So you have a marketing agency, or perhaps you have your marketing department. But, you don’t think they are efficient, or the focus is unclear or rather on a less relevant task. Here are five ways to improve the overall efficiency of your marketing activities
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Make your objectives clear: I want to sell more is not a genuine objective; everyone goes into business with the aim of growth. Try specificity for a rewarding relationship between your marketing team and yourself. Offer them the most commercially viable options and objectives. For example, I would like to sell more products in the notebooks range because they have higher margins or a new product that you would like to promote. Another way to be specific is if you want to increase business from a particular user group say millennials. Provide a clear brief to obtain true value from the marketing effort. Help them by understanding further by understanding the margin % you are willing to offer in promotions.
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Customer Perspective: If you are in a customer-facing role, chances are customers talk to you and tell you about their likes and dislikes. Or if you have heard customers speak of a specific email or note that was sent to them in the past, let your marketing team know so they can build on the good stuff that your customers see value in. No one is saying to repeat the same campaign necessarily, but you can always reinvent the same concept.
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Give marketing a priority list and base it on value to the business: Everyone wants to aim for the stars, but sometimes resources can be limited. Apply the Pareto principle to your list and focus on priority activities that will generate revenue and provide value to the company.
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Don’t make a case the norm: If a customer said something but you have 2000 other customers, don’t assume the exception is the rule. Ask your marketing to investigate further before acting on the feedback of one customer. Of course, this doesn’t apply if the checkout is not working.
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Include them in Sales Meetings: You may have a sales meeting every week, but you don’t invite a member of the marketing team. Chances are if you started asking the marketing team, they can go back and truly drill down on the data and get a greater insight into your pain points and try and solve them with Marketing.
