A to Z of Marketing: R - Ready

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you marketing geniuses! Are you ready for Thanksgiving?

I hope that your enterprise is ready for your marketing. So many business owners make the mistake of launching their marketing campaign before they are ready.

Being ready means being prepared. It is having things organized and optimized. It's being set to win!

• Get your customer service staff ready before you launch a new promotion. Make sure they are trained and informed. Run them through the marketing campaign so that they will know what new customers have seen and will be discussing.

• Make your Web site ready, before you launch that flight of e-mail blasts. Have a landing page and dress up your home page copy. Be sure there's a call to action.

• Ensure that your inventory is ready to accommodate increased demand for featured items in retail promotions. Nobody likes "Sorry, we're out of that item."

• Check to see that your credit department (or service provider) is ready for a wave of new inquiries, prior to launching a new ad that touts your special financing program.

• Don't run an ad promoting your niche practice area when that particular group leader is going to be out on her two-week vacation--or immersed in a month-long, all-consuming client engagement. Make sure the service experts are ready and available.

• Ready your arsenal of response materials and sales collateral (brochures, case studies, testimonial sheets, sales slicks, white papers, proposal forms, folders, etc.) before you deploy the big, splashy sales promotion.

• Conduct the product and sales training before you run the ads for the new product.

• Do not market until you are ready. Just don't do it!

Every dollar spent on marketing a dysfunctional or poorly supported product or service is a dollar wasted. First, spend the time and the money fixing, informing, optimizing and preparing. Then, and only then, do the marketing. While this advice runs counter to the "just hurry up and put something out there" street wisdom of late, it is indisputably true--and it is what drives results. That's what you care about: being successful, not being trendy, right?

Now, let's get those Thanksgiving preparations complete before the guests start arriving! They are happy you invited them. They'll be even happier if you are ready for their arrival and prepared to provide a great Thanksgiving experience.