I’m a big fan of the HGTV show “Love it or List it.” On the show, designer Hilary Farr fixes and transforms dysfunctional homes in hopes that the owners will “love it,” while Realtor David Visentin tempts them to “list it” by showing them other desirable homes.
I frequently find myself rooting for Hilary because she brings such creativity and vision to the job of dealing with the challenges she finds at these homes which are no longer serving the needs of the owners.
Sometimes the home just needs a cosmetic change — a fresh look, updated fixtures and appliances, minor adjustments to the floor plan. Other times, there are structural or system problems (electrical or plumbing) that Hilary’s team needs to fix. While essential to deal with, those problems eat up the budget without leaving anything visual to show for it.
I often feel like Hilary when I’m helping a client fix a marketing plan that isn’t working. Sometimes it needs a simple freshening up, while other times a major overhaul is in order with new systems being put into place, but the client can still love it once we’ve done the work to fix it.
And then there are times when it’s better to ditch the whole thing and start over from scratch, like David getting the homeowners to list it.
So how do you determine if you can fix a marketing plan or it it’s time to ditch it?
My 3-Step Marketing Plan Evaluation Process
1. Analyze Your Current Plan
Where is your current plan falling short? Can you pinpoint an element that’s become dysfunctional? Are you fully implementing your plan, or have you started cutting corners and taking shortcuts?
Before making the determination that your plan isn’t working, you have to take a hard look at what you’re doing to work the plan.
For example, I write a client retention and engagement newsletter for a client of mine in the service industry. This is a physical newsletter that gets mailed to her existing customers once a month and given to prospects during the estimate appointment …
For a while, there was a steady stream of customers who hadn’t recently used my client’s services calling to schedule service. When they called, many of them mentioned the newsletter as the catalyst that prompted them to think of my client and pick up the phone to schedule service.
But recently, she expressed frustration that the newsletter was losing its effectiveness. So I asked a few questions, and it turns out that her office staff had pared down the list of customers receiving the newsletter. Instead of mailing to the entire list, they had cut corners and were mailing only to active customers.
Is it any wonder that the inactive customers had stopped calling?
2. Clarify Your Marketing Goals
You have to know what you want your marketing to accomplish — in specific, measurable terms — in order to attain your goals.
Continuing to use my newsletter client as an example, this was not something sent out to a cold list in hopes of acquiring new customers. She was not in an active growth stage and just wanted to maintain the status quo.
With that goal in mind, the newsletter was meant to give her customers a sense of community, tell the company’s unique and personal story, and stay top of mind to retain and reactivate customers.
And it had worked until they started cutting corners.
So I sat down with my client and asked her to re-evaluate her goals. Turns out, her goals are still the same, but with one additional desired outcome …
She still wants to maintain or increase the business she gets from her existing customers. She also wants those customers to refer more new clients. (Currently, she gets her best new customers through referrals from existing customers.)
This is an important step, and essential information to have before moving forward.
3. Evaluate the Cost of Fixing vs. the Cost of Starting From Scratch
After you’ve analyzed your current plan to determine what’s working and what’s not, and once you’ve clarified what you want from your marketing, it’s time to figure out what to do.
Are you going to fix it? Or are you going to ditch it?
For my newsletter client, the decision was pretty easy — fix it. She’s going to fix the mailing list to once again include ALL her clients, present and past. I’m going to give the newsletter a fresh look and tweak the content to include reminders about her referral incentive program as well as calls to action to refer a friend and/or reactivate service.
We determined that this was the more cost-effective solution as opposed to other options that we looked at, including holding customer appreciation events, giving away promotional items, and mailing cards throughout the year (in addition to the holiday card she currently sends).
Plus we had the benefit of experience to know that her customer-base had responded positively to the newsletters in the past. With minor tweaks, the newsletter should once again generate the desired response.
With other clients, a solution isn’t as clear or as easy to implement. Sometimes there are new goals, which require bigger changes or new systems being put in place.
Marketing That Isn’t Working Is Wasting Your Money
I can’t say it any more directly than this: You MUST change something if your marketing isn’t working.
If your marketing isn’t working for you, it’s working against you and wasting your money. And if it isn’t working, you must either fix it or ditch it.
I hope you’ve found this article helpful. You honor me by reading and viewing my content. If you’d like my help to improve your marketing, please reach out by email or phone. I’d be honored to help if I can.
