Marketing Checklist – 10 Ways to Improve Output
Marketing Checklist – 10 Ways to Improve Output
Index
1. Plan For Failure, Not Just Success
This might seem a weird way to start a marketing checklist, but hear us out.
The purpose of this point is not to be negative or think you’re going to fail.
Planning for failure is actually a smart move. It helps you to be more objective, will give you more perspective, keeps you on your toes and, if things do go pear-shaped, you will be best prepared to move on as quickly as possible.
And remember, you can always change your plan, but only if you have one!
2. Know your Marketing Budget
Take a moment to consider what is and isn’t working in your current marketing plan. Where’s it going? What’s it generating?
Pay-per-click content and social media engagement are easy to track.
For your other lead-generation efforts, it’s time to wake up and smell the digital age: marketing automation and CRM technology are your new best friends.
3. Where are your MQLs coming from?
You’ve had people engage with your site, and now it’s time for sales to take over. Great!
But do you know where they came from in the first place? What aspect of your marketing strategy generated your new MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) over the last year, quarter, month, or week?
Or take it one step further and find the correlation between your marketing expenditure and the revenue generated by new leads.
Understanding this will go a long way to improving your ROI and overall results.
4. Reaffirm the Relationship with Sales
Marketing and sales are two cogs in the same machine – the dynamic duo.
The threshold between generating interest and passing leads over to sales is not a grey area but a clearly defined process with effective protocols and systems in place. Yet how many companies nail this?
The key question to ask is: What does your marketing-through-sales process look like?
5. Know Thy Message!
This is a seriously important addition to our marketing checklist.
Consider this: Is your messaging and mission statement consistent across all channels of marketing, website, and client conversations?
If you don’t know what it is you’re trying to achieve, chances are your target audience won’t know, either.
6. ‘The Medium is the Message’
Is your choice of marketing material doing its best to convey your message?
Could it be better said in a podcast, eBook, video, or a blog?
If defining the best channels for your marketing efforts is a mystery, consider reaching out to sales and marketing experts for help.
7. Optimise your Marketing
Remember, it’s the responsibility of marketing to ensure that sales knows what to say to clients and recognises how to leverage your company.
Understand the challenges and goals of your client-facing team and know they are living your company’s culture.
If the sales team is stalling, it might be wise to ask your marketing team why.
Maybe it’s time to think bigger and enlist in outside help to develop your team or expand offshore.
8. Content, Content, Content
An important consideration of any marketing checklist centres on content.
Is your content consistent across all your platforms, pages, and departments?
Are your keywords doing the best possible job to reach your target audience?
It’s time to get the attention of Google and be on top of the keywords that rake in the traffic in your industry.
This is vital if you want to outshine your competitors.
9. Be Social Media Savvy
Having a strong social media game is a sure-fire way to bring more traffic to your pages.
Clear timeframes, a clear strategy, and knowing what your audience wants to see are key considerations when it comes to using social media to its maximum capacity.
10. Evaluate How You Will Achieve Your Goals
Rounding out our marketing checklist is a focus on evaluation.
Are you currently equipped to smash your KPIs and have your business soar off the blocks?
Who will execute your marketing plan with you? What skills, attributes, and expertise do you have – or need to develop – within your team to exceed your goals?
Realise the gaps, then fill them.
Marketing Checklist or Marketing Experts?
An additional note for your marketing checklist – reach out to us.
At Hunt & Hawk, we’re experts when it comes to marketing, sales, and branding.
Keen to learn more? Contact us at hello@huntandhawk.com or book a meeting to chat.
For more marketing, branding, and sales tips and insights and plenty else, check out more of our blog.