Original post by Michael Troiano via Bostinno
When someone asks you for a Marketing Plan, your first instinct will be to create a laundry list of things you think it makes sense to do. If you’re any good you’ll define budgets for each line item on your list, and eventually you’ll convert that list into a 63-slide PowerPoint deck. The second-to-last slide will be a “High Level Gantt Chart,” and it will look great and make you feel like a real marketer. The last will say “Next Steps.”
Congratulations. You’re an amateur.
The right way to create a startup Marketing Plan is to begin by reflecting on the work of the great Prussian military strategist Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke, considered by some to be the father of modern battlefield strategy. While the name may not ring a bell, you’re likely familiar with his most famous quote: “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength.” As simplified through the ages: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”
