There’s a moment when you move from creative dreaming to actual planning, where you realize how real your field marketing is about to get. Those bright pop-up ideas wow-ed the team, but now you must deliver realistically. 

What will this fantastic idea cost? And how do you ask for the budget to execute?

That’s where a field marketing business case comes into play. In this blog, we’ll go over how to make your business case for your dream campaign and present it to stakeholders.

What is a business case?

A business case is a plan for the execution and development of your campaign. It’s a detailed plan developed over time with many iterations and revisions. The business case is the source of truth for stakeholders, leadership, and anyone else investing budget or time into the campaign. 

Why do you need a business case for field marketing?

The clarity in scope, skill, and time is vital to understanding and executing a field marketing campaign. Without a plan, it’s hard to gauge impact and even effectively get the project off the ground. 

Field marketing is a campaign strategy with many moving parts. Having one source of truth and an established plan with everyone’s buy-in can make your marketing shine or ensure it never leaves the idea phase.

How do you make a field marketing business case?

A field marketing business case is a living document that defines your campaign's plan. When you write a field marketing business case, you need to include the following sections:

• What the SMART goal of your campaign will be / what problems you’re solving for
• Define what success looks like
• The benefits of the field marketing campaign
• The risks of the campaign
• The project timetable and teams you’ll need to work with to achieve your goals
• The costs of the project

What the SMART goal of your campaign will be / what problems you’re solving for

A SMART goal is a common term in marketing, but if you’re unsure what it means, we’ll define it for you. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. When you create a SMART goal, it should meet at least two of the requirements.

For example, a SMART goal for a field marketing campaign would be “to collect over 100 data points per mall activation over the course of a month”. 

The “100 data points” are measurable, the “per mall activation” is specific, and “over the course of a month” is time-bound. And based on prior knowledge of how many data points you can gather per activation, it’s realistic. 

When you set your goal for your project, define it and the problem you’re seeking to solve in your business case immediately. That way, everyone who reads it can use the goal to have context for the rest of the plan. 

Define what success looks like

Using a range of KPIs, outline what a successful event will look like, from short term goals to long term wins. With key performance indicators, you can always have a path to your north star, adjusting as need be if you’re not quite meeting the success metrics you set out at the beginning. 

Field marketing KPIs can include:

• Customer lifetime value
• Return on investment
• Net promoter score

The benefits of the field marketing campaign

When you write your business case, your next step will be to list the foreseen benefits of the campaign you’re planning. For field marketing, those KPIs can look like this:

• Brand awareness increases
• Demographic research
• Feedback for new planned brands 

You always want to start with the benefits so that when you move on to the challenges and budget requests, what the brand stands to gain is part of the reader’s consideration. 

The risks of the campaign

One of the most persuasive tactics you can use when arguing for a budget or plan approval is to get to the risks and negatives before someone else can bring them up. When you approach the downsides first, rather than looking like you haven’t thought the plan fully through, you seem to have fully considered every piece of the campaign. 

You’re also equipping your team and stakeholders with the risk they’re taking when they agree to the final plan. With everyone on the same page, if failure does happen, it won’t be out of the blue.

Risks for field activations can include:

• Overspending
• Too high of a customer acquisition cost
• A negative impact on the brand

The project timetable and teams you’ll need to work with to achieve your goals

It’s not enough to outline what the future could look like with a successful (or unsuccessful) campaign. As a brand marketer, you’ll also need to act as a project manager and show the scope of what you’re planning. 

The Scrum method in project management is a great way to showcase your plans, including which teams you’ll need to be involved in and in what capacity. It’s useful for adaptable planning and uses sprints (short and frequent meetings) to remove roadblocks and turn large pushes into smaller tasks. 

Use a gantt chart to outline what the timetable looks like, and make sure to connect with stakeholders and outside teams to confirm what a realistic schedule for each necessary task will look like. 

Timelines to take into account include:

• Designed assets
• Securing location 
• Printing and shipping
• Product progress and iteration
• Legal review
• Inviting attendees
• Equipment rental process
• Leadership approval

The cost of the project

Finally, you want to include what this field marketing campaign will cost. This is the perfect time to outline your requested budget and why it’s necessary. Break down your budget request into categories and show what you need as a lump sum and what you’ll be spending it on. 

If you need help planning your budget, check out our field activation budget worksheet, where you can plan and get your numbers in order before you present them to stakeholders. 

Categories can include:

• Travel
• Shipping and Print
• Rental Equipment
• Additional Hands On-Site

It’s always better to plan ahead

Even if you have the best field marketing idea in the world, it won’t pay off without proper planning. When you create a field marketing business case, you set you and your team up for success. From clear SMART goals to project timelines, this document makes the best argument for your budget and helps get all stakeholders on the same page with the same buy-in. 

Field marketing business cases aren’t just nice to have; it’s a need.

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