If you’ve followed the facts behind the failed airplane bombing attempt on Dec. 25, you (as I) can conclude that our “security experts” failed miserably.  So many clues, yet no preventive action.

Same can be said about your marketing.  If you’re not connecting the dots, you may be setting yourself up for failure — meaning, competitors leaping ahead of you — and not just in sales or market share (those results come later) — but in areas such brand awareness, search results, relationship building, sales lead generation / nurturing, website behavior, and more.

With today’s amazing suite of online communications tools, with marketing automation, with SEO and SEM, with social media, with e-mail marketing — all of which carry with them incredible analytical tools — you have no excuse for not measuring how you are doing, and therefore connecting the dots as you see trouble ahead.

Put your marketing plan through a full body scan and make sure you’re wide awake at all times, and measuring what you can measure.