“Marketing does not work” is a very common statement. Believe me when I say that I also feel the pain of Marketing that doesn’t work.

Whether you have an in-house marketing team or outsource your marketing it doesn’t matter, these 5 tips can help to get your marketing on track again.

1. Listen to your marketers

Get everyone together and do a proper SWOT analysis. Analyze your business’s STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, and THREATS. Analyze the SWOT points, create executive initiatives, and put them into action.

2. Create a roadmap

Get your team to agree on a roadmap with SMART goals. We will increase revenue from A to A+B within X months.
If you have a sales team I suggest that you set up an SLA between the Marketing team and the sales team. In essence, it boils down to something like this:
The Marketing team will generate x number of quality (Quality needs to be defined) leads that will be passed on to the Sales team which will convert X% to customers. The Sales team will contact all leads from the Marketing team within X hours and will provide feedback to the Marketing team on the quality of the received leads.

The roadmap needs to be crystal clear and have milestones that are reported back to the executive leadership on a weekly basis.

3. Agree on one process

It is very important for a marketing team to have agreed on the process. Map out the process by which marketing campaigns are run and deliberately look for the gaps. Also, ask at each point how it will be measured and how important it is to take quick corrective actions when necessary.
A feedback loop is also very crucial to ensure corrective actions are timely to ensure goals can be met.

4. Stay on track

Every marketer knows that clear brand guidelines and strategic planning go a long way in the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. And yet, we go off script all the time, sabotaging our success.
Ensure that your marketing team stays on track, start each meeting reciting your 2 or 3 differentiators, brand message, and positioning of your products in the market.

5. Marketing project manager

Most marketing teams operate without a strong project manager because normally there is not enough budget for such a position in a marketing team. This is where things go sideways and marketing becomes a spinning wheel with very little results. A project manager can direct the marketing efforts and drive the outcomes to reach the required results. If you do not have the budget for this you can outsource this to a company that offers fractional project management or as we call it a “marketing overseeing role”.