Marketing promotion planning: Please understand these things before writing the plan!

When it comes to planning, some people can talk and laugh all day long, while others are very secretive and don't want to say a word.

But no matter who it is, as long as they are related to planning, they always give people a sense of being mysterious and powerful, and being able to strategize. But in fact, planning is not that mysterious, it just makes it easier for your hairline to die.

Why do many friends always fail to write good proposals? It is probably because there are still deviations in your basic views and opinions on planning. When writing a plan, you must have a planning worldview!

The editor will talk about the planning worldview in detail here. This article is very long, so please read it at your leisure.

What exactly is planning?

From a static perspective, planning is nothing more than the company's plans and plans, while from a dynamic perspective, planning is to formulate scientific strategies for the company and form practical and executable plans.

The planning plan we often talk about is a plan that includes background analysis, strategy formulation, execution plan, budget and KPI, etc. However, the content of the planning plan may vary for different corporate activities.

I am often asked how to write a plan. In fact, isn’t any plan written using the brain?

Don’t try to kill me. Many people really don’t use their brains when writing proposals. They just follow the same old rules and list background analysis, product analysis, target consumer group analysis…

When you ask him what he has analyzed, he hesitates and doesn't know what he has analyzed. If you don't know what you have analyzed, what's the point of writing a ten-page PPT? Some friends sit and stare at a blank PPT page for the whole day!

There are many friends who make this kind of mistake. On the surface, it seems that they are not using their brains, but fundamentally, there is actually no need to use their brains, because your planning skills need to be improved!

To do planning, you need to have a planning worldview. The editor believes that the following understandings are what you must have.

1. The essence of planning is to solve problems

No company's behavior is without reason. Whether it is a large marketing campaign or a small communication activity, it is all carried out to solve corresponding problems.

Is it a problem of underexposure and widening the opening? Or is it a problem of word-of-mouth bias? Or is it a matter of clearing inventory for the launch of new products? Strategists must be aware of this.

Since planning is to solve problems, the first task is to find the problems!

The editor will not tell you that the process of background analysis and strategy derivation is actually the process of analyzing topics and discovering problems. In other words, the strategy derivation part of the plan is not optional or redundant. This part determines what all the creativity and content of your execution part should be.

Always remember that the customer understands his own product better than you do, so avoid piling up product information when conducting background analysis and deriving strategies. In other words, if the problem is obvious or has been clearly stated in the client brief, the focus of your analysis should be on how to solve the problem rather than mechanically proving that the problem does exist.

For example: The client’s brief said that a car model has just been launched and is not well-known, and they hope to conduct a publicity campaign through Kuaidian store marketing to increase public awareness. So what is the focus of your analysis and derivation?

First, we need to identify the problem with the client’s product: a certain car model is not well-known and needs to be made more well-known. So you are going to seriously analyze why this car is not well-known?

No, no, no, this is a problem with the product itself, but the topic of this proposal you wrote is: how to increase awareness through pop-up store marketing! In other words, the focus of your analysis is on how to conduct pop-up store marketing, how to effectively increase brand awareness through this marketing method, and what is our strategy for marketing our products through pop-up stores.

If the client's brief is changed to: There is a car that is not well-known at present, and it is hoped to increase public awareness through a communication campaign. Then, the focus of your analysis should be why this car is not well-known and how to market it to increase awareness.

The essence of planning is to solve problems, so please use your brain (MandCX) before writing a plan. If you don’t know what problem you are trying to solve, you will become more and more confused as you write.

2. The core of planning is strategy

Anyone who has written a proposal knows that a proposal usually consists of the following: first, background analysis (including macroeconomic environment, industry environment, communication environment, etc.); product analysis, competitive product analysis; and target consumer group analysis.

Through these analyses, thinking and insights, you can then come up with your marketing strategy, including communication theme (core idea), core words, marketing methods, communication strategy and planning, media strategy, etc.

Finally, there is the detailed implementation plan under the guidance of the strategy, including communication creativity, event operation, etc.

It can be seen that the strategy part is in a key position connecting the preceding and following parts. Of course, it does not mean that the strategy part is the core of the planning because it is in this position, but because the strategy part is the conclusion of your previous analysis and also the guiding ideology for your subsequent implementation.

