A marketing off-site is an important moment for your team and the whole marketing department.
It’s the occasion for focusing on your brand, your competitive environment and your customers without distractions, protected from the interruptions caused by the daily marketing operations.
You are taking a break to sharpen the axe and make your marketing tools more effective.
A marketing off-site, to be successful, like everything in life, requires the proper preparation.
This is true before, during and after the event.
For making life easier I crafted three posts that are a blueprint on how to organise a marketing off-site, from the location choice to the exercises that you need to conduct, finishing with an actionable plan.
If you are the marketing off-site planner or the marketing director you need to print them and study in advance.
I warmly recommend printing them to reduce distractions and add your personal notes while learning how to conduct it.
Again, please do your homework, you need preparation, it is not an activity that you can improvise.
Marketing Off-Site Phases
- Phase 0
- Share interesting marketing case studies with the team, give them time for studying it
- Find the right location
- Define and share the rules to be followed during the event
- Phase 1
- Focus on your company strengths and weaknesses
- Evaluate different communication styles
- Evaluate what’s happening in other industries
- Phase 2
- Focus on your history, how everything started
- Define and label future challenges
- Focus on your recent history, a qualitative approach through marketing mix models
- Phase 3
- Focus on the future, what’s the next big move for your brand and how should the marketing department support it
- Focus on what you will not do, a clear not-to-do list
- Defining how your PR will support the next marketing steps
The Marketing Off-Site output
There are some obvious benefits from a marketing off-site coming from the previous activities:
- Focused Strategy Development
- Goal Alignment
- Team Building
- Skills Development
- Focus on Market Research and Analysis
- Competitive Analysis
- Innovation
- Assessment, Feedback and Monitoring
It can be not easy the first time, so If you need help feel free to get in touch with me.
Please remember to forward this post if you think it can be useful to colleagues and friends.
You will make the marketing department more effective.
