1.Tie-in to the firm's business plan objectives This is paramount.
Without a connection to firm goals, a marketing plan will not gain support outside of marketing. That can spell disaster for your efforts.

2. Indentify your competitive advantage

A competitive advantage, even a small one, is critical in this commoditized business. It provides focus for ways to grow your business through both new and existing customers. If people inside the firm cannot simply and quickly articulate a competitive advantage, your customers and prospects certainly won’t be able to.

3.Set objectives and strategies on which all tactics are based

Sounds simple, but we often see marketing plans that amount to litte more than to-do lists of tactics, without central strategic objectives and strategies as their base.

4.Gain consensus and commitment to objectives and strategies

The formal process of having a written document distributed throughout the firm will help gain the consensus and commitment.

5.Have a blueprint from which to structure a budget and request needed resources

Too often marketing plans are developed after budgets have been finalized. This is usually done for simplicity sake, but is a very limiting practice. If budgets are doled out in a vacuum, they are based in nothing more than the previous year’s baseline. If strategic initiatives are developed ahead of time, the request for funding can be based on those initiatives and their contribution to firm profitability. As a result, you stand a better chance of your efforts being considered.

6.Provide a roadmap for the entire marketing department and to inform key stakeholders

Everyone plays a role in marketing your firm, not just the marketers. That is why it is critical to distribute the marketing plan throughout the organization. Everyone should know what the primary goals of the marketing department are, and how they tie-in to all of the firm’s initiatives.

7.Have something from which to measure success

Without stated goals and objectives, measurement of marketing’s contribution becomes strictly anecdotal. For some that lack of accountability is comforting. However, if you believe that marketing makes a difference, having targets and measures is the only way to truly demonstrate that point.

Now is the time to begin your marketing plan development for 2010, and SwanDog can help. Led by seasoned financial marketing practitioners, a SwanDog Marketing Planning Session starts with an analysis of your business goals and firm positioning. Next, we help guide you and your team through the process of developing your annual marketing plan, building a dashboard and beginning to frame out your budget. Finally, we provide a plan analysis along with a six-month review to help gauge progress and make necessary adjustments.