How to write an excellent marketing promotion plan?

Making plans is one of the daily tasks of marketers. Internally, they need to report medium- and long-term plans to the company and obtain market budgets. Externally, they are responsible for channel investment, brand cooperation, market promotion, etc. To a certain extent, the ability to make plans can determine the level of one's ability.

You may have had similar experiences where some people are not as capable as you, but they are repeatedly recognized by customers. Some people do not have profound professional skills, but can still gain a group of fans. Is it that I don’t understand myself, or that I haven’t met someone who understands me?

In my opinion, perhaps it is because the cognitive gap between you and the other party has not been reduced during these interactions, so the sense of value identification cannot be triggered. If we want to gain recognition, we have to narrow the gap in our understanding so that we can be on the same wavelength as each other .

From the perspective of the plan, a good plan can help narrow the cognitive gap. The larger the gap, the higher the education cost will be.

Below I share some of my personal thoughts on writing the proposal, for reference only.

1. Watch people talk

So what if a supercar is good? For home use it does not meet my standards, so I would point out a lot of problems such as low chassis, small space, few seats, noisy noise, etc. Of course, the core issue is still money. But this is not important. What I want to argue is that it is difficult to come up with a plan that satisfies everyone .

After writing the proposal, it is usually discussed with the internal team. After several rounds of debate and adjustment, the proposal can be officially released to the outside world. However, it fails to achieve good results on the client side. What is the reason?

A large part of the reason is due to inertial thinking . Many people are accustomed to putting forward some subjective ideas and suggestions based on their personal perspectives, cognitions and feelings. Your needs are not necessarily the other party's needs. Meeting your needs may be equivalent to abandoning their real needs.

The term user thinking is used everywhere and everyone is talking about it, but how many people can really apply this ability into specific execution?

Therefore, before making a plan, you must think clearly about who the target audience is and then prescribe the right medicine for the problem . This object may be a specific individual or a broad group.

Since we need to prescribe the right medicine for the "symptom", we have to do a full body examination first and prescribe a medicine based on the diagnosis report . We need to obtain the portrait data of the target object.

The logic of making plans is the same as that of marketing. First, analyze the target group portrait, and then formulate a marketing strategy based on the target group portrait.

However, when making plans, it is often difficult to obtain data because the target objects are too vertically segmented or the sample size is too small. In this case, I recommend using these three methods to collect data.

Industry Experience

Simply put, it is to rely on your feeling. Based on your experience and understanding in this industry, you can comprehensively evaluate and outline a portrait of the target group.

Industry Research

Prepare the survey form and give it to the relevant departments, and collect data through visits to companies, offline activities (such as exhibitions, new product launches, etc.) or online questionnaires. You can also consult experienced people around you.

Get peer information

Peers are the best teachers. Use any way you can to get information about your competitors and pay attention to their key areas.

These three methods of collecting data all have certain time requirements, so this work cannot be done at the last minute, but must be accumulated in normal times.

After the data is collected, it must be classified and archived, updated regularly, and a standardized SOP must be formed for reuse by internal teams. During this process, you also need to regularly observe whether the user portraits at different stages have changed, follow up regularly and observe the patterns of change.

There is a more profound example. Once I made a proposal for a client, and during the process of explaining the proposal, I could feel some cognitive conflicts with the client. Later I learned that the other party had recently participated in relevant training courses, but his cognitive framework was not systematic enough, so he put forward a lot of sweeping ideas.

We can find that the user portrait is dynamic. He may be a new player now, but he may become a veteran player after a while. Data will become a powerful weapon in our hands. We can use data to observe users' latest behaviors and make predictions, and then make targeted preparations to respond to and persuade the other party's doubts.

2. Speak according to the occasion

Only by knowing the occasion when speaking can you achieve good results. Be aware of the occasion when speaking so that you can be in harmony with the surrounding atmosphere. Some people seem to be eloquent and eloquent, but they often mess things up. This type of people often ignore the occasion and environment, and end up stepping on landmines intentionally or unintentionally.

Reporting plans are generally carried out in two situations: a one-on-one private setting in a closed environment, and a one-to-many or many-to-many public setting .

