Is It Time to Pull the Plug on Your Marketing?
Is It Time to Pull the Plug on Your Marketing?
It seems that there are two extremes: people either do a marketing tactic once and don’t give it enough time to actually do anything OR they do it forever and never really determine if it’s still working for them (or even if it ever worked!).
Many people do not evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing plan often enough. It’s hard to do sometimes – we’ve invested time and money and hope and expectations into the different marketing opportunities we do, and we’d love it if we could just ignore it and let it keep on working.
But, sometimes the marketing doesn’t work or quits working. What then?
Well, you need to try to figure out why something just isn’t “doing it” anymore.
A big thing to remember is that a low response rate or low sales doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the marketing vehicle. It may well be a reflection of the message or the offer. That’s why good copywriting and testing different offers is important.
Some things to ask yourself specifically about your copy are:
• Was my message targeted to the right people – my ideal customer or client?
• Did I talk about my target group’s main problem, need or desire?
• Were my benefits and solutions clearly laid out?
If you feel that the problem isn’t with your actual communications, then it’s time to look at the specific marketing tactic you used:
• Is the marketing strategy something that has been proven to work?
• Were people exposed to your message enough times?
• Did the marketing tactic actually reach the people you wanted it to?
Another factor you need to take into account is outside considerations such as:
• Was the timing of the marketing right – i.e. seasonality?
• Were there events occurring that were beyond your control – i.e. 9/11, hurricane, political turmoil, etc.?
• Was there a lot of competitive marketing that was taking place at the same time?
If you ask yourself the questions above and feel that you did everything right, then you want to consider pulling the plug on that particular marketing activity and replace it with something different.
Just make sure that you’ve given the tactic time to generate results and meet your specific objectives. Doing something a handful of times is often not enough time.
Another important consideration when deciding on whether to drop a marketing tactic is how much it’s costing you in terms of resources such as time and money. If it’s minimal, then stick with something for a year in order to give it a chance to work. If it’s an expensive undertaking, then you’ve got to make a personal judgment about whether to continue or not. This is when it’s a great idea to discuss it with a coach or business peers to see what they think.
If you do decide that the best thing is to pull the plug on a specific marketing strategy, then you want to make sure you add something to replace it. You’ll probably have to make some minor adjustments to the other activities on your marketing plan, in order to ensure that you’re still consistently marketing for the remainder of the year.
Pick one of your marketing tactics weekly for the next few weeks and take a good long look to see if it’s doing what you want it, and expect it, to do.
Is It Time to Pull the Plug on Your Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Jody Gabourie's Website.
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One of the main reasons we need to track the effectiveness of the different marketing tactics we use is so that we know when it’s not working.
It seems that there are two extremes: people either do a marketing tactic once and don’t give it enough time to actually do anything OR they do it forever and never really determine if it’s still working for them (or even if it ever worked!).
Many people do not evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing plan often enough. It’s hard to do sometimes – we’ve invested time and money and hope and expectations into the different marketing opportunities we do, and we’d love it if we could just ignore it and let it keep on working.
But, sometimes the marketing doesn’t work or quits working. What then?
Well, you need to try to figure out why something just isn’t “doing it” anymore.
A big thing to remember is that a low response rate or low sales doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the marketing vehicle. It may well be a reflection of the message or the offer. That’s why good copywriting and testing different offers is important.
Some things to ask yourself specifically about your copy are:
• Was my message targeted to the right people – my ideal customer or client?
• Did I talk about my target group’s main problem, need or desire?
• Were my benefits and solutions clearly laid out?
If you feel that the problem isn’t with your actual communications, then it’s time to look at the specific marketing tactic you used:
• Is the marketing strategy something that has been proven to work?
• Were people exposed to your message enough times?
• Did the marketing tactic actually reach the people you wanted it to?
Another factor you need to take into account is outside considerations such as:
• Was the timing of the marketing right – i.e. seasonality?
• Were there events occurring that were beyond your control – i.e. 9/11, hurricane, political turmoil, etc.?
• Was there a lot of competitive marketing that was taking place at the same time?
If you ask yourself the questions above and feel that you did everything right, then you want to consider pulling the plug on that particular marketing activity and replace it with something different.
Just make sure that you’ve given the tactic time to generate results and meet your specific objectives. Doing something a handful of times is often not enough time.
Another important consideration when deciding on whether to drop a marketing tactic is how much it’s costing you in terms of resources such as time and money. If it’s minimal, then stick with something for a year in order to give it a chance to work. If it’s an expensive undertaking, then you’ve got to make a personal judgment about whether to continue or not. This is when it’s a great idea to discuss it with a coach or business peers to see what they think.
If you do decide that the best thing is to pull the plug on a specific marketing strategy, then you want to make sure you add something to replace it. You’ll probably have to make some minor adjustments to the other activities on your marketing plan, in order to ensure that you’re still consistently marketing for the remainder of the year.
Pick one of your marketing tactics weekly for the next few weeks and take a good long look to see if it’s doing what you want it, and expect it, to do.
Is It Time to Pull the Plug on Your Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Jody Gabourie's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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