As a marketer, you're involved in various projects on a daily basis. That's why it's crucial to have an overview that tracks all your projects and to-dos. The key to success: establish your planning from your marketing strategy. This way, your entire marketing team feels connected to the marketing plan, knows what they should prioritize, and sees how their work contributes to the organizational objectives.
Marketing Strategy
Successful marketing begins with establishing a strategy. A marketing strategy is a long-term plan of business goals that the organization aims to achieve. The marketing strategy describes the alignment between the market and the organization. One of the most crucial aspects of developing a marketing strategy is ensuring that goals are adhered to and measured.
To start, you should conduct a SWOT analysis. This will give you insight into whether your organization is a good fit with the market. It provides visibility into the opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses of your company. You can easily visualize a SWOT analysis within vPlan.
Next, it's important to determine your target audience. Research who your target audience is and how you can reach them. The goal of your company is, of course, to convert this target audience into customers. Describe the steps a (potential) customer takes to then purchase a product or service, also known as the customer journey.
Marketingplan
A marketing plan is not equivalent to a marketing strategy. In a marketing plan, all actions needed to achieve the strategic goals described are outlined. A good marketing plan strengthens the team, improves the organization, and keeps all your marketing activities on track. Within vPlan, you can perfectly visualize all these actions.
You can't execute your marketing activities without a marketing budget. Keep track of all expenses within a plan board in vPlan. Plan the activities and note the estimated and registered expenses in one board.
Contentplanning
A content planning within vPlan allows you to plan, organize, and track all content within one plan board. For example, choose to create a content planning for each communication channel. You can display the planning per week in our calendar view.
Planning your content several months ahead? View the planning from the list view and know exactly when to post what.
1. Views
Make use of different views: calendar, timeline, and list view. Want an overview of the big picture? Then opt for the timeline view. With this, you can see the status of all your actions at a glance.
2. Task Allocation
Assign your marketing colleagues to cards, so you know who is responsible for what. This can be done quickly and easily by dragging the avatar onto the card.
3. Capacity
You can't execute all tasks at once. Therefore, give your tasks a lead time and estimate the number of hours. Take into account your team's available hours and ensure that tasks are executed on time.
4. Card Status
Work with statuses and know exactly how a task is progressing. Additionally, it's possible to fill in free fields, so all details are visible, including the priority of tasks.
5. Handy Formulas
With formulas, vPlan automatically calculates things for you. Keep track of your budgets, for example, by estimating and registering planned expenses.
6. Communicate with Your Team
Within each card, you can easily chat with each other about the activity. Mention (@) your colleague so they also automatically receive a notification.
7. A ttachments
Attach files to your cards, so all files are stored in one place. For example, add the created content to your content planning. Or the quote from your print supplier.
8. App
Not at your workstation but want to view the planning? Use our vPlan app. Here you can adjust statuses, fill in free fields, and add attachments and comments
9. Stay Informed
As a user, you can follow all tasks or a specific task. You will then automatically receive a notification when specific actions are performed, such as a status change. This way, you're always up to date with the latest developments.
10. Templates
Finding it difficult to convert your marketing process into a plan board? Then make use of our ready-made plan boards for your creative process or content planning. This way, you can gain inspiration and customize your plan board to your liking.
Want to know more about how you can use vPlan for your marketing team?
Watch the video below to discover the various possibilities of vPlan or try vPlan for free! Click here to try vPlan for free today.
Frequently asked questions
What is marketing planning?
Marketing planning is the process of planning, organising and managing all marketing activities to achieve your business goals. It brings strategy and execution together in one clear plan. In a marketing planning, you define what you are going to do, when, with what goal, and who is responsible. Think of campaigns, content, events, social posts or product launches. By planning these activities in a structured way, you maintain control, overview and focus within your marketing team.
What do you mean by marketing planning?
By marketing planning, you mean translating your marketing strategy into concrete actions. While the strategy focuses on the long term, marketing planning is aimed at the daily and weekly execution. You define who does what, how long it takes, which resources are needed and what the intended results are.
What are the 7 steps of a marketing plan?
The seven most commonly used steps for creating a marketing plan are:
- Situation analysis – for example, through a SWOT analysis.
- Define target audience – who do you want to reach?
- Set objectives (SMART/KPIs)
- Define brand positioning & message
- Choose marketing strategy – which channels, tactics and resources will you use?
- Create an action plan – plan all tasks in time and sequence
- Define budget, evaluation plan & measurement points
This structure is used worldwide and closely aligns with what successful marketing teams do.
What does a marketing planning look like?
A marketing planning usually consists of:
- A content calendar
- campaigns with milestones
- assigned team members
- deadlines and lead times
- budgets and expenditures
- priorities and statuses
- attachments and content files
Within vPlan, you can visualise this through calendar, timeline, and list views, along with links to team members, statuses and budget formulas.
Why is marketing planning important?
Marketing planning provides structure, clarity and predictability. It helps prevent campaigns from being delayed, content from being missing, or tasks from being duplicated. Moreover, a good planning ensures that your marketing team collaborates more effectively and creates more impact with less stress.
What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan?
Marketing strategy = why and what. Long-term goals.
Marketing plan = how and when. Concrete actions to achieve those goals.
Marketing planning = the execution of those actions in time and sequence.
Which tools do you use for marketing planning?
Many marketing teams use planning tools such as:
- vPlan (for overall planning, content planning, budgets and workflows)
- Social media schedulers
How do you create a good marketing planning?
You create a good marketing planning in 5 steps:
- Define goals and priorities
- Gather all activities per campaign
- Create a timeline with deadlines
- Assign responsibilities
- Monitor progress, budget and results
Preferably use a tool that combines all of this, such as vPlan.
How do you plan marketing activities efficiently?
You plan efficiently by:
- using a central planning tool
- setting clear priorities and statuses
- breaking tasks into manageable steps
- planning your content several months ahead
- taking team members’ capacity into account
Work at vPlan
We are looking for new colleagues.
