{"id":154599,"date":"2020-07-01T14:02:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T13:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=154599"},"modified":"2020-07-14T10:27:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T09:27:06","slug":"strategy-simplified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/marketing-planning\/marketing-strategy\/strategy-simplified\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategy Simplified"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>From annual to 90-day planning that rocks<\/h2>\n<p>Has this happened to you?<\/p>\n<p>You spend a ton of effort creating your marketing plan, you feel great about it. You\u2019re going to move forwards with clarity on those important initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Tasks are planned week by week and resources allocated...<\/p>\n<p>The ink has barely dried before the first curve ball arrives. You\u2019re back to the plan, juggling and adjusting, trying to hold it together.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s frustrating enough, but it\u2019s not long before the next curve ball. Redraw plans again. Soon you wonder why you spent the time trying to plan in first place.<\/p>\n<p>The sand shifts so fast planning seems pointless.<\/p>\n<p>You are not alone. I\u2019ve seen it happen <strong>too many times<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The net result is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People outside the team are frustrated because those bold initiatives with planned dates rarely happen as planned<\/li>\n<li>People inside the team are frustrated. Continual chop and change kills productivity and is frankly demoralizing<\/li>\n<li>You end up with everything becoming the reason for everything else not happening<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nobody wins. It\u2019s depressing.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is there is a way to deliver strategy and get real improvements.<\/p>\n<h2>Your One Year Plan<\/h2>\n<p>It starts with clarity on your one-year plan.<\/p>\n<p>The one-year plan is simply the list of <u>3 to 7 marketing goals for the year<\/u>. These are the most important things that marketing can do to make the biggest impact to the business\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/tag\/race-planning-system\/\">RACE<\/a> framework is extremely helpful to systematically work through the opportunities to improve your multichannel marketing communications. Reviewing and uncovering the best options.<\/p>\n<p>I suggest <strong>3 to 7 marketing goals<\/strong> for the year, not more. You need to believe this - <em>less is more<\/em>. More focus on fewer priorities takes you <strong>further, faster<\/strong>. Counterintuitive perhaps, but true.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Jobs famously said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c<em>People think <strong>focus<\/strong> means saying yes to the thing you've got to <strong>focus<\/strong> on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas<\/em>\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You\u2019ve got to say no to the other dozen things on the marketing wish list and pick just 3 to 7. If you\u2019ve finished all of them after 9 months you can always add a few more at that point!<\/p>\n<p>With the 3 to 7 goals identified make them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/goal-setting-evaluation\/goals-kpis\/define-smart-marketing-objectives\/\">SMART<\/a>. Here is an example of the type of marketing objectives you should have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Implement CRO with at least 15% conversion rate increase<\/li>\n<li>Update campaign creation process to remove 25% of the time<\/li>\n<li>Trial use of Google Shopping Feed and report ROI<\/li>\n<li>Five new quality content hubs published<\/li>\n<li>CRM integrated with data warehouse<\/li>\n<li>Analytics dashboard updated<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate AI technology and provide recommendations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That plus a few measurables is all you need for a one-year plan. With clarity on the one-year plan move to 90-day Rocks.<\/p>\n<p>Rocks are the big things, the most important priorities over the next 90 days. Whilst he didn\u2019t invent the term, Steven Covey uses the term Rocks in his bestselling books 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First. They are also used in the EOS Traction system.<\/p>\n<h2>90-Day Rocks<\/h2>\n<p>Set Rocks for the first quarter when you create the one-year plan. Then repeat rock setting at the start of each quarter.<\/p>\n<p>To set rocks just answer this. What do you need to get done in the next 90 days to feel you\u2019re on target to reach your one-year goals?<\/p>\n<p>Each person in marketing should be accountable for 2 to 5 Rocks each quarter. Many rocks will, quite rightly, directly relate to the one-year goals. A few may fall outside of the those, allowing handling of the incidentals that arise during the year.