It is vital to all of us to get our needs met. If you are searching for a job or running a business, you need to find people who will want what you have to offer and persuade them to buy. The crucial issues are to
- Be able to specifically identify the top five goals for your marketing activities
- Know who your “buyer” is and identify their needs
- Develop a step-by-step strategy for ways to match their needs with your communication objectives which will include interim steps and timelines
- Translate your marketing strategy into a short list of actionable tactics and then consistently carry them out
- Create standards of assessment to determine the success for each tactic you adopt in order to maximize the return on your investment
- Execute each communication tactic fully and evaluate and review results
This all looks easy when put this way, but it isn’t. It’s difficult. And each of us finds some parts to be more difficult for us than others. It all depends on what your communication goals are, your personal makeup and the nature of your business, the kind of buyers you have and their needs, and your access to information and resources. Because all of this is so unique to each situation, it calls for understanding, judgment, and long range commitments.
Why is it so hard to do? Because you have to know what you want, strategically plan how to get it and then execute the marketing plan consistently over the long term. It takes a lot of energy to follow through across each of those steps.
Making Your Marketing Plan Work
- Take the time to get inputs from colleagues and customers before you establish your marketing plan. This will allow you to consider the possible solutions from many perspectives. That improves your chances of selecting the one that will be most effective and building support from stakeholders.
- Realize that emotions motivate behavior more than reason does. Create communication campaigns that make an emotional connection with your intended audience in the same way that Harley Davidson and Apple have built their loyal followings.
- Trust marketing contributors to honor their commitments but also verify that they have accomplished the responsibilities they have accepted.
- Be authentic and honest. Do not make claims in your marketing that will not be fulfilled. Do not promise what you can’t deliver.
- Communicate regularly with everyone who will be impacted by your activities throughout every initiative. Provide relevant updates and closure whenever that would be helpful to stakeholders or customers.
Marketing fails when the project is not well designed, the execution is incomplete or communications are not maintained. Marketing projects that are manageable rather than being too ambitious are most likely to make a difference. Judicious management will allow you to get what you want out of your marketing.
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