How to get the green light for your next marketing plan

The New York Times best-selling author Harvey Diamond once said ‘If you don't know what you want to achieve in your presentation, your audience never will.’

Sharp presentation skills are critical to keeping your audience’s interest. But, the content itself is what’s going to keep people listening. If you want to dazzle your higher-ups and get the green light on your marketing plan, follow these five steps.

How to get that green light:

1. Determine your problem
2. Spotlight your goal
3. Bring the right resources
4. Stamp out the objections
5. Showcase the potential

Let’s break these down.

1. The problem you want to solve

Every marketing effort needs to solve a problem. Otherwise, your stakeholders will just see it as frivolous activity with no clear ROI (return on investment).

If you’ve already got a problem in mind, this is where you flesh it out. Explain why it’s important, and why it’s holding your business back.

A problem could be any number of things affecting the business, such as:

• Your website isn’t getting enough traffic
• Your marketing emails aren’t turning leads into buyers
• You’re not SEO ready

Take a look at your company’s goals. Make sure the problem you’ve identified is in line with what your company wants to achieve.

2. The goal you want to achieve

With your problem laid out, it’s time to work out how you want to fix it. This is the part of your plan where you identify your ‘wish list’. If you had everything signed off and a bottomless bag of money, what would you do?

A good place to get started here is to look at your competitors. What are they doing that you wish you could? Are they ranking higher than you in search results? What functionality does their site have that yours doesn’t?

This gives you a direction for your marketing plan. And direction is what keeps your pitch concise and well-informed. Keep in mind, you don’t need to write War and Peace for an effective marketing plan. Short and sweet works best.

3. The numbers that support you

Break out the spreadsheets. It’s time to get nerdy.

What really seals the deal in persuading your stakeholders is cold, hard data. Do your research, get your numbers ready for scrutiny and print out the relevant reports. This all serves as evidence to show that the plan you have in mind will work, and will guarantee high ROI.

If you’re pitching a new strategy for your company, find examples elsewhere that prove it works. Look for case studies, press releases and articles that clearly demonstrate the benefits.

4. The common objections

Get ready to contend with the concerns. Your stakeholders will have objections, that’s a given. What you need to do is to prepare for them. Have an answer to every question, backed up with irrefutable stats.

Some examples of questions they may ask might include:

• How long will it take for us to see results?
• Who will manage this project?
• How will this align with our brand?

Being prepared not only proves that you’ve got a well-thought-out marketing plan, it shows that you’re the person to see it through.

5. The potential

Contextualise your plan in the bigger picture. Show your stakeholders that you’ve thought about the future by telling them that this plan represents an aspirational growth model to span the next five years. What you’re setting up now is the foundation for future potential, such as advanced marketing automation.

You do this with more numbers. Take a look at your forecasts and show where your marketing plan will bring value.

Green means go

With these steps under your belt, you’ll be set up to deliver a show-stopping pitch that will get you that green light.

Or, hand the marketing presentation over to us and we’ll get everyone in your business on board with a watertight, strategic marketing plan. Get in touch today.