When pulling together a marketing plan, you want to make sure you do it right. A poorly constructed and executed plan can mean wasted marketing dollars as well as expending serious amounts of time and effort rectifying gaps that were not factored in initially.

When working out how to successfully execute a campaign, it pays off to do a sanity check and remove all redundant and inefficient details and steps.

Here are a few things to avoid:

WINGING IT
Believing that an initiative can run on instinct and knowledge alone and not adhering to a marketing plan can create a whole lot of mess to fix later on. It is entirely possible that the goal is achieved but measuring results will be so much harder.

Similarly, if it went wrong, a lack of metrics would result in morale-sapping and time-consuming evaluation process.

HOGGING THE PLAN
Everybody has skills to offer, and often in ways that complement each other and allow for effective functioning as a team. For the one compiling and devising a marketing plan, it should not be seen as a failure to ask for advice from other with relevant skills and experience. Demanding sole creative input only increases the pressure if things don’t go to plan.

FORGETTING THE AUDIENCE
They are the ones that are being marketed to, after all. Just because the ones behind a campaign are convinced of the right answer, doesn’t mean that the intended recipients will agree. The audience are the essential factor in determining a successful campaign, and should be the central focus.

FORGETTING THE STRUCTURE
All of the best marketing plans need a structure so you can bring the uninitiated up to speed, easily. Following a defined structure allows for easier alteration and a focus on exactly what needs to be included without resorting to guesswork.