7 steps to help you write a clear plan

I believe this phenomenon should be quite common in the workplace.

Why can some people write proposals in one go, while you spend a long time squeezing toothpaste and can't even write a few words? Why is it that the proposals written by others are clear in structure, but yours is confusing and incomprehensible?

The reason is that there is no logical framework formed in the mind in advance. The conceptual framework is the premise and basis for writing a plan. The lack of a framework will not only lead to low efficiency and confusing logic, but also prevent you from grasping the core issue and going off topic.

Some people say that it is impossible to write a plan without inspiration. Is that true?

This is probably an excuse for lack of confidence in one's own abilities. In fact, writing a proposal is a science. As long as you master the correct methodology, you can achieve stable proposal output regardless of whether you have inspiration or not!

Some time ago, I had an in-depth discussion with several senior marketing planners, summarized my years of experience in writing marketing plans, and extracted a set of universal routines for the creative framework to help everyone master the meta-skills and thinking patterns for writing marketing plans.

01

Step 1: Understand needs and goals and decide on the general direction

Any plan exists to "solve problems" or "produce effects", so before formally writing the plan, a very important step is to communicate with the party proposing the requirements repeatedly to find out what the requirements and goals of this plan are.

The need for marketing plans usually includes brand diagnosis and positioning? Market research? New product launch promotion? Boost sales? Increase visibility? Competitive analysis? Consumer insights? User operation? Advertising strategy and creativity? Media placement plan? etc.

Only when the needs and goals are very clear can we find the dimensions for the solution concept and ensure that the general direction is not wrong.

02

Step 2: Organize and collect information and get familiar with the project

After having a general direction, in order to become familiar with the overall situation of the project, you need to organize and collect a lot of information.

For example, when making a brand positioning plan, the information usually required includes:

Introduction to the brand and products, the overall market environment and trends, competitors' brands and products, competitors' advertising, consumer attributes and behaviors, consumer perception of the brand (which may not be readily available and may need to be obtained through research), etc.

Websites that collect reports include 199IT, iResearch, Penguin Think Tank, Analysys, etc.; websites that collect marketing cases include Shuying.com, AdChina, Meihua.com, Socialbeta, etc.; of course, Baidu, Zhihu, WeChat, etc. are also very good platforms for collecting information. Of course, searching for keywords is a very sophisticated art.

Although organizing and collecting information is a rather laborious and boring task, only by organizing the information well and digesting it thoroughly can you provide sufficient ammunition support for the subsequent output of ideas.

03

Step 3: Research and investigate to find clues

Some information is available for immediate use, such as brand and product introductions, market environment and trends, etc.

However, most of the information requires further research and analysis to find valuable clues; or further investigation is required to draw the conclusions we need.

For example, when we get advertising information about a competitor, we have to study its advertising strategy. What are the advantages and disadvantages of advertising? For example, once you get consumer data, you need to further use quantitative and qualitative methods such as questionnaires and focus groups based on known basic consumer attributes to gain insight into the real reasons behind consumer purchasing behavior.

Research and investigation work is extremely challenging for planners. Usually only experienced planners can quickly discover valuable clues. Of course, as long as junior planners ask more questions, learn more and think more, they will also gain a lot in this process.

04

Step 4: Extract core topics and establish propositions

How to write a planning proposal clearly and logically?

Generally speaking, the three preliminary tasks of "understanding needs, organizing information, researching and investigating" may take up half of our time, but we have not yet officially entered the stage of proposal writing.

Why does it take so much time and effort up front? It is to accurately extract the core issues of the entire plan and strike a fatal blow!

It is just like when a doctor examines a patient. He will first ask the patient to do some tests and ask about his physical symptoms. Only after a clear diagnosis can he prescribe the right medicine and give a reasonable treatment plan.

Charles Gidelin, a management consultant for General Motors in the United States, proposed a famous Gidelin's Law: If you state the problem clearly, you are halfway through solving it. This shows that in any work, identifying the core issue is a very critical part.

05

Step 5: Propose methods and models to solve problems

How to write a planning proposal clearly and logically?

Now that we have diagnosed the problem, what solutions are available to solve it?

