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Marketing Project Management

3 Keys to Identifying and Fixing Inefficient Marketing Processes

November 22, 2016

Our marketing strategies are in place to drive our businesses forward, but what happens if they’re not working as efficiently as we had hoped? Simply having marketing processes in place is not enough. If they’re not pulling in new business or attracting new attention, then you will want to reevaluate your marketing strategies.

But how do you know if your marketing processes are inefficient? Here are 3 key tips for evaluating your current marketing strategies, determining what is not working the way you want, and what you should do to create a more efficient process.

1. Determine What Your “Tedious Tasks” Are

Unfortunately, the tedious tasks need to get done, but if you’re not smart about how they get done, you’re probably going to be wasting time during your work day. Take some time to make a list of all the tedious tasks you feel take more time to complete than they’re worth.

Through the use of an efficient BPM software, or business process management software, you can get these tedious tasks under better control. Whether it is outsourcing some of these tasks or using a digital system to get some of the tasks done, proper business process management will allow you to get things done more efficiently — allowing you to take your marketing to the next level.

2. Know How Much Time You’re Spending on Data

Data is important to everything that we do, but we need to spend most of our time analyzing that data — not pulling or collecting it. Data tells us how well our strategies are connecting with customers, if website visitors are following through to make purchases, and which of our blog posts are read most frequently. But if we’re wasting too much time pulling data, by the time we get around to analyzing it, it won’t be relevant anymore.

Track how much time you’re spending on gathering and collecting data. If you find that you are spending more time collecting data than you are reading it, it may be time to look into new software or different programs that can do that work for you. Because data is important for understanding how our marketing is working, it is necessary — but it must be done the right way.

3. Check That You’re Reaching the Right Audience

Reaching the right audience is everything when it comes to your marketing strategy. You could be doing everything correctly, but if you’re not getting your content in front of the right people, your sales and your bottom line are going to struggle. Unfortunately, reaching the right audience isn’t as easy as many of us seem to think. We can’t simply put content out on the web and hope that the right audience will find it.

Make sure that your marketing strategy is appropriately targeted to the right audience. While this may cost more money to have a targeted marketing approach rather than simply putting things online, reaching the right audience is worth training in negotiation skills. The more investment you put in to reach the right audience, the more return you will get on that investment and the more your marketing, company, and business will grow.

Inefficiency in marketing only means that your business will struggle. As marketing works as the fuel that moves your company forward, makes more sales, and attracts new customers, not marketing properly means that you will struggle to meet your goals. However, you don’t need to struggle to have your marketing make an impact.

If you feel that your marketing is falling short, take a look at these three keys to identifying where your inefficiencies may be. Once you can determine where you are going wrong in your marketing processes, you can make the necessary changes to get back on track. After restructuring your time spent on tedious tasks, pulling data, or trying to reach the right audience, you’ll have more time to propel your marketing and company forward.

Carol Evenson is a business consultant specializing in process automation and time management.

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