Making your Marketing Plan Work for You
By Marty Jenkins | Harkcon’s Communications Specialist
Something totally unforeseen has happened and my marketing plan has stalled! Should I throw out my plan and try again next year? Maybe I will just sweep it under the rug because…eh, I wasn’t that serious about it anyway. After all, it was more of a suggestion! What is the real benefit of following it? It has already started to crumble and fall apart, right? WRONG!
It is in moments like these that you need to firmly immerse yourself in your marketing plan and follow these three steps:
Identify - First, identify what went wrong. Maybe budget cuts happened, or you did not meet a projected goal, that’s okay. It’s important to identify the error and move on to the next step to fix the error.
Analyze - In life it is important for us to learn from the unexpected, and the same goes for your marketing plan. It is in confrontation with the unforeseen that we grow and learn the most. In order to learn it is important to analyze and review your marketing plan weekly and adjust monthly. Make sure you are using a marketing program that can assist with your weekly/monthly analysis. At Harkcon we use Google Analytics, but here are some other examples.
Finalize - Take the analysis and make adjustments to plan. It is important to make note of these errors to improve your chances of not making the same mistake with future events. After some time if something still is not working for your plan do not be afraid to cut it and focus on the successful parts!
Now that you have identified, analyzed, and finalized, you have an even more powerful plan than you had before. By adjusting your marketing plan to situational factors that are out of your control and reviewing the unexpected, you can continue to grow and that is essential for your company’s health.
If you would like to contact the author of this blog, send an email to blog@harkcon.com and reference the title, "Making your Marketing Plan Work for You.”
