I’ll admit it: I’m a planner. And I get that not everyone has this mindset. But, when it comes to marketing, taking action without a plan isn’t just a bad idea, not having a plan can backfire on you in unfortunate ways.

I learned a bit about marketing on instinct and without a plan when working on a team that was more of a service organization than it was marketers. Here’s a little taste of what happens when you take an ad hoc approach to marketing:

• You get blog post ideas suggested based on some cutesy videos made for internal purposes. As soon as you ask what value the content of the videos would bring to an external audience, the idea evaporates. Poof! (Whew.)

• You sit in meetings to discuss whether or not to continue using tools with significant annual fees. When asked how many leads were generated from it, the meeting ends almost immediately: There‘s no data. Decision made.

The thing about marketing is that there will always be those instances when you have to do something that addresses an opportunity that doesn’t fall within the plan. But if that’s the status quo, you’re doing it wrong.

There are three big reasons planning is essential: 

1) Clarity on goals, objectives, purpose, and requirements 

I think the most important question marketers ask is “why.” When you build a plan, it should answer the why, which is bigger than simply outlining the purpose.

Not that the purpose is unimportant – it absolutely is.

But the why encompasses how the activities move you further on the path to achieving both your business and marketing goals. Beyond the bigger goals, what are the objectives of the activity?

Knowing that allows you to build a plan that’s measurable so you know if you achieve the objectives of the work you’re doing. And don’t we all want to feel like we’ve accomplished what we set out to do? Besides, you need the data for making decisions about the next campaign/month/quarter/year.

Which leads me to the more practical discussion of what’s required: Having a plan that’s well thought out answers all those questions that the team needs to be answered so they can do the work to execute the plan well.

The plan is meant to map out how to make this work happen in a realistic, achievable way.

2) Making a plan leaves room for the unexpected

The thing about planning is it actually makes it possible to have time to do one-offs and also take the occasional detour when it makes sense.

Nothing reminds me of this more than my wedding day nearly 18 years ago. My husband, Matt, and I booked every minute of the day, with travel time included. (I can prove it – he still has those bookings in his calendar.)

We didn’t realize all our precise planning was going to save us from a wardrobe malfunction. You see, when Matt was getting ready, he forgot to put on his vest. He and his groomsmen all arrived at the photo location (before the wedding ceremony because “tradition” is silly) where he realized his omission.

It only took us a couple of minutes to rearrange the order of the photos and send one of the groomsmen off to pick up the errant vest. Problem solved. Pictures saved.

Every marketer I know has had a forgotten-vest situation.

Whether it’s a last-minute piece for an event that has to be at the printer in an hour or a requirement that was missed or a salesperson begging for help with a soon-to-be-client that needs an asset that doesn’t yet exist.

Because stuff happens. But you can only deal with the unexpected effectively if planning is the norm.

3) It’s incredibly hard work to do ad hoc marketing

Marketing is all about creating connections. We connect leads to content that helps them and demonstrates that we know what we’re talking about until they connect to an action that starts them on the buyer’s path.

Once they’re on that buying path, we continue to make connections with content and with a guide who answers their questions and concerns. Even after they buy, we keep connecting in an effort to be a resource.

And how do we do this? Well, for a marketing team or program that’s planning focused, they connect one piece of content to the next and guide the audience on a journey that’s helpful and informative.

You can’t do this if you’re deciding what to blog about the day you post or the day before. And let me tell you, it’s not easy to get approval from a busy subject matter expert (SME) with a week or two of notice, much less a day or two.

Ad hoc marketing (when you’re always “doing a marketing”) is a never-ending hamster wheel that makes you feel like you’re never producing anything of true quality. Every small business and startup knows this feeling well. And the smart ones work incredibly hard and make plans to get past that stage of constantly trying to keep up.

Map out your plan so you don’t get lost

As a marketing consultant, I feel really strongly that I need to practice what I preach, but I’m far from perfect. Things get busy and I fall off the planning wagon more often than I like.

From personal experience, it can feel like you’ve been set adrift with no landmarks in sight. This is usually a catalyst for a big planning session, so I get back to focusing on the right things to grow my business.

And that’s the point of a plan in marketing—knowing your goals and deciding the path you need to take to achieve them.

Anyone who acts like “plan” is a four-letter word has a greater than zero chance of heading in the wrong direction with their marketing activities. When marketing goes off-course it may not be a disaster, but it sure won’t help you get the results you want.

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