- Poor business marketing results
Growth is not happening
Are your sales decreasing
Reason 1: You have failed to do a SWOT analysis and skipped marketing strategy and planning
It might feel like your business is saving time and being more productive by skipping strategy and planning sessions. Without a SWOT analysis and marketing strategy you are going to suffer in the long term
Proper, Precise Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
Without planning, you risk wasting time, money and effort on:
- Marketing activities that don’t reach the right audience and fail to help you achieve business goals
Complex, confusing or mismatched branding, design and content. The messages communicated do not tell people who you are, what you do, why you are better than your competitors and how people can benefit from using your products and services
You need a USP (Unique Selling Point)
With no clarity or direction and an assortment of different tactics to choose from, your marketing activities and budget can spiral out of control - without any real return
Reason 2: You’re trying too hard to do everything
New marketing ideas and growth ideas are shared daily. It can be easy for you or your marketing department to get caught up in trends and stories of overnight successes. Do not let excitement guide marketing decisions. Do the following:
- Review the new idea critically. If it worked for a tech brand, will it really help you sell face-to-face accounting services?
Understand what else needs to be done to roll out your new activity. For example, a new social media network might require specific, time-consuming content.
Consider how introducing something new will impact your workload.
Work out how spending less time on existing activities could affect marketing performance.
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
Reason 3: You’re still doing what worked in 2010
Keeping an eye on what’s happening around your business is incredibly important. If competitors, industry changes and customers are not being researched regularly, it will be much harder to create relevant messages and deliver marketing that drives action.
Your marketing strategy is not a document that you create once & forget – it needs to be reviewed and updated gegularly. Doing so successfully requires research and performance analysis
Remember: times change. Just because something worked in 2010, does not mean that it will work now.
Reason 4: You are not measuring marketing performance or collecting feedback
If you are investing time and money in marketing, you need to be measuring performance and asking for customer feedback. Making decisions based on ‘gut feelings’ or vanity metrics (i.e. number of followers) will not help your business grow. Performance data and customer feedback (sadly >80% of customers will NOT provide feedback but WILL complain to family, friends and business associates about bad services and poor quality), combined with the research mentioned in reason 3, can help you or your marketer:
- Understand what’s working and what is not
Allocate time and budget to the right activities
Better understand what your target audience wants, likes and needs.
Make changes that generate marketing and business growth.
It is too easy to panic call in the marketing consultants, business advisors, accountants and coaches after things have gone terribly wrong. However, it is more logical and effective to ask for tips & assistance while things are still going well. This often costs less money and takes less time. It allows you to future-proof your marketing and your business, while taking the steps required to achieve your goals.
