CEOs Seeking Growth: Is Marketing Working for You or Against You?

Written by The Chief Outsider | Tue, Aug 28, 2018

10 Questions to Determine if Your Marketing Strategy Needs an Overhaul

Most growing and mid-sized companies have some type of marketing function. It could consist of one person, a handful, or in some cases, many people. Some of these marketing teams are high-performing with obvious impact on the business. For others, the business impact of marketing is unclear.

Some common symptoms of an underperforming marketing function include:

Market share gains have stalled or are in decline
Company revenues are not growing as fast as the industry growth rate, or those of competitors
Marketing's contribution to revenue is unclear
There are seemingly ‘random acts of marketing’ being performed
The marketing budget is often being challenged
Your brand awareness in your market, as compared to your competitors, is inadequate
Investments in demand generation and lead generation activities are having little or no impact

Under-performing marketing often has a common root cause. The company may be lacking a clear marketing strategy that is aligned with the company vision and growth objectives. A solid marketing strategy forms the critical foundation for an efficient and high-performing marketing function.

Here is a simple 10 question quiz to see if your marketing strategy needs fine tuning, repair or a total rebuild:

1. Do you understand which customers are most valuable in terms of potential revenue and profitability?	Yes	No
2. Do you really understand your buyer(s) and how they make purchase decisions?	Yes	No
3. Is your brand message differentiated and inspiring vs. based on ‘what you do’ and ‘who you are’?	Yes	No
4. Do your customers and prospects truly understand what problems you solve and how you do it better than the competition?	Yes	No
5. Are you producing marketing content that your customers need, when they need it and in the form they wish to consume it?	Yes	No
6. Are you allocating marketing resources based on specific marketing objectives and toward accounts with the greatest revenue potential?	Yes	No
7. Do you have more A-players vs. C-players on your marketing team?	Yes	No
8. Is marketing generating enough leads for the sales team to exceed their revenue targets?	Yes	No
9. Are you tailoring campaigns and content for specific segments, buyers or regions?	Yes	No
10. Are you making marketing decisions based more on data than intuition alone?	Yes	No

If you answered ‘yes’ to 8 or more questions, then congratulations! Your marketing strategy and team is likely strong, and only a few refinements to your marketing strategy are required.

If you answered ‘yes’ to 4-7 questions, then you could be headed for trouble. A review and repair of your marketing strategy is needed.

If you answered ‘yes’ to 3 or fewer questions, then you should consider rebuilding your marketing strategy before continuing to throw good money after bad.

You can have a smart, well-intentioned marketing team, but without a strongly aligned marketing strategy their performance will be inconsistent and lack impact.

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