It's fair to say that marketing strategies don't work by themselves. You can spend thousands of dollars having a marketing strategy written for your small business, but if it isn't implemented, it's not worth the paper it is written on.

I know hundreds of companies that have engaged a marketing consultant to write a marketing strategy and then are left miffed as to why it didn't work. Well, it doesn't work if you don't do anything with it! It's as simple as that.

What a marketing strategy does for a small business is set the blueprint for your marketing activities for the next 12 months, 3 years or 5 years. From there, every small business owner can then use this information to develop a marketing activities timeline. This is the easiest and most efficient way to ensure that your marketing strategy gets implemented.

From there, delegate to people or agencies that have the right expertise to execute your marketing strategy. Make sure you think this through thoroughly and set deadlines for completion. Ensure every participant has your BRAND STYLE GUIDE and KEY MESSAGING GUIDE so that your brand is not diluted while it is being managed by multiple parties. Give someone in your business the role of being your brand champion to ensure that consistency in the implementation of your marketing strategy occurs.

Set up group meetings every month to ensure that everything is going to plan and nothing is missed or that if the plan needs to be altered because an external influence has effected its ability to be successful, that you can quickly make the necessary changes and continue on your businesses growth path.

Always set financial goals around your marketing strategy and don't be afraid to ask advice from a third party should it not be going to plan. It may just be a few things that need tweaking to achieve what you set out to achieve.