It’s a new year, a time for new beginnings and new ideas. You’ve made some marketing plans for the year and you’re planning to try some new things. But as you know, “planning” and “doing” are two different things. Here’s a little reminder that you need to do both!

I’ve seen it happen too many times. A customer will call me filled with excitement. “I’ve got this great idea about a marketing tactic I want to implement,” they’ll say. “What do you think?”

At this point they’re in the initial enthusiasm phase about this idea, which seems like a bouquet of roses fresh from the florist, lovely in its perfection.

But then they make the mistake of letting too much time go by before taking action. Or they take the first step, but get distracted before things really get things off the ground.

Then, before you know it, that fabulous marketing idea, which might have made a significant difference in the company’s sales, has been allowed to wilt and die. Just like those roses after time has gone by.

Remember: A great idea is just a beginning

Implementing something new is not always easy. To bring a great idea to fruition you might need to overcome inertia, reprioritize time, allocate budget, scale a learning curve, etc. 

What I’ve seen works best is to avoid delays. Get started before things start to wilt! While you’re still excited about the new idea, do a little research to validate whether it is definitely worth pursuing. If the answer is yes, this is the time to:

• Think through what it will take to implement this idea. Be realistic.
• Either roll up your sleeves and start doing this work yourself now, while you’re still enthused about the possibilities, or delegate tasks to someone else (either internal staff or outside experts).
• Schedule time to do any associated ongoing or follow-up work. Put it on the calendar!

It’s also a good practice to put a system in place right at the start to track the program’s results. This will help keep you motivated to continue to follow through over time.