An integrated marketing communication plan is essential to any growing business. But there’s an art to creating one. Too often, companies spend precious time and resources on developing an exhaustive report that analyzes their entire industry. The result is an impressive document that’s too unwieldy to serve its purpose: clearly defining business goals and what needs to be done to achieve them.

In his new book, Breakthrough Marketing Plans: How to Stop Wasting Time and Drive Growth, Tim Calkins, a professor of management at the Kellogg School of Management, gets to the basics of developing an integrated marketing plan. According to Calkins, the heart of any marketing plan is strategic initiatives. Many businesspeople confuse strategic initiatives with objectives or tactics, he says, which leads to a muddled plan. Calkins provides numerous examples of possible strategic initiatives, along with tactics to implement them. Some highlights:

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• Expand distribution. Some tactics to achieve this include offering a discount to retailers who add your product, or growing your sales force.

• Build extended usage. This refers to promoting new ways that customers can use your product. For example, Arm & Hammer has taught consumers to use baking soda as a refrigerator freshener, toothpaste, and drain cleaner.

• Increase referrals. Businesspeople ranging from dentists to financial planners depend heavily on referrals for getting new customers. Discounts for customers who refer friends and family are an effective tactic for growing a client base.

• Boost customer loyalty. Some common ways of achieving this include incentives like email coupons and frequent-buyer cards. Business-to-business companies can try volume discounts or shared referrals.

• Decrease production costs. There are many ways to do this. Is it possible to use cheaper packaging materials? Negotiate volume discounts on raw materials? Reformulate the product or eliminate costly or unnecessary features?

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