Chapter 7: Planning

your digital marketing

strategy – Objectives,
teams and budgets
Digital Marketing Strategy 2e by Simon Kingsnorth
Planning
• A strategy without a plan is just an idea.
• To deliver a digital marketing strategy it is important to understand:
1) Where are we now? (A)
2) Where do we want to get to? (B)
3) How do we get there?
• A) is defined by research and insight, and B) by a vision and mission.
• The plan is how to get from A to B.
• Lack of planning can result in spending more time, money and resource fixing
problems, can be demoralising, and can cause the strategy to fail.
The planning process: Vision-
based planning
• Two core planning models are: Vision-based planning and Real-time
planning.
• Vision-based planning has six stages:
1) Identify your mission statement.
2) Produce your vision statement.
3) Establish your primary goals.
4) Create specific objectives and strategies to reach each goal.
5) Implement action plans to fulfill each strategy.
6) Put the action plans into effect, evaluate and evolve.
The planning process: Real-time
planning
• The real-time model is a casual version of the vision-based model.
• It still follows the steps, but allows for the plan to change as circumstances
change.
• Sometimes a long-term plan may no longer be relevant as technology or other
factors change.
• The advantage of this model is that the strategy stays relevant.
• The disadvantages are that there is no planning document to share with the
business for buy-in. This can be addressed through a communications plan
(e.g. stakeholder update emails). The second disadvantage is that there is no
document to share externally and updates may not be as professional a way
to communicate.
The phased approach
• This refers to splitting the strategy into key development phases.
• Calendar phasing is scheduling by date, without key milestones,
allowing for flexibility.
• Theme-based phasing is splitting the strategy into logical themes to be
delivered together. For example, there may be complimentary
marketing channels which could be more effectively delivered
together, such as direct mail and email.
• Business-based phasing is aligning strategy to overall business goals.
Goals
• Goals are high-level statements about what you need to achieve to
deliver the vision. Goals are long term.
• Goals need to be structured, for example, they should be:
o Relevant: Does the goal fit with the vision?
o Resonating: Does the goal fit with the business values and goals?
o Responsive: Is it adaptable and flexible so it can change if needed?
o Recognizable: Is the goal easily understandable?
Goals
• Each goal should have objectives and an action plan below it.
• It is important to focus on the ‘what’ and not the ‘how’ at this stage.
• An example of a planning flow is below:
Objectives
• Objectives are specific, quantifiable and time-based. They should be
SMART:
• Specific – Who? What? Where? Why? When?
• Measurable – how will you know when you’ve met the goal and measure
progress against this?
• Attainable – action plans must be realistic and achievable.
• Relevant – the action plan needs to be relevant to the goal.
• Time-based – an action plan needs a time-frame and milestone delivery
dates.
Strategies and action plans
• In this sense, strategies refers to specific actions to achieve an
objective.
• This is the focused ‘how’ you will achieve an objective.
• Action plans define specific pieces of work that will be carried out
within each strategy. It is where goals, objectives and strategies come
together.
• Success factors include: planning how the work will be done, involving
stakeholders, managing budgets, managing agencies and checking
legal and regulatory frameworks.
10 steps to an effective action
plan
1) Know your strategy.
2) Understand the bigger picture (goals).
3) Be specific.
4) Create a written plan.
5) Create deadlines and milestones.
6) Ensure it is measurable.
7) Don’t compromise.
8) Build in own factors.
9) Be clear.
10) Be thorough.
Controls and reviews
• All of the processes discussed are ineffective if not properly
implemented and run.
• The most important control is a documented management approach.
A Gantt chart can be useful here.
• Regular reporting is also important.
• Reviews are crucial to success. They should be structured to fit in with
strategy and other business activity. Reviews should cover how each
action plan is progressing against milestones.
Risk management
• Risk management is another important
control.
Constructing a risk matrix is a
useful way of visualizing
risks.
• It is important to build contingency into
any plan, to allow for mitigation to risks
relating to budget or schedule.
People: Skills
• Leaders must take ownership, understand the strategy and have the correct
skillset to execute it.
• The Myers-Briggs Type-Indicator can help understand personality types
which may have an impact on how someone makes decisions. It looks at the
following categories:

o Thinking and feeling (T/F).

o Extroversion and introversion (E/I).
o Sensing and intuition (S/N).
o Judgement and perception (J/P).
People: Resource
• This refers to the number of hours available to work on action plans.
• It is good to begin by allocating time to ‘business as usual’ (BAU) activities
which need to still be done.
• To calculate resource hours, you can multiply the number of staff by the
number of working hours in a day or week.
• If you have three staff who each work 35 hours per week, then you have a
total of 105 resource hours. If BAU takes up 55 hours per week, you have 50
hours left to allocate to a new project.
• However, it is important to factor in annual leave and sick leave, and leave
contingency for any unexpected work, or tasks that take longer than planned.
Budget and forecasting
• A master budget is used within a business for the coming period, based on
previous results.
• The master budget does not change and annual performance of the business
will be judged against it.
• Forecasting is producing a more fluid version of the budget which is regularly
reviewed (e.g. monthly).
• One forecasting technique is the trend-based model. This looks at budget
against a 13 month rolling performance, looking at month-on-month and
year-on-year figures, whilst showing any trends that can help predict
performance. However, it won’t take into account factors such as re-pricing.