Research by Rakuten Marketing provides sobering reading. Marketers are wasting 26% of their budgets on ineffective channels and strategies. What’s more, over half of those surveyed claim at least 20% of their budgets were misspent. Every drop of your marketing budget matters more than ever in 2021. In today’s article, we examine 3 sure-fire signs you need to reset your marketing strategy.
Learn how to overcome your marketing vices and give up bad habits with our Dry January marketing tips.
Marketing vices
Time to reset your marketing strategy if you recognise these vices at work in your marketing:
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You can’t determine MROI
Are you measuring your success in terms of page views? Social media followers? Or maybe you cannot evidence how marketing activity is leading to cold, hard sales? Being able to quantify the return on your marketing investment in terms of actual net return and knowing the value that marketing adds to your operation is business critical. Critical more so as marketing departments are making hard decisions with many facing budget cuts. The owners, board or senior team are looking for more results for their investment.
The tonic: appropriately defined marketing KPIs lead by accurate data tracking mixed with good alignment between marketing and finance. Additionally, you might want to consider revisiting your marketing effectiveness to get your marketing fit for 2021.
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Your approach is not holistic
Marketing without a marketing strategy in place leaves you and your business open in so many ways. Strategy should be at the heart of all you do and inform everything from who to target to how, when and why. This is the same whether you operate in-house or outsource your marketing. After all, no one wants their paid ads wasting precious budget and shown to the wrong demographic or worse, hitting the right demographic with the wrong message. Similarly, your messaging must be on point across all communication channels – online, email, print right the way through to sales literature. Sadly, the result is leads that are confused and also lost.
The tonic: invest in marketing strategy and planning. A good place to start is a marketing consultant for strategic support to shake up your growth journey. Remember, the enabler of your marketing strategy is a detailed strategic marketing plan with measures and activities.
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Your costs are spiralling
Increasing costs not backed up by marketing return is a sure-fire sign that you need to rethink your current direction. Similarly, continually investing in campaigns because “that has always been the way” is a mindset that belongs in the past. Furthermore, how many times do you change media or creative supplier or go for the latest piece of martech? The beauty of realising that a change is needed is that it gives you a chance to plan with a blank sheet of paper. Sometimes, we need some support to see things differently and change our mindset.
The tonic: add two parts marketing health check and audit to a splash of innovation with the key marketing themes for 2021. Shake them all together and make some healthy resolutions to enhance your strategy for 2021. We hope you agree that 2021 is a great opportunity to approach the year afresh and make a positive change.
How do you reset your marketing approach?
Firstly, realising that things need to change is a great first step. We do not want to see a repeat of 2020 with budgets slashed and marketers out of work. Just making a decision to look at things anew takes effort but a heart to heart with your boss or business owners may improve your standing – before you get started.
Secondly, be bold and be brave. It is tempting to have a preconceived idea of where the problem lies or to look for a new agency to show that something is changing. Shining a spotlight on only one area may limit the benefits of a true transformation journey in marketing. A rolling programme of review is something we offer from processes and team roles to systems and suppliers.
Thirdly, getting everyone in the team onboard is crucial to any change. After all, what is scary about something that is clearly communicated and aims to benefit everyone in the team?
What you gain by resetting your marketing strategy
Ultimately, giving up is generally a bad thing. But giving up your marketing vices means that you gain better performance and improved marketing health. 2020 brought about unprecedented challenges with marketing seen by many as a cost centre. Our message, don’t shy away from reviewing tried and trusted ways of doing things. If we had £1 for every time we hear “that’s the way we have always done it” we would be millionaires.
At Think Beyond, we use the science of marketing to increase return on investment and move marketing into a profit centre. We work with businesses of all sizes and across all industries. To do this, we follow our PSR model. P stands for philosophy, which is a philosophy of partnership to support your journey. S stands for science, which is using marketing as a science backed by analysis, data and measurement. R stands for ROI, which is aiming to achieve return on investment in everything we do. In summary, we seek the best options to generate results for you.
Look after your marketing health
Let us help you find the best solution for your business. Our team will help you give up your marketing vices and get your marketing strategy working for you. Reset your marketing by calling 01565 632206 or email sales@think-beyond.co.uk for a no obligation chat.
Alternatively, you can request more information about our marketing strategy and support services by completing our simple contact form.
Lastly, discover the philosophy behind Think Beyond and why we’re different.