How do you balance innovation and experimentation with proven and scalable field marketing methods?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before launching a field marketing campaign, you should have a clear understanding of your desired outcome and how to measure success. This will help to align the campaign with broader marketing objectives and avoid wasting resources on ineffective tactics. Common goals for field marketing include generating leads and conversions, increasing brand awareness and loyalty, building relationships with prospects and customers, enhancing customer experience and satisfaction, and driving referrals and advocacy. To track and analyze performance, you can use surveys, feedback forms, CRM systems, web analytics, social media monitoring, etc. depending on your goals.

2 Experiment with different formats and channels

Field marketing allows you to interact with your audience in a more personal and engaging way than online or traditional marketing. This gives you the opportunity to experiment with different formats and channels to deliver your message and offer value. You can host events, create content, join campaigns, and develop or distribute products. It's important to test different combinations of formats and channels to find out what works best for your audience, brand, and goals. A/B testing, split testing, or multivariate testing can be used to compare and optimize your field marketing experiments.

3 Learn from your results and feedback

To know if your field marketing experiments are successful, you must collect and analyze data from your campaigns to understand what worked and what didn't. Additionally, it is important to listen to your audience and get their opinions, preferences, and suggestions on how to improve. This can be done through surveys, interviews, focus groups, ratings, reviews, testimonials, monitoring social media mentions or comments, and soliciting feedback via email, phone, or chat. The more you learn from your results and feedback, the more you can refine and improve your field marketing strategies and tactics. To evaluate and plan your field marketing actions, tools like SWOT analysis, SMART goals, or OKRs can be used.

4 Scale what works and drop what doesn't

Once you have learned from your results and feedback, you can scale what works and drop what doesn't. Identify the field marketing experiments that delivered the most value and impact for your audience and business, and replicate them across different markets, segments, or regions. Conversely, avoid wasting time and money on experiments that failed to meet expectations or objectives. To streamline and standardize your field marketing operations, consider setting up systems, processes, or templates; leveraging automation, integration, or outsourcing; and training, coaching, or mentoring your field marketing team or partners. This will ensure quality and consistency in your field marketing campaigns. Furthermore, use dashboards, scorecards, or KPIs to monitor and manage your field marketing performance. The more you scale what works and drop what doesn't, the more you can balance innovation and scalability.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?