All great marketing departments and teams should have a marketing plan and know it intimately. What is surprising is how often when conducting an analytics audit when the first thing I ask for is a copy of their marketing plan, how often I’m presented with a “deer in headlights” look or at best given the response “Oh we have one, but haven’t updated it in years. We just know it!”

Why is having a current marketing plan that is disseminated and known by your entire marketing team and other teams within your organization critical and how does this have anything to do with your corporate analytics? For the simple reason: Without one, how does the marketing team actually know what they should be doing. More importantly, how can success be measured?