Creating a Customer-Centric, Measurable Marketing Plan

Presenter: Laura Patterson
Broadcast on Thursday, October 16, 2008
Duration: 90 minutes
Cost: $129

You've heard it before: Operating without a marketing plan is akin to taking a road trip without a map. While you may eventually get there, it is also just as likely you will get lost.

A marketing plan outlines a shared, focused strategy on how marketing will help the organization achieve its key business initiatives. It clarifies the challenges you face as well as the opportunities.

The research involved in creating a marketing plan improves marketing effectiveness and efficiencies, clarifies your target market, and helps insure you won’t end up pursuing unprofitable ventures. This session with Laura Patterson introduces key marketing and plan concepts, and provides a framework for developing a customer-centric marketing plan. You'll have a creative, complete, and concise approach that enables you to develop a strategically based, customer-centric, measurable marketing plan.

You Will Learn

The role of the marketing department in such a customer-centric environment
The 10 questions every marketing plan should answer
Dragons and Quests: Key steps for analyzing your situation
How to deploy the M.O.S.T approach to create a plan
How to structure your Mission, metrics, outcomes, objectives, strategies, and tactics in a way that is both customer-centric and measurable

Who Should Attend

B2B marketing executives, program managers responsible for marketing strategy and planning, marketing programs, market/customer research and insights, competitive intelligence, marketing metrics, and marketing operations.

About The Presenter

Laura Patterson is president of VisionEdge Marketing. Laura’s career spans nearly 30 years of marketing and sales. Her expertise and experience reflects the VisionEdge Marketing’s focus on improving marketing performance, effectiveness and efficiency, as well as marketing and sales alignment.

Prior to VEM, Laura served nearly 14 years at Motorola, Inc. in a variety of marketing and sales roles. In addition to VEM and Motorola, she has worked in the application software, enterprise software and financial services industries.

Laura is the author of dozens of published marketing and branding articles, and the books Gone Fishin' for Marketing and Sales Alignment and Measure What Matters. She has served on several non-profit boards, provided programming for professional organizations such as the ANA and BMA and has served as a guest lecturer at various universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, Truman State University and Purdue University. Her new book, Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing Organization is due out late summer 2008.

What Participants Said

Of the participants who evaluated this seminar, 89% would recommend it to a colleague. Some of their comments:

"Sometimes it feels like the internet has changed everything you ever knew about marketing, but [this seminar] reminds us it hasn't."

"It's a fabulous introduction to the concepts that drive a great marketing plan."

"Laura condenses a great deal of very valuable information concisely and provides some great examples to illustrate the principles."

"This seminar is an absolute must for any company or marketer tasked with developing a marketing plan...especially a company that operates without one."

"Nailed the key drivers of a successful marketing plan."

"A lot of info in a short amount of time. I think I would have preferred it it two pieces because its one of the most immediately practical sessions I have taken in a long time."

"A really great overview (or review) of the elements of marketing planning. Some of the best definitions, as well as explanation of linkage between various elements. Tying outcomes and metrics to business objectives is the holy grail."

"Very complete look at a practical planning process that integrates accountable and customer centric marketing plans that connect the dots to company and real world situations."

"Exceeded my expectations. Incredible and SIMPLE things we can do today..."