By Ahmed al-Akber/Dubai


I speak to a lot of business groups with business owners and CEOs in the audience that say they have challenges in getting their marketing plans implemented. The planning part goes down fine, but implementation is where the plans fail.
When I ask them what they have tried, they reply with answers like “We ask our sales teams to cold call more people”, or “We give out more of our brochures”. Its no wonder they haven’t received the results they wanted.
My grandfather used to have a saying that he would tell me: “If you’re not in, you can’t win”. Success in marketing is all down to what gets implemented. All the planning and purest of intentions are fine, but customers will never see those plans. You have to get out there, establish visibility for your brand and anchor it on its intended positioning. Its only then that your marketing will pay you back by getting you in front of buyers that are interested in hearing what you have to say.
The first thing to look at is the action steps listed on your marketing plan. These need to be managed and reviewed constantly. If your marketing plan serves as the guide for growing your business, then it needs to be front and centre constantly!
What I tend to do is to list out all the activities that need to be done, and categorise them, so they are easier to manage. So “Speaking” has a list of activities, such as the business councils and groups I’ll target, whether I’ll come up with a new type of workshop over the year, and how many speaking events I’ll do over the year. I then manage those steps by listing the action points and do what I can to check them off.
You also want to make sure that you make people accountable for the plan’s implementation. This includes yourself! This is simply about assigning tasks to the people in your team that will help you implement. What needs to be done, by whom, and by when. Do they understand what they are supposed to do, and why they are doing it? Its then about making sure someone checks that what’s been promised is delivered within the agreed timelines.
Finally, getting your marketing plan implemented will not happen in a single day. I meet many people that procrastinate and keep saying “I need to get my marketing plan done” but never seem to get round to doing it. Setting aside one day a month just for marketing will also not work in my experience. You can’t hold off on your marketing for that long and expect the same kind of results as you would get by doing smaller activities more regularly.
My motto is to make marketing a habit. Do something every day, even as little as 30 minutes a day. Whether its finishing an article, asking two past clients for a referral, or booking a speaking opportunity, it will get you one step closer to accomplishing the goals set out in your marketing plan.
Do that for about a month and it will become a habit. Hold out for a little longer and you’ll start to see the results you’re targeting.

♦ Ahmed al-Akber (below picture) is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. Ahmed has worked internationally in marketing, sales, and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on ahmed@acksolutions.com