<\/p>\n<p>As with the one-year goals ensure you write the Rocks as SMART. The whole team must be agreed and clear on what done looks like. You might end up with a rock list like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Complete customer insight to determine the main obstacles stopping conversion - John<\/li>\n<li>Select external support with Shopping Feed expertise and define trial - Sue<\/li>\n<li>Create two content hubs - Sue<\/li>\n<li>Welcome automation journey templates updated \u2013 Julia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Notice every Rock <strong>must<\/strong> have a single name against it, the person who is delivering it. That person may not be directly doing all the work but organizing, managing, pulling in resource, giving direction. They <strong><em>are<\/em><\/strong> the person who will take the glory for completing it - and the shame for not.<\/p>\n<p>A good set of rocks means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Every team member has clear focus of the most important activity for 90 days.<\/li>\n<li>Everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Inside and outside of the team.<\/li>\n<li>Accountability is clear.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You might be surprised at the planning simplicity. The reality is simple is best. Simple gets results.<\/p>\n<p>No complex ever-changing Gantt charts or other centralized multi-level task planning tools.<\/p>\n<p>To get their work done a Rock owner may decide to create a job board, Excel sheet, Gantt tasks or another way of managing the work. But that is incidental.<\/p>\n<p>In the weekly marketing team meeting check all rocks are on track. Each team member confirming every week that they are on track or off track. When off track it\u2019s a chance to work out how to get back on track.<\/p>\n<h2>Why 90-days<\/h2>\n<p>90-days is an excellent choice of time between reviews and setting rocks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s long enough to achieve significant work, whilst not being so long that people start drift away from the one-year plan. Many businesses use quarterly plans for this reason. The Smart Insights 90-day planning template acts as a bridge between the annual plan and the tactical execution. It also encourages regular reviews of performance against target, corrective action and agility.<\/p>\n<div class='postauthor si-guide-block'>\n                <div class='col-md-2 col-sm-12 si-icon-holder'>\n                    <a target='_blank' href='https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/guides\/90-day-planning-templates-marketing\/'>\n                  <img src='https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/90-day-planning-templates-guide-cover-106x150.png' alt='90-day planning templates for implementing marketing and digital marketing plans'>\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n                <div class='col-md-10 col-sm-12'>\n                    <p><strong>Download Premium Member resource \u2013 90-day planning template<\/strong><\/p>\n                    <p>Our 90-day planning template recommends a structure and process to continuously improve and optimise your digital marketing using the RACE framework.<\/p>\n                    <p>Access the <a target='_blank' href='https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/guides\/90-day-planning-templates-marketing\/'>90-day planning templates for implementing marketing and digital marketing plans<\/a><\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n<p>Remember the point about focus and Steve Jobs. Focus is about saying no. Resist all new initiatives and shiny things until the end of the quarter. <strong>Never<\/strong> add new Rocks during the quarter.<\/p>\n<p>To be blunt, if someone comes up with a significant new priority during the quarter, a bad job was made of rock setting. A good team can predict 90-days. It may take practice.<\/p>\n<h2>Get Traction<\/h2>\n<p>The process works. It\u2019s based on methods from a book called Traction. Traction covers more than strategic planning. It\u2019s a complete set of tools and methods to run an entrepreneurial business. Ultimately with the whole business running on a quarterly cycle with rocks for leadership and every team in the business.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re part of an entrepreneurial business I recommend Traction, as an approach I have applied in many businesses combining practical and tested tools that solve many of the common business issues. Get <a href=\"https:\/\/tractionsix.co.uk\/freetraction\">Chapter 1 of Traction from this free download<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From annual to 90-day planning that rocks Has this happened to you? You spend a ton of effort creating your marketing plan, you feel great about it. You\u2019re going to move forwards with clarity on those important initiatives. Tasks are &hellip;..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[964],"tags":[1576,1151,993],"class_list":["post-154599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing-strategy","tag-90-day-marketing-planning","tag-marketing-planning","tag-race-planning-system","advicetype-best-practice-advice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Strategy Simplified | Smart Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Strategy Simplified From annual to 90-day planning that rocks Has this happened to you? 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