The Guarantee
May 26

Pain Point #7: Marketing On a Wing & a Prayer

The biggest differentiator between a growth-oriented CEO and an execution-oriented CEO is the former focuses on growing the business where the latter focuses on the day-to-day operations. In today’s society, we cannot afford to just be execution-oriented. The greatest growth-oriented CEOs are strategic by nature. They also know how important it is to leverage the expertise of others in overcoming the big strategic issues and obstacles to growth they are battling daily.

As we come out of this pandemic and get back to a place of normalcy, we need to be aware that the same ole tricks may not cut it. If we look around, a lot of businesses have already closed their doors for good. So what is helping those that are thriving in today’s economy?

RedRover is here to help answer those questions. We will be sharing the top 10 pain points that most every CEO is facing in 2021 — those gut-wrenching, keep-you-up-at-night issues – and how to navigate them and come out with your tail wagging!

Pain Point #7: I’m Marketing On a Wing and a Prayer

THE AVERAGE COMPANY spends 3 to 5 percent of revenue on marketing while some marketing budgets account for as much as 40%, which is certainly not a trivial expense. But in our new post-COVID world is changing the way companies invest in marketing. Rather than take a percentage of revenue only, companies are now focusing on growth spend. Hubspot sales director put it this way, “What percent of net new revenue (that is prospects who are finding you on the web – that have never worked with you before) would you spend?” This requires companies to measure their conversion ratios. Why, then, do so many companies invest so little time in the construction of marketing plans that ensure their investments are getting results? 

Remember that your organization’s steady growth is dependent upon the strength of your marketing plan, and bid farewell to wishful marketing plans that ride on a wing and a prayer. Instead, use research to guide the creation of an informed plan that will generate a predictable return on your investment. 

There are two reasons that you should begin building your marketing plan by conducting research. No business owner can be entirely objective about the current situation of his company and the competitive landscape, as well as the honest perceptions and needs of customers and prospects. Research can help you gain the objectivity of an outsider. Research can also help you come to new revelations about your market, industry or customer base. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know — until you engage in market research. 

Begin with qualitative research, which is necessary to ensure you fully understand the broad scope of the opportunities for growth, as well as the various obstacles you will face in executing your plan. Qualitative research is subjective in nature and often takes the form of focus groups or interviews with a small sampling of internal or external stakeholders. For example, your internal stakeholders might be your employees, your management or your board of directors. Customers, prospects and influencers would all be considered external stakeholders. You should also incorporate a competitive assessment into your qualitative research by shopping competitors and evaluating their public communications and marketing efforts. 

With this new information in hand, you are ready to validate those findings through quantitative, numerical research. Quantitative research is more objective in nature and is based on hard data, often featuring fixed-response options like you would find in a survey. Be sure to survey a large enough number of people, so that you can be confident your findings are accurate. In 2021, this type of research is available to companies of all sizes, in previous years this was quality research only organizations with big marketing budgets were able to conduct. If you skip this step, you risk making major marketing decisions based on small-scale findings that may not be representative of your market. 

A high-level financial assessment and marketing audit can also provide valuable insights. When you are conducting the financial assessment, examine your profit margins by product and service line, taking into consideration internal capacity for growth, so that you are crystal clear on where best to apply your marketing dollars. With the marketing audit, pull analytics available from your website, email campaigns, call tracking and social media efforts, at a minimum, from the prior year. 

Research, if properly executed, will inevitably bring to light the most efficient plan to grow your organization

If you’re currently feeling this pain and don’t have the time and resources to tackle it, tag in the RedRover pack! If you value research that drives results, let’s talk about our Growth Optimization Plan for your business. 

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