Execute or Die

Category: Hot Marketing Tips
By: Drew Dinkelacker

Lackluster Implementation Kills Marketing ROI.

Why Most Marketing Plans Falter

An appealing monthly newsletter is touted as "in demand by thousands!" With great disappointment, you discover that a new edition has not been published for over nine months. So much for monthly frequency!

Poor execution undermines the brand of a company.

Why do business owners invest time to develop a marketing plan and fail to properly execute it?

Too many tactics, too often
Business owners get excited by the marketing process and see that driving new business will bring their dreams to fruition. They do not adequately predict what resources will be required to implement the plan during the busy season. In simple terms, owners take too big of a bite of the marketing apple and end up gagging on it when it gets busy. The reflex action is to spit the apple out and not execute.

Marketing is a secondary responsibility
This is a real challenge for small to mid-size businesses and can become deadly when cash flow problems and marketing execution are the responsibility of the same person (often the owner). We all know who wins that struggle…cash flow. In this situation, marketing execution will become a secondary issue and die a quick death which will lead to further cash flow problems.

Foggy marketing strategy
A marketing strategy that generates no internal excitement won't be effectively implemented. The loss of connection between effective implementation and the generation of results undermines implementation. When this attitude sets in, the execution will quickly begin to fail.

3 Simple Solutions

1. Take a smaller bite of the marketing apple
   If you have consistently planned to do more than you have ever implemented, then adjust your tactics to better match your resources (time/money).
2. Treat marketing execution as a primary responsibility
   Busy business owners need to assign the marketing execution as a primary responsibility to a trained staff member (not a new college grad or clerical staff) who can be held accountable. Frankly, you need someone you can fire when the marketing execution fails. If this is your responsibility and you are the owner then it is kind of hard to fire yourself! That's a problem. If there are no skilled internal resources, then delegate this responsibility externally to a company that can focus on your overall implementation and be held accountable.
   
   NOTE: Many vendors can help manage the implementation of the service that they are providing to you, but they are not capable of managing your overall strategy. For example, a direct mail printer may design, target, print and distribute your next post card campaign, but they are not responsible for the proper execution and coordination with your website, print ads and radio spots. This level of accountability can be provided by a part time Chief Marketing Officer.
3. Create a one page marketing overview
   By outlining your current goals and strategies in a single, one page document and reviewing it weekly, you will significantly improve your team's focus and motivation. I do this for Teakwood Marketing and help my clients to do it too. It works. A blazingly fast way to generate the content for this document is the Marketing Accelerator™ .

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