It’s crunch time for marketing. Marketers have got away with hiding behind their trendy suits, iPhones and PR budgets for much too long. It is time to sort them out once and for all.
For too long they have gone on about segmentation and differentiation (old school) or social media (new school) and when push comes to shove, most just don’t seem to ‘get it’.
Marketing isn’t about activity it is about results. Nothing else matters so don’t be put off by their clever quotes: “sales is about asking for the business and marketing is about figuring out how to get to that stage”. Honestly, what does that mean?
Most marketing directors are fixated with “interruption marketing” and looking for ways to get attention in an increasingly noisy world. Alternatively they are in love with their Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/YouTube follower and hit numbers. All this misses the point. If you aren’t engaging with your clients then they will engage with someone else. (And they will do this when they want to, not when you want to. You no longer call the shots; the customer does.)
Go to the marketing director’s office and put a line through the “marketing” title and replace it with the words “REVENUE GENERATION”! Unless their activity is generating revenue then it is probably a waste of their time and your money.
I suggest that you reduce their salary by 10% for each of the following questions that are poorly answered – they might even end up paying to work for you.
- Why do people buy from us? What makes us different from the rest?
- How do we add value to the client? (No value means they won’t buy from us).
- If ‘word-of-mouth’ and the internet are the key ways that most clients choose to buy (true for 90% of purchases) then does our marketing spend reflect this fact?
- How much does it cost to acquire one new client? How much are they worth to us (their average lifetime value)?
- Do we ‘get’ exactly who, how, when and why people buy from us?
- If we employ a social media guru/consultant should they be sacked? Most understand the internet but don’t understand how to sell: they’re just practising on your business.