By Kim Walsh-Phillips
Starving.
Famished.
Very, very hungry.
This is not the best way to go grocery shopping.
Neither is bringing my cute-and-funny-yet-very-active-and-does-not-appreciate-the-request-to-stay-in-the-shopping-cart toddler daughter.
Nor is going to the store tired from a day full of meetings, writing and strategy creation.
Unfortunately, this trifecta of challenges is generally how I go grocery shopping.
Sound at all familiar?
If it does, then you know that the WORST way to attack this type of grocery shopping trip with a goal of coming home with what you need to get through the week well while spending the least amount of money possible is to show up without an action plan.
If you do show up without an action plan, each aisle is visited instead of only focusing on the ones needed while you try and remember what you have to buy, many high-fat and sugar/low-nutrition items will make it into your cart while broccoli probably will not and you end up spending more money than you intended. (Not that I know anything about that…)
On top of poor outcome, the process becomes frustrating for both you and your miniature shopping companion because the whole thing takes much longer than either one of you would have preferred.
What does this have to do with the HUGE mistake most companies make with their marketing?
Too often, this is the same scenario lived out through the marketing departments of companies around the world. Marketing is driven by a company when revenue is down and they are starving for sales, there is no patience for the process of research, and most are tired of trying different marketing tactics so they just throw money at the shiniest objects. Take all of these challenges and add into it a lack of planning and-presto!! You have a result of marketing that takes longer than it should with poor outcomes, and spending more than you had anticipated.
Not only does this type of marketing process produce poor results for your company, but it does not bode well to gain the support of other departments for the marketing department’s efforts. Those in marketing aren’t valued as part of the revenue-generation-machine, but instead as the “creative types” who work on “fluff.”
The huge mistake companies make with their marketing is to execute without a plan. And this can’t be a plan created from assumptions and great thinking. To be successful, a company needs to first develop a plan based on research and data that takes prospects on a journey of attraction, engagement and then sales. This is the way to instantly create measurable results that are track-able. Through this type of marketing planning you can clearly see the return on investment for your marketing efforts.
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