Everyone has heard of, and maybe you have even done a Marketing Plan. It likely consists of section headings like "Executive Summary," "Market Overview," "Competitive Landscape," "Product Positioning" and "Promotions," among a few others. However, it still seems a bit arbitrary. What's the guiding principle? What's the real overarching structure that the tactical plan is a part of? There should be a higher structure that guides your marketing plan and efforts. I propose a Three Tier Marketing Approach.

Darin's three tier approach helped us see our selves and our clients in a totally different way. -Heath Ashby

If you have a marketing plan, good for you! Many companies don't. If your plan is organized and written to address your target audiences, even better. However, even a good plan is not a strategy. To marketing professionals and larger organizations, there are two main marketing plans that combine to make to full marketing strategy, the Strategic Marketing Plan and the Tactical Marketing Plan. Both of these can be combined into one plan for smaller companies. However, both strategy and tactical efforts need to be addressed. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of books on business and marketing strategy, so I won't go into it here. However, I do want to point out a pretty simple concept of a three tier approach. Any size company can employ this, from a single barber to a fortune 100. However, it's surprising to me how many companies do not have a concerted effort. I haven't made up or coined any new terms or concepts here. These are well known and written about concepts. However, I rarely read anything that pulls all the approaches together into a simple plan. 

 In my opinion, a good marketing strategy will incorporate three main tiers of targeting, or tactical activity. There is much more to a strategic marketing plan than these three things, but I often see elaborate marketing plans with 50 spreadsheets, competitive research, comprehensive pricing data and so on, but after I look at all the data, 

 Tier I - Guerrilla Marketing This is the old "word of mouth" approach. However, in today's world it can include things like social media and you tube videos. It can also includes things like flyers at all the local clubs, recreation places, colleges, Co-op marketing efforts like getting local restaurants and shops to let you put a stack of your mailer post cards at their counter, word-of-mouth referrals, etc. This is BY FAR the most effective and cost effective plan. I found a graphic artist from a business card her mom put on a bulletin board at a local doughnut shop. Not a news paper ad or internet search. 

Tier II - Direct Marketing This is a targeted, specific message  aimed at a particular market segment or target audience. It generally has less impressions (people who actually read it), but a higher efficacy rate. Several reasons for this. It's targeted, and the message is specific. This is usually the best approach on a limited budget. This includes things like sales calls, direct mail campaigns, eblast campaign, telesales efforts.

Tier III - "Air Cover" This is a non-targeted, general message approach. Basic advertising is air cover. Air cover also refers to, and I would assume draws its name from the "cover" it provides for direct sales staff. In many cases, you can't really pick who sees your message, you just put it out there and hope a lot of people see it. This would include things like news paper ads, magazine ads, a sign, billboards, radio spots, etc. It usually has limited measurable impact, but serves to create an "impression" with as many people as possible. It serves the purpose of brand recognition. Air cover marketing, or advertising can be good, but it has it's limitations. In other cases, it may consist of things like a trade show or social media campaign (this is different from the guerrilla style viral social media). In this case, the company may put a press release out to the twitter-verse about a new product release. Regardless, it's still very difficult to measure any results.  The pros of air cover marketing are that it usually reaches large numbers of people. Up to a million people may hear your radio ad on the way to work. It's good for PR or to create public opinion. In some cases, it can be very cost effective. Air cover marketing is best suited, and in some cases required in markets such as retail, public services (such as salons), or in highly competitive markets. If you are an auto mechanic, and someone has heard your radio ad, or passed by your billboard on the way to work for a year, there is a good chance that they will come to you when their car breaks down. People do business with people the know and trust. By advertising to them on the radio over and over, they feel like they know you. The cons are that you can't track ROI on advertising. Many advertising firms will say they can guarantee X number of impressions, or a XX% rate of return. The fact is, they can't. No on really knows how many people heard your ad, and how much business it brought you. A point to consider, if you are going to advertise, make sure you have a good message aimed at your target audience, and use the media that your target audience consumes. For instance, if you are a hip boutique with a target audience of 18 to 30 year old women, it may not be the best idea to run expensive ads in the new paper. I'm not stereotyping women, nor downplaying the importance of newspapers, but in my experience, you would get a higher impression rate with younger women in other forms of media. The same holds true for any target audience. If you sell industrial supplies, don't advertise in fashion magazines. Choose media that your target audience consumes. Remember, advertising is not a marketing plan, it's a tactic that may be part of a marketing plan. It should not be used alone.