When starting to plan a marketing strategy, you have to start with two sets of numbers if your strategy is going to be successful.
1. Recent Marketing Performance
If you listen to any financial services advert, they will say "previous performance is no guarantee of future performance", but that is rarely actually the case and it's the same in marketing.
Knowing your recent marketing performance figures allows you to make decision about what you are going to continue doing and what to stop. The savings, in time and money, you make by stopping what isn't working give you the resource you will need going forward.
2. Sales Targets
Marketing is defined as "meeting the needs of your customers at a profit". Your marketing has to help your business "sell stuff". Basics I know, but can sometimes be lost in the noise.
If your sales target is more than last year's achieved figures, it means at least one of the following:
- Marketing has to produce more leads
- Marketing has to produce better leads
- Sales has to convert more leads
- Sales has to generate higher value deals
Each of these means a change to the marketing activity within your business.
- If you want more leads, you probably have to increase your marketing budget, so you can do more
- If you want better leads, your marketing has to change. Perhaps the messages aren't right, or you need better evidence
If you expect to increase sales, without ensuring you are aligning your marketing performance numbers and your sales targets, you will struggle. If you believe that performance can increase without change, you are rapidly heading towards the true definition of madness:
"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".
I hope this helps
“I got an email from the Head of the Sales saying ‘congratulations you’re no longer the colouring in department. You’re the lighting up department'.”
unknownx500
