Oct 14

Oct 14 How to align your marketing plan with your business strategy

Your business strategy is the force that drives your company’s vision and mission. It represents a clear and concise description of what your business does and how you plan to accomplish its goals. To align these strategies with your marketing plan, you must ensure that these two important elements are compatible, complementary, and cohesive.

The ultimate purpose of a business strategy is to achieve short- and long-term company goals. To meet these goals, you must first know more about marketing and tailor it to suit your business strategies. For starters, you may want to take the time to educate yourself, as well as your team, on best practices.

Here are some ideas you can employ to align your marketing plan with your business strategy:

1.Use Your Business Strategy In Your Marketing Plan

Use the goals you have outlined in your business strategy to create specific objectives within each section of your marketing plan. For example, if the goal of your business strategy is to expand to new markets, conducting market research will provide you with the information you need to determine which new areas are most appropriate for your products or services. The results will also help you narrow down your target market.

2. Research On Industry Changes And Act Immediately

Identify the important changes happening within the industry, especially the ones that could impact your company’s business strategies. These changes may include technological advancements, economic shifts, or other events that affect how businesses operate today. Use specific examples from these trends to support ideas within each section of your marketing plan, illustrating how they could affect future plans for sales growth, product development, branding initiatives, etc. Identifying these trends will allow you to set goals based on future projections rather than data from past performance.

3. Set Clear Objectives

Create a critical path, which includes a detailed timeline indicating when each objective should be completed and by whom it will be achieved. For example, if ‘expanding into new markets’ is an objective within your plan, indicate which locales you intend to focus on first and give a time frame for further expansion (i.e., open three new locations within one year). Make sure to clearly establish who will complete each task, along with the time frame for completion.

4. Share Your Vision And Mission With Your Team

Your marketing team needs to clearly understand the vision and mission of your company to effectively create marketing campaigns that support it. Keeping your entire team on the same page will ensure everyone is working towards the same goals.

5. Ensure Your Company Values Are In Line With The Marketing Efforts

Building a culture around company values ensures that everyone associated with your company lives by them on a daily basis. Living up to these standards guarantees that everything you do–including management decisions, sales, marketing, and hiring–reflects your company’s goals and objectives.

6. Employ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators are quantifiable measurements of just how well your strategy is being implemented across all areas of your business. KPIs are usually created by leaders in every department, so aligning each KPI to your business strategy ensures accountability throughout the company.

7. Use Data To Monitor Your Progress

Business-IT alignment is important because data should be used by every department to monitor their progress towards achieving the goals outlined in your business plan. Allowing marketing, sales, product development, and other teams to have access to this information will allow everyone involved to stay on track.

8. Identify And Prioritise Business Objectives Based On Company Goals

Business objectives are specific actions that need to be completed to reach company goals. These objectives are important because they ensure that your marketing plan prioritises the right actions and results. It’s also a good idea to set goals for all key performance indicators and assign them to every business objective, so you can monitor and track progress regularly.

9. Take Advantage of Technology-Enabled Processes

Technology plays a major role in driving the success of today’s businesses. Keeping up with developing technologies helps companies stay competitive, speedy, efficient, and innovative–all qualities necessary to reach company goals. By utilising new technology, such as cloud computing solutions and CRM (customer relationship management) software, you can modernise your business operations and stay competitive.

10. Re-Evaluate Your Goals And Business Objectives On A Regular Basis

Your business strategy should always be evolving, so it’s important to recognise when your goals need to be tweaked or changed completely. If you are not achieving the expected results, it’s time to re-evaluate your goals and objectives in order to maximise your chances for success during the execution of your marketing plan.

Conclusion

Neglecting one of these areas could cause your marketing plan to misalign with your business strategy. It’s important that you constantly re-evaluate your goals and progress to maintain a competitive edge. By focusing on the tips above, you can help ensure your marketing plan is aligned with your business strategy every step of the way.