: Plan your year
Now that you have decided which strategies and activities you wish to implement, it’s time to plan your year. Use the Construct a Marketing Plan & Budget worksheet to plan out specific activities to implement throughout the year. For now, write the activities you want to include under the appropriate category. For example, if you want to mail a quarterly newsletter to your clients, include “Client Newsletter” under the Client Referral heading. Then put an “X” in the month you wish to send the newsletter. Continue this with each activity you identified in Step 1 until you have a complete marketing calendar for the year.
Step 3: Create a budget
You now have a marketing calendar for the year and it’s time to see if it fits within your budget. Research how much each campaign or activity will cost. When you have determined their cost, replace the “X” you put on the calendar with the monthly dollar amount. In the example of the quarterly newsletter, you would have put an “X” in January, April, July and October, which would now be replaced by the cost of printing and mailing the newsletter – say $500. This will give you an annual client newsletter budget of $2,000. Once you have done this for every marketing activity, you can adjust your plan so that it fits within your budget. When you have finished adjusting your calendar and budget, you’ll find that you have successfully documented your marketing plan for the year.
Step 4: Implement the plan
Once you have created your plan, you need to follow it. Print out a calendar for the year and mark down the exact days you plan to implement each activity in your plan. This will give you a clear deadline to meet. If you don’t know when an activity will take place, just pick a day to the best of your knowledge. It’s better to get it on the calendar and be wrong about the date than to leave it off the calendar and forget about it all together. Keep this calendar in clear sight as a constant reminder of the tasks you have to accomplish each month in order to keep your plan on track.
Good luck - and remember that your success will be linked to your ability to stick to the plan.
Download the worksheet in .pdf or Excel formats. If you are not using Excel 2007, you will need to download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.
Excel Spreadsheet: Worksheet: Construct a Marketing Plan & Budget
PDF Document: Worksheet: Construct a Marketing Plan & Budget
* Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for financial advisors. Kristen works with independent advisors to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. For more information, visit http://www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net
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