A new year, new challenges, but the same questions from prospective clients, how can I generate some new business immediately, why isn’t my marketing working, how can I measure the effectiveness of my marketing?

Ever since we set up Eyes Wide Open over twenty years ago to help businesses improve the effectiveness of their marketing, these questions have not changed, indeed I was being asked the same questions from my bosses in my previous corporate life, so what are the answers?

Like everything in business, generating new business takes time, you cannot expect to implement a new marketing strategy and start generating business from the outset, if anyone tells you otherwise you need to question how this will be achieved.

If you were building a house, you would not just start digging without plans, if you did it is likely the building would be unstable if it was ever finished. You would normally begin with an idea or a concept and get an architect to develop the plans. From here you would speak to a builder to cost the project and confirm the timings. Once you have these two elements you can then begin the build, but this will take time to complete and the results won’t be instantly seen.

Marketing is no different.

With every business it is essential to plan to ensure you have the right elements in place with the right resources to deliver the plans, marketing is a key part to this.

Once you have confirmed what you want to achieve as a business you need to brief your marketing team to develop a plan that will deliver the results both in terms of new business, turnover and profitability. These plans will need to include the resource, both internal and external that will be required to deliver these plans. The resources will include:

• Budget
• Infrastructure and systems
• Marketing management (either internal team members or external part-time consultants)
• Agencies to deliver the different elements
• KPI’s, what you want to achieve by when, including agreed metrics

The second question, why isn’t my marketing working? Without robust plans, your marketing is less likely to deliver results, so ensure the plans are in place. It is also important to note that some activities might not deliver the results you are hoping for, you need to monitor all activity, setting targets and reviewing these. If the results aren’t what they should be, analyse the results looking at the different elements including:

• The target audience, is it the right target market for your products
• The channels have been used
• The creative, both graphic and copy
• Timings and frequency

Once you have the results of your analysis you can then adapt the activity to improve the performance for subsequent campaigns.

It is important to note that marketing does not work as one-off activities and you will need to reach your prospects multiple times to engage with them and ultimately persuade them to buy your products or services.

These days, most marketing activity can be measured from websites, social media, email campaigns, advertising and even direct mail, so make sure you get the measurement set up before the activity begins.

With the right plans and structure in place, the right investment committed to your marketing and realistic expectations of the results you want to achieve, your marketing will have every chance of succeeding.

To find out how to develop the right plans for your business and check that your structure and resources are in place call me 07900 580407 or drop me an email owen@ewo.uk.com