If your strategy is unclear or inappropriate, the plan will fail. Don't ask why. Think about it, if you don't have a clear strategy, it means that your previous analysis is nonsense. It also means that the things you do later are either taken for granted or hit or miss, and the execution is superficial and is just for the sake of spreading. Then isn't this plan scrapped?

As far as I know, many friends have deep misunderstandings in this area.

1) Some people believe that creativity is king, and that the previous analysis and strategies are redundant. My creative idea is the highlight of the plan, and the client also wants to see this!

Haha, I can't say you are wrong, but you have to understand what type of solution you are writing.

If it is a communication execution case, a clear communication strategy, communication rhythm and plan are enough; if it is a creative communication plan or a creative submission plan, then of course your idea is the focus; if it is a large marketing campaign or communication plan, your plan is soulless without a strategy.

When a customer says that the idea in your proposal seems fantastic but has nothing to do with us, don't get angry and call the customer an idiot. Think about whether your idea is creative under the guidance of strategy and whether it can effectively solve the problem currently faced by the customer.

So, don’t be in a hurry to be sincere just because others made a heart-warming video, and don’t be in a hurry to be silly just because others made a silly video!

2) Some people believe that strategy is everything and they are confident that they can just write down the strategy when writing a plan. What do you mean by creative execution? That's not the point. Why not just let the interns write whatever they want? After all, young people have a lot of ideas. What a joke.

When we say that strategy is the core of planning, it does not mean that detailed communication creativity or activity planning is unimportant. Rather, strategy determines what your communications and activities should do and how to do them. It is the steering wheel of your specific communication creativity or activity planning. Conversely, the creative part is an effective means to implement the strategy.

To make an inappropriate analogy, if creativity is the Nine Yin Bone Claw, then strategy is the Nine Yin Scriptures.

Many program strategies and creativity are out of touch because of the lack of understanding of this relationship. Strategy is not to be put on the shelf, nor to make up the number of pages in a PPT, nor is it for you to show off. Instead, it is for you to propose an effective marketing approach to the issues you are facing and to solve the problems.

3. The key to planning is logic

Why do many planners have their hairlines reduced? Oh, that’s not right. Why is planning a brainwork? Because planning is used to help others solve problems and is a map to guide others' operations. This requires that the person who writes the plan must have a higher level of thinking than others.

Therefore, the presentation of the plan requires you to provide analytical ideas, conclusions and specific implementation.

You will never find a new world with an old map. Similarly, if your logic is all messed up, how can you teach others to do this or that? The key to planning is logic, that is, your plan should be understandable to others without any contradiction and make them agree with it.

As I mentioned earlier, some people always write proposals step by step, including background analysis, product analysis, competitor analysis, target consumer group analysis, core creativity and communication creativity. This is a fill-in-the-blank presentation mode. If you are still writing proposals in this way, it means that you have not yet understood the basic logic of planning.

The overall logic of writing a plan is simply to find out what issues the client is facing, tell the client what needs to be done to solve the issue, and finally come up with a specific execution plan that can do so.

The editor will discuss this in two parts.

1) Presentation logic of the background and strategy parts

The essence of planning is to solve problems, and all your previous analysis logic should be to find the issues faced by customers and come up with strategies, that is, this part is the logic of What, Why and How.

Therefore, sections such as background analysis and competitive product analysis are optional, but not mandatory. Only the sections that help you find the topic and come up with strategies are required. Sections that are not very helpful can be briefly mentioned or do not need to appear in your PPT.

More importantly, you must draw conclusions from your analysis of each sector (MandCX), and these conclusions will serve as the support for your strategy.

To put it simply, because of this and that, the problem we are facing is this, so how do we solve this problem? Because of this and this, my strategy is this.

This is an overall coherent linear analysis process, rather than a fill-in-the-blank logic.

Of course, this is just the most basic logic for writing the background and strategy part, which is also a technical issue in writing the plan. When you have written many proposals, especially when you have submitted them many times, you will find that there is actually an artistic aspect to writing plans.

