Are you marketing today the same way you always have, creating the same marketing materials and attending trade shows because that’s what you’ve always done?
If so, it’s the perfect time to re-examine your marketing strategy to determine how you can do things more effectively to get the biggest bang for your marketing buck, says Bo Bothe, president and chief creative officer at BrandExtract.
“Too many companies lack discipline with their marketing efforts,” he says. “You have to determine the purpose of your marketing, define what’s measurable, set goals, be unique to your customers and regularly test your results.”
Smart Business spoke with Bothe about how to maximize your return on your marketing investments.
How do you begin to determine your marketing strategy?
First, you have to have a purpose. When people go into marketing, it’s typically, ‘I’ve always done this. I’ve always had a brochure. I’ve always redesigned my Web site. I’ve always gone to trade shows.’ But they’re not really tying these tactics to objectives and strategies.
You need to determine your goals going into it. Do you want to find new customers? Do you want to re-engage old customers? Do you want to increase your price point? Do you want to capture the true value of your product? What impression do you want to form in the minds of your customers and the marketplace?
Your purpose shouldn’t just be, ‘Get five new customers.’ It should be bigger than that. It should be, ‘Change the way people think about us,’ or ‘Help people see the true value of our product.’
Once you define your purpose, what is the next step?
Determine what is measurable. People collect data all the time, but they tend to not use it. They don’t equate it back to their efforts and goals. You have to define what should be measured and what the information means. Can you measure an increase in price point, a faster close rate, an increase in sales, how many clients are leaving versus coming in, whether customers are buying more rather than less?
Once you determine what is measurable, then you have to determine how you’re going to measure it. What are the two or three most important indicators? Frequent evaluation makes it possible to determine whether you’re achieving your goals or finding the right leads. Instead of reviewing quarterly, assessing your campaigns monthly or even more frequently lets you quickly adjust your marketing mix and achieve better results.