Selling to HR? How to Write a Marketing Plan for 2020
If you’re selling to HR decision makers and looking to get your marketing sorted for the coming year, it’s not too late to get a plan together. And planning is time spent wisely. According to research by CoSchedule, “Marketers with a documented strategy are 313% more likely to report success.”
If marketing plans stay on your ‘to do’ list because you know you should do it but don’t really know where to start or what to include, you may be tempted to type into Google “how to create a marketing plan?”. You’ll quickly be overwhelmed with millions of suggestions and ads for software. And, if you’re looking for an example of a good marketing plan, you’ll find plenty of generic references to mission statements, situation analysis, pricing strategy and more.
To keep things simple and specific, here are my eight tried and tested steps to create a robust and flexible plan for marketing to HR that gets results.
1. Go back to this year’s marketing plan and take another look
If you created a marketing plan for this year, go back over it and see what’s worked and what hasn’t. Did some things fall flat while others took off in a way you hadn’t expected?
Even if you had no formal plan or metrics, think about your main sources of quality HR leads and customers. Take the time to review client and customer feedback and see what you learn that might influence your marketing messages. These insights will form the backbone of your plan for 2020.
2. Re-confirm your target audience
Do you have a clear idea of your target audience?
Ideally, you’ll have one or several HR buyer personas or avatars that you’ve developed to help tailor your marketing message. I’ll write more on these in future but give me a call if you’d like to start work on those today.
You may know exactly who your target audience is. But are there other influencers who turn up at your client proposal or sales meetings and you now need to think about addressing their needs and concerns? Where are the right places to connect with your ideal client, both in-person and online? Will you find them on LinkedIn or at CIPD events? Which HR websites are they reading? Which podcasts are they listening to? Who are they talking to?
3. Research your competitors
Include your competitors in your marketing review, too. Perhaps a competing HR product or service has emerged this year? Do you need to change your approach to reflect this new entrant?
Or maybe you’ve found yourself a little jealous of another business’s marketing style? Though copying is a bad plan, there’s always room to take a successful method and put your own spin on it. How could you make another’s strategy work for you?
4. Identify 3 key goals
You know your mission and vision for your business, but you can’t be everywhere at once. Focusing next year’s efforts on a small set of key goals – preferably no more than three – will significantly increase your chances of success.
What are the latest HR challenges you can help your clients solve? Do you have specific services, products, or themes you want to promote? Are there new accounts you want to sell into? Do you need consistent and repeatable ways of generating new leads? What else?
5. Remember existing clients
Don’t forget to add nurturing the clients you already have to your HR marketing plan.
According to Bain and Company, a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25% increase in profit.
How can you help current clients get more from what they buy from you? How often do you check-in and let them know they’re valuable to you? Cherish your clients, and they’ll spread the word for free.
6. Consider your marketing toolkit
Think about your marketing activity mix. Be realistic about what you can and can’t do, given your people resources and budget. You might choose to:
Get your thought leadership down on ‘paper’ (at last!)
Timetable more regular email comms
Invest in more article writing and media coverage to get yourself ‘out there’
Refresh your website
Introduce a marketing automation system
Interview your clients and write up their stories as testimonials and case studies
Sponsor an event or exhibit at a conference
Organise a survey and sign up one of the key HR media to share the results
Write articles more regularly or guest blog
Get to (more) networking events
Present at conferences or local networking events for HR professionals
When you have the mix of activities you’re thinking about, then look what this means for resource and getting this delivered on time.
If you want to focus on email campaigns, you’ll need software to do that, and email subscribers (or a plan to get them).
You’ll need to map out your story and spread the word that you’re available if you want to get more speaking platforms, or articles included.
What about testimonials and case studies? Social proof is an enormously powerful marketing tool. if you need an extra pair of hands or even simply the framework to collect and structure these valuable organic ads.
7. Create success metrics
What does success look like to you? Do you want to increase your lead conversion rate, grow your email list, cut the cost of customer acquisition?
Set targets, collect and record performance metrics, and plan a regular reporting schedule to check in on your progress throughout the year. Hard data lets you measure the effectiveness of your HR marketing plan and confidently tweak or even get rid of activities that aren’t working out.
8. Build your calendar
Now it’s time to map out your activities for the year. Make this as straightforward as you can and use whatever tools you like, as long as they’re easy to access and update. Microsoft Project or even a simple marketing plan template in Excel can be effective.
Set review dates in your diary once a month and stay flexible. Keep learning from your successes and mistakes and be responsive to unexpected opportunities.
I’ve found that marketing plans are more likely to be implemented when the year is broken down into quarters. The first three or four months need to be tightly planned and structured, with the next three quarters looser so you can adapt and incorporate what you’re learning.
Get in touch with me if you need an extra pair of hands to do this or even simply the framework to start to map out the activities.
Let’s go!
So there you have it: there’s still time to get an effective marketing plan in place for next year.
If you want a helping hand, please give me a call.
My long experience of marketing to HR decision-makers means I’ve plenty of proven ideas to boost your marketing impact, and fast.