Why launching your marketing program will take longer than you think

Marketers are regularly surprised and dismayed about the length of time required to launch a direct marketing campaign. Why?

They know how long these things take. They know the clock doesn't start ticking until they actually start the work. Yet time after time I see panic in the eyes of colleagues who've just realized what the Real Drop Date (or Broadcast Date) is going to be.

Here's what I think: when planning for programs, marketers forget to allow for two critical first steps: campaign definition and vendor negotiation (if appropriate). These things can (and often should) take weeks. And that means a direct mail or broadcast email or whatever kind of project won't really get underway when we'd like to think it will.

But for some reason, marketers and vendors (I'm including agencies, here, mea culpa too) turn a blind eye to the ticking clock while campaigns are defined and funded. And the drop date, out there at the end of the critical path, keeps moving -- but no one sees it.

As marketers we ought to toss the blinders out -- and maybe start eating more carrots. So we can see the clock ticking.