Thanksgiving will be here in the blink of an eye. Christmas is just around the corner. If you have not already started to write next year’s marketing plan, it’s time to get started now.

If you plan to go it alone, and write the plan yourself, this guide will be invaluable. If it’s time to hire an outside firm, we have a resource for that, too.

Here, all of the helpful tools and information we’ve been sharing in 2015 have been consolidated into a master guide for 2016 planning. We hope it’s useful and welcome your feedback and ideas for improvement.

Let’s get started and take it step by step.

Step 1. Information & Understanding

It’s important to build on a foundation of solid knowledge, so you’ll want to do a complete situation analysis. Start by ensuring that you know everything there is to know about your organization’s products, services, channels, markets, and plans for the year ahead. Will there be new products or certifications? Improvements to existing products? New channels to market? Assess your competition and do an honest SWOT analysis. Interview key personnel in other relevant organizations. Conduct market research if appropriate.

Step 2. Establish Goals

Talk to management. Talk to sales. Take the time to uncover what matters to them. What do they expect marketing to contribute in 2016? What do they want marketing to contribute? Specifically, what are the sales goals and priorities for the year ahead? How can marketing create an environment conducive to generating leads and closing sales? Ensuring that marketing and sales work in partnership (using a CRM system for tracking) is more important than ever. It will benefit both organizations and your company as a whole.

Use what you learn to document 3-5 clear, specific, measurable goals. Here is a highly simplified example to kick off the process.

Goal: Grow legacy product sales by 5% to $100 million.

Market 1: Fixed-wing commercial, Domestic, $10M International, $30M

Market 2: Rotorcraft, military, DoD, $25M, International, $35M

Goal: Grow new product sales by 10% to $50 million.

Market 1: Military fixed wing products, $30M, International only

Market 2: Commercial fixed-wing products, $20M, Domestic, $15M, International, $5M

Goal: Launch a new certified product in Q3. Achieve first 10 sales by year-end.

Market: Commercial rotorcraft

Of course, your plan will delve deeper into each identified market, listing specific countries, sub-markets, and customer opportunities. You will also want to develop customer personas and ensure understanding of their pain points and your relevant solutions.

The steps that follow will then support each of these goals.

Step 3. Strategy & Messaging

This is where your experience, expertise and creativity fuse to ignite a strategy that will drive success.

Will you structure a traditional integrated marketing campaign? Will you make the leap to an inbound marketing program using marketing automation? Perhaps you will launch a dealer outreach program, or include a higher-level branding campaign to reposition your company in the hearts and minds of customers.

The possibilities are endless, and your strategy should be driven by your goals, markets and, in some cases, budget realities.

The right messaging and creative approach are critically important. You’ll want to develop compelling value propositions, supporting messaging and, if appropriate, a brand promise and “elevator speech.”

Your value proposition is the heart and soul of your marketing program, so spend time to get it right. When people read your value proposition they should have an “aha” moment and intuitively understand exactly who you are, what you do, and why they should care.

All of this, and more, is covered in the BDN Marketing Planner.

Step 4: Tactics & Tools

From social media and advertising to white papers and infographics, there are more marketing tactics and tools than ever before. Choose your tactics based on what you want to accomplish. For example, the tactics used to build awareness are different than those used to establish domain expertise. BDN has developed tools and kits designed to help you master the use of specific tactics, including: Digital, Public Relations, and Trade Shows.

Step 5: Budget & Measurement

A recent study by Forrester Research showed that on average, 2015 b-to-b marketing budgets make up 7% of revenue, up from 4% in 2014. In our experience, aerospace and aviation companies tend to spend less. We strongly encourage you to build your budget based on accepted b-to-b benchmarks, and show management how you will deliver a return on its investment. Ask for what you need to be successful instead of trying (often in vain) to get by with a budget built in a vacuum. This white paper & checklist should help.

Linking marketing investment to measurable results is imperative, so make sure you are known for outcomes versus outputs. Always develop metrics and a control process to justify the requested budget to management, and monitor performance of the plan. Marketing communications plans call for specific timeframes and specific performance standards — these are the metrics of your plan. Be sure to check out BDN’s Marketing Planner — there is a section devoted to measurement, with helpful tools and resources.

It’s no fun starting the New Year already feeling behind. So start planning now. You’ll be finished before the holidays and can start 2016 feeling in charge and in control.