An estimated 50 percent of all B2B marketing campaigns fail to deliver the expected results because the message, offer, or technique was not matched with the correct audience. This is as inexcusable as it is preventable, and the underlying problem is usually a lack of proper planning.

Professional marketers should know the folly of committing money and personnel to a marketing campaign that lacks the solid foundation provided by a comprehensive plan. “Measure twice and cut once,” is a lesson from master carpenters that marketers would do well to take to heart. While carefully planning everything out may not offer an absolute guarantee of success, it will certainly improve the odds.

Plan Your Revenue
You need a well-defined plan of action that spells out exactly how your revenue goals will be achieved. Without a solid plan behind you, your chances of meeting expectations are pretty slim. You’ll need answers to such questions as:

• What do we need to do to reach those goals?
• What resources will be needed?
• What key performance indicators (KPI) should be measured to keep our efforts on track?

Plan Your Marketing Budget
Determine how much money will be required to reach your revenue goals, and how it could best be allocated. When money is tight, wise investment of your marketing dollars is critical. Mistakes that waste money could lead to painful cuts in future budgets.

Choose the budget method that best suits your company, such as percentage of sales, percentage of revenue, or objective-based. Establish how much money and personnel resources will be required to achieve your revenue goals. Agree on a targeted return on marketing investment.

Plan Your Product Solutions
Match each of your products with the solution that they offer to resolve your customer’s problems. How do they compare to solutions offered by your competitors? Define your positioning statement, value proposition, and messaging for each product. Establish your overall pricing strategy as well as a pricing strategy for each product. How does your pricing model compare with those of your competitors?

Plan Your Marketing Campaigns
Determine what type of campaigns will be needed to achieve your goals – awareness, nurture, renewal, upsell, cross sell. What are the objectives, goals, budget, and schedule of each campaign? What is the target audience for each campaign? What type of content and messages will compel their response? What are the best offers and calls-to-action to use for each campaign? Research and compile a list of keywords for each campaign. Prepare a social media plan that supports your marketing efforts. Determine what support elements will be needed, such as direct mail, email marketing, traditional advertising venues, webinars, and trade shows. Will PPC advertising be needed to supplement organic search?

Plan Your Content Strategy
Establish a process for creating and promoting relevant quality content to your target audience. What content do you already have and what content needs to be created? What are the trigger events that will put your target audience into a buying mode? Who will be responsible for creating new content? Create an editorial calendar that details content topic, target audience, and timeframes. How will your content strategy tie-in to your SEO efforts? How will you promote your content?

Plan Your Data Requirements
Determine what type of data will be required to implement your marketing campaigns. What data do you already have? What data will you need and how will you acquire it?