I can't even say how many times I've seen this happen. There are those companies out there who try to plan out every single thing they're going to do. They form this schedule that's so unyielding that if a single thing is altered it all starts to collapse around them. They've planned as if everything will go exactly as they want it to, and if things change, they have no backup plan.

I'm applying all of this to marketing, but make not mistake, this is important to be aware of in everyday life as well. You can't plan out everything you do because there are always going to be surprises coming up that you just didn't expect, and if you didn't include a backup plan, you won't know how to handle them.

There are two things you can do to help make sure that you don't have any really difficult mistakes when it comes to marketing. The first is to make sure that whatever kind of marketing you're doing you have a follow up marketing push if something goes wrong with the first one. This doesn't mean fully forming a second marketing plan, but sketch out what you'll do if things go wrong, so you can quickly transition to the next plan if need be.

The second is to always get some label printing done for quick use. This is a little detail that many companies don't think about, because they aren't putting thought to just how effective label printing can be.

If you have a label with your company name and logo on it you can be certain that you'll never send anything out without your name attached to it. Maybe you've run out of letters with your letterhead on it, or envelopes with your company name printed on the front. Well, just put on a label and you have at least a makeshift letterhead or logo on your envelopes until you can get more of the real thing printed.

They can come in real handy at tradeshow where you might need to quickly put them on a larger amount of information about your company because you accidentally left behind the preprinted stuff. It's amazing how many things you'll quickly realize you can use the labels for once you realize something went wrong and you need your company name attached to things.

These are obviously just two suggestions based around the same idea: be prepared for the worst. There's no reason to do anything without a safety net.