For example, how can you start to attract other people's attention, leave a deep impression, and make customers or judges feel that your plan is different from others; how can you analyze so that others feel that the reasons you give are reasonable; what kind of strategy can make others feel that you have hit the crux of the problem, etc. We will not discuss this in detail here.

2) Presentation logic of the creative execution part

All creative executions are carried out under the guidance of strategy, which means that this part of the content is to solve specific problems, which is the logic of Do.

As you know, the three elements of communication are the communicator, the receiver and the medium, so a complete communication plan requires you to present what you want to communicate, what the creativity is, and how and through what channels to communicate.

As I said before, planning presentation not only needs to give specific execution, but also needs to present ideas.

Therefore, when writing each creative execution part, it is best to briefly state what methods you will use to spread and what goals you will achieve before the specific execution, and then give your core ideas and specific communication plans.

For example: If you want to hold a cross-border concert to increase brand awareness, then before making a specific communication plan, you can write about cross-border collaboration with so-and-so to create a music carnival for fans to cheer on, thereby quickly increasing brand awareness.

Then write what the theme of your concert is and how you will operate and promote it. This can reduce the cost of understanding for those listening to the proposal and make the proposal easy to read and understand.

The creative execution part follows the DO logic from the perspective of the overall plan, but for a certain communication idea or activity alone, it is still the What, Why and How logic, except that the What and Why here are much simpler, while the How needs to be presented in detail.

Because planning itself is to tell others how to solve problems, and the same is true for the dissemination of creative ideas and activities. If you don't have a clear outline of ideas, intentions, purposes, etc., and just tell others to start doing this or that, then you will definitely get confused.

Of course, you can also extract some highlights of the entire communication plan so that others can get the core content at a glance. If there is a large resource combination, it is also necessary to introduce the resource situation.

Anyway, logic is the key to writing a proposal. It is the mystery that should be in your mind and the outline that is clear and comprehensive. Only by understanding the logic of writing a proposal can you solve problems flexibly and write corresponding plans for different topics, instead of taking someone else's proposal as a panacea and changing it over and over again without knowing what you are writing but just writing it.

4. The key to planning is rhythm

When you listen to a good song or watch a good movie, you can always feel either relaxation or tension, sometimes like flowing water under a small bridge and sometimes like graceful and melodious sounds, and this is due to the rhythm. The same is true for a good planning proposal, which requires a good grasp of the overall rhythm.

As for the planning scheme itself, in order to grasp the rhythm you first need to clarify the priority of each section and the secondary focus of the content.

The main sections and key contents should be detailed, while the others can be simplified. This seems to be nonsense, but many friends just don’t understand it, haha. The editor thought about it and realized that this is probably because many friends are not clear about which section is the main one and which content is the focus when writing the plan, right?

This requires you to carefully study the technical requirements given by the client before writing the proposal, that is, the brief!

Please note that this is research, not just looking at it. That’s right! This requires the same concentration as when you read the questions at the college entrance examination. You must be clear about the background of the project, the client's investigation topics, the technical requirements details, and the scoring criteria.

Simply put, if it is a marketing plan, then the division and combination of public relations, advertising, etc., and the optimized combination of channels are the top priorities, and the others are supporting sections; if it is a creative communication plan, then obviously communication creativity is the protagonist. The content must respond to the examination questions, and of course you need to focus on the key points.

In addition, there are other factors that will affect the rhythm of the plan. For example, if your company is an old supplier of the client, then the company profile does not need to be too eye-catching. If it is the first time contacting the client, then the company introduction will be the focus and may even be presented at the beginning of the plan.

For example, you have already received the client's expectations from Mimi, so don't you have any idea of ​​what the key points of the plan are and what should be written where?

When writing a proposal, you need to break down the customer's technical requirements and reflect the inspection points in each part.

When it comes to background analysis and strategy review, many people go into great detail in writing this part, whether it is macro-environment analysis or product analysis. This makes the front part long and boring with no sense of rhythm, making it difficult for people to continue reading.

Generally speaking, the focus of this section is competitor analysis, TA insights and strategies, and you need detailed data support and analytical deductions. But if the client has requirements for the communication environment, but you don’t write them down or just mention them briefly, that would be unacceptable. The background also needs to be presented if it coincides with a key year or node, such as the client’s anniversary, a major political and economic year, etc.

