Four Foundational Questions When Auditing Marketing Performance
2 mins
The four foundational questions we ask a business when auditing marketing and growth performance.
When pipeline dries up, most businesses do more. More content. More channels. More messages. More of whatever the competitor appears to be doing. STOP! This rarely pays off. In our experience, struggling pipeline almost always comes down to the following things.
You don't know your buyer well enough. It is so important to understand what they actually need, what language they use, what makes them act. That will inform how you message and through what channels. Look at the top 20% by share of revenue, total contract value and
Your data isn't telling you anything useful. Either you're not collecting the right data, or nobody's looked at it properly. This effects decisions on where resource is allocated and effort focused. Bad or inaccessible data ultimately means inefficiency and lost revenue.
Your messaging isn't landing. You’ve defined you messaging but it’s not landing externally. Perhaps there’s not enough customer insight, it may be too broad, too technical, or too focused on what you do rather than what your buyer gets.
The Natural Word diagnostic
We have experienced this across many different organisations. And this has informed how we approach reframing marketing as a growth system within the organisation. Here’s the questions to begin with.
Look at what you already have, audit what exists. Pull your data. Look at what's converting and what isn't. Read your last six months of content with fresh eyes.
What is the data actually telling us?
Sense-check the strategy to see whether your current direction is coherent. Does your positioning make a clear choice about who you're for? Does your messaging reflect that? Is your strategy something a new team member could pick up and execute tomorrow? Is there senior buy in (this is absolutely fundamental)?
Is this simple enough to actually work?
Listen to your people Talk to your commercial team, your senior leadership, your HR lead if you have one. The gap between what leadership thinks the message is and what the sales team is actually saying in the room vs how you’re going to market can be problematic.
Are we all saying the same thing?
Lock your Ideal Customer Profile and your one message One ideal customer profile. One primary message built around what they need, not what you do. One or two channels where they actually are. Everything else goes on hold until this is working.
If we could only do three things this month, what are they?
How this unlocks opportunity
Being ruthlessly specific about who you're talking to allows messaging to land. The businesses that grow fastest have made a choice and they know exactly who their buyer is, what keeps them up at night, and how to reach them.
Create one piece of content that proves you understand the problem better than anyone else and it makes your ideal buyer think "they get exactly what I'm dealing with." Once you’ve confirmed that messaging lands, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Track activity to understand the messaging that is landing and the content performance. Over time, this will show you where your buyer is interacting with you and what touchpoints that impact the buyer's journey.
