Does everyone on your marketing team know who is doing what?

If you assume they do, you may see something fall between the cracks.

In Part 6 of the 10-Part Marketing Plan Process, we offer a tool for recording marketing roles and responsibilities.

Who’s on First

The simplest task becomes a challenge when it is left undone.

• The finger pointing begins
• It snowballs into team distrust
• And it can sabotage your marketing project

A Control Freak Guide to Business Communication Roles & Responsibilities introduced a simple, tried and tested method for managing your project.

Use the RACI method for assigning roles & responsibilities.

• R = Responsible – who does what task
• A = Accountable – where the buck stops (that would be you, business owner)
• C = Consult – the subject matter expert
• I = Inform – the people who need to know the status

In the Control Freak post, I shared a sample RACI spreadsheet for ghostwriting an article. It separated the “team” as the business owner, colleagues of the business owner, and the vendor (in this case, a freelance business writer).

Below is the image of the sample used.

For those of you who do not want to deal with remembering what RACI stands for, below is an alternative worksheet (as shown in the SlideShare version).

Marketing Tasks – Roles and Responsibilities Template

The description of RACI is across the top. You simply put the name(s) of the team member in the appropriate column.

The template has sample tasks for a marketing project. If you would like to make this your own, download an Excel version.

What if your team is just you?

There’s nothing wrong with talking to yourself. This template can come in handy for identifying all the tasks associated with a particular marketing project.

Remember, outsourced tasks (like graphics, copywriting, etc.) would be included in your RACI chart.

Let me know what you think in Comments. What would you add?

View an infographic of the 10-Part Marketing Plan Process.

Part 1: Your Vision

Part 2 I.D. Your Killer Client

Part 3: Beating Blind Hog Marketing Objectives

Part 4: Creating a Budget

Part 5: Infographic: Choosing Your Communication Channel