I saw a tweet this morning from @DeeBlick of The Marketing Gym about assessing our marketing efforts that read:

“Being painfully honest about where you wasted money on marketing is positive. Don’t repeat the same old lacklustre stuff. Embrace change.”

It’s a good reminder to all of us to make sure that we make an effort to see the results of our marketing efforts clearly. No matter how long I plan or how much prep work I do, I always find something I’d change next time for a marketing campaign. It’s inevitable; someone will interpret something incorrectly, there will be an awkwardness somewhere in the campaign, or the fine print wasn’t fine enough. These observations help to me to make a better campaign next time around, but more than that honestly assessing the ROI on a marketing campaign will help to make sure that money is spent more wisely the next time around.

marketing-effortsThis is also the reason that many smart businesses use marketing agencies to help them craft their advertisements. Because marketing agencies have crafted so many more advertisements, they are more likely to have seen a particular issue before and give guidance on how to avoid it before it becomes an issue in your campaign. Often, you may not even be aware of the misstep they saved you from, but it’s usually there nonetheless. Their institutional knowledge is a large part of the reason you might consider using an agency. I’m the first to admit that using an agency is certainly not a requirement, but it is likely that doing so will help you to avoid some of the easy missteps that occur in a campaign.

Regardless of using an agency or not, sometimes, the campaigns we run just don’t work the way we imagined them – and that’s OK. But what’s not OK is to rerun a campaign we knew missed the mark in some way or another simply because we didn’t take the time to properly acknowledge our shortcomings, learn from them, and fix them. As marketers, it is our responsibility, to be honest with ourselves about the success or failure of the campaign. In today’s economy, not being brutally honest with ourselves is simply not an option. Thanks @DeeBlick for the reminder!

About the Author:

Tisha Oehmen

Tisha Oehmen is a professional brand strategist and a leader in the branding field. She has been named a member of the Global Guru’s Top 30 Brand Gurus. She is also the co-founder of Oregon-based Paradux Media Group and the best-selling author of the book, Finding Brand: The Brand Book Tutorial.

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