By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: Hands up who knows the Five Marketing Ps? No it is not Product, Price, Position, Promotion and Place. It is... Planning Prevents Pityingly Poor Performance.
Is your 2014 business strategy done and dusted and crucially is it tying in with your marketing plan? The Christmas Elves cannot commence your 2014 marketing projects if there is no integration with your company objectives as a whole. If your sales team has one set of goals that are not clearly explained to your marketing team in advance, then the lack of communication will fester between the two departments. The sales team will not receive the collateral they require to achieve their sales targets efficiently for, as an example, increasing hosted seats; and the marketing team will be at a loss as to why their product promotion for, as an example, a mobile launch was not well received by the sales team.
Planning and alignment is key, and remember your marketing plan does not have to be set in stone. It should be a fluid document but one that works in conjunction with other key plans within your company. It should not be an afterthought or even worse not exist.
Once you align your marketing and business strategies, your overall goals are clearer and in turn it is easier for you to budget for your marketing activity as you can be more precise in the areas you wish to be active in. If, for example, 2014 is going to focus on your fantastic customer service, then your marketing activity needs to reflect this by not only giving concrete examples on why your customer experience is outstanding, but to engage your client relations team so that they buy into your vision, and in turn professionally reinforce your message with genuine enthusiasm.