plan, implement & review

[Jack May]

Congrats on the room Brian. The old marketing room was one of the best of the original layout so you have a high standard to uphold

Lisa referred to this in her 'do I win anything' thread and I thought it was worth mentioning again.

Each year, we sit down and brain storm for teh coming year. We scribble it all down. Ideas, implementation, tracking etc.

Then we review it 6 or 12 months and see how different things performed. Did they work. Do they need tweaking etc.

A couple of important things I've learnt from doing this and listening to others.

FTI - failure to implement (thanks Steve) often one of our biggest failures. Brainstorming is useless without implementing anything.

FTFT - failure to follow through. We have a process, find the decision maker, mail out, follow up phone call. book appointment, site visit etc. yet we stall part way through the process when we hit a personal brick wall.

FTC - failure to continue. We start something, it works, brings in work, we get busy and STOP the marketing because we don't have time.

These are the biggest three things I need to overcome personally as a business owner/manager.

So write it down, track it and review it. tweak it and start the ball rolling again.

There's plenty more here and maybe Lisa and others will add to it and develop this thread further.

John

 

[Brian R]

Thanks John, I really enjoyed being the Mod of the old marketing room and was quite butt hurt when Mikey pulled the plug.
So I'll try to keep it going now.
Having people like yourself and Steve and Lisa and even Fred !gotcha! will make this room great.

I love the different ideas....like what you just posted.

Keep it up...there is always something to add.


PS. I'm working on getting Big Billy over here...he said he might stop by. 8)

 

[Jack May]

I don't feel I have a lot to offer in here Brian...

I didn't want to list out people that stood out from the last room for fear of offending someone that I didn't remember.

You and Ken added a lot to it, Mark and Fred added a bit of web related seo etc.

There are/were others, but I can't recall them, maybe they didn't make a big enough impression on me.

Back then, I regularly visited just two main rooms, the Marketing room and the Tool Box that I was jointly responsible for.

John

 

[Brian R]

I remember John.
I haven't seen you around much..where ya been?


I'm just trying to get the Marketing, SEO, business minded guys over here. You'll fit in with that.

I don't want anyone to think I think I know it all when I realize that I know very little in the great scheme of things. shiteatinggrin

 

[Jack May]

BB burnout mate. I cut right back on my forum contributions and evencut back on admin stuff for a while. I also dropped visits to all except here and the Aussie forum.

Business is ok although a little challenging at the moment.

John

 

[Brian R]

Every time I try to quit I get sucked back in.
Now Mikey made me a mod ...so now I'll never leave....not like I would have anyway. lol

Good luck.

 

[Royal Man]

Great post John,

FTI kills marketing,

The "I'll do it when I get around to it" strategy is most often the road to marketing failure.

This is Why it is important to create an action plan.

Action plan creation=

1.Write down the steps it will take to complete your marketing strategy and estimated time to complete each step.

2. Get out your calendar and write down firm dates for each task.

3. Place the calendar where you can not avoid seeing it on a regular basis.

4. Follow the dates with no exception and check them off as completed.


Success is very rarely achieved in one big step.

Most of the time it comes from taking small, consistent steps in the right direction.

Start walking!!

 

[Art Kelley]

Great post John,

FTI kills marketing,

The "I'll do it when I get around to it" strategy is most often the road to marketing failure.

This is Why it is important to create an action plan.

Action plan creation=

1.Write down the steps it will take to complete your marketing strategy and estimated time to complete each step.

2. Get out your calendar and write down firm dates for each task.

3. Place the calendar where you can not avoid seeing it on a regular basis.

4. Follow the dates with no exception and check them off as completed.


Success is very rarely achieved in one big step.

Most of the time it comes from taking small, consistent steps in the right direction.

Start walking!!

Right on Dave. There are things I must do such as straightening out my faulty Bing listing, but I put off because the phone keeps ringing and I stay busy and complacent. Simple small incremental steps allow you to continue to improve your business. I am going to try your strategy of writing these necessary steps on a prominent calander on my refrigerator and either reward or punish my decisions with a good or bad beer. (Or even, God forbid, no beer)

 

[Steve Toburen]

... Simple small incremental steps allow you to continue to improve your business. I am going to try your strategy of writing these necessary steps on a prominent calander on my refrigerator and either reward or punish my decisions with a good or bad beer. (Or even, God forbid, no beer)

Yup. I remember when I was selling computers in the early 80's in a partnership I got sucked into. I HATED AND DESPISED selling computers. (One problem was I was totally ignorant of how they worked!) So I developed a reward system for myself.

Every time I closed on a big computer system sale I would buy myself a nice shiny new firearm. When we finally sold the business I owned 28 rifles, shotguns and pistols! (I realize Meat sleeps with an arsenal bigger than that under his bed but to me it was impressive.)

So whatever works for you, Art! (I love beer too.)

Steve Toburen
http://www.SFS.JonDon.com

PS The mere act of writing down and prominently displaying our goals helps make us accountable and "Lack of Accountability" is a huge problem for the average ADD entrepreneur. (I include myself in this group.) In fact, one compelling reason for the success of franchises is they hold their franchisees feet to the fire. (Accountability)