Strategic Planning – What is it? Learn in 5 Steps
Do you know what strategic planning is? So, learn in 5 steps how to do it, what its advantages are in this post. Check it out and improve your strategy!
What is strategic planning in practice?
The function of strategic planning is to define goals and the best path for a company to achieve them. This helps define the distribution of resources and time to achieve these goals and also assists in decision making during this period, when the strategy is being executed.
This type of approach can, and even should, be done by any size of business, regardless of its niche. All companies aim to grow and achieve their goals, but without a clear strategy and goals that make sense, this is not possible.
For this process to work, it is ideal that all teams in the company are involved .
Whether it is a sales or development team, it is ideal that the leader or manager is present so that there is harmony and mutual understanding between everyone, creating a strategy that really works in all sectors.
Why is it ideal to invest in this planning?
Now you know what strategic planning is, but you may not be clear how it can benefit your business. Therefore, we must understand that without prior organization, teams are lost and don’t know where to go .
Therefore, defining goals and objectives is the first step and, after that, planning helps you understand how to reach these goals in the best way. This path must be coherent with the company’s mission, its culture and also its available resources.
Producing this strategy depends on a lot of research and understanding of the market in which the company operates, since, without this, you create a strategy based on guesswork. Therefore, it is ideal to consider planning as more than a document, as it is what can help the company grow.
5 steps on how to make strategic planning
Now we have seen what strategic planning is and we must try to put it into practice. To do this, we will offer 5 simple but very important steps for you to put your planning into action. Continue reading and see!
1.Define a path
The first step for strategic planning to work at its best is to define and establish a path to be followed . Don’t make the mistake of not focusing on clear objectives for your company’s social networks. Therefore, the first step is to know the focus of digital media.
To help you guide yourself, you need to think about some paths you can take at first, such as:
- Brand perception;
- Contact base for sales;
- User support;
- Direct sales;
- Traffic to your blog .
You also need to understand that this varies from area to area and also depends on what type of service or product you offer.
2.Define your KPIs
KPIs are Key Performance Indicators that increase this perception through mentions of your company on social media, audience engagement and the reach of your publications.
When we talk about sales, you should pay attention to the number of leads generated through these channels and sometimes, direct sales through social networks, depending on the service. In other words, always being attentive and monitoring these numbers and metrics in itself is already a strategy and will transform your pages, bringing great results.
3.Analysis of the external and internal environment
Another very important point for planning would be the consideration of external and internal factors of the company. For this, there is SWOT analysis and PESTEL analysis. SWOT, or SWOT, focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the company faces.
The PESTEL analysis is focused on the external environment and considers 6 factors: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Ecological and Legal.
4.Define the action plan
It is essential that you have a good plan of action after considering everything already mentioned. The action plan will specify what each employee will do within the strategy. Furthermore, what is necessary to carry out the planned actions will be specified. In this case, the 5 whys and 2 ‘hows’ are often used, see the example:
5W
- What – What to do?
- Why – Why do it?
- Where – Where to do it?
- When – When to do it?
- Who – Who will do it?
2H
- How – How to do it?
- How much – How much does it cost to make?
5.Monitoring results
Finally, to finish the planning stage, it is ideal to understand how you will monitor your results to know whether the strategy is going well or not.
To do this, we must consider the KPIs defined before and continue measuring this over time. Also, note that there are several analytics tools that automatically collect this data for you.
Therefore, now that you understand what strategic planning is and you know the 5 essential steps to carry out this planning, just apply the knowledge to your strategy and see the results over time, always thinking that monitoring is one of the most important steps.
