Marketing – The Necessary Evil

Marketing is often referred to as a necessary evil in many businesses. In a world that’s over-saturated with choice, information and contradicting advice, it can often be overwhelming.

With no one tried and tested successful formula that can be blanketed to every industry, it is also frustrating for both the client and marketing agency trying to make results happen. One of the questions I get asked all the time by New Zealand business owners is: “What’s my ROI going to be?” There is a science to marketing and is largely driven by results and analytics, but marketing is also an art form, and art cannot be measured from the offset. I know this is a pain point for many business owners in New Zealand who struggle with not being guaranteed “if you spend $1 here, you get $3 back” and often clients will have to face a loss while methods are being tried and tested to find the formula that works for them.

No matter what you are selling, or what channels you are advertising on, the fundamentals of marketing are the same, and you should treat it no differently to how you would anything else in your business: test, measure, refine and improve. Constantly. In an industry clouded with misinformation and ‘grey areas’, it’s essential your marketing agency has the right accountabilities in place to give you full transparency over what you’re working on, and eventually, with enough time in market, what your expected ROI is on every channel could be. (Traditional media can be a little harder).

Have a report for everything
If you’re advertising in the digital space, understand where the agency is spending your money and how it is being spent. With anything in digital, you will be able to get an exact report that shows where the money went, how many people saw or interacted with your advertisement, and where they went to from there. By asking your agency to set up correct marketing funnels, you will be able to see the exact cost per lead or sale to your website. (Just a note: be wary of any agency that charges you a percentage of spend, there could be trouble afoot). You want to incentivise your agency on the result, not the amount of money spent.

Research and plan
Any channel should have a plan, whether that is keyword research or demographic sampling. To be effective, your advertising should be targeted, and the agency should be able to give you an exact breakdown of this. For example, if you were selling a children’s toy via your website, you can target parents with young children who shop online. Your agency should be able to give you a breakdown in advance on how many people will see your ads based on your budget. Avoid the mistake of many clients who convert that into estimated sales based on their current ROI. It unfortunately doesn’t work like that.

See the deliverables
Digital moves, constantly. It’s not like the ‘good old days’, when you could put out a television ad and your job as an agency is done (long lunch anyone?). These days, once you get something out to market, that is only the beginning. Any agency that is not constantly changing or improving things isn’t looking closely enough at your advertising spend. You should see ads, headlines, tags, keywords or even budget allocation change, at the very least on a monthly basis. Ask what those changes and deliverables are.

Tell them what the current cost of acquisition is for your business, and what success looks like
Salespeople, call centres, door knocking, signage – it’s all an investment you are putting into your business to acquire customers. We often ask what your current CPA is, so we have a benchmark. It could be that an online channel is more expensive purely due to the nature of competition, but understanding what the bar is currently and, more importantly, what success looks like, will help your agency understand whether they are succeeding or not.

Measure in marketing forms
Radio, TV and print are all channels that can be extremely effective, however they can be very hard to measure exactly. However, there are things you can do. Consider setting up a phone number that is only seen or heard in these mediums, or a “text 123 for more information”. It depends on your business, and it’s not going to be an exact science, but it could help to get a gauge.

Understand this form of marketing
It can be frustrating when clients do not see the immediate return and panic. Digital advertising is completely different to anything we have seen previously, and as more and more people become immune to its presence, we are constantly updating and trying new methods to get the results. For example, if your ad was clicked on by 15 people on Facebook, you cannot expect the same results as you would if you had pitched your spiel face to face to 15 potential customers or clients. Primarily, regardless of how well you target an audience, you cannot guarantee that they will want your product or service, so you cannot compare that to 15 people who have agreed to a meeting. Let the marketing run its course and if you’re not getting the results, the agency should be looking for ways to swap out copy and images to get the conversions.

Openness and transparency
As with any relationship, this is the key to success. Your agency should be a partner for you and your business. They need to understand your pain, but also your success. They should be in regular contact to keep you updated with what’s going on, what’s working and, more importantly, what’s not. I know clients just want to see those big conversions and get results, but we are now in a position to gather the most powerful and invaluable data to profile a customer based on their likes and dislikes in response to the targeted advertising. It just takes time and a little patience.