I was sitting down with one of my favourite clients for our scores on the doors monthly KPI review. As always we look at her marketing activity and the leads it is producing. As we looking through which sources her leads had come from, she mentioned to me that she was really pleased to have nearly hit her target, but they hadn’t come from where she had expected them to come from. As we went through where each lead had come from, what seemed like a random collection of leads corresponded rather well to where we had expected them to come from. Towards the end of the conversation, my client remembered a lead she had forgotten about. This extra lead meant she had hit her target for lead generation for the month.

As this is the 5^th month of using a tactical marketing plan, and recording where every lead was coming from, we were able to look at and compare 5 months of data; which allowed us to see any trends which were starting and change our marketing activity based on those trends.

So, what’s the point of telling this story apart from helping me feel good about helping my client achieve her lead target for the month?

1. Her use of a tactical marketing plan showing what activity she was going to do to achieve her targeted number of leads was fairly accurate. It also gave her peace of mind that she was doing the right level of marketing activity for her projected business growth.
2. We identified that her best source of referrals, like any trainer will find, were her existing clients. Consequently we upped the activity and number of touch points with existing clients to see whether this would have any effect or not.
3. Having five months of data where her leads were coming from was enabling us to take informed management decisions about where to spend time and resource on marketing.
4. Doing this monthly review was giving my client reassurance that the grand plan was all coming together and also making sure that she did actually compile the numbers every month!
5. Working in partnership with a coach can give you the discipline and accountability to do the important but boring stuff in your business, whilst also being a sounding board for you
6. It's very easy to get swept up in the day-to-day business of running workshops, designing training and doing coaching sessions to lose sight of the important marketing information you need to record and review

Could you predict with 50+% accuracy where your leads will come from this month? If not, then perhaps you need to think about implementing a tactical marketing plan for your practice.

What’s your experience of using a tactical marketing plan?