We were challenged this week to create a marketing plan. While these can and perhaps should be far more elaborate plans embedded within an overall business plan, I have prepared a simple overview describing my objective, and the strategies and tactics I can employ to achieve that objective.  As a former strategic planner I balked a bit at the way the terms and examples were presented, as I thought they were very muddled and it can be important to be more precise because objectives, strategies and tactics are 3 distinct things.  An Objective is the overall outcome or end result you desire.  Strategies are how you intend to achieve the objective and tactics are what specific things you will do to effect success in each of the strategies.

To use a military analogy; the Objective is to win the war by way of an unconditional surrender.  The strategies might include using air, sea and land forces to overwhelm enemy defences, while the tactics would be something like begin with an air campaign designed to suppress enemy offensive capabilities and achieve air superiority before committing land forces.  Direct a mixed division of armour and cavalry forces in a fast moving multi pronged attack focused on key command and control nodes.  You get the idea.  These terms relate to a stratified structure of increasing detail as you progress through each layer.

One could also think of it in terms of a building.  The objective is to have a house.  The strategies are the various pillars holding up the roof and the bricks that make up the pillars are the tactics.

Planning ensures that the strategies directly support the achievement of the objective or they are not relevant and tactics needs to support the strategy to which they are assigned.  Once the planning is done, then what one concerns themselves with on a day to day basis are the tactics.  They are the “action items” that must be completed to execute a successful strategy and the sum of all the strategies successfully executed will achieve the overall objective.

Marketing Plan

Ashley Rose Photography – Chasing the Wild Life

Objective

To establish myself as a professional photographer

Strategies and Tactics

1. Continue to produce high quality work while always striving to improve my skills
   1. Dedicate time to continually experiment and learn new skills
   2. Keep pushing in my project work to obtain the best possible photographs
2. Use my website to promote my portfolio of work and ultimately monetise using it as a sales platform
   1. Update website to simplify and be more focused
   2. Work toward an upgrade that will allow sale of my work from the website
3. Expand the use of social media to promote my work
   1. Post regularly to Instagram and Facebook
   2. Create a new Facebook page that is for my business and stop mixing it with my personal page
4. Continue to produce photobooks and acquire new outlets for their distribution
   1. Two additional books in the planning phase
   2. New outlet for 19 Sutherland Bridges was identified this week and books are ordered
   3. Special limited edition book sold out at a profit
   4. Commitments from two retail outlets for the two books in work
5. Establish retail distribution outlets for my prints
   1. Two retail outlets identified and committed; one on consignment and the other on outright purchase and resale
   2. Identify additional outlets
6. Accept commissioned work when and if it fits my schedule and interests
   1. Word of mouth has been bringing a stead stream of commissions, so the key is to meet or exceed the expectations of each client and the word gets passed along