This is the time of year when many of our clients begin their annual brand planning. They’re looking at goals and priorities for next year and trying to figure out what they’ll be doing and the resources needed to keep this year’s momentum going.
And that momentum is key. Marketing, in particular, has a bit of inertia to it, so ensuring that your marketing efforts are moving on a continuum as the calendar flips over to the new year is important. The end of the year is also a great opportunity to look back and analyze what has worked and what hasn’t produced strong results—and adjust accordingly.
If you’re about to start your brand’s annual planning, you don’t have to go at it alone. An agency can be an excellent resource and provide planning leadership and strategic insights to keep up, and build on, your brand’s momentum.
Here are a few ways that an agency can help bolster your annual brand planning and position your marketing team—and your organization—for success in the upcoming year.
1. Provide a framework for the brand planning process.
Many brands we work with on annual planning had never done it before and looked to us for guidance on how to proceed. Agencies who regularly do annual planning with clients have the expertise to help you develop your process based on what you want to accomplish. You get the benefit of an agency’s best practices and perspectives on which processes work, and which don’t, without some of the trial and error.
2. Bring expertise across several marketing aspects.
Annual brand planning should touch on every aspect of marketing—audiences, strategy, messaging, media channels, content, events and more. But most marketing departments don’t have experts in all of these areas. Having an agency partner that does ensures that your annual plan can account for all of the critical considerations. Additionally, an integrated agency will understand how the many facets of your annual marketing plan can and should work together to optimize their impact for you.
3. Focus on what you should do, not just what you can do.
Another advantage of working with an integrated, full-service marketing agency partner on annual brand planning is that they can help you be channel-agnostic. An agency with capabilities and an understanding of the broad array of marketing channels won’t be biased toward the ones they know, but instead can help you make the right decisions based on the media diets of your target audiences and your marketing goals. Augmenting your team’s knowledge of certain channels with an agency’s expertise allows you to make more confident decisions about the strategies and tactics you should be using.
4. Help gut-check your assumptions.
Annual brand planning is ideally driven on a few data points: goals, KPIs, audiences and market conditions. Partnering with an agency on your planning provides you with a fresh set of eyes to assess your foundational data and assumptions. They can help sharpen your strategic direction by adding additional insights or helping you talk through some of the points of view that form the foundation of your planning. Often, an outside perspective can bring fresh thinking to the table and set you on a better planning path.
5. Bring a new set of tools to the table.
An agency with experience in annual planning will often have access to planning resources that you may not or don’t feel the need to invest in for a once-a-year project. We often employ tools like a third-party consumer research platform, media planning software and social listening resources when working with clients on their annual planning. These not only provide additional depth and insights to our planning but also save time and money during the planning process.
6. Establish the right goals and metrics.
One of the most frequent requests we get from clients during our annual brand planning sessions is to help identify the appropriate goals and success metrics to aim for in the coming year. Again, here’s where experience can be a big help. An agency that’s done a lot of annual planning can provide guidance on what to expect from specific marketing efforts and the appropriate success metrics based on what you want to accomplish. Having that perspective can mean the difference between a successful plan and one that falls short of expectations.
If you’re ready to start your annual planning—or even if you’re not sure if you should—The Motion Agency is ready to share our planning expertise and resources with you. Contact Carie Pflug to find out how we can help ensure the success of your annual plan and this upcoming year.
