Effective MarCom campaigns begin with a thoughtful plan.
A marketing communications, or MarCom, plan involves creative message development to enhance business objectives. Similar to other business plans, companies may create a MarCom plan to enhance customer sales, establish a brand reputation, promote a specific product or respond to a crisis. The difference between MarCom and other business plans is that it focuses on distributing one specific message, slogan or objective across multiple channels to a selected audience.
Instructions
Problem Identification
1. Note a brief overview of the company or service. This should be one or two sentences explaining the type of business, the geographic location and the number of years in business. If this is a new company, then substitute the years in business with a notable fact or short biography about the owner. Briefly stated, "Company AYZ is a business consulting firm serving small- and medium-sized business across the United States for more than 35 years."
2. Define a specific problem. This simple statement should relate the problem to a business objective supported with a key fact. For example, "Since new competitors have entered our industry in the past 18 months, we have experienced a 15% decrease in revenue."
3. Explain the primary objective that the MarCom plan must solve. Avoid choosing more than one objective. The communication solution may yield multiple benefits, but effective MarCom plans generally have one specific, measurable objective. For instance, "Our objective is to attract 100 new customers by promoting our newest service offering" is much more specific than "Our objective is to enhance our business awareness." In addition, this is important when analyzing message development and deciding on the best media matrix tools.
Audience Analysis
4. Always tailor the MarCom plan to fit the audience, whether investors or customers.
Indicate specifics about who will receive the message, who will benefit from the company product and what key groups are most likely to respond to the message.
5. Forecast the desired behavior of the target market. This can be a value statement that illustrates what people will do, such as making a formal inquiry, leaving positive feedback or purchasing a product. In other words, how should the target market respond to the communication?
6. Determine the appropriate message tone, developed using knowledge about how the target audience views the situation. Propose the character, style, quality and nature of the message.
Message Development
7. Write down the main message. This could be a slogan, a company promise or a promotional message. A restaurant could use "Two can dine for $9.99" as the main message, while a fitness club touts "We do fitness best." Regardless of the message, decide on one primary message to use for the MarCom plan.
8. Create support for the main message. Why is this slogan a good fit as part of the MarCom plan? Make sure this supporting argument agrees with information proposed in the Audience Analysis portion.
9. Explain the customer value and business benefits. Consider the values customers receive when they engage because of this message. If customers are notified about save money, time, energy or resources, include those benefits in this portion.
Strategic Development of the MarCom Matrix
10. Decide which of these six elements will be used to spread the message: Public relations, sales promotion, event marketing, new media or direct marketing. Public relations involves targeting professional broadcast or editorial journalists who will write a story about this solution. Sales promotions include using a limited time price offering. Event marketing involves networking and establishing a presence at trade shows, conventions or special affair gatherings. New media is any communication resource that is emerging, such as mobile technology. In the early 2000s, social networks were considered "new media" while mobile technology was "new media" in 2009. Billboards, postcard campaigns, email distribution and telemarketing are all forms of direct marketing.
11. Explain the need for resources and employees who will develop specific portions of the MarCom matrix. Resources should include the budget, time, administrative costs and anything that contributes toward the success of the plan.
12. Create a timeline for each MarCom matrix element. This timeline serves as an estimate of the program delivery to completion. The completion date is a specific point in time that you can use to measure the plan's success.
Tags: MarCom plan, main message, Audience Analysis, business plans, direct marketing, enhance business