Usually, both the first-party enterprise and the second-party agency have some mature methodologies to solve marketing problems:

For example, Ogilvy’s “360 Brand Compass”, Roland Berger’s “PROFIL Consumer Value Model”, Leo Burnett’s “Humankind Brand Model”, JWT’s “Total Branding” are all authoritative methodologies in the marketing and advertising circles.

The more methodologies you master, and the more you integrate and use them in combination, the higher the quality of problem solving will be.

This is why in martial arts novels, if a martial artist has learned a lot of kung fu, the standard for measuring whether he can truly become a martial arts master is not how many moves he has remembered, but how many he has forgotten.

Because the process of forgetting is the process of understanding and integration. Only when you understand and apply it flexibly can you truly master it. The same principle applies to work.

Through work and study over the years, I have accumulated some marketing models, thinking models and doing things models. These models are stored in my mind, and when I encounter specific problems, I will call out the corresponding models to solve the problems.

The accumulation of these models mainly relies on three means:

(1) Learn some classic and useful models and put them into practice.
(2) Improve other people’s models based on your own understanding.
(3) Think hard during practice and summarize some models.

(Model refinement for positioning)

06

Step 6: Sort out the logic and story line and express it clearly

The core problem was diagnosed and a solution was proposed. The next step is to consider how to make your views more easily accepted and understood?

This requires us to sort out the logic of the overall plan and package the story line of the plan. This is also an indispensable step to make a plan sublimated. It is not enough to just figure it out by yourself. Only when your ideas are successfully understood by others can it be considered a high-quality plan.

1. Sort out the logic of the plan

Inexperienced PPTers can easily fall into a misunderstanding: talking about whatever comes to mind. As a result, the audience has no idea what you want to express and your mind is also in a mess.

The best way to avoid this kind of messy thinking is to master some logical thinking methods, such as PDCA principle, 5W2H principle, SWOT analysis theory, time anchor sequence, etc.

Making PPT is ultimately a matter of thinking ability. You must think clearly about what kind of logic to use so that others can follow your thoughts and the information can be easily received by others. I recommend everyone to read "The Pyramid Principle", which can cultivate the logic of thinking, expression and problem solving. I believe you will gain a lot after reading it.

2. Packaging storyline is important

Making PPT is also an art of storytelling. When you use stories to package and narrate the same thing, it will definitely make people remember it better than simply explaining some concepts or professional knowledge.

Once when we were sharing at the company, our team transformed ourselves into animated characters from the movie "Zootopia" based on the abilities and characteristics of each member, and then explained our PPT in the voice of the corresponding animated characters. In the end, we turned a very professional and boring sharing session into a novel and interesting storytelling session.

When Jack Ma was a university teacher, there were basically no students skipping classes, and even many students from other majors came to audit his classes on their own initiative. Luo Yonghao was a star teacher at New Oriental back then. His classes were crazily sought after by students, and he eventually became a generation of Internet celebrity after his lecture videos were uploaded to the Internet.

Both experts have one thing in common when giving lectures, which is that they like to turn what they are saying into stories.

07

Step 7: Form the final framework and record ideas

How to write a planning proposal clearly and logically?

Once the framework is sorted out, it cannot be kept in the mind only. As the saying goes, a good memory is not as good as a bad pen. There are usually three ways to record the framework. You can choose to use it according to your own habits:

Write it down on paper: This was a popular method in the days before computers became popular. Today, many senior professionals still keep the habit of taking notes on paper.

Use PPT paging to record: The advantage of this is that after setting up the framework, you can enrich the content of each slide according to the framework; the disadvantage is that after paging, you cannot see the overall framework at a glance, and if there is any omission, it will be difficult to detect.

Use mind mapping tools: This is the method I recommend. Mind mapping can help you quickly sort out your thoughts, which is both convenient and efficient. Commonly used mind mapping tools include Xmind, Mindmanager, Baidu Mind Map, etc.

Method Summary

A seemingly simple framework actually contains a lot of thoughts!

Every marketing planner should master the universal routine for conceiving a planning framework.

Author: Bubble Ter

Source: BubbleTer