Developing and Managing Your Promotional Action Plan

Once you've decided which promotional tools you will use in your promotional mix, you must develop an action plan that includes timelines. Plan carefully what you intend to do, as well as how, when, and who will do it.

Make sure your promotion plan is consistent with your overall marketing goals and activities. For advice and assistance in developing your promotion plan, contact any office of ED&T.

For your promotion plan to be successful, you must carefully manage and track every part of it. Buy a large calendar and block off key promotional activities and key advertising times. Resist the temptation to cut your promotional budget in response to a market slow down or a drop in your sales and profits. Remember that advertising and promotion are essential if you want to maintain your market position.

If you do not feel as if you have the time or the expertise to manage your promotional activities, you can hire professionals to do it for you. If you're assigning promotion and advertising responsibilities to another member of your staff, make sure you share the same vision.

Measuring Results
To enable you to better plan future marketing and promotional activities, it's important to understand what worked, what didn't work and why. There are several ways of measuring success:

• Sales increased, and by how much
• Marketing and promotional goals met
• Reaction from your customers