What Should a Complete Marketing Plan Include?
A few days ago, I was looking at a slide from a marketing presentation that mapped out a "tactical marketing plan. It was clean, familiar, and easy to follow.
Campaign. Objective. Tactics. Awareness. Consideration. Investment.
Like a lot of marketing tables, the awareness and consideration columns were filled almost exclusively with digital channels.
Paid social. YouTube. Email. Website. Search ads.
That's pretty normal now, but it's also a planning blind spot because it quietly trains business owners to think that awareness and consideration mostly happen online which leaves out a lot of different opportunities for marketing.
A complete marketing plan should include both digital AND physical touchpoints.
Take the "Bringing Hearts Home" campaign in Southern Alberta. A major fundraising effort to bring advanced cardiac care closer to home, backed by the Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation. One of their tactics was round straw bales wrapped with campaign messages.
I live in Central Alberta and had not heard about the campaign, but when I was driving down to Lethbridge one day I sure noticed the big red round bales stacked along the highway. This very physical example of marketing was necessary, in my case, to bring the campaign to my attention.
In some ways it seems very random, and maybe thats part of the reason it works. The agency who was hired to create this campaign did it because they know that marketing in the physical space still works. It creates visibility, interrupts routine, and it meets people where they actually live and drive.
The same thing can be said for your storefront signage, your vehicle wrap, your mailout brochure, your uniforms, branded apparel, giveaways, etc. These things are all opportunities for marketing and creating brand awareness, and there should be just as much time, effort, and planning put into those products as any on-line advertisement.
The trouble is that physical marketing is usually missing from the planning stage, so it gets treated like an add-on instead of part of the system.
Most small businesses don't need more channels. They need a more complete view of the channels they already have.
Here's a simpler marketing table for small and mid-sized businesses
Awareness |
Help people notice and remember you | Social ads, search, email, video, local listings | Vehicle graphics, exterior signs, site signs, direct mail, sponsor signage, event presence |
Consideration |
Help people feel you're credible and worth a closer look | Website, reviews, case studies, retargeting, email follow-up | Storefront, interior signs, showroom displays, printed brochures, sales kits, team appearance |
Conversion |
Help people take the next step | Landing pages, quote forms, booking links, offers | Proposal folders, sample packs, leave-behinds, point-of-sale signage, handoff materials |
Retention |
Help people remember you and come back | Email nurture, remarketing, helpful content, customer updates | Packaging, thank-you cards, welcome kits, service reminders, branded gifts, repeat-order tools |
Buyers don't divide their experience the way marketers divide their dashboards. They just decide whether they trust you, and a lot of that
happens in the real world.
So yes, use digital. Of course. But if your awareness and consideration columns only live on screens, your plan is probably incomplete.