A strategic plan is a document containing your company’s goals, proposed actions to achieving those goals, and any other pertinent information. Typically a planning session is held with key management and decision makers to form the vision. Once the vision is in place, the action steps can be developed, and responsible parties assigned.

The strategic plan, when shared and communicated to your entire organization, will ensure everyone in your company is on the same page. Each employee will know what is expected of him or her. Everyone also will be working towards the same goals.

Every strategic plan is different. The differences could include the amount of details, length, number of categories addressed, as well as what is defined as a goal or initiative at your company.

In general, strategic plans will include many of the following categories:

• Company’s goals: what is it your company wishes to achieve in the next year, three years, and five years?
• Action Plan to Achieve the Company Goals: how does your company plan on meeting the noted goals within the timeframes listed?
• Responsibility Assignments: who or what groups are responsible for what areas? Is there a need or a gap which needs to be filled? What’s expected of each responsible party or group?
• Strengths and Weaknesses: what does your company excel at? What areas are challenging and need to be improved?
• Competitive Analysis: what are your competitors doing? How is your company different? What will you do to gain market share from your competitors?
• Special Projects: are there specific projects, which support your company’s ambitions, needing attention with specific start and end dates? If so, these should be included in the strategic plan too.

Strategic plans provide your company with a document of guidance, activities, weaknesses, strengths, a competitive landscape analysis and any one-off tasks.

Everything is all in one place. It should be easy to understand and have clarity regarding implementation. This plan should bring your company employees together so all energies are directed toward the noted goals.

Marketing Plans are Key Tools to Your Company’s Success

Strategic planning is not always an easy task to undertake for smaller businesses. Neither is developing a marketing plan. Marketing plans are another important piece to your company’s success as they drive revenues and results.

Marketing plans are built around your strategic plan. It helps to define key business factors such as:

• Who your prospect is
• How to better serve your existing clients
• Increase your revenues
• Driving market share

Your marketing plan is the nuts and bolts of your organization’s success – it helps to hold everything together.

If you need a strategic plan or a marketing plan, don’t know where to start, or have an existing plan you’d like to update, we can help. Call us today at 1-800-394-1907 to schedule your initial consultation. Once we understand where you are in the process, we can help you to finalize and then implement your strategy company wide.