Planning, in any shape or form, might not be something you want to spend your time doing. However, more often than not, planning is a fundamental first step in the process.

This is true when it comes to marketing. For the marketing of your professional service to work as it should, a marketing plan is a must. But what is a marketing plan, and why is it something your professional service firm will need?

What is a marketing plan?   

Often, a marketing plan is confused with a marketing strategy, and it does make sense that this is the case. However, the idea of a marketing strategy is that it outlines how the business is positioned, who the target audience is, the mission, vision and values of the company and, of course, how the marketing message looks too.

The marketing plan, in comparison, is how that planned-out marketing strategy will be implemented and what tactics and plans you want to make to get there.

Why do you need a marketing plan?   

It can take time to make a marketing plan, and if you have already spent time creating a marketing strategy, you may wonder whether or not it is worth doing in the first place. So, below are some reasons why I believe a marketing plan is essential.

It gives you focus    

The first thing that a marketing plan will do is provide you with focus. It can be exciting to think about where your marketing efforts can take your professional services firm in the future, and this excitement is great. However, excitement can push you towards being distracted and moved away from your aims by new opportunities and ideas.

Of course, there will be times when these movements work out for the best and can help your firm to move forward. However, they can, most of the time, stop you from reaching your success and end goals.

It keeps you consistent  

When you want to market your firm, being consistent is very important. Not only consistent in your voice and approach but also consistent in how often and how much you post.

For many firms, there is an initial wave of marketing when they first decide to tackle it, but without a plan or schedule, this falls by the wayside. Especially if they have secured many new clients who need their attention, this approach can lead to peaks and troughs of activity in marketing, which then can cause you to have erratic sales and revenue.

A marketing plan will stop these erratic trends and help you keep up your marketing efforts across an even time frame, and keep your clients coming in on a steady flow instead.

You can think about how you will measure things  

There is no point in making an effort to change your marketing strategy and put a plan in place if it doesn’t work for you as a firm. When you create a marketing plan, you can also think about how you will measure your success.

What tools will you use to pinpoint what you are doing right and what you may be doing wrong? All of these things can be highlighted in your marketing plan. Not only this, but you can also think about how you will interpret the data you have gathered and then what you will do with it. Having this information could make the difference between your efforts being a success and not.

It helps you to manage your resources  

In the earliest stages of your marketing efforts, you are likely to lack any plans or strategies for where you want to be and a budget, resources and staff. When you sit down and think about what you want to achieve and how you will get there, you can also plan and manage your resources.

It helps you think about what it is that you need to get to your end goal and how you will use it. You can also think about how much these resources will cost you, which will help you to think about whether or not they are worth investing in or if you can do without them.

Having a marketing plan can make things clear  

One last thing to know about marketing plans is that they help you think about what you want to achieve. You may already have some idea of what your firm will look like in the future, but you may not have taken the time to sit down and think about the finer details.

When you are creating a marketing plan, you will be drilling down, and you will be focusing on every essential part—making your future plans as clear as possible.

So, there you have it, the main reasons why it is worth making a marketing plan for your professional service firm. The only thing left to do is to plan in time to do this and to make sure that you follow through on those plans. Then you can hope to see the benefits in the future and take your firm even closer to where you want it to be.

Some of my services:

Marketing Project Management

Marketing Consultancy Services

Need help?

If you would like help with your marketing then bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, UK and Europe as well as specialising as a Legal Marketing Consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.