For many companies, figuring out how much to invest in marketing is a tricky business. Mainly this occurs when company leaders are unsure about the ROI of their marketing spend. Is the marketing working? Is it not working?

These questions can be tough to answer. Sometimes the unsure feeling comes from not having enough data, and in other cases, from having too much. Here are a few signals to help you figure out whether you need more marketing or less.

You May Need More Marketing If …

• Competitors are eating into your market share.
• You’re facing new competitors or new types of competitors.
• New business from existing customers is flat or declining.
• New customer acquisition is flat or declining.
• You are rolling out new products or services.
• You are moving into new markets.
• You get few leads from your website.
• Your brand reputation has taken a hit.
• You need sales to spend more time selling and less time generating leads.
  

“Mark Xavier”

Managing Director

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“Mark Xavier is an Enterprise Managing Director in Xmilie Agency focusing on start-ups. He has more than two decades of experience helping Brands develop winning go-to-market strategies by leveraging data, identity, and technology. Mark is a co-founder of Gudvil Nexus and Ornda Agency”.

You May Need Less (or Different) Marketing If …

• You lack the budget and/or staff to effectively support all of your campaigns.
• Your sales force is clearly and decisively better at obtaining and retaining customers.
• You are eliminating or rolling back products or services.
• You are pulling out of certain markets.
• You cannot achieve a consensus on marketing strategies.
• Your margins have eroded substantially.

Changing Gears

Sometimes — oftentimes — a different marketing approach is better than scrapping a marketing effort altogether. Consider the problem of eroding margins. When a product or service has become commoditized, expensive marketing campaigns with hard-to-calculate ROI, such as social media and print advertising, usually don’t pay off. However, a well-managed email or PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaign could produce a very appealing (and easily measured) ROI.

Focusing In

One aspect of marketing where less is definitely more occurs when a company is spreading its marketing efforts too thin. Marketing campaigns are most effective when they are done with intensity and a critical mass of breadth and depth. In contrast, just scratching the surface with social media, SEO or email, etc., is likely to produce minimal or no ROI.

The real question is: Which marketing campaign offers the best opportunity?

If you’re not sure how to answer that question, contact us. We’d love to know more about your situation and help you develop a winning strategy.