12.1 Introduction
In this module we look at how to
evaluate the success of your marketing plan. We see if you have been able to
reach the goals that were outlined in your initial strategy. Being able to look
at your plan in this way is important. It allows you to see if you are on the
correct path to reach the goals that you have set yourself, or if some key
changes are required. However, in order to evaluate the plan's success, there
are several key points to keep in mind at all times. Remember, evaluating the
situation is not something that you do constantly but it is definitely
advisable for you to keep track of how things are progressing, due to the
difference that it will make to your business and marketing exploits as a
whole.
12.2 Why Evaluating the Success of the Marketing Plan is So Important
We begin by looking in more
detail why evaluating the success of the plan is something that everybody
involved in marketing should be able to do. However, we stress that this is not
something that requires specialist knowledge but rather an ability to identify
whether or not something is working as initially intended. Your marketing plan
or strategy has been created to act as a guideline for your business, in the
hope of reaching certain goals connected to increasing visibility and awareness
of your business, products, or services.
However, it makes poor business
sense to think that once you have created this plan, there is nothing further
to consider. Instead, just as you have to continually go over your business
plan, the same is true for your marketing plan. It is all too easy for somebody
involved in the marketing of a business to get carried away with a potential
idea and, in the process, ends up losing sight of what the main end goals
should be in terms of the products or services. This approach may work when
that particular part of the plan is going well but what happens if you find
that your luck runs out? The answer is that you need to get back on track with
the marketing plan.
Of course, this is not all about
trying to determine the negatives with your marketing because another reason
for the evaluation it is to see what you are doing right. If you are aware of
something that is generating results it is then easier to expand these methods,
in order to achieve further success. However, even when something is working
well for you there is still a very need for you to keep grounded with regards
to your marketing. There are numerous occasions where companies that have seen
success with their marketing allow themselves to get carried away with this
success and then attempt things on a grander scale than previously.
The problem being that the rest
of their business cannot cope or they spend too much of their budget on
marketing without considering the other improvements and changes that have to
be made to their business to cope with the increased demand. This is definitely
a problem that has to be addressed, even though it can be quite a positive
problem for a business to have, thanks to its effective form of marketing.
The main reasons why you need to evaluate your marketing plan are as follows:
*You must be aware of potential progress
*By understanding progress it allows you to change things accordingly
*Evaluating your plan means that it is easier to identify mistakes
*You are increasing the chances of your plan becoming a success
*Your business will improve as a result
These reasons are important for
anybody involved in the marketing of either a product or a service as they
encompass the very essence of why you are marketing things in the first place.
You must understand how to evaluate in the correct manner, to enable you to
identify the key points that may or may not impact your business.
12.3 Where to Begin with the Evaluation
The next point is where to begin
with the evaluation of your marketing plan and, as we will see in the next
section of this module, there is a need for you to be honest in your appraisal
or you will not get anywhere. An evaluation is not an easy process and the time
it takes to complete will depend on the complexity of the plan. However, this
is not something that you should rush because of its importance and impact on
the potential success of your marketing.
When beginning your evaluation it is important to remind yourself what is included in your marketing plan and goals, as outlined in the strategy. In doing so you glean the information needed to ascertain if your plan has worked out, is in the process of working out, or has not worked – in which case you need to ascertain why that is.
The main steps that you need to consider following are:
Write down your goals.
As previously mentioned, begin by writing down your goals because it shows where you should be when it comes to your marketing. This makes it easier to determine if any changes are needed to enable you to proceed, or if you are currently on track. This step should only take you a few minutes as it is something that should appear in your business plan and we will discuss this in the next point.
Check your business plan.
There has to be a link between your business plan and your marketing strategy, to enable you to fully understand where you are in the entire process. There can be some variations between the two but the most important thing for you to check is how those goals that you set when you started to put your business together are measuring up. For various reasons there will always be moments where you miss targets but knowing what you are supposed to be doing and when, is important.
Check your turnover and sales.
Perhaps the best way of evaluating your marketing plan is by looking at some facts and figures. Your turnover or perhaps an increase in the number of people contacting your business will indicate that something is working in your marketing. However, if you find that things have become stagnant, then you will probably have to alter your marketing or you will not see any progress, meaning that something is amiss with your marketing. Once again this is something that should be easy to do as this is information that will appear in your accounts, and you must be able to identify if there has been an increase in the figures without consulting your marketing plan. You want to see that things are improving and be able to link it to changes in your marketing that were implemented prior to the increase in the figures.
Check with customers.
