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This time of year is a busy time for everyone, especially the printer. All the holiday end-of-year printing has been long completed and mailed. The last minute short runs are being printed, boxed, and shipped. This sounds like the typical end-of-year for the traditional printer, but what about the final measurements and analysis? The reconciliation of the financial books to see if growth occurred or if a loss is shown is always done; but is that enough? Depending on the profit or loss, the printing company starts another year the same way it has started every year for decades.
Closing a year of business is the time to hold your breath and look at the actual results that came in. Yes, the financials are very important, but what about marketing? Did you make a marketing plan for the year? Most small to medium-size printers don't do one. Some don't even make a business plan. How can you run a business without some sort of map to take you through 12 consecutive months?
Building a Marketing Plan
Two simple documents are a necessity to operating a business: business and marketing plans. Most printers have some sort of business plan; and they must have this document if they are doing business with a bank or lending company. Very few have an annual marketing plan. The purpose of a marketing plan is to provide a detailed map of the marketing state of your business. It allows for measuring the tactical elements and events that occurred in a given year.
Here are some high-level elements for a concise marketing plan:
- An introductory paragraph
- Current state
- The company identification
- Future state
- The vision or outlook
- Company goals
- New target acquisitions
- Tactical plan
- Tactical strategy
- Resources
- Measurements and analysis
- Conclusions
- Executive summary
The introductory paragraph is a statement of the purpose for the document. Current state is statement of the current conditions of your business, such as what type of printer you identify as. You can also list your 'Mission Statement,' equipment list, current revenue, size of your company, and the market you serve by type, demographic, and geography. Indicating the market scope and depth are important to list here. This section states all your current conditions.
The 'Future State' indicates a high-level summary of your short-term, one-year goals. The elements in this section are to understand the company vision and outlook. You will want to list items of goal and growth. This is formally called the 'Desired State;' in other words who you want to become. Growth in revenue and markets are key in this section. This is also where you will want to indicate how new solutions with offerings can impact your business, such as variable-data printing, Web-to-print solutions, and new revenue streams.
The next section is an outlook to physical growth. List your facility expansion, or if a new or second location is planned. Are you planning to buy or merge with another company, and what will this do for your overall business? Indicate how this will increase market share and revenue. Will your company invest in new equipment, and what impact it will bring?
Goals are important to indicate. I don't think looking too far out is an advantage, because of the rapid changes in the environment and technology. Many companies used to have five- to 10-year plans. This is too long, and there are too many factors that will change those plans. Having one- and two-year planned goals are within reach, however. It's fine to have a five-year plan, but keep it realistic and flexible, because it is sure to change. Goals are revenue targets and market share penetration rates.
I also recommend listing a mid-year goal step at six months. This will give you a checkpoint to see if what you are doing is working, and if you are on the right track for year-end goals.
Choose Action Items
Now that we have indicated who we are, what we want to become, and our short-term goals, we need to develop how we are going to achieve those goals. This section is reserved for marketing strategy and tactics. A marketing strategy is an overall statement indicating what the intention is to create revenue and grow market share. This is where you spell out the reasoning behind the plan. Marketing tactics include listing the individual elements the company will perform in a given year, with the desired results and a way to measure them.
Some marketing tactics may include doing a direct-mail campaign, targeting 10,000 businesses or consumers. You will need a specific desired outcome, such as a 15-percent response rate generating $250,000 over a period of four months. The campaign is completed and monitored; if any adjustments are implemented, they need to be listed in the document.
Now it is time to measure the results. Compare the actual numbers to the desired numbers, and assess the differences. Was the campaign successful? If so, indicate why. If not, also indicate why, and what you believe caused its failure. You may also note whether you will consider doing the campaign again in the future.
Make a List
I like to use a matrix to illustrate these tactics, where I list all my marketing activities down the left side of the grid. Across the top, I list all 12 months of the year. This gives me a visual boxed grid where I can place an "X" in a box intersection, knowing that I will do a direct-mail campaign in the months of January, February, and March in 2008. I would list the details of the campaign and all other tactical details below the matrix. This shows a visual map of the marketing tactics for the year, and lets you adjust broad timing for your marketing.
The next section is a resource statement. By identifying all the marketing tactics, I may need to employ additional resources I don't have. This could be something like setting up some outsourcing relationships, mail house partnerships, hiring an outside independent consultant, or using a business development manager from your digital solutions vendor.
The final section is an overall conclusion for the marketing plan. This indicates that, if all your elements and tactics are successful, you should attain your goals set for the year. You may also build in some conservatism, or room for failure and recovery. This is the final assessment stage of the marketing plan's success or failure.
The executive summary is an abbreviation of the entire marketing plan, which should be inserted inside the master business plan.
Remember, to achieve your goals you have to have a detailed plan to get there. Without these two important documents, your business is running without a plan, and by the seat of your pants. Take the time to begin running your printing business like a business with a plan.
Ed Bokuniewicz has 27 years in the graphic arts industry. Currently, he is a Business Development Specialist for Eastman Kodak Co. and an Adjunct Professor at the New York City College of Technology (CUNY), teaching a print on demand class.