Where Am I Going Exactly?
When you are driving in the dark on a deserted country highway, your high-beams are often one of your best safety tools. When are high beams a hindrance rather than a help in this scenario?
When you are driving in the middle of a blizzard!
Last night, I had the challenging task of driving home in a raging blizzard. The high beams made things much worse. The snow flakes were huge, swirling, and accumulating on the deserted highway (in the middle of nowhere) to the point that I could not see the yellow line, the shoulder, and there were very few guard rails or road signs to point the way. At many points on the journey I felt like I was driving blind. As a result, the speed was slow and very unsteady…and this is on a road that I have driven regularly for seven years…the conditions were just that bad!
So, how does this apply to business?
Sometimes, the road we are on in business has become unsteady and uncertain. It could be because it is a new direction that we have not gone before. It could be because the economic conditions have changed so drastically that we have no idea where we are going. We can’t see around the next turn…the next week.
This is why every organization needs a marketing plan
Whether you are a small business or a church, you need to take some time to plan out and write down what you need to do to get to where you want to go. If you rush through this process or ignore it all together, then you can find yourself on that road of uncertainty. You may not be able to tell where you are headed. It takes a little time and probably requires the guidance of a marketing professional to walk you through the process, but if you do this, it takes a lot of the guess work out of your organization’s strategy. You map out activities, time lines, responsibilities, and costs so that you have a plan to succeed. This does not mean that it is fool proof or that you can’t make some adjustments along the way. You always have to take time to re-assess. However, having it written down integrates some accountability into your marketing. If you don’t write it down, the accountability for deliverables and for implementation are like swirling snow. You are essentially driving and navigating blind.
A good marketing plan will sketch out the horizon for the next 12-18 months for your organization and you should revisit it and review every 4 months or so. By reviewing, you check in to see what is working and what is not. You assess if the plan is succeeding. You measure what is working and adjust what’s not. If you have not written your plan down, you do not know how to measure if you are making good progress.
I want to encourage you to build a marketing plan into your organization. It will make the journey much more pleasant, successful, and swift. You will be glad you did!
Photo Credit: Via Flickr: Slimchamp
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