Photo Credit: Unsplash
Have you ever wondered why your marketing is not attracting the quantity of customers you need? “Where are the prospects?” you ask. As a marketer, this is a tremendous fear that many of us have when we realize our pipeline isn’t full of quality prospects and doesn’t appear to be attracting more. When you finally think about it with that little voice in your head, you know it’s time to figure out the problem immediately, or it may be too late.
There are many symptoms within a company’s marketing structure that can cause trepidation. Some are easily remedied and others may require an entire overhaul of your marketing strategy from concept to deployment. However, before you start sweating the big stuff, take a look at some of the symptoms that may be the cause of your marketing jitters. If you can identify and narrow down the pain points, your plan and action steps for fixing whatever is causing your problems will be easier. Below are a few symptoms that may be the cause of your marketing to not perform like you need it to.
- You are embarrassed to give our your website because you know it’s bad and it’s not responsive – This also negatively impacts SEO ranking
- Your website traffic is down and has been trending down for months
- Your mobile strategy hasn’t even been thought about yet
- Knowledge of the customer is uncertain
- Your sales team recognizes and documented that quality leads are not coming in nearly as much as before
- The company does not appear anywhere near page one of search results
- Your social media page looks like a ghost town, there are limited posts, not much traffic and followers are dwindling
- Your marketing strategy is fragmented and not focused on using relevant content reaching targeted personas
- The marketing and customer path is unclear or ends at the first customer touch point
- Your technology backend is not connected to your marketing front end
- You hear in the market that your company is the best kept secret
- You’re not using social media as a customer feedback channel
- Your competitors are healthy and their marketing looks “good” to you
- You are not sure how your competitors compare to your own company
- You are feeling the pressure to continually increase paid media advertising to increase leads
- Your marketing team is not creating frequent content designed to position your company as the leader or a valuable option
- You aren’t sure why content marketing really works or how it can help
- Your company digital footprint is decreasing not increasing
- Your marketing plan has not been reviewed or tweaked in years
- The customers in the database are opting out during email campaigns at higher levels than usual
- Your marketing team is performing manual tasks that should be automated
- There is a trend in your marketing staff leaving the company for other opportunities
These are just a few of the symptoms that marketers can experience. All of them elicit fear and anxiety. Why? Because, customers aren’t knocking on your door as much as they used to. As the marketing department, if you think that you’ve tried everything you can think of and you’re not sure if what you are currently doing is working, it’s definitely time to stop, gather some market intelligence and re-load and re-write your marketing strategy. My suggestion is to start with clearly defining your target persona(s) and what you are offering that creates value. Then you can discern what tactical actions work best to reach your goals. Keep in mind that there is no silver bullet method that is your answer. A marketing mix is truly a process of trial and error.
YourBrandExposed is designed to look at digital with an eye into the future using a creative, innovative marketing perspective. We’re a consultative and tactical resource for companies looking to leverage the power of digital, web, social and content marketing strategies. Contact us if you’re feeling the digital squeeze on how to best market your company.
Scott MacFarland
Linkedin | Huffington Post | Twitter: @scmacfarland
Email: Yourbrandexposed@yahoo.com
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Original Huffington Post Original Article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-macfarland/20-symptoms-your-marketin_b_7595028.html
Follow Scott MacFarland on Twitter: