Today, marketing is largely about continuously optimizing and improving the methods and activities to ensure that your goals and KPIs are achieved. Therefore, it is a good idea to work agile with the help of a 90 day plan (quarterly marketing plan).
The traditional way to create a marketing plan is to prepare for a full year in advance. It feels natural because the plan is based on the accounting year.
But it is often difficult, stressful, and overly optimistic. There are too many components involved that both the goals and the desired results become difficult to attain.
Agile Marketing Plan Gives You Greater Flexibility
An annual marketing plan can help you identify and track the major goals you want to achieve, e.g., your sales goals.
The only problem is that a lot can happen during a year and the risk of missed opportunities is high. This is especially the case in the world of constant change that we are living in right now. Therefore, it is smart to divide the marketing plan into quarters (90 days review).
Working according to a 90-day plan is in line with the modern mindset in marketing and can also be called an agile marketing plan.
Quarterly planning gives you enough freedom of choice and flexibility. This way you can adapt your marketing to the constant changes that you face with your customers, competitors, and technological advancements.
More Control Over Optimizing Your Marketing Efforts
An agile marketing plan also gives you a new starting point every three months.
It’s a reality check where you get the opportunity to press the reset button and make new choices and decisions based on the developments during the recent months. You also need to figure out what needs to be prioritized based on the current status of the business.
Many successful marketing teams also see it as an opportunity to constantly try new techniques, tools, and methods to see what provides real results.
Designing a marketing plan that follows such an approach reveals new possibilities that are relevant and effective for the company’s growth.
A 90 day marketing plan also leaves room for unforeseen events and circumstances. This could be a result of management decisions or unexpected cost cuts.
90 Day Marketing Plan Is Easy To Implement
Working with agile marketing means that you have the flexibility to adapt to external factors, but you also have control over how you optimize your own collected data.
By dividing your marketing plan into manageable 90-day blocks during the year, you can easily measure the success or adversity of what you are trying to achieve. You can then adapt your plan based on the given situation.
In addition, you will learn to get better at being more goal-oriented and achieving results through this method. This is because you have more frequent follow-ups and intermediate goals to achieve.
It is of course possible to plan on an annual basis as well. But achieving these goals is often a matter of chance.
The road to getting there can be challenging, and a lot could happen during this time frame. It can also be difficult to predict how fast changes take place and in what order things need to be done.
Quarterly Marketing Plan Keeps Your Priorities In Check
90 days of work is long enough to get critical and important tasks done while also short enough to make things happen.
You will look at things differently when there are only 12 weeks to reach your milestones. It shows you why you should focus on certain tasks in relation to other marketing activities.
Marketing Plan For Each Persona
Today you need to take into account different marketing activities. This is especially the case when you work with content marketing or inbound marketing. The challenge is to ensure that everything works together.
Working with shorter marketing plans allows you to start with your customers and their personas. You get to focus on one or two things at a time. Instead of putting effort into too many activities, you can prioritize those related to a certain persona and thus reach your goals faster.
What are your customer persona’s challenges, needs, or interests? Write valuable content that gets them to interact with your brand and visit your website.
How do you build trust? Create content that helps and guides them through their buying journey.
But do it one persona at a time.
Rinse, repeat and improve the process for each quarter. See how your digital presence, traffic, and potential buyers increase with each time period.
Conclusion
It is more realistic to follow a 90-day strategy than it is to plan for the whole year. There is also a higher chance that you would be able to implement your marketing plan.
Having a shorter time period to work towards your goals reduces the risks of missed opportunities. It makes it easier to achieve the goals as you learn and pivot during the process. You also have greater flexibility in dealing with external factors.
A 90 day plan example includes your competitors’ positions changing in the search engines or your management making unexpected decisions.