Sep 03, 2009 – by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing

Every business should operate with a set of plans – a plan for the business, a plan for cash, a plan for growth, and certainly a plan for marketing.  Opening a business with no plan is kind of like driving somewhere you’ve probably never been without a map or GPS device.

A marketing plan is commonly accepted as standard fare, but still, few businesses operate from any semblance of one. In my experience it’s not because they don’t think they need one, it’s because they’ve either never gotten around to creating one, or worse, they’ve created a marketing plan only to check it off the list and shove it in the bottom of drawer somewhere.

John says, “I’ve worked with many small businesses, created many marketing plans, and I can tell you that …marketing plans are essential mind and stress freeing tools, and you can and should lean very heavily on yours – if you can avoid these 7 marketing planning pitfalls.”

Birds of a Feather

Here’s Ms Peacock’s take on this.

After reading John’s article in full for the 7 pitfalls to avoid, I hope you’ll join me in taking the marketing plan out of the bottom drawer.  I refreshed mine this morning and was immediately motivated to post this item to tell you my #1 pet peeve: consulting clients who don’t activate their plans or fail to correct their course weeks after their initiatives.

“If you don’t hold every initiative accountable you can’t make your plans work – it’s also a great way to waste a lot of money. Failure to monitor, analyze, and measure marketing actions is the single greatest factor holding businesses back,” says John.

Editor’s Note:  John Jantsch is a marketing and digital technology coach and author of Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing – the world’s #1 selling marketing planning software.