Today's Marketing Cookie - Marketing Plan

Today's fortune came from Jacquelyn Shannonhouse in Oklahoma City, OK. Jacquelyn is a Marketing Director at VI Marketing and Branding and the President of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). She is a master in her craft, a marketing leader in her community, and you should follow her on Twitter:@Just_Jacq

Todays Marketing Cookie is about building a marketing plan that is planning to not always go as planned.

If on the first day, a marketer already knew exactly what offer will generate an ungodly amount of leads, what messaging would increase sales beyond all forms of belief and what media buzz would propel the company into the far reaches of the heavens, they would probably be some sort of marketing super hero.

What's that!?
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No. It's MARKETING MAN and his little side kick, "Tiny-URL"!
He makes line charts that always point UP, makes speeding bullets in every powerpoint, and grows more powerful with localization.

I can picture it now...
Marketing Man and Tiny-URL would hear of a banner that is not being clicked somewhere in Gotham City. Our fearless marketing hero would dash away into a phonebooth, come out wearing blue tights and a cape singing, "Here I am to save the day!!". They would fly into save the troubled banner with one flex of their muscles, and SHAZAAM!, their advertising campaign would go right back to delivering triple-digit response. Whew!

Okay. That was really corny.  My name is Myles, and I admit it.

The point I am making here however, is that while you may be a super marketer, you may not always hit every pitch out of the park. Your programs may fall flat once in a while, and you may not hit your numbers every month, so I am recommending that you plan accordingly. Yes. I'm telling you to plan on failure.  Give yourself some space to try risky ideas. If you only go forward with only what-you-think-you-know, you'll force yourself to "play it safe" and give the competition permission, allowance, and whole-lotta white space to innovate their way beyond you.

Don't let "the other guys" do that to you! 

Build your plan and budget with enough flexibility so you can zig whenever they zag, you should make noise during the quiet part of the movie, and try to pass GO and collect two hundred dollars while they're still trying to roll their way out of jail. Give your company permission to stand out when others are still sitting down, and if it doesn't work, try something else. No matter how many times you miss the mark, just brush off the dust and keep pushing forward. Tomorrow will always give you another chance, just as today's fortune says, "Other days, other ways."