The key to maximizing return on a marketing investment is to develop a marketing plan that accounts for both a strategy to meet your goals and a process to measure results against such goals.

The real opportunity that the marketing plan creates is the ability to make decisions about your budget, while you still have your money. It enables you to consider all your options, rather than piecemeal promotions, as they walk through your door or simply repeating the same tactics, out of habit, wondering whether or not you could do better.

The marketing plan provides a sense of control about the shape of your future practice, the extent to which your resources will be tapped (with speaking engagements, publications, business presentations and phone calls) and how much it will cost.

Results will, however, also depend on knowing when to update the plan. Here’s more on that from Investment Executive’s article, Keep your marketing efforts organized with a detailed plan (in which we were quoted):

…the specifics of the marketing plan, such as the campaigns, should be done at the beginning of each year. Bekhor says: “It’s very hard to predict what’s going to work for you for more than a year a time.”

Related articles: Marketing Plan – Definition and Marketing Strategy – Definition.