Strategic planning can be thought of as a map that outlines specific business strategies, how to implement them, and an evaluation of the results from executing the plan. A strategic plan aligns with a company’s long-term goals and focuses on how to integrate each department within the company to accomplish these strategic goals.
There are three important steps in creating a strategic plan:
1. Strategy Formulation. A company has to assess its current position by performing a SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to see where they should shift attention, how to allocate resources, and whether or not to take expansion actions.
2. Strategy Implementation. Once a strategy is formulated, upper management needs to outline targets and goals that will help put the strategy into action. Effective strategy implementation has a solid, actionable framework that maximizes resources and redirects marketing efforts to align with strategic goals.
3. Strategy Evaluation. After each implementation phase, it’s important to evaluate how the strategy is performing by reviewing all factors that affect the strategy implementation, measuring performance, and taking corrective actions to improve the effectiveness of the strategy.
If the strategy implementation shows that your advertising efforts need to increase customer engagement, working with a creative content studio could be the right solution. For instance, companies like Omnislash Visual can help you reach your audience in new and innovative ways. Omnislash VIsual is a creative studio built of thinkers, animators, designers, and filmmakers who breathe a design-first culture. They have tools in their “toolbox” to deliver specialized content like video production, 3D rendering, motion graphics, and motion design. Creative content studios like know how to produce results that mesh with your brand, increase customer engagement, and reinforce brand loyalty.
Benefits of Strategic Planning
The business world can be a tumultuous one; business could be growing one year only to fall into debt the next year. Businesses need a strong foundation and sense of direction to keep up with changing industries and world markets. Strategic planning helps businesses adopt proactive strategies that address issues with a long-term view.
There are three key benefits of strategic planning:
1. Businesses become proactive instead of reactive.
When a business can foresee its future, it can anticipate and prepare for undesirable scenarios before they happen and take precautionary steps to avoid these scenarios. Being proactive instead of reacting to situations as they happen helps a business adapt to the changing market trends.
And when you foresee potential challenges, you can have contract services lined up and ready to go to help you navigate them if they arise. For instance, many companies need to navigate the legal system as they grow to protect their intellectual property. Having a law firm at the ready when you need legal advice is critical to addressing these challenges efficiently. Global Legal Law Firm is a boutique law firm in Southern California that provides litigation services for high-risk merchant processors and debt recovery services for companies facing a lawsuit. Their practice areas include high-stakes litigation, matters of intellectual property, and debt collections. As the largest law firm of its kind in Los Angeles, the attorneys at Global Legal can provide legal advice to companies in any jurisdiction in the United States. Having lawyers like this at the ready if legal questions arise can give you peace of mind as your company grows.
2. It gives a business a sense of direction.
A strategic plan gives a business a sense of direction by defining realistic goals and objectives that will help steer things in the right direction. A business can refer to the strategic plan to evaluate growth, success, guidelines for efficient decision-making, and to compensate employees.
3. It increases operational efficiency.
A strategic plan is a roadmap that increases operational efficiency by guiding management discussions and decision making when it comes to allocating resources to reach goals and objectives. Strategic planning helps employees understand how their performance, the company’s success, and compensation are all related. When organizational goals are real and actionable, employees and managers show more innovation and creativity which contributes to the growth of the business.
Creating a strategic plan takes time and effort, but it’s worth having a plan in place that efficiently helps a business grow and thrive. Having the foresight to strategically formulate, implement, and evaluate business decisions is essential to surviving in an ever-changing market.