The editor said earlier that this part should not be presented in a cramming manner, but should be written selectively. The same goes for this: rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. Understand?

As for the specific communication planning and event operation part, if the rhythm is not well grasped, it will easily make people feel dazzled and unfocused. It has been emphasized many times that this part of the content is guided by strategy, so first of all, we must ensure that all creative ideas in this part serve the strategy, otherwise an idea or even a title will become the fly in the ointment in the pot of broth.

Then pay attention to the rhythm in the detailed communication of ideas: if it is a creative plan, please focus on explaining the ideas and creative interpretation, and for the rest, just provide a few demos.

What is the method of detail and omission? If your communication revolves around a video, you should not only write down your ideas, but also write out the video script and storyboard. If you want to be simple, you can even just put a media icon.

It is worth mentioning that if there are multiple similar communications, you should pay attention to the details of each other. That is to say, if one introduces the form and content in detail, the other can introduce the channel planning and rhythm (MandCX) in detail.

There is a difference between writing an activity plan and a communication plan. Generally, the focus is on resource introduction and operation planning, while the rest can be written briefly. If it involves construction, 3D renderings are also essential. Of course, it depends on the detailed technical requirements.

The time arrangement for writing a plan also requires a rhythm. Collecting information, brainstorming, writing and presenting, and revising must all be arranged reasonably to avoid the deadline curse.

Personally, I think you can spend more time collecting information and brainstorming. First, it can avoid irreparable mistakes caused by information asymmetry. Second, the first principle of planning is to use your brain. Once you have thought it through, writing will not be a problem.

I have written so many plans and have my own experience. You must leave time for revisions. Only by revising and polishing them many times can the planning plan you write be the best. Don't slam the keyboard and throw the mouse in your heart when you hear about the revisions. How can I, a person weighing over 100 pounds, be steady?

5. The essence of planning is - point of view

I don’t know if you have ever had this feeling: after writing a proposal or reading many proposals from others, you always feel that the proposal has all the necessary content, the logic of presentation is fine, and the rhythm is also good, but the whole proposal feels very bland, or you always feel that the proposal is not sexy enough?

90% of the time, this feeling is due to a lack of perspective in the proposal! The so-called opinion is to express your thoughts and conclusions in a sexy way, in a bold and sexy way.

Because the planning proposal itself is to tell others why to do something and how to do it specifically, that is, your thinking should lead the thinking of others. If you don’t have a clear point of view, it is easy to give people a feeling of "oh" instead of "wow".

It's like you take a group of friends to the beach, and everyone sees the beach is all sand. There is nothing wrong with this in itself, but if there are shells on the beach, then other people's feelings will be very different. These shells are the effect that point of view gives people.

When you have an opinion in a planning proposal, you must first have a conclusion. The analysis of each page and the summary of each part must have your conclusions. Analysis without conclusions is just hooliganism, which not only wastes your own energy but also wastes other people's time.

Second, you need to present the conclusion in a sexy way. You can use conceptual packaging, borrowing famous quotes or analogies to make your simple conclusions different from the slutty stuff out there.

For example, if you want to express that you can only know who is the real talent after following the trend, it would be sexier to say "only after the tide goes out can you know who is swimming naked"; if you want to say that brands need to compete for attention in the era of information explosion, it would be sexier to say "in the era of exponential information growth, brands need to learn to perform magic tricks under the spotlight."

If the entire plan is a string of Buddhist beads, the strategy is the string that strings the beads together, the sections are the beads, and the viewpoint is the most attractive highlight of each bead!

These are the basic world views of planning. The first principle of planning is to use your brain, the essence is to solve problems, the core is strategy, the key is logic, the essentials is rhythm, and the essence is viewpoint. If you understand these, writing a plan should be much clearer.

Of course, there are other world views in planning. For example, the basic skills of planning are PPT design, the biggest enemy of planning is deadline, the medal of planning is the hairline of death in battle, and so on.

I hope the above can give you inspiration.

There is a fish in the North Sea, Amitabha~

Source: Marketing Zen Center (ID: MandCX)