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Marketing Action Plans

Determining the right mix of marketing communications for your arsenal

Lindsey Mathieu • November 8, 2018

Walk with Purpose

For many of us in the AEC industry, the holiday season tends to be a little bit slower. This abnormal downtime presents an excellent opportunity to work on your business. After all, you’ve been busy working in your business all year, managing day-to-day operations and reacting to various unforeseen circumstances as they popped up. 

It's already November. There's no time like the present to pause and reflect: Have your efforts this past year effectively supported business development? Did your marketing communications roll out according to plan? Or did you revert to the tried and true ‘take what's thrown at me’ approach?

Operating in the absence of a defined strategy means that you are, in reality, practicing reactionary, behind-the-eight-ball marketing. This is a far cry from the proactive marketing we all want to be doing. In the spirit of the New Year's resolutions that we'll all be making in the foreseeable future, why not set dedicate time to developing a solid plan that may actually increase your odds of surpassing next year’s revenue goals?

Keep it simple, silly.

Your marketing strategy does not need to be some voluminous document that sits on a shelf post-completion, collecting dust until it’s revisited this time next year. On the contrary, it should be structured rather simply - starting with background information on who you are, what you’re focused on, and why that makes sense for your business. It should contain overarching goals developed in the context of this basic framework. It should conclude with a marketing action plan that outlines exactly how you'll achieve these goals. 

From identifying core messages that resonate with your target audience to outlining plans to pursue of new clients and project opportunities, your marketing strategy should be the road map to support your firm's growth and expansion.

We have developed many a strategic marketing plan for AEC firms, which hit on the following points in varying levels of detail:

• Situation Analysis
• Services, Markets & Project Types
• Clients, Prospects & Strategic Partners
• Competitive Differentiation
• SWOT Analysis
• Mission & Vision
• Positioning
• Branding
• Marketing
• Public Relations
• Business Development & Client Relations
• Goals & Objectives
• Implementation

While this is a general outline of contents, every business has unique challenges, differentiating factors and defined areas of focus. At the end of the day, it’s about honing in on what’s practical, affordable, and results-oriented for your firm.

It’s worth mentioning that goals and objectives without supporting action items are just lofty statements about what you want to accomplish. If you break them into manageable tasks that you can introduce into your daily routine, you can easily track and evaluate progress along the way.