Get everyone on the same page with marketing strategy session

You’re a marketing executive and it’s the beginning of the year.  Your plan is to hit the ground running with your newly approved 2018 budget, mass media schedule, the promotional calendar, your credit union’s events, and the social media content wrapped around your incredible, new marketing plan. 2018 is going to be stellar! All that is left to do is to let the results start rolling in.

Why then, do you have this nagging feeling that you’ve overlooked something critical? What’s missing? You forgot to review the marketing plan with the executive team!

Marketing can only be effective when everyone is on the same strategic page. Be sure to take the time to get on the executive team calendar to discuss your marketing strategy and initiatives for the year. This will help ensure everyone works together to implement the marketing plan and grow your credit union!

Discuss these four items in your Marketing Strategy Session:

1. Start with the Why – Explain the purpose of each promotion, event and initiative. Is the objective to raise awareness, drive a specific behavior, or ask for the business? Then tie objectives back to the strategic plan of your credit union. If you can’t define why you are doing it (and we’ve always done it that way doesn’t count), then re-evaluate and cut or refine until it makes business sense to pursue.
2. Review the Marketing Channel Mix– Talk through your media plan and the promotional calendar. Make sure that everyone understands why you are using a certain channel and how you plan to define success. If you run ads in mass media for example, is the purpose to raise awareness? What are the metrics you will use to determine if the objective was achieved?  
3. Get Buy-In and Achieve Consensus – Encourage your colleagues to ask questions and dive into the specifics. You want to make sure that each member of the team understands the marketing strategy and can articulate it to their employees. Also, as part of this process ask for ideas of how the marketing strategy can be integrated throughout your credit union. Conclude by asking for buy-in… “Is everyone on-board with this approach? Yes? Awesome, can’t wait to get started!”
4. Rock It! – Document the strategy in your marketing plan then review and discuss each month. Cover what’s going on, what’s next and review the results you’ve achieved. Prepare quarterly metric updates and make sure that the marketing plan progress is appraised as part of the strategic plan review.

Take the time to get everyone on the same strategic page and you’ll find that marketing and growth discussions will become and stay much more strategic throughout the year. Talk strategy and make 2018 the best year ever!