While we would all love to say our marketing strategy is proactive, I am sure the majority of us have been caught up in reactive marketing at one time or another. By reactive marketing, we mean programs that weren’t previously scheduled or planned but one-offs quickly created to serve a pressing need. Whether it is the CEO bringing a competitor’s ad to your office and demanding to know why “we aren’t in here?” Or sales is begging for a direct mail initiative to be sent so quarter numbers can be met.

Now we are not saying that reactive marketing should be avoided like the plague. In the real world, there is no way to avoid implementing a few reactive marketing programs. However, the problem with reactive marketing is that it moves so quickly, you don’t have enough time to evaluate measurement and return on investment. The biggest problem is that if your entire program is reactive, a review of success at year end might be painful.

The best way to limit the amount of reactive marketing is to make sure that your annual marketing plan contains a variety of programs that have generated real results in the previous year. As the schedule gets closer, review the market as the planned messaging may need to be modified to meet the current market conditions. Make sure to plan on activities to help sales drive numbers at the end of each quarter. Make sure you know where your competitors are marketing and establish strong rationale to why you are or are not there. This type of planning will help tremendously as you go through the year with strategy in place and keep reactive marketing to a minimum.  

Posted: Monday, November 24th, 2008 | Technology Marketing
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