Leadership Healthcare Marketing

5 Keys to a Great 30-60-90 Day Marketing Plan

It is almost inevitable that you will be asked to present a 30-60-90 day plan when interviewing for a senior marketing leadership position. Although no one expects perfection from your plan, there are few things you will want to be sure to include so that you can demonstrate your leadership potential.

Keep your audience in mind

Before we jump into the things your plan should contain, it is paramount that you remember the first principle of marketing – know your audience. Before sitting down to create your plan, put yourself into the shoes of your interviewer and the other senior executives who may be joining for your plan presentation. Think about THEIR needs and what they would expect to see from a marketing leader.

Above all, keep your audience’s goals in mind as you craft your plan. If they are expecting marketing to bring leads into the sales team, then your plan better build towards a robust lead generation engine. If they are expecting marketing to increase awareness of the company’s solutions then your plan needs to have copious helpings of thought-leadership activities.

5 key elements

Having presented and been in the audience for dozens of 30-60-90 marketing presentations, here are the 5 key elements that I look for and that I always include:

  1. Spending time with sales
  2. Getting to know the existing marketing team
  3. Visiting/speaking with customers
  4. A marketing review
  5. Competitive analysis

Spending time with sales

It doesn’t matter if you are interviewing at a start-up or an established multinational company, spending time with the sales team is critical. Personally, this is a red flag if I do not see this on a marketing leader’s plan.

As a marketing leader, you cannot put in place a strategy that is at odds with how the company already sells. In the first 90 days you are not going to score a win if you have to completely change the company’s sales process. That isn’t going to happen. Instead, you need to focus on how you can make the existing process better and you can only do that if you spend time with the sales team.

When I say “spend time”, I mean it literally. In the first 15 days, I would dedicate at least a week to shadowing the sales team. Go where they go. Watch them present. Help put together a proposal. Listen to outbound phone calls.

Added bonus, you’ll earn the respect of the sales team along the way.

Getting to know the existing marketing team

If you are the first marketing hire, then skip this section. If there is an existing marketing team that you will become part of or will be expected to lead, your 30-60-90 plan needs to have time dedicated to getting to know them.

This means more than sitting down in 1:1 interviews with each team member. Make time to walk a mile in their shoes. By doing this, you will quickly learn what they view as mission critical tasks, who the formal/informal leaders are, what assets they use the most, and a host of other things.

Just like with the sales team, you’ll earn the respect of the team if you spend time with them just listening and asking questions.

Visiting with customers

Nothing happens without customers. As a new marketing leader, one of the goals of your first 90 days should be to gain a better understanding of how customers buy.

What was the triggering event that led a customer to start looking for a solution? Who was involved in the buying decision? What criteria did they use? Why did they choose the company over the competitors? Finding answers to these questions will help you and the company in months and years ahead.

If possible, meet customers where they are rather than via video-call. Use your newness at the company to ask the questions others at the company are too afraid to ask (like what would have made the decision in the company’s favor even easier).

Bonus – you will be forging a relationship with a customer that could lead to a case study or referral down the road.

Marketing review

Before you can build a path forward, you should take the time to understand where the company’s marketing has been. Conducting a review/audit of the current campaigns, assets, agency relationships and marketing technology stack, will allow you to make prudent financial and operational decisions during the first 90 days.

Competitive analysis

Your first 90 days is the only opportunity to truly assess competitors without company bias. Use your fresh perspective to zero in on things that competitors are doing well, unique value propositions, and go to market strategies. All of these things become harder to assess objectively the more time you spend at the company. Eventually all you see are the flaws in your competitors. Seize this one-time chance to see things unfiltered.

3 red flags

Here are 3 things that I absolutely don’t want to see in 30-60-90 day marketing plan:

  1. Brand refresh. It is unrealistic that a new hire can truly understand a company’s brand and culture well enough in 90days to start a refresh. If that’s in your plan, then it says to me that you don’t like the way my brand is now – dangerous ground.
  2. Website revamp. It is a mirage to think revamping the website will be a quick win. These projects always take twice as long as you think it should AND in the end, what will a new website really accomplish? You are far better off spending that time and energy on a new campaign. Tweak the homepage sure. Create a new landing page, absolutely. Save the website revamp until Year 2.
  3. Promising too much. SEO, PR, ABM, website refresh, branding…all in 90days? Cramming your plan with too many initiatives shows that you are not realistic and that’s a red flag. Would you want to bring someone onboard that will set unrealistic goals for your team?

If you are asked to present a 30-60-90 day plan, that is a good indicator that you are seriously being considered for the marketing leadership position. Presenting the plan is a fantastic opportunity to show that you have what it takes. Be sure to add the 5 key elements listed above to the other marketing strategies in your plan and you will have a well-rounded presentation.

Photo by Chad George on Unsplash

About the author

Colin Hung

Colin Hung is an award-winning Marketing Executive with more than 15yrs of healthcare and HealthIT experience. He co-founded one of the most popular healthcare chats on Twitter, #hcldr and he has been recognized as one of the “Top 50 Healthcare IT Influencers”. Colin’s work has been published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, American Society for Healthcare Risk Managers, and Infection Control Today. He writes regularly for Healthcare Scene and here at HITMC.com. Colin is a member of #pinksock #TheWalkingGallery and is proudly HITMC. His Twitter handle is: @Colin_Hung.

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