Marketing that Sucks: Part 3
Example #3: Flying-by-the-Seat-of-Your-Pants Without Marketing Goals & Objectives
Marketing without clearly identifying marketing goals and objectives is not only pointless but a big waste of money. Yet it’s amazing how many companies — of all shapes and sizes — are doing things this way. It’s not their fault, really. Most marketing departments are operating in a state of perpetual overwhelm and simply reacting to the deluge of random initiatives that land on their plate. Maybe they started the year with a list of strategic goals but, more often than not, they haven’t looked at this list in months.
What is the secret to keeping your company’s marketing goals and objectives top-of-mind even with all the one-off requests and initiatives that come your way? We say use your marketing goals and objectives as the navigational system for your marketing program. Keep them front and center in your workday. And, when random, miscellaneous projects come your way, ask in a direct yet always nice manner how this fits in with your company’s marketing goals and objectives. Maybe even cut and paste them for easy reference. This doesn’t mean you won’t ever have to do things that aren’t on course but it’s a way of helping to keep your marketing goals and objectives front and center for everyone in your company so you can continuously steer your efforts in the defined direction. You may even want to keep a log of the initiatives you tackled that weren’t on track along with any notes about their effectiveness.
Now what if you’re a company that is running your marketing without any goals and objectives? None. Zilch. You’re just doing stuff and hoping for the best and maybe not even monitoring the results of your efforts. The message to you is STOP! This is just no way to market in today’s day and age. It’s a huge waste of time and money. Find yourself a strategic marketing partner — ahem, like us — to guide a discussion with the key stakeholders in your company about what they want your marketing to achieve. A good strategic marketing partner knows how to ask the hard questions in order to define realistic, achievable marketing goals and objectives. They will also have the chops to create a strategic marketing plan that is aligned with your goals, objectives and, most importantly, budget. And, they can help you “police” your marketing program so that it stays on course with the marketing goals and objectives that were defined.
