Along with pumpkins and early thoughts of turkeys and treats, it’s time to think about 2010 planning. Too often, strategic planning is pushed off –becoming a rush job at the end of the year when budgets are due. The result is lackluster first quarter sales and another year off to a slow start.

Planning takes time – time to evaluate what went right and wrong during the year, time to conduct customer or prospect research, and time to develop the strategies that will make a difference in the coming year.

A good marketing plan takes into account business goals, the environment, budget and resources. Our plans follow a tried-and-true outline:

• Objectives
• SWOT
• Audience
• Positioning and messaging
• Strategy
• Tactics
• Timeline
• Budget

With all of the options for communicating, plans also need to be built holistically with awareness, lead generation, customer engagement and brand impact all considered through a single lens.

There’s a saying in marketing: nothing is worse than a bad plan well executed!! Take the time you need. Click through our Planning Kick Start presentation (below) and take advantage of our Kick Start session.

How many presentations have you sat through where the speaker droned on reading every word of 12pt text on every slide? Too many to count, I suspect. It’s an all-too-common malady among presenters. Matt Helmke, a senior strategist here at 0to5, is one who is not afflicted with this illness. Recently, Matt produced a slide presentation where he discussed the best practices in presentation design, development and delivery based on Garr Reynold’s seminal book, Presentation Zen. Reynolds is an internationally acclaimed presentation designer and communications expert living in Japan whose clients include many of the Fortune 500. His book combines strong design principles with the tenets of Zen simplicity to help readers develop simpler, more effective presentations. While you can download a PDF of Matt’s presentation, I encourage you to watch and listen to Matt talk about what he learned from Reynold’s book and how you can apply its teachings to your next presentation.