In any normal year, the half-way point is a great time to take stock and review your marketing plan, so you can see what’s working and tweak the things that aren’t. That’s in a normal year. This year, your carefully honed marketing plan probably went out the window around March. A quick review and tweak might not cut it.

This begs the question, how on earth should you plan for the rest of 2020? We’ve got just the tool…

Why you need to hit the refresh button
After months of disruption, people are (cautiously) emerging from lockdown. Offices and businesses are reopening. Projects are sparking back to life. And even where people are still working from home, output and workloads are getting back to normal – or, as ‘normal’ as things get under the circumstances!

This makes it the perfect time to thoroughly review and refresh your marketing plan, in line with the current state of events. For example, perhaps your marketing budget is not quite as healthy as it was and you need to prioritise those activities that deliver maximum value. Maybe your marketing messaging needs updating. Or maybe your marketing needs to work harder to win new business in the current economic climate. The bottom line is, your business’s needs (or your customers’ needs for that matter) have probably changed. You need an updated marketing plan to match.

What should your marketing plan cover?
The marketing plan is where you turn your marketing strategy into action. It’s where you plot and schedule your marketing content across various channels, including:

• Brand
• Email campaigns
• Website updates and content
• Content creation – we have lots of ideas to share!
• Social media
• Literature
• Events (including online events, such as webinars)
• Telesales
• Online marketing
• Research

At OCTOPUS, we structure all this info using our handy content planner available on request. If the planner looks a little overwhelming, our advice is to start with one or two top-priority marketing activities, monitor how they go, then you can add extra activity into the mix over time. The important thing is to have an achievable plan for the remainder of 2020, so you can focus your efforts accordingly, get the most value for your business, and look ahead to 2021 with confidence.

Need help with your marketing plan? Chat to OCTOPUS. From refreshing your plan to fully managing your campaigns, we provide extra marketing muscle when you need it most.

(Business photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com)