Marketing Focus Helps Companies Stay the Course & Accomplish Business Goals
In this Marketing RAVE, I’m covering the importance of Marketing Focus. Marketing Focus occurs when a company or organization sets a marketing plan, and then consistently works that plan over the course of time. You could think of this approach as “the way of the tortoise” vs. the way of the hare.
Marketing Focus = Staying the Course
Over the decades of working with company owners and management teams, I’ve found two main styles of managing marketing efforts.
Marketing Management Style 1: Steady as she goes
With this mode of operation, a company spends time and money to develop a strategic marketing plan. This marketing plan is based in realistic thinking, includes measurable sales & revenue goals, and provides a specific roadmap on how to accomplish the business goals. The marketing plan that’s been put in place is deployed in a steady and methodical manner. This may not be the most exciting style of marketing. But it is the marketing management style that yields the best results. Why? When you consistently deploy your marketing plan month after month, you achieve critical mass and build a marketing machine that starts generating leads and increasing revenue.
Marketing Management Style 2: Pursuing the latest “shiny marketing toy”
With this style of marketing management, owners and/or management teams pay for the development of a strategic marketing plan, but then don’t deploy it. Instead, this marketing management style involves jumping around and experimenting with the latest new marketing technology or offering, at the expense of the ongoing marketing plan. In blunt terms, this lack of marketing focus is deadly to accomplishing the business and revenue goals. Here’s why:
When you’re building a marketing machine driven by marketing focus, it’s got a speed and cadence that’s similar to a steam train.
When the train is starting up, the steam engine starts to drive the huge pistons that turn the wheels on the locomotive. If you’ve ever watched a train station scene in a historic movie, the steam train starts slowly chugging away from the train station because it takes a lot of power to get the pistons going. Once the train is out in the countryside, it’s moving fast and strong. This is like a properly managed marketing plan. It takes a lot of power and effort to get the marketing machine going. But once it’s flying along the track, it’s got the same power and momentum as a fast-moving steam train. In contrast, an unfocused marketing management style results in the train starting, and stopping, and starting, and stopping. All the momentum keeps getting lost because of a lack of marketing focus.
How To Maintain Your Marketing Focus
There are some simple, common sense ways to maintain your marketing focus:
- First, build a strategic marketing plan that makes sense for your business. This is the best, first step in reaching the business growth you want to achieve.
- Second, have the discipline to stay the course and steadily deploy your marketing plan. The only time you should be deviating from your marketing plan is if a significant change occurs in your industry or your target market. If an unexpected opportunity arises and it’s worth pursuing, then pursue it. But get back to your marketing plan as soon as possible.
- Third, if someone on the management team finds a shiny new marketing toy or cool marketing technology and wants to deploy it, ask them if the marketing technology or offering supports the current business goals. If they say no, ask if the business goals have changed. If the answer is no, then recommend that the company stays the course with its marketing plan.
The bottom line is that maintaining your marketing focus is worth its weight in gold. When you steadily and intentionally work your marketing plan and keep your eyes on the target, you’ll achieve your business goals that much faster.
Need help with a strategic marketing plan? Contact DeWinter Marketing to develop a marketing plan and help you stay the course in deploying it.
