What when was the last time that you took a hard look at the effectiveness of your marketing programs and decided whether or not you were really getting a good return on investments from these efforts. Lots of companies develop habits on how they spend their marketing dollars, and since were all creatures of habit, its really easy to be comfortable with doing the same thing over and over and over again. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result. The question I have for you is as follows: What is your company doing to measure its marketing results and objectively assess whether or not youre getting what youre paying for from them? Doing a marketing assessment using an outside consulting firm is an easy way to get a quick snapshot and some objective feedback on whether or not your marketing is actually achieving its desired results. My suggestion is if you havent done this for some time, hire a strategic or marketing communications consulting firm to come in and help you do a quick and easy assessment. It doesnt cost a lot of money, and its definitely worth your time and effort to use an outside firm. They can do a six or eight point assessment of your marketing programs including how well you are addressing your target audience and how effective your messaging is. They can also measure the effectiveness of your lead generation programs, and your marketing mix. For a few thousand dollars it could be money very well spent in order to step outside the box and look at what you can do different in order to generate increased effectiveness from your marketing. The rules of marketing are changing constantly, and companies that are staying on top of those changes are the ones who are increasingly using new techniques in order to boost their lead generation and their penetration of their target markets. Companies that are engaged in old entrenched thinking, using the same methods that theyve always used in the past are finding that theyre getting less and less return on investment from those efforts. If you havent done this for some time, I would suggest that you do a self assessment, or better yet bring in a marketing consulting firm that can help you to take an objective look at what youre doing wrong, and what youre doing right and what can be improved. |