The same person, facing the same needs, may have different performance and feedback results in different situations.

In private settings, there is a greater probability that the other party will make the final decision on the spot, so the theme of the plan should tend to be more practical. In public settings, the external noise is too loud and decisions cannot often be made on the spot. In this case, it is more appropriate to provide a directional framework and then guide the other party into a private setting for secondary communication.

The solution must not only match the person, but also the scenario. In different scenarios, the content direction, form and quantity of the plan will change accordingly.

3. How to say nice things?

"Good" is difficult to define. As mentioned earlier, different people and different occasions have different standards.

As for a plan, the standard of a good plan is the ability to improve the conversion rate of results . For example, applying for the target budget, developing the target number of dealers, etc.

Use fewer function words

In order to demonstrate the strength of themselves and their company, many people will "package" their plans, such as typesetting design, animation effects, etc. The most common one is "making up words".

Plain and simple content is too simple and basic. In order to show one's own strengths, people tend to insert many words into the proposal to increase the other party's thinking and judgment. For example: connecting with users’ minds, increasing user stickiness, capturing top users through tiered marketing, and adding warmth to the brand...

When used, these words can easily add a sense of preaching, and adults are more disgusted with being preached. With clear goals, we should provide as much down-to-earth content as possible.

In addition, when explaining the plan, you should observe the client's facial expression and never just focus on your own verbal pleasure. In fact, this kind of words will be more effective when interspersed in the process of oral expression, and professionalism can be better reflected. However, it is not advisable to spend too much time breaking down these points. It is better to just briefly touch upon them and distinguish the primary and secondary relationships of the content.

Moreover, the plan should be as compact and light as possible. Just like watching a movie, a movie that is too dragged out will make people drowsy and the viewing process will be extremely painful. Movies with clear logic and fast pace can make people linger and spread by word of mouth.

Multi-purpose data

The plan with the screen full of text was uncomfortable to read. When explaining the plan, it was more like teaching primary school students to read. The scene was extremely embarrassing.

This phenomenon may be a lazy atmosphere formed in the industry. This is how it is done in the industry, so everyone maintains the same level. Another situation may be that the ability to summarize and generalize is poor, and only the simplest and crudest way to present the content can be used.

When people remember anything, they look at the degree of neural excitement. The higher the degree of excitement, the easier it is to remember. Numbers are a good stimulant .

We can extract the core information in digital form. If you don’t know how to extract it, you can look through the Internet or exhibitions to see how other albums are made. I believe you will find the feeling quickly.

Numbers are not only to enhance the other party's memory, but also to tell him the value of the solution. What value can choosing our solution create for you? What kind of effect can be achieved?

Be as detailed as possible

Due to the limitations of the other party's imagination and understanding, you have to present the content to the other party in a concrete way so that he can quickly get on the same page with you. You can use a combination of text, audio and video + oral translation to convey the content. The solution is designed to solve the practical problem that oral expression is not concrete and three-dimensional enough.

The plan must not be ambiguous or superficial. If you simply state an idea to the other party, let him give you a preliminary judgment, and then further conceive the specific execution path, this will not only fail to reflect your professionalism, but also expose your lack of confidence and even prolong the battle time of the entire project.

A good plan must be able to be actually implemented. So you tell the other person what you are going to do? What are you going to do? What kind of results can you achieve? There must be a clear picture, including the specific implementation plan and time schedule.

Showcase

The cases here do not just refer to putting a few clients' logos and case names in the plan. Nowadays, there are too many phenomena of subcontracting at various levels. In fact, many people are no longer sensitive to the logos of large enterprises. The case presentation mentioned here mainly outlines the process and performance of the case.

For example, what are the customer’s needs? What was his situation like in the beginning? Then, you should show the customer how you helped him solve the problem, the specific execution path and related forms, processes, etc. (privacy information can be hidden), which team members were involved, how long both parties needed to be involved, and what effect was ultimately achieved. You should also briefly talk about your personal views and understanding of this plan, which will make it more convincing.

Author: Hei Lai Gu

Source: Hei Lai Gu