74. Make Marketing Measurable

The tactical plan is developed after your sales plan, marketing objectives, and marketing strategies have been defined. It describes the details of each marketing program which will make your plan actionable and operational (meaning you use it to guide daily decision making). For each program you will define who is responsible for executing the plan, when it will be executed, how much the program will cost, and the projected ROI.

If you have not projected ROI for sales and marketing programs in the past, or have not been disciplined about doing so, now is the time to start. I’m always amazed at how few companies track marketing programs using a disciplined process. The good news is if you start using this process now, a year from now you will have a good baseline to work from. You will be surprised how quickly you learn and improve with every program you execute.

This section of your marketing plan will change the most because as strategies are executed and marketing programs are implemented, marketing tactics may need to be updated. Large companies that have many marketing programs may wish to pull this section out of the larger marketing plan and use it as a separate document that is updated as marketing programs are executed. You can call it a Tactical Implementation Plan, a Go-to-Market Plan, or anything else that fits with the language and culture of your business.

Individual Tactics Description

The following template is a way for you to organize and plan each of your tactical programs. Adjust this template as necessary to list all the activity steps and costs associated with each tactic. Also estimate revenue and ROI for each tactic using historical information if you have it. If you don’t, then make your best prediction. As you begin to use this process to predict, measure and track programs, you will quickly learn and improve the results of your sales and marketing programs. Duplicate this template for each of your tactical programs. The actual numbers can be recorded in the Implementation Calendar.

Table 74.1 Marketing Program Template

You should repeat this template for each program you plan to implement. If you would like to see an example of how this template is filled out, visit the “Real-Time Marketing” book resources section of www.MarketSmarter.com.