When operating a business, it’s important to be able to summarise your marketing ‘elevator pitch’ quickly and succinctly – this should articulate your marketing goal that aligns with your greater business vision, and your marketing mission and team will go hand in hand.

If you’re out in the market or online sharing this messaging, and you find you’re getting some confused looks, it might be time to revisit your marketing plan, and ensure that your vision and mission statement is clear.

In your marketing plan, sitting right after your executive summary is a snapshot of your business and your team background, setting the scene for how you plan to market your product or service, and get it out there into the world and in front of the right people.

The Why of Your Marketing Plan

Your marketing will always be dependent on your unique product or service – no two business marketing plans should look exactly alike (although you can always take inspiration from your direct competitors!).

Taking inspiration from your more in-depth business plan (if you haven’t started yours yet, visit our Business Plan Guide Part 1 to get going), set out what your business offers and add those critical details such as when the business launched, notable achievements or growth to date, and, the most important part, what your purpose and vision is in relation to your marketing.

Your mission statement for your business will be closely connected to your marketing mission statement.

Take this for example, as a business mission statement:

“To deliver quality and creative logo design for print media.”

Extrapolating on this, your marketing mission statement might be: “To showcase our extensive design opportunities, share ways to bring your brand to life with a logo, and to educate customers on the importance of an eye-catching logo.”

Whether it’s through social media or in-person customer conversations, marketing has evolved significantly, with so many more ways being available to reach and connect with the right clients for your business.

Gone are the days of purely traditional marketing strategies, so your marketing mission statement should feel equally unique, vibrant and clear. Noting the above example, the term ‘educate’ is used, and this comes under the value-add of all good businesses, to offer information that benefits the customer without asking anything of them in terms of purchase.

Increasingly, brands are seeing themselves as the thought-leaders, the experts and the voice of their specific industry – with markets so saturated, it’s no longer enough just to have a great selection of product or a competitive price, customers are looking for a unique brand voice, and this is when the importance of your people comes into the picture for your marketing mission and execution.

The Who of Your Marketing Plan

It’s not uncommon for your employees and your team to play an important role in how you market your brand – this doesn’t just mean your marketing manager, but your entire team from your retail staff to your CEO. These are the ambassadors for your product and service, and how they present themselves in relation to your brand, is more important than ever.

When outlining the organisational structure of your business, take a look at who across the team might have overlapping skills that you could utilise in your marketing efforts. In 2022 and beyond, we’re likely to see an increasing trend in the concept of “bringing your whole self to work”, meaning that employees feel they can be authentic about interests and skillsets outside of their core role.

For instance, you might have a budding stand-up comedian in your midst, working as part of your IT department, and they could be consulted on ways to connect with your audience through video mediums, light-hearted copy and marketing strategies. Not only does this invest in your employees and make them feel valued outside of their specific role, but it also brings all talent into the wider goal of the marketing mission for your business, with everyone working towards a shared vision.

The larger your team, the more challenging it can be to ensure that marketing communications and guidelines are trickled down across all personnel, so work out who will be those key marketing ‘leaders’ and faces in your business, and ensure they clearly understand your goal for outreach to customers, existing and new.

As you put together a brief ‘people profile’ of your business, take the time to reflect on how you can bring your staff feedback in for brainstorming new ways to market your business – you never know what you might learn.

Now that your marketing mission and the team are clarified, next up in this marketing plan series, we’re focusing on the market situation and research itself, which will determine where you focus your efforts to reach your ideal customer.