We see it every day. A business grows quickly without marketing oversight. The CEO/Founder or a Sales Executive takes on marketing and tries their best to lead the function. The marketing budget is spent across various tactics, channels, and audiences with little to no results and everyone is confused why it didn’t work.
We call this spray-and-pray approach: Random Acts of Marketing. It happens when you try one marketing tactic after another, chasing the next shiny marketing object. With no strategic marketing plan and no marketing leadership to ensure alignment, these activities can quickly squander resources and potentially damage your brand.
Let’s look at five telltale sign you’re practicing Random Acts of Marketing:
- You’re marketing to everyone with a pulse. When you market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one. You need to define and segment your target audience based on demographics, psychographics, and behavioral data. Then, tailor your campaigns to address their specific needs.
- Your marketing doesn't look or feel like you. Your marketing should look and feel like you, even as your campaigns change. Develop a comprehensive brand guide that outlines the use of logos, colors, fonts, and tone of voice. Ensure all marketing materials adhere to these guidelines. Regularly train your team on brand consistency and periodically review all content to ensure alignment with your brand goals.
- Your marketing activities are reactive. If your marketing efforts are driven by the shiny marketing object that captured the CEO/Founder's attention that week, you’re missing critical alignment that is needed to establish yourself in the market. Marketing efforts must be planned and proactive to align with your business objectives.
- Your marketing is activity-driven and geared towards short-term results. Your marketers (internal team, contractors, or an agency) are scrambling to do whatever the CEO/Founder/Sales Executive determines they need in the moment. An experienced marketing leader can help map out the right short-term sales activations AND long-term brand-building activities needed to hit those goals.
- Your marketing lacks clear goals and metrics. What gets measured gets improved. If you don’t have clear marketing goals and metrics, you have no way of knowing which tactics are working and which are not. Your marketing activities should have goals clearly tied to your business objectives with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are reviewed and optimized on a regular cadence.
At Belle Bear Marketing, we help business like yours overcome Random Acts of Marketing by developing strategic marketing plans that are clearly aligned to your business objectives. If you’re ready to make marketing a strategic, results-driven aspect of your business, let’s talk?and see how we can provide the guidance you’ve been missing.
