Why is it that some people feel the need to plan everything down to the most meticulous detail? I’ve come across my fair share of B2B marketing professionals who seem to have an obsession with it. Whilst I understand that preparation and planning are key to any marketing campaign, too many marketers are missing a trick here - and missing the timeliest point to go to market.
In my experience, it all seems to start well. We receive a brief from the client and respond with a campaign plan and creative proposal. Our client’s happy, we’re happy. Then suddenly, the campaign proposal gets swallowed up in a big black hole. It’s management by committee as every person in the marketing department and beyond has an opinion about the campaign. We end up with the lowest common denominator as both the messaging and strategy becomes diluted. The client starts dragging their feet and the procrastination has only just begun. Three months down the line, the campaign hits, but the client has missed out on being the first to go to market with their message, the best media placement and other time specific opportunities such as trade and seasonal events. There is a reason why the first four letters of analysis are what they are.
Over-planning doesn’t help anyone. What does is getting the balance right between the planning and execution. The way we go about this is to set the right strategy at the beginning, get approval from the key stakeholders at this early stage and launch the campaign before it becomes a ‘me too’. I’m not knocking planning, but some of this can be done throughout the campaign too. With online marketing and variable digital printing, different creative can be tested, tracked and refined as necessary to produce maximum take up. With this in place, the marketer is armed with metrics to show the results of the campaign back to the business. And all this can happen whilst the campaign is underway, not buried at the back of someone’s in-tray.
If the planning activity is stifling the timeliness or creativity of a campaign, then you need to ask yourself where the value of that planning lies. Surely it’s better to stick your neck out and try something new, rather than suffer from analysis paralysis?