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An absolutely timeless series of Star Wars reminded me of Yoda’s lines that are extremely relevant to Marketing profession. One scene shows that Luke was having a hard time with something related to The Force and he told Yoda he’d try again. Yoda snapped back and said, “Do or do not. There is no try”

How many times have we heard, “we should give it a try” on our Marketing teams? When you are “trying” something , failure to execute is understandable. After all, it was only trying. But, what about all the cost, resource and time that went into the process of trying.

Marketers have 100 available options available to connect with customers than they did 10 or 15 years ago. The Internet, social media, podcasts, webinars, blogging, etc. are offering bountiful options in which to proliferate and distribute positioning and messaging. The myriad of choices is daunting for small business marketers and the temptation to dabble in a new medium or technology is great.

But, there is the problem – the dabbling. If you don’t draw up a plan, dedicate resources, and design intended outcomes you risk missing the boat on the new direction’s potential. Instead, follow these steps and put the new effort on the right path:

         
Alignment with goals. Is this new effort going to support a direction the Marketing team or the overall company is going?

What’s the plan. What is the measurable result you hope to attain? An “A to Z” plan should be clear so you can get to a certain point in time and analyze whether the intended result was achieved.

Look for other people’s experience. Doing a simple research can build a  bunch of perspectives. Marketers can benefit from other companies experience. You may find a pitfall or better way of implementation that you haven’t consider.

Consider resource. What are the costs of implementation? If you are a small business you’re most likely looking at not applying your time to something else in order to implement new idea. Make sure you have a full scope of what resources are needed and what may get dropped.

How much will it cost? If your budget is tight – it better be. What hidden expenses are out there that you haven’t considered yet?

There are variety if perspectives and opinions on this topic and if you think there are other angles to this topic visit us at http://www.threesixty.ph for more discussions.