Marketing is more than a process to communicate the value of a product or service. It is a constantly evolving blend of science and art, where marketers must be part anthropologist/part business analyst. With such a unique role, challenges will continuously arise that threaten the success of marketing functions. Listed below are some of the key challenges marketers are contending within the contemporary market, as well as the best practices that can be undertaken to overcome these challenges.
Proving the ROI of Marketing Efforts
Marketers have been graced with more advanced analytics tools than ever before. However, with these greater tools of the trade, they are also being held to a higher standard. It’s no longer enough to simply do marketing; rather, marketers must be able to measure and understand the value of each of their efforts. This is done in terms of leads, customers, and revenue. Marketers need to prove that their return on investment is high enough to warrant that effort, time, and money placed into the process.
Potent marketing should be able to tie every single lead, customer, and dollar back to the marketing initiative that created them. This is how marketers can prove their worth, and understand how to more efficiently reach out to their audience. To guarantee that the ROI validates the efforts, it is essential to exploit the advanced analytics at one’s disposal. With these tools, marketers can cut through the widespread vagueness of marketing myths and assumptions and reveal real data about the state of initiated marketing efforts. These tools will demonstrate what’s working, so that marketers can cut out what is not.
Balancing responsibilities
As mentioned previously, marketing has a unique role in business. For example, marketing has a dual obligation and need to support both Development and Sales. However, the simultaneous demand and contention for limited time and resources may cause one or the other to falter.
Creative thinking and planning is required to assure that the needs of all parties are met. Marketing managers should implement the use of marketing calendars. These will aid in the planning of marketing efforts for weeks, if not months, in advance. By taking this long view toward planning, deficiencies can be recognized early on, and modifications can be made to remedy this.
Rapidly evolving media
Media is constantly evolving; there is no getting around that. It used to be that you could become comfortable for a short period of time. Even the first wave of major social media networks – such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter- had staying power.
Today however, media evolves quickly and abruptly; volatility is part of the game. What may have worked last year won’t work this year. Look no further than the decrease Facebook has suffered in tactical viability for some business niches.
Marketers have to move away from channel-specific strategies. Instead, they must adopt a truly fluid approach to communication. They must deliver a complete content and engagement effort that links across networks. This includes shared themes, concepts, and imagery.
Knowing consumers in more actionable ways
As the consumer’s online habits evolve, marketers are seeing a greater shift in online sharing. Consumers are posting personal photographs, life events, and much more across their social networks. This move towards a more connected, open social web reflects how consumers and businesses should interact in a landscape that encourages the sharing of users’ information in a safe, valuable way.
To facilitate this process, marketers should invest in big data. Databases must not only be secure, but they should also be fully equipped to handle the varied, dynamic nature of social data. This database structure is referred to as a schemaless database. This enables sites and apps to store all types of unstructured, social and behavioral, data without any constraints.
