Looking Back to Look Ahead

LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD

It’s that time of the year when we have to plan for the new year. This is can be a very tedious exercise. But this is an unavoidable exercise. As marketing and communication professionals, this is how we:

1. Show our contribution to the objectives/bottom line of the business/organization in the year that is coming to an end.
2. Justify our M&C for the year that is coming to an end.
3. Defend our budget (request) for the upcoming year.
4. Present how we plan to contribute to the achievement of the overall corporate goals/bottom line in the new year.
5. Demonstrate to other business units (especially sales) how we plan to support the achievement of their targets in the new year.
6. Communicate value to gain more support/buy-in from the business/organisation.

Hopefully, you started the current year with:

1. An effective marketing and communication strategy and have been executing it flawlessly.
2. SMART KPIs measuring the relevant metrics and aligned with the goals/objectives of the business/organization.
3. Systems and processes to Monitor, Measure and Optimise Performance, and have been producing and sharing periodic reports.

With these, you have a great starting point for the review and planning process. Analyse your periodic reports and dig into the analytics for your platforms. In all this, the key questions to answer are:

1. What did you plan to do?
2. Were you able to do them? If not, why?
3. What worked? How can you improve these in the new year?
4. What didn’t work? What were the challenges and how can these be addressed to improve and optimise performance in the new year?

The review of the current year is key to planning for the new year. Here you need to revisit and review your overarching marketing and communication strategy. If you don’t have such a blueprint document, there are several models/frameworks that you can adopt to create this document, or reach out to your agency or consultants for help.

One of the models I often recommend to my clients and students is good old SOSTAC.

Click here to read more about SOSTAC and the RACE Model.

Another model/framework I have used extensively and recommend to clients is SOCARR, developed by Enable Growth Consult.

Use either of these to plan for these new year. The other documents you would need for this exercise would be:

1. The corporate goals/objectives and targets for the new year and the short term.
2. The marketing and communication trends and insights for the new year and the future. The Global Digital Report and Country Digital Report are two useful documents for this exercise.
3. Your budget for the new year.

At the end of the exercise, you should have a marketing and communication plan for the new year which includes:

1. Key activities and campaigns
2. Key metrics and KPIs
3. Content plan
4. Media plan
5. Resource allocation
6. Responsibilities of key team members and stakeholders
7. Systems and processes for monitoring, measuring and optimising performance.

As it’s often said, failing to plan is planning to fail; effective planning starts with knowing the past and the present.

It’s not too late, allocate some time and sit down with your team to go through this critical exercise. If you need help, please reach out to your agency, consultant etc. or email us enablegrowthafrica@gmail.com for free consultation.