In line with the previous article, which commented on how to be resilient in these uncertain times, in this article we will describe how to structure a marketing strategy, using the guide published by LinkedIn.

Specifically, this guide provides six principles for you to design and structure your marketing plan:

1.     Accept that it may be necessary to shift priorities between the different phases: from supporting clients in the last few months in order to build a solid plan with sales for the next quarter, and then forecast more speculatively on changes in the market and needs over the next year.

2. Give yourself room to move and manage, plan back-up campaigns in a shorter time frame so that you have resources to adjust the activity you and your team carry out.

3. Use the data to try and pinpoint what has changed and what has not. Is your customer still the same, but his expectations are moving at a different speed than you thought? Has demand changed?

4. Distinguish between factors that can be controlled and those that cannot. Focus attention and key performance indicators on the steps that need to be taken to enable a positive outcome, even if it takes longer to achieve that outcome.

5. Beware of metrics that become more or less meaningful. If your audience is consuming a lot of content it can be easy to rate MQLs (visitors to websites with a high probability of becoming customers), but that does not mean that those MQLs will be converted at the same rate as before.

6. Be on the lookout for the opportunity to align more closely with sales.