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A marketing communications checklist Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. If you are involved in marketing your organisation (whether you own it or you are an employee) you really are spoilt for choice about the range of activities you could be doing. Unfortunately, you are also probably very busy and so you might be still waiting to 'get around to it'. So in this issue, I thought it might help if I gave you reminder list of some of the marketing communications activity you COULD be doing. (Some of the items are a bit light-hearted, but that's just the mood I'm in.) You can decide if you need to make a special effort to 'get around to' any of the stuff that isn't happening. 1. Your web site. * Has it been significantly updated in the past three months? * Are any further changes planned for the next three months? * Have you even looked at it in the last three months? * Do you have any client testimonials on the site? If not, are you in the process of getting some? 2. Press releases. * Is there someone (internal or external) who knows how to write press releases for you? * If not, have you ordered my f-r-e-e guide to writing press releases? (Drop me an email if not.) * Do you have a list of all relevant contacts in the media, eg in trade publications? Is it up to date? * Have you written and issued a press release in the last six weeks? * Do you plan to issue one in the next six weeks? * Are you planning events that will be suitable for press release content (rather than waiting for something to happen)? 3. Customer newsletter. * Do you have one? * If you do, does it include plenty of information that your customers will find useful (or is it just a plug for your organisation)? * If you don't, is it because your organisation has made a decision not launch a newsletter, or is it because no-one's got around to it yet? 4. Customer database. * Is your database being used to its full marketing potential? * Is it being updated often enough? * Have you talked to other departments who use it (eg customer service) about integrating how you both use it? 5. Marketing model. * Do you have one? * Do you know where it is? * Does anyone know where it is? * Is it used to make sure all your marketing activity is integrated? 6. Marketing and the sales department. * Does the sales team know what the marketing team's objectives and plans are? * Does the marketing team know what the sales team's objectives and plans are? * When was the last time the two departments really worked together? * On a 1-10 scale, just how much do the two departments hate each other? 7. Marketing and other departments. * Do all departments - especially customer facing ones - know what the marketing department is up to? * Do all departments even know there IS a marketing department? * When was the last time anyone from marketing spent a week in other departments to find out more about how customer contact is happening? (You'll find the other departments somewhere in your building. They are the stressed-out people who actually speak to customers that you see on your way to the coffee machine 15 times a day.) 8. Marketing staff development. * Do you frequently attend training, self-learning and seminars? * Do you use the huge amount of free resources on the internet? * Do you know who leads you local marketing association group? (The Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.) * Are you on their mailing list? * If yes, do you ever go to the events they organise? 9. Additional activity. * Are you planning any of the following: sponsorship, exhibitions, publicity stunts, competitions or other activity in the next six months? 10. Being sick of marketing. * Is it all getting a bit much? * Have you booked your holiday yet? * If so, can I come too? Copyright 2003 Richard Groom |