Organizing the tasks and marketing efforts that will get you where you want to go.
A marketing or business goal is not clearly defined without establishing what needs to be done to achieve it. The broad concepts and specific action steps that support the goal need to be organized because they are the fundamental tools necessary to success in marketing. Here's how to define how you're going to get to where you want to go.
A relatively simple concept to produce transaction for your marketing effort is to answer the "which-way-up?" questions that always follow when high-level goals have been determined, quantified and defined.
A lofty goal can look overwhelming until you chart a course of manageable and do-able action steps. This is a quick lesson for everyone (maybe a reminder for some) that's useful for marketing in organizations of all types, including hospitals, manufacturers, individual and group practices, doctors and surgeons, dentists, pharmaceuticals and entrepreneurs.
Goals, Strategies, Tactics
The success process uses a hierarchy of Goals, Strategies and Tactics – and it's important to know the marketing definition for each term.
Goals: Take a look at your goal or goals. Goals are specific, measurable, achievable and tangible business objectives. It's expressing the goal in a concrete way that can be managed.
Strategies: This is the first level of "what's next." Strategies are the ideas and broad approaches that support the goal. There can be more than one strategic approach to achieving a goal.
Tactics: Think of these as the tools that give your plan traction and energy. Tactics are the specific action items, details and activities that must occur for the strategy to be successful. You'll want to list several tactics under each strategy.
Selected strategies and tactics work synergistically to complement one another for exponential positive results. Here's an illustration of the relationship between a goal, strategies and tactics.
Goal: Increase new patient volume by 20 percent in the next year
Strategy: Improve patient experience to inspire more patient referrals
Tactics:
o Institute quarterly patient satisfaction training sessions for staff
o Create incentive program for staff based on increased referral volume
o Devote one staff meeting per month to ideas for improving patient experience
o Create and display a framed poster defining our practice of unwavering patient satisfaction commitment
Additional Strategies and Tactics follow to complete the plan; all are implemented in concert with each other. The synergy of several strategies and many tactics working together creates the best results.
Immediate and Daily Action
This detailed list of marketing strategies and tactics provides what's needed to make decisions and start to take action right away. And I mean today. Marketing is a real-time exercise – it's what you do every day. It's not designed to be planned in one month and then implemented six months later. Break out each of the tactics in action plan with these headings:
o Timelines and Deadlines – how long will it take, and when will it be done?
o Tasks and Responsibilities – specifically who will be accountable for each task?
If this sounds academic, here's how author Denis Waitley said it: "The reason most people never reach their goals is that they do not define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. "
By Joshua Miller
This is the kind of detail that gets the job done. If you need Marketing help, give us a call today at 561-596-9071 and we can answer your questions.