Every business has a plan.
Even if it’s written on the back of a Post-it note.
The plan talks about the idea. Who it’s for. How to bring it to market, at what cost and how to get the word out. That final piece of the puzzle is your marketing plan, and yes it’s usually tacked on at the end….when you’re done.

Marketing is seen as an activity. Something that lives on a to-do list. A marketing plan is a bunch of actions and tactics designed to get attention for products and services.
Attention guaranteed a decent level of conversion in the days of linear media and the TV Industrial Complex, but in a Googlized world attention doesn’t automatically scale.

What matters now is being believed not just noticed and a marketing plan that comes into play when you’re done building whatever you’re building isn’t going to get you there.

What every business needs now is story strategy.

You don’t need a plan to broadcast, you need a way to change how people feel in the presence of your brand. Don’t start by asking how can we get noticed. Build something worth noticing. There’s a subtle difference.

Image by Adam Fagen.