Done right, marketing can be a major investment for your company. Done wrong, it can seriously hurt your profitability. In order to protect yourself, you need to match your strategy and budget to your current situation.
Test New Strategies
When you are trying out new strategies, it’s important to do a test run before you commit. A test run will allow you to see what kind of results you could expect from a large-scale application of a strategy. For example, if you wanted to try out a few different social media advertisements, you could briefly run several different ads for a short time. After the trial is over, you could analyze the data to see which ones created more customer engagement. Keep in mind that some strategies will be difficult to test over a short period of time… SEO for example is a marketing strategy that requires time and consistency in order to see results.
Measure Marketing ROI
If your marketing plan costs $1000 dollars and only results in an increase of $800, that’s obviously a poor decision! (You would have been better off keeping the $1000.) However, if you increase sales by $1050, is that a good plan? That plan does increase your sales by $50, but it is only a good idea if a 5% increase is the best investment your company could make. If alternative uses for that $1000 could yield increased outcomes, then it’s a bad plan. This is the essence of comparing the return on investments for different marketing plans. There are several models of marketing attribution that your business can use. Your best bet is to use a couple of different methods so that you can get the best overall picture.
Scalability
Having an excellent marketing plan can increase your customer acquisition. But are you ready for that? Do you have the infrastructure in place to handle the projected increase in business? If so, go right ahead. If not, you may need to hold off. Having too many customers to handle can backfire. Being unable to honor commitments to your clients can really tarnish your reputation and stunt future growth. It’s some cases it may be better to hold back for just a little while in order to make sure that you can meet the increased demand that a marketing campaign can bring in.
While doing your research, analysis, and tests can prevent some mistakes, nobody can accurately predict the future all the time. At some point, you’re going to have to move forward and implement your strategies. If you fail, analyze the data to learn where you went wrong. If you succeed, analyze the data so that you know why you went right. Post analyzation can bring you valuable insights for your next marketing initiative.
I can help you to create a good marketing strategy that will help your company grow. Contact me to get started!