The Dog Ate My Blog – The Sequel

Ahhh, the holidays.  Kids are thinking, “It’s never gonna get here.”  Adults are thinking, “I’m never gonna get it all done.”  Unfortunately, I’m an adult (although some people would be willing to debate the issue) and the holidays throw my schedule into chaos.  In all honesty, I completely forgot yesterday was Thursday until it was almost over so I didn’t get around to making my regular blog post – hence the title.  (If you don’t get the reference, take a look at this post:  The Dog Ate My Blog)

This lends itself to a good topic for today’s post – planning out your guerilla tactics.  (How’s that for a smooth segue?)  Guerillas don’t throw out random marketing and hope something sticks.  By definition, guerilla marketing is about setting an objective & planning on how to get to it with minimal resources.   If you don’t plan out what you’re trying to do, you won’t be able to do it with minimal resources.  Lack of planning usually means you’ll be paying rush charges or you have to cut out important pieces of the campaign because you won’t have time to get them done. 

All of your marketing should have a strategic plan attached to it.  At CMC we don’t do anything for our clients without having a strategy behind it.  By starting with “What are you trying to do?” you get results.  If you start with “I’m doing this,” and then try to squeeze your goal into it – you usually end up with a lot of headaches. 

I met with a new business owner awhile back who was just launching & was ready to take out a bunch of ads.  He had no idea what he wanted to say, how it should look, or what he should be trying to get out of it – but he wanted to take out these ads.  After we talked for awhile I was able to show him how, while ads may be a good path for him at some point, it wasn’t a good starting ground.  He needed to develop a strategy for getting where he wanted to go.  Then, when the groundwork had been laid and the time was right, we could take a look and see if these ads were still a good idea.  If he had started down the path he was going, the first impression his target audience got from him would have been the wrong one. 

Whether you’re doing a big campaign or a simple flyer – start by asking yourself, “What am I trying to do?  What’s my strategy for getting there?”  You’ll be glad you did. 

I’d love to hear about the strategic high’s and low’s you’ve seen.  What was the best use of strategy or the most ill-conceived campaign you’ve seen?  Let me know.  

In the meantime I’m gonna chase down that dog and see if I can keep him from eating my blog again.  I can’t guarantee he won’t be back, but I’ll do my best to keep him on his leash.