6 Steps to Build a VTO-Based Marketing Plan

Companies who run on EOS understand their vision will fail without traction. That’s why I love the Vision Traction Organizer tool: we are accomplishing our vision by focusing on the tactics that create traction.

The VTO has two sides, and they are equally important. On the Vision side, you visualize the future of your company. You set the foundational statements of your core values and core focus and look forward to who you will be in 10 years. If your business is like ours, the 10-year target feels just beyond your reach.

That’s where the traction side comes in. As EOS-run companies establish a marketing strategy and break the 10-year target into a 3-year picture, a 1-year plan, and quarterly rocks, the seemingly unattainable begins to take form and your team’s confidence rises.

Vision and Traction are Intertwined

So, how do you properly connect your vision and your traction and start inching closer toward your 10-year target? Well, as Gino states, you do it through your marketing: “If you want to attract the right customers, who match your target market (your vision), you must be laser-focused in your marketing and sales efforts (your traction).”

We believe a company’s marketing plan and strategy is one of the key components in connecting to your vision and traction.

How Do you Build A VTO-based Marketing Plan?

If your EOS-run company is ready to establish a comprehensive marketing plan, here are 6 steps that we use to create marketing plans for our company and for our clients.

Step 1: Evaluate the Current Year

It’s wise to always take time to review the current year. This will allow you to celebrate your wins and make decisions based on your current year’s successes and challenges.

• Timeline: last 2 weeks of September
• Team involved: Sales, Finance, Marketing
• Steps:
  • Meet with Sales to discuss the current year’s marketing results and sales needs
  • Record current year “wins”
  • List new clients with market, services, spend, POC title, and referral source
  • Analyze web and landing page traffic
  • Perform a site health and ranking review
  • List sales by department, client revenue categories, and other industry-specific metrics
  • Evaluate performance of all marketing efforts

Step 2: Discovery

After evaluating the current year, it’s time to gather the team and begin brainstorming.

• Timeline: first week of October
• Team involved: Marketing
• Steps:
  • Review VTO – marketing strategy, 1-year plan, 3-year picture, and 10-year target
  • Determine central messaging and strategy for coming year based on VTO goals
  • Review compiled notes from Step 1

Step 3: Plan Creation

Creating your marketing plan is more effective when you’ve spent adequate time evaluating and researching.

• Timeline: last 3 weeks of October
• Team involved: Marketing, Finance, Sales
• Steps:
  • Compile and organize notes from steps 1 and 2 as front matter
  • Set budget for coming year
  • Determine and prioritize marketing channels
  • Organize creative for each marketing channel
  • Create marketing plan document
  • Review marketing plan with Sales team and Executive team
  • Make edits from Sales and finalize plan
  • Budget all items

Step 4: Schedule

Once your marketing plan is finalized, you will need to schedule the creative with either your in-house team or your marketing agency.

• Timeline: first 2 weeks of November
• Team involved: Marketing (in-house team or agency)
• Steps:
  • Schedule all projects for production
  • Assign each project to appropriate team members, with production to begin in November so that projects are ready to launch January 1

Step 5: Implementation

When your entire marketing plan is scheduled and prioritized for the year, you can begin producing the creative.

• Timeline: first 3 weeks of December
• Team involved: In-house team or Agency
• Steps:
  • Begin creating assigned projects, with goal of having all Q1 projects completed by year-end
  • Provide quality control

Step 6: Ongoing Management

Marketing plans are never a “set it and forget it” endeavor. They require constant monitoring and evaluation based on firm and accurate analytics and reporting. Your team should always be prepared for and open to pivoting.

• Timeline: monthly meeting
• Team involved: internal team and Marketing or Agency
• Steps:
  • Review monthly analytics report, leads, clients, and marketing successes

Building a marketing plan that aligns with the goals your team established while creating your VTO is a vital part of connecting your vision and traction. Marketing is the actual bridge between the two and is one of the most important factors that determines whether your vision will be achieved or not.

5 Ways You’ll Find Traction through your Marketing Plan

1. Establishes realistic objectives and tasks – When you create an organized plan that includes timelines, budgets, and objectives, it is more probable that you will reach your desired result.
2. Allows for delegation – when you list the required tasks to reach your goals, you’ll be able to delegate those tasks to your team members! When everyone knows what to do and how the result will be measured, your marketing strategy can be put into practice and evaluated.
3. Provides your company with a competitive advantage – If you don’t have a marketing strategy, your competitors are already one step ahead of you. Plan, plan, plan!
4. Helps you better understand and speak to your target market – Knowing who your target audience is and how to reach them is crucial for a company to be profitable. Targeting allows your marketing to be more efficient and precise.
5. Creates a budget roadmap – Allocating the right budget to reach your marketing goals will help your company maintain your expected margin. Knowing exactly how much you need to spend in each department is crucial for reaching your goals!

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We Partner with EOS Run Companies on their Marketing Strategy

M&R Marketing partners with hundreds of growing companies across the United States, many of whom also run on EOS. Our Visionary and our Integrator co-founded M&R 15 years ago and are active in the day-to-day operations. We implemented EOS into our business in 2019. As a 2x Inc. 5000 company, we understand business growth and how to create and execute a targeted marketing strategy. Our full suite of marketing services includes website design, graphic design and branding, social media management, digital advertising, photography and videography, marketing strategy, and campaign development.

On our EOS page, learn more about our services, view our work, and hear from some of our clients who also run on EOS.