Always ask your customers how
they became aware of you, to see if it is directly linked to your marketing
campaign. This is often done online via a contact form offering a simple drop
down box that lists the various options for response. You can also ask those
customers that you meet in person. Many customers will be happy to provide you
with this information and it will allow you to determine if your methods and
techniques are really working.
When it comes to accurately
evaluating your marketing plan, these four points are perhaps the main things
to take into consideration. By having a better understanding of the way in
which you have been able to identify if you have been boosting your sales, it
allows you to either tweak and perfect your marketing strategy or start all
over again. This is something that you can only do when you are able to look at
your progress rationally and you need to be realistic regarding the state of
your marketing strategy and its progress at any given time. In addition,
checking your progress is something that you need to consider doing on a
regular basis because you have to keep on top of your marketing strategies or
you risk losing business to your competitors.
FACT
Amazon has become the top place consumers visit on the Internet to search for products. In a study published in early 2017, 52% of people said that Amazon is now their first choice for product searches.
Source: digitaldonut.com
12.4 The Importance of Being Critical and Honest
We previously mentioned the need
for you to be critical and honest when it comes to your evaluation of your
marketing plan - if you are not honest you will be masking problems within your
business and jeopardising its success. Be realistic in terms of your progress
or there is less chance of you being able to learn and develop your business in
the correct manner. Even the largest companies in the world will have made
mistakes when it comes to their marketing and these mistakes may have been very
costly. This is all relative to the size of your business as well as your
marketing strategy but note that these large companies understand that if
something appears as if it is not working, then they are not afraid to say so.
By taking this approach, it makes
it easier for you to accept that you may well need to abandon a particular
marketing strategy and look at changing direction. You will be unable to do
this if you cannot be honest and self-critical, as you will be unable to fathom
out what is going wrong and, by the time you do, it is often too late. However,
we also stress that you cannot afford to be over-critical of yourself because
this will have a negative effect on your ability to turn things around.
Marketing is very difficult to get right as certain methods and techniques end
up being more favoured and attitudes towards marketing methods change from time
to time.
12.5 What to Do When Things go Wrong
It is impossible for every part
of your marketing plan to go perfectly and without any hitches; however, it is
how you deal with these problems or mistakes that will be the key to your
potential future success. The one thing that you cannot do is to ignore the
situation and hope that somehow it will all work out well in the end. The
longer you deny that there is an issue to be addressed, the more likely you are
to damage your business or at minimum your marketing strategy.
Be prepared to be flexible and
adaptable with regard to your marketing plan, as this is important when it
comes to successfully running any kind of business. At the same time, swift
action and the confidence to rewrite your previous plan will help you to
rebuild your marketing, rather than just focusing on something that is not
working and allowing the situation to deteriorate. When you discover that
something has gone wrong and you are not getting the kind of reaction that you
were looking for, you have to consider taking certain steps in order to rectify
the situation:
Assess the damage.
Firstly assess the damage that has
occurred due to the mistake. This is often quite difficult to do as you may
feel you have let yourself down or you could have made a mistake that led to a
completely different outcome. How can you expect to rectify things if you are
unaware of the size of the mistake or how much damage has been caused?
Make a new plan.
After you have determined the
scale of the problem, you have to ascertain how to change things as quickly as
possible. The best way of doing this is to create a new plan, with the
knowledge that you have to take even more care over it, due to the errors in
your initial plan.
Seek advice.
It is extremely important for you to think about seeking advice, which is not something to be afraid of. Getting advice is not a sign of failure but rather an acceptance that you do not know everything and to therefore seek help when required. This will allow you to avoid making mistakes as other people who are perhaps more in tune with marketing and more experienced can give you information that can make all the difference.
Take your time.
Often the reason why you made
mistakes with your marketing strategy is because you rushed into things and did
not take time to check that everything is in place. It is advisable to 'take a
step back', look at your plans and then double check every part before
proceeding any further. The worst thing that you can do when it comes to your
marketing is to repeat the same mistake that you made earlier, and rushing into
it will only increase the chances of that happening.
In other words, there are a
number of things that you need to do to rectify mistakes that you may have made
in your initial marketing strategy. There is a way out of the problem that you
may find yourself in and just being aware of that knowledge will enable you to
progress and to ensure that you learn from your mistake and change things
accordingly.
MODULE SUMMARY
In this module we looked at how you evaluate your marketing plan and what to do if you determine that things are not going as you had hoped. The main thing that we have tried to stress here is that there is no need for you to give up as it is often merely a case of refocusing and getting back on track. However, you do need to be honest when you have made a mistake or you will not progress and, at that point, it becomes difficult for your marketing or business to become a success.
In the next module, we will focus more on the key mistakes that you should avoid making when it comes to your marketing strategy.
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