With the new year fast approaching, time for crafting a winning marketing plan is running out. Even forward thinking organizations that have planned 5, 10 or even 100 years into the future need to reevaluate their strategies and put specific action plans into motion in order to see the best results throughout 2012.
Crafting a winning marketing plan for the New Year is about far more than just creating a budget for general advertising channels and forecasting returns and cash flow needs. An effective marketing plan that will trump the competition and realize the maximum ROI means taking into account the varying cycles and trends that will determine advertising effectiveness as well as the creation of a well-defined step by step action plan.
Beyond the macroeconomic business cycles which have made themselves so evident today, every industry has its own cycles that need to be accounted for as well as seasonal trends and special events like the November Presidential Election which can also mean anomalies which can help or hurt. Planning for these factors is even more essential for new business owners who may not have experienced them first hand yet. Entrepreneurs with new enterprises need to know when the busiest times of year will be for them in terms of sales and weight their budgets accordingly in order to see the maximum returns on their budgets.
2012 more than any other year so far will bring more advances in technology and how consumers will interact with brands resulting in a widening divide between those who are on top of them and those still chained to out of date marketing methods. Moving forward mobile marketing and content marketing will become more important as will utilizing the most advanced cloud computing solutions and communication tools.
Knowing what marketing campaigns and channels you will be using in February, November and December next year now will enable organizations to begin hiring the right people, laying out design, brainstorming slogans and even testing so that when the time comes no mistakes will be made due to rushing and maximum advertising effectiveness can be achieved.
Business owners should be taking the time now to formulate a step by step action plan, working backwards in order to accurately assess what needs to be done when in order to stay on track. Those who are really serious about staying ahead of the competition will be strategizing ways to throw off the competition, distract them and make catching up more expensive so that their true target market segments are open and easily dominated.
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