Section V. Implement: Traditional and New Media

“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

—Mario Andretti

During the course of working with CEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs over the past 20 years, I have observed a consistent trait: They want to jump into execution without having a well thought out marketing plan. They want to implement some type of tactic to generate leads or sales. And therein lies the single biggest reason that most businesses fail. A tremendous amount of time, effort, and money is wasted because they don’t do the foundational work to understand their customers, target market, positioning, or competitive market.

When businesses implement one tactic after the other and wonder why they are not effective, the root cause almost always points to the fact that they have not done the research to understand these issues.

A good analogy is visiting a doctor to find out why you aren’t feeling well. If he or she makes a prognosis without first making a diagnosis, it would be called malpractice. The same is true with marketing. Implementing programs without first doing the foundational work is marketing malpractice. It’s throwing money at something you are hoping will work.

The good news is you have done all the foundational work in previous sections of the process and you are armed with actionable knowledge you can apply to a tactical plan. If you have skipped ahead to this part of the process, you should bear this in mind. In this section you will:

• Improve the effectiveness and ROI of your marketing programs.

• Learn how digital marketing tactics and social media can generate brand awareness, leads, and improve relationships with customers.

• Understand the biggest trends in sales and marketing.

• Develop a tactical plan that defines and aligns sales and marketing programs to increase execution efficiency.

• Create an implementation calendar and marketing budget to forecast, track, and measure programs as they are executed.

As you develop a tactical plan to achieve the marketing objectives and strategies for your business, there are dozens of different types of tactics to consider. Some may be traditional types of marketing you have implemented before (see “Traditional Marketing Tactics” in the book resource section at www.MarketSmarter.com.), and others will be new types of digital media.

In Part I of this section, “Social Media, Digital Media, and Personal Communications,” defines several types of digital media to communicate and engage customers.

In Part II, “Create a Tactical Plan with Execution Built-In,” you will learn how to create a tactical plan to summarize all the details for each individual program you plan to implement. This includes specifics such as the program description, resource needs, budget, timeline, and projected ROI. A detailed tactical plan helps you align resources and is proven to improve tactical execution of the plan.

Before you dive into these sections, let’s review key business trends and how they are impacting sales and marketing. We’ll also look at the chief concerns of marketers and where they are choosing to invest precious marketing budgets.