5 consejos para elaborar un plan de marketing

Te presentamos una guía con los pilares para elaborar un plan de mercadotecnia que te ayude a posicionar tu producto.

Planes de marketing abundan en Internet, pero de todos esos “manuales” realizados por gurús de las grandes empresas muy poco es lo que se puede obtener en términos prácticos. “Establece tus objetivos", son algunas de frases que a menudo se repiten, sin ser lo bastante explícitos o profundos como para tener alguna validez cuando se llevan a la realidad.

Como una forma de terminar con esta repetición de consejos absurdos, Andrea Pallares de Puro Marketing creó una pequeña lista de elementos realmente importantes a considerar en este proceso. Tal vez hayas escuchado alguno, pero ¿Entendiste, y aplicaste, lo que te quisieron decir?

Se sencillo y breve

Los planes complejos no funcionan. Lo dijo Steve Jobs muchas veces durante sus discursos, incluso fue capaz de llevarlo a la usabilidad de sus teléfonos con gran éxito.

“Los planes con estrategias complicadas, que requieren de gran cantidad de requisitos y condiciones, o que cuestan de entender, no funcionan. Los planes con multitud de objetivos, que intentan abarcar y conseguir demasiadas cosas tampoco funcionan. Cuando más grande y complejo sea un plan, más probabilidades hay de que algo falle”, dice Pallares.

Por el contrario, los planes simples, con no muchos objetivos y que van "poco a poco" sin complicar las cosas demasiado son los que se cumplen y funcionan.

En este sentido, el consultor de Marketing Estratégico, Claudio Ponce, realiza un excelente aporte ideando un plan que cuenta con todo lo necesario y dista mucho de aquellos detalles que sólo sirven para confundir a quienes intentan llevarlos a cabo.

El plan se basa en 6 puntos: Planteamiento de los objetivos puntuales que se desean alcanzar (dependiendo de tu actividad), información sobre tus productos o servicios, información sobre la competencia, cómo está posicionado tu producto/servicio en el mercado, diseño de una guía en función de los objetivos planteados antes y, finalmente, la planificación de acciones en función de la estrategia planteada.

“Como podemos observar, la información sólo será una herramienta estratégica en función a los objetivos puntuales que la empresa necesita alcanzar, y el informe final no superará las 10 páginas”, dice Ponce.

La acción es lo más importante

Muchos se pasan horas y horas planeando lo que será el lanzamiento de un producto o tienda, pero cuando llega el momento de la acción, ya están aburridos, lo que es un grave error.

Según Pallares, “Al final son las acciones las que hacen avanzar todo. Todo plan que funciona está centrado en actuar, actuar y actuar. De manera constante y masiva. Si nos centramos en actuar y cada día damos un paso, haciendo algo que ayude a conseguir nuestros objetivos, llegaremos lejos”.

Entonces; podemos concluir que cuando realizamos una planificación, por ejemplo para redes sociales, lo importante es estipular un calendario con las actividades que realizaremos con tal de cumplir los objetivos (hora, cantidad, cuándo y cómo). Será esto lo más destacado del plan pues de ello dependerá realmente si nuestra estrategia tiene el efecto deseado.

Respecto de este tema, el texto “Cómo lograr acciones exitosas de marketing en redes sociales”, de Juan Merodio, es de gran utilidad.

Objetivos Claros

“Si no sabemos dónde vamos, no nos debe extrañar que no lleguemos nunca a nuestro destino. Por eso todo plan que es útil de verdad sabe perfectamente dónde quiere llegar, es decir, cuáles son los objetivos a alcanzar”, asegura Pallares.

Y tiene toda la razón. O más probable es que cuando tenemos un negocio, ingresamos a la redes sociales para darnos a conocer e incluso abrir nuestro campo a nuevas oportunidad de venta, como puede ser una tienda online. Sin embargo, muchos nunca se enteraron de la existencia de las aplicaciones de F-Commerce que existen en Facebook, que facilitan mucho esta tarea.

Yadira Monroy comenta en su blog yadiramonroy.com -específicamente en la nota “Errores En Tu Campaña De E-Mail Marketing”- cómo en sus comienzos cometía el error de reunir a muchas personas en torno a su e-mailing, sin tener claro para qué; lo que le hizo desaprovechar muchas oportunidades.

Todo plan de marketing te ocupará tiempo y otros recursos

Las personas obtienen tanto Marketing como empeño y recursos ponen en la tarea. Si posees un marketing al que sólo dedicas el “tiempo que te sobra” o bien pretendes conseguir millones de clientes sin invertir recursos monetarios en ello, entonces te estás auto-engañando.

Quizás suena a cuento –dicho por quienes se desempeñan en el departamento de marketing-, pero las empresas deben poner el marketing a la misma altura que el resto de las cosas importantes.

Según unos datos entregados por “ZavorDigital” respecto de Coca-cola, asegura que “Coca-cola invierte más dinero en publicidad que Microsoft y Apple juntos”. Aunque ello sería bastante difícil de especificar por la política que tiene la compañía de no difundir demasiado sus datos.

“El marketing es lo que nos consigue clientes, pocas cosas hay más importantes que eso en una empresa, con lo que debería estar entre nuestras primeras prioridades”, indica Pallares.

Aprender las reglas del juego

Este es quizás el consejo más importante al ahora de elaborar un plan de marketing para cualquier empresa: conocer de qué estamos hablando. Debes tomarte el tiempo de conocer al mercado, la competencia y al mismo contexto donde se ejecuta el plan de marketing, es decir la empresa.

