As businesses look to grow, evolve and make an imprint in the market many decide marketing is the way to go. Oddly enough a large percentage lean to hiring a marketing support person or expanding their marketing team. Are you surprised I say this is odd? Here is the right answer.

Know where you want to go, First. Mission

Determine how you are going to get there, Second. Strategic Marketing Planning

Align the proper resources to do the tactics, Third. Asset Alignment

Manage the assets to the plan, Fourth. Execute

A common mistake is for the business to jump straight to the expense of hiring staff without doing the due diligence of the first two steps. When building a house you wouldn’t first hire an electrician without even understanding the basic vision and layout of the home. You would end up wasting a lot of money paying the resource to stand around guessing at where they should place a light switch on an imaginary wall.

Lately there has been a tidal wave of business owners and executives who are working smarter when it comes to their marketing objectives. They need to move quickly but refuse to let this cloud their objectives. It all begins with their acknowledgement that they are not masters of marketing. Deep breath here. Okay, so fill in the skills gap by getting a marketing expert. Right?

Reality check two–the on-going expense of bringing on a full time high level marketing asset is not in the cards right now much less the budget. Next logical step is to aim our sights a bit lower. Hire a marketing coordinator right out of college. They are full of energy. Chomping at the bit to show their stuff by taking your budget and trying out some great new marketing initiatives they’ve heard about over Facebook. Compromise has to happen. Yes, but don’t do it here.

Solution: Get a seasoned marketing expert to do your strategic marketing planning.

Then go ahead and hire the right people to get the job done. Use the plan as your road map to make sure they are doing it right. With a growing virtual marketing consultant pool out there ready to do what you need when you need it, your business has the opportunity to take on the market competition in a real way.

Take a moment to consider all that you have set out before you over the coming year. Ask yourself, “Where is your time best spent?” If marketing makes your list, then start by deciding where you want to go and get that strategic marketing planning vehicle in place to get you there.