Integrated Marketing Communications
Putting together a 12-month marketing communications plan can seem a little daunting at first but failing to plan is planning to fail! Producing a list of all your activities on one A3 sheet of paper or if you prefer in an excel spreadsheet will help keep your budget spending under control as well as making it easier to measure the effectiveness of your marketing spend.
Across the top split the sheet into 12 columns, one for each month, with the annual quarters clearly indicated. Divide each month into 2 further columns, titled ‘Committed’ and ‘Invoiced’. This will enable you to view at a glance how much of your annual marketing budget has already been committed and what is remaining.
Down the left hand side of your paper/spreadsheet list all the marketing activities you plan to undertake over the 12 month period. Group them in categories for example:
Exhibitions, conferences and events; Public Relations; Design; Media; Social Media; Promotional Merchandise; Print; Database Management; Website; Product Launch
Once the list is complete, fill in the projected marketing spend for these activities in the monthly columns in which the activity is expected to take place bearing in mind that this is not always when the activity is due for invoicing. At the end of each line calculate the total ‘Committed’ and ‘Invoiced’ for each activity. At the bottom of the sheet calculate the total ‘Committed’ and ‘Invoiced’.
Having all your plans for the year in one place means working smarter and more efficiently. If you know you have a golf day planned in May, a trade show in September and a sales conference in November, you can plan your PR, design, print and promotional merchandise requirements etc well in advance without any last minute panic, which can often drive up the costs. Integrating your marketing communications will achieve better results as the different activities support each other.
Throughout the year, monitor and update the sheet, taking care to move any ‘Committed’ values to the ‘Invoiced’ column as soon as these activities have been invoiced. Of course, even the best laid plans change or may require a little tweaking, especially in the event of budget cuts or changes to the overall business strategy. However, having a plan to hand will make it easier to incorporate these changes into your marketing strategy.
