The Marketing ‘Spring Clean’

Spring is in the air. The daffodils are blooming, blossom is on the trees. It’s time for the annual ‘spring clean’. Out with the old and in with the proverbial new. And perhaps the perfect opportunity to ‘spring clean’ your marketing efforts.

Are you finding that brand awareness is up by 50% yet there are no new sales leads? There is no rise in sales funnel activity? No big new business wins? It’s time to take stock and give your marketing the spring clean it deserves…

You need to review the current situation and make sure your marketing plan is on track by carefully assessing the ROI against marketing initiatives and business objectives set for your business.

All good campaigns of course come from good planning. It all begins with research and the marketing audit is always essential to the marketing planning process.

Here are 5 steps to get your marketing spring clean underway…

1. Gather all the information you need. Assemble an overview of your company. Everything from sales data, market research, campaign results, customer feedback, internal analysis, internal resources and the all important competitor analysis. Use the appropriate tools e.g. SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces etc
2. Identify the criteria for evaluation. What are your organisations missions plus short-term and long-term goals? Budget, industry benchmarks, best practice, and competitor positioning.
3. Define your audience. Who are your current customers? Define by size, location and any other relevant factors. Who are the customers you are trying to target? Are there any internal or external factors causing a change in target audiences?
4. Analyse and review previous marketing efforts. What are your current objectives? What strategies and tactics have worked to grow your business and what didn’t work? Measure all activity against ROI to determine its real worth.
5. Present your findings. Develop your marketing action plan (MAP). A clear and actionable checklist to follow. These findings will detail a strategy to get you from where you are today to where you want to be, identifying KPIs to be achieved along the way.

If you don’t start at the beginning, then who knows where you might finish up and you’ll surely get lost along the way. If you still need some help to put that ‘Spring’ in your marketing step, then feel free to get in touch with the REM team.