How much have you invested in marketing that didn’t produce the desired result?
A lot. That’s for sure.
While you can’t foolproof marketing and you can never guarantee how an investment will work out, there’s a relatively easy way to give yourself a better foundation.
Where do so many marketing projects go wrong?
More often than not, the problem isn’t in the execution. The problem is in the planning. Asking certain questions before you ever embark can enable you to make better decisions every step along the way. If you start with poor plans, you’re less likely to see the fruits of your labor.
Why do they go wrong? Laziness. It really is that simple.
It’s so much easier to talk about what we’ll do than ask questions that are difficult and spend time deliberating the big picture.
When was the last time a vendor asked you questions that you didn’t have a quick answer for? Those are questions that can slow down implementation. Implementation can take long enough. And the time it takes to deliberate…can feel like time wasted.
But it’s not a waste.
Here are some sample questions that you might want to ask BEFORE you ever commit to a plan:
- What’s been the common thread in the marketing we’ve done that’s proven profitable? What about those where we lost money?
- Who really are the people we want to reach? What’s the lowest hanging fruit? What’s best for our business? (Those last two aren’t always the same.)
- What’s the one thing people understand the least about us and that interferes with our ability to retain them?
- Do the project(s) we’re considering support our annual (and long-term) goals? Is this project best suited for those goals? Is another project better?
- Can we really expect results for the project we’re considering at the budget we’re willing to spend? Should we commit more money? Should we commit less money?
- Where is our money likely to make an impact with the people we really want to reach? Is what our competition is doing going to reduce our ROI?
- What is it about our approach (or the lawyers in charge) that may get in the way of this being financially successful? (This means your team needs to be able to point out when you’re the problem.)
- If this doesn’t work, how do we react?
- Are people really going to care about what we’re doing? Can we tap into other resources that may make this more successful?
- Should we even be doing this project? Should we allocate our money some-where else?
So why do projects go wrong? Laziness.
It’s a matter of being lazy on all parties involved. It means vendors need to ask questions and engage in the discovery process. Your marketing team (and likely yourself) need to be engaged in the discovery process. You need to be willing to walk away from a project, no matter how much you’re intrigued by the idea.
All of that takes time, energy, and attention.
Vendors can only give so much of this away for free before they start to hurt their own company. Just as a lawyer can only give away so much time for free to prospective clients.
What could fix this?
Lawyers: pay for outside marketers to help you come up with a plan.
Vendors: ask lawyers to pay for a high-quality discovery process.
I see so many sub-par audits done by web companies looking to win the business of a prospect. Even with those that charge a small fee, most of the audits aren’t very in-depth. Owners don’t want to pay for a marketing plan.
And so, as a result, a subpar plan is created. You end up with something that isn’t properly tailored to your firm’s needs and goals.
What if, the next time you decided to invest in a significant project, you hired 1-3 outside marketing companies to help you with planning? Through that process, you’d get a high-quality marketing plan, lots of ideas for how you could achieve your goals, and a clear picture as to how these vendors might help you.
Even if you have a marketing team, this is still valuable. Your marketing team is too close to your projects to see everything clearly. You don’t need to pay a vendor for every project you wish to engage in. I’d recommend starting on those where you spend the most money. If that’s PPC, get a few PPC vendors to work with you to create a robust PPC strategy.
Unfortunately, you’re not likely to find vendors willing to put that kind of time in if they’re not necessarily going to win the contract.
I encourage you to look around and ask for it. If you turn to the web, you’ll be surprised that you’ll find a modest amount of companies willing to offer independent marketing planning for your specific goals.
