We’ve talked about data-driven decision making and how marketing is being closely integrated with operations. Sales teams are drawing from the rich data sources that marketers collect, and powerful tools to nurture customer relationships and refine communication are affecting businesses at every level. With the variety of services and software available, a systematic way of implementing, managing, and improving marketing is crucial.
Implement
Preparation is the most important factor for success, and it starts with an assessment of your needs. If your marketing efforts could use broad improvements in multiple avenues, focus on a specific problem to solve. List growth areas by urgency, impact, and effort to find the low-hanging fruit. These are areas of improvement with a huge effect that can be changed with very few resources.
For example, you could pay a designer and copywriter to create new pages on your website targeting a specific audience. But it might be easier to use demographic information from your email marketing software to send targeted campaigns to users who self-select their role or perform certain actions on your site. Or, you might be spending money on advertising without seeing results, and a simple adjustment could lower costs and increase traffic.
Once you’ve found the problem that needs to be solved, approach it from multiple angles and find the solution that fits. Maybe you need a Google Analytics expert to help you make the most of your data. Maybe you need a different creative direction that brings customers to your store. The key idea here is to maximize effectiveness and efficiency while limiting risk.
Monitor
If you’re using a marketing tool with real-time feedback, monitoring data can find areas of improvement and prevent problems before they occur. Set and define metrics for success. Choose analytics that affect the bottom line for your business to quickly evaluate performance, but don’t rush to kill a new initiative before it has a chance to succeed. If your new marketing strategy takes time, establish a date and key performance indicators for review.
Whenever possible, do a trial or test period with a portion of your resources, clients, or website. A/B tests are one of the most popular methods marketers use to limit exposure and test out new ideas. If you’re migrating to a new CRM or large piece of software, try to integrate it piecemeal and get familiar with the system before running at full enterprise speed.
Improve
Continual improvement is crucial to our data-driven approach at Mabbly, and tools need to be carefully calibrated and readjusted on a regular basis. Expect results and think like a data scientist to assess productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency on a quarterly basis. Are you seeing the results you expect? Are there ways to improve it? Can these results be scaled, and is it going to grow as your company develops?
If you’re impressed with your results, you may want to continue in the same direction and hone any details you need for improvement. If you’re anything less than impressed, do a cost benefit analysis. Is this software worth it? Is this the right tool for the job? Is this the right job to be focusing on? Consider ways to use your marketing tools more effectively or find a suitable replacement. Once you’ve found incorporated a new change, use this same method to master the next area of improvement.
As a Chicago digital marketing agency, Mabbly strives to empower purpose-driven brands with data-driven decision making.
