Company Blog
Purposeful Marketing
by Ryan Joy — May 6, 2010
No matter how busy you are it’s critical to take the time to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Make it a part of your process to clarify the purpose of each marketing activity, using the five steps below.
1. Identify the purpose of the activity.
What specific business goal do you plan to address or achieve with the project? Try to limit it to one primary purpose.
2. Agree on the purpose of the activity.
Don’t skip this step. Put the purpose of the piece at the top of every planning document. You will need a strong endorsement of the stated purpose from senior stakeholders in order to stay on course when everyone wants a piece of the action.
3. Understand the purpose of the medium.
A direct mailer has different benefits than an ROP ad, which make it a natural fit for accomplishing particular goals. Make the most of your marketing resources by choosing the vehicle that best fits your project’s purpose.
4. Measure success according to the purpose.
Get agreement on the key performance indicators before the project starts, and make sure they measure the success of the stated purpose. If you decided that the purpose of the mailer was to raise awareness of your new Angus beef program, but your meat category manager thought it was to increase ground beef sales for the week, confusion will spread throughout the company about whether this was a wild success or a complete failure.
5. Be true to the purpose in implementation.
Be rigorous with your team as you try to edit other goals and stay on track. If it’s an ad, let the purpose dictate the distribution details, the item count, the selection of items, the nature of the language and graphics, and the call to action.
These five steps may seem simple, but if you are not already doing them, they have the power to revolutionize your marketing and change your results.
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