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10 Questions to Determine if Your Marketing Strategy Needs an Overhaul
Most growing and mid-sized companies have some type of marketing function. It could consist of one person, a handful, or in some cases, many people. Some of these marketing teams are high-performing with obvious impact on the business. For others, the business impact of marketing is unclear.
Some common symptoms of an underperforming marketing function include:
- Market share gains have stalled or are in decline
- Company revenues are not growing as fast as the industry growth rate, or those of competitors
- Marketing's contribution to revenue is unclear
- There are seemingly ‘random acts of marketing’ being performed
- The marketing budget is often being challenged
- Your brand awareness in your market, as compared to your competitors, is inadequate
- Investments in demand generation and lead generation activities are having little or no impact
Under-performing marketing often has a common root cause. The company may be lacking a clear marketing strategy that is aligned with the company vision and growth objectives. A solid marketing strategy forms the critical foundation for an efficient and high-performing marketing function.
Here is a simple 10 question quiz to see if your marketing strategy needs fine tuning, repair or a total rebuild:
|
1. Do you understand which customers are most valuable in terms of potential revenue and profitability? |
Yes |
No |
|
2. Do you really understand your buyer(s) and how they make purchase decisions? |
Yes |
No |
|
3. Is your brand message differentiated and inspiring vs. based on ‘what you do’ and ‘who you are’? |
Yes |
No |
|
4. Do your customers and prospects truly understand what problems you solve and how you do it better than the competition? |
Yes |
No |
|
5. Are you producing marketing content that your customers need, when they need it and in the form they wish to consume it? |
Yes |
No |
|
6. Are you allocating marketing resources based on specific marketing objectives and toward accounts with the greatest revenue potential? |
Yes |
No |
|
7. Do you have more A-players vs. C-players on your marketing team? |
Yes |
No |
|
8. Is marketing generating enough leads for the sales team to exceed their revenue targets? |
Yes |
No |
|
9. Are you tailoring campaigns and content for specific segments, buyers or regions? |
Yes |
No |
|
10. Are you making marketing decisions based more on data than intuition alone? |
Yes |
No |
If you answered ‘yes’ to 8 or more questions, then congratulations! Your marketing strategy and team is likely strong, and only a few refinements to your marketing strategy are required.
If you answered ‘yes’ to 4-7 questions, then you could be headed for trouble. A review and repair of your marketing strategy is needed.
If you answered ‘yes’ to 3 or fewer questions, then you should consider rebuilding your marketing strategy before continuing to throw good money after bad.
You can have a smart, well-intentioned marketing team, but without a strongly aligned marketing strategy their performance will be inconsistent and lack impact.
Topics: Fractional CMO, SaaS
Tue, Aug 28, 2018.svg)
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