Marketing plans present ways to promote and advertise your product or service. While these plans may be delegated to special teams or external agencies, there are benefits to linking back to your own employee training and orientation programs.

As an important component of training, sharing current marketing plans offer insight into what target audiences you are appealing to and how you will reach them. Employees should be able to understand your marketing objectives and communicate these concepts as a part of their job. When employees know the groups you are trying to reach, they can assist you in pinpointing preferable advertising, promotional opportunities and inquiries while on the job.

As with sharing your mission statement during training and orientation, marketing goals can encourage feedback and valuable suggestions for next steps. With new technology and advertising platforms available today, employees, partners and others connected to your business may offer novel ways to reach even more potential customers. For example, a decade ago Quick Read advertising was just coming to direct marketers, where today the concept is nearly universal in all advertising and fundraising.

To begin the process of incorporating marketing plans into training, think of three “Rs” –Review, Redirect and Rescale.

  • Review: Take the time to go over your marketing plan at least annually, but better, do it quarterly. Buyer preferences can change overnight and you need to be prepared to update how and where you will trade.
  • Redirect: Have plans in place to move forward if changes occur. Can you reposition your product within another sector or geographical location?
  • Rescale: If financial situations arise, will you be able to stick to your advertising budget? Conditions may require you to add or subtract resources.

If you blend your marketing strategies with training, you can benefit from valuable input and feedback while sharing company goals and objectives. In turn, employees who understand how you intend to market your product gain information on which to build good customer service – an advantage to your entire business.

The above information is presented for educational purposes and should not be substituted for professional business or legal counseling.