Do You Have A Marketing Vision?

We often talk about the importance of having a marketing plan, but when was the last time you considered your marketing vision? Ideally, your marketing vision should be part of that plan. If you have a clear vision then some of the tough choices ahead may be a little easier to make. Without a marketing vision, your plan may be like buckshots, firing in one general direction and then another, trying to see what works. The problem with an approach like that, is that you may change from a great plan because you did not give it the time needed to produce fruit.

So, what exactly is a marketing vision? It's the guiding principle you create to help you forge a path that your marketing activities will take. It's not the details of the plan, it's the end goal and the ethical principles you will use to meet that end goal. It's knowing what you want to accomplish and knowing what you will and won't do to get there.

For example, you may have as a goal to get your message out to 5 million people. You decide that to reach those 5 million people, you will offer value to people in return for their interest in your message. You decide that you will not "stretch the truth" in any message, nor will you allow affiliates to do the same. You may decide as part of your marketing vision that you will make a commitment to be available personally to any prospect who has questions or comments for you.

These are just ideas, not part of a vision that I am saying that you have to adopt in order to ethical. However, by thinking about what you want and what you will be willing and won't be willing to do to get there will help you with the details of the plan.

So, if it's important to make yourself available to anyone who comes across your message, it may help you choose a marketing plan that includes social media marketing, blogs or e-mail marketing with a monitored return address. Each of those paths have pros and cons, and you will need to choose the ones that best fits into your overall marketing plan, but each will help you with your vision of being accessible to anyone who wants to communicate with you.

By knowing what you want to accomplish, what's important to you, and what you will and won't be willing to do, you can create a marketing plan that you can develop and fully exploit over time. It will help you avoid always trying the "flavor of the month" which will only cause you to spin your wheels and get nowhere. It will also help you to evaluate new ideas to see if they fit your marketing vision.

As you start to develop your marketing plan, don't forget to think about your marketing visions and values as well. If you created visions and values for your company, you will be half way there because those overriding visions and values will have to be in line with your marketing visions as well. Your marketing vision will also make everything else much easier to plan out, monitor, and to adjust as needed.

Best of all, at the end of the day, you will feel wonderful knowing that you did it your way.