Are you overwhelmed with your marketing, and do you want something to help it be a little more organized? Today, I have some excellent tools for you. This is something I struggled with for a long time, all the way back to college, when I realized that there was no structure for what belonged in a marketing plan for small businesses. Most of us just make it up as we go, and I really don't like the idea of making it up as we go because making it up as we go leads to inconsistent results.
Here are the three tools I use to organize the marketing activities for Grow Disrupt and Impact Authority, as well as for all the individuals we help in their marketing.
- Setting Goals
- SMACC
- Baseline
- CMO Meetings
Setting Goals
Primarily, setting goals. Not just any goals, though SMACC certified goals. Set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Compatible with each other, that you're willing to work at Consistently. SMACC.
Having a clear goal is crucial. Instead of saying “We need to drive more sales.” Be specific about what you're going to do to drive more sales. Because Spoiler Alert: Marketing doesn't drive sales, sales, drive sales. Marketing supports sales. Instead of “We need to generate this many qualified leads.” research a decided number of prospects to reach out to.
Make sure your goals are compatible. It's not going to work very well to say, “We want to drive traffic to the website, but then have no goals that are supporting it. If you're not going to run any ads, do any social media, or try and get any PR, traffic will not just appear. You must be willing to work consistently to achieve your goals. Setting three to five SMACC marketing-related goals each month will help you focus and structure your efforts.
Baseline
I'm not going to dive very deep into this point, as we have a whole video about it. Build out a baseline for marketing.
If you are unfamiliar with what the baseline is in marketing, we have a great video link below. *
To organize your marketing, one of the most important things you can do is build out a baseline. These are all the things you will do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly to promote your business. Simply put, the baseline is a list of all the recurring activities you're going to do.
Your baseline may look like building social media content each week for the following week or checking in for PR requests to see if anyone wants to feature you for free PR. Recording videos once a month, as I am right now, is another example. Your baseline might include daily crafting, or brainstorming ideas for videos ‘just in case.’ This will help organize everything that you're doing in one place. You can tell if it's getting done, or if you have way too much on your plate.
CMO Meetings
The last thing is the concept of setting up a CMO review meeting or a Chief Marketing Officer Review Meeting, your CMO meeting. A CMO meeting is one of the most significant meetings you will run each month, as you will sit down and evaluate everything you have done with marketing and how well it has performed.
You're going to research prospective ideas that you may want to pursue. You've been approached all month by sales reps? You may have seen a colleague do something and wish to try it? You're going to research those ideas, and then you will create a project plan for the next month.
What are the things you're going to do to change, add, remove or adjust in your baseline? Every month, review your baseline in your CMO meeting to ensure it supports the SMACC goals. What have we been doing, what do we maybe want to do, and what is the project plan for the upcoming period? You'll notice your marketing becoming more organized, as well as see it producing results.
Baseline Video Link *