Uno de los requisitos que Apple exige para una persona que opta a cualquier empleo dentro de la empresa es conocer sus productos y lo que opinan los usuarios de sus productos. BusinessInsider comenta que lo ideal es que los ingenieros lean un par de veces al día los comentarios que aparecen acerca de la marca en sitios dedicados al sector, como TechCrunch o el mismo BusinessInsider.

10 Characteristics of Superior Leaders

Do you have these essential traits?

Thousands of articles and books have been published describing what it takes to be a superior organizational leader. Some researchers and authors claim a superior leader possesses certain traits or abilities; others say it's all personality. Still others maintain it's the behaviors--not necessarily the intentions or thoughts--that are crucial.

Whatever your viewpoint, it boils down to this: successful leaders share the following characteristics or views:

1. Mission: Leaders know what their mission is. They know why the organization exists. A superior leader has a well thought out (often written) mission describing the purpose of the organization. That purpose need not be esoteric or abstract, but rather descriptive, clear and understandable. Every employee should be able to identify with the mission and strive to achieve it.
2. Vision: Where do you want your organization to go? A vision needs to be abstract enough to encourage people to imagine it but concrete enough for followers to see it, understand it and be willing to climb onboard to fulfill it.
3. Goal: How is the organization going to achieve its mission and vision and how will you measure your progress? Like a vision, goals need to be operational; that is specific and measurable. If your output and results can't be readily measured, then it will be difficult to know if you have achieved your purpose. You may have wasted important resources (time, money, people, and equipment) pursuing a strategy or plan without knowing if it truly succeeded.
    
4. Competency: You must be seen by your advisors, stakeholders, employees, and the public as being an expert in your field or an expert in leadership. Unless your constituents see you as highly credentialed--either by academic degree or with specialized experience--and capable of leading your company to success, it will be more difficult for you to be as respected, admired, or followed.
   
   Practically speaking, not all executives immediately possess all of the characteristics that spell success. Many leaders learn along the way with hard work. As crises and challenges arise, those at the top of the hierarchy have key opportunities to demonstrate to others that they are in fact, qualified to be leaders. In actuality, greater competency can be achieved as a leader gains more on-the-job experiences.
5. A strong team: Realistically, few executives possess all of the skills and abilities necessary to demonstrate total mastery of every requisite area within the organization. To complement the areas of weakness, a wise leader assembles effective teams of experienced, credentialed, and capable individuals who can supplement any voids in the leader's skill set. This ability is what sets leaders apart from others. However, the leader needs to be willing to admit he lacks certain abilities and go about finding trusted colleagues to complement those deficiencies. After building the team, the entrepreneur needs to trust that team to understand issues, create solutions, and to act on them.
6. Communication skills: It does little good to have a strong mission, vision, and goals--and even a solid budget--if the executive cannot easily and effectively convey his ideas to the stakeholders inside and outside of the organization. He must regularly be in touch with key individuals, by email, v-mail, meetings, or other forms of correspondence. Of course, the best way to ensure other people receive and understand the message is with face-to-face interactions.
   
   Getting out of the office or touring different sites is an irreplaceable method of building rapport and sending and receiving messages. "Management By Walking Around," or MBWA, meeting employees at their workstations or conference rooms, or joining them for lunch are just a few of the many effective approaches leaders can use to develop positive contacts with employees.
7. Interpersonal skills: Successful entrepreneurs are comfortable relating to other people; they easily create rapport and are at least more extroverted than they are introverted. These factors help leaders seem approachable, likeable, and comfortable in their position. Those qualities contribute to staff wanting to interact with their leader. They also help motivate employees to do a better job. When workers can relate to their boss, they believe that their boss is more concerned about them, with their performance, and with their output. Furthermore, they believe that they can go to their boss with problems they encounter on the job without fearing consequences for not knowing how to resolve issues.
   
   Not all entrepreneurs are adept at interpersonal skills. Those that aren't, might find it helpful to take a course, choose a mentor or locate a therapist to help them build interpersonal skills. The intangible cost is too high to not improve these abilities. In addition, here's where a strong team comes into play. The less experienced leader who is still learning these skills can rely on the team to get out and to "press the flesh," interact with employees, and spread a positive attitude to help develop morale.
8. A "can do, get it done" attitude: Nothing builds a picture of success more than achievement, and achievement is the number one factor that motivates just about everyone across all cultures. When employees see that their boss can lead and direct, has a clear vision and attainable goals, and actually gains results in a timely manner, then that person's credibility increases throughout the organization. Entrepreneurs must modestly demonstrate their skills to give their constituents valid reasons to appreciate and value their efforts.
9. Inspiration: Quite often, employees need someone to look up to for direction, guidance, and motivation. The entrepreneur needs to be that person. Hopefully, Human Resources has hired self-motivated individuals. Nevertheless, there are times, when many employees need the boss to inspire them by word or action. Employees need someone to look up to, admire, and follow. Even when the production or delivery of services looks like "it is all going well," the leader may at times need to step in personally to offer a suggestion or encouragement to ensure that employees perform their jobs in an optimal manner.
10. Ambition: Resting on your laurels is bad for employee morale and entrepreneurial credibility. Employees need to be constantly striving for improvement and success; and they need to see the same and more in their leaders. When the boss is seen as someone who works to attain increasingly higher goals, employees will be impressed and more willing to mirror that behavior. It's a win-win for everyone.

The basic message in this article is that you as the owner/entrepreneur need to "be out there" for your employees. Continually demonstrate to them why and how you earned the position you now hold. Communicate with them using any of a variety of methods that show them you are worthy of being followed. Make that process inspiring and positive and you can almost guarantee that your results will be consistent with your efforts.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/204248