Campaigns versus impulse

October 28th, 2005

Campaigns versus impulse – get mileage out of your marketing activities.
It is very easy to fall into the “opportunity trap”, i.e. spending your marketing dollars on whatever opportunity looks great at the time it is being offered to you. Don’t. You wouldn’t (hopefully) spend your money like that in any other business area. Creating a small campaign is not very hard to do, and the results are almost certain many times what an impulse activity will pay off.

Here are four simple steps to follow:

Set an objective – that means that you look at who you want to promote what to, and that you set a specific (numerical) goal to achieve it. Numbers are magic. Once you have committed yourself and your partners/staff to it, it really focuses you.

Set a budget – however small or large, a budget is part of your commitment to make it work. Clearly, if you are going to spend money, you want to get meaningful results.

Step out an action plan – sounds silly, but a simple timeline with who will do what will ensure that things get done. It also helps communicate internally, and externally with potential partners that you are serious about what you are doing.

Track the results – accountability is not something that is often associated with marketing. I believe it is the essence, so develop a simple method of tracking the results of your activities. There are many different ways for many different programs, but any identification of the offer will help you track the outcomes of your program.

Try it. It works!