The key to marketing is making sure that people understand what you are doing and why. Your boss, or CEO in many cases, is arguably the most important person in this process. As you are preparing your 2015 marketing plans, consider these six things your boss will want to know about marketing.
The key to marketing is making sure that people understand what you are doing and why. Your boss, or CEO in many cases, is arguably the most important person in this process. As you are preparing your 2015 marketing plans, consider these six things your boss will want to know about marketing.
1. What needs are you going to solve with your marketing efforts?
Having iPads in the lobby sounds cutting-edge, not to mention a lot of fun. But what business problem will this help to solve? How will it increase profitability, loan growth, products per household, etc.?
Make sure that everything you have in your plan ties back to one or more of the business objectives in your financial institution’s strategic plan. Your marketing plan can and should be the biggest contributor to your financial institution’s annual goals and business objectives.
2. What data do you have to back that up?
If you want your bank or credit union to have a Facebook page just because many others do, this statement doesn’t quantify the results you might anticipate or communicate solving a business need (again…always be thinking about business needs). Sharing statistics, however, is a different matter, and is a very powerful way to help your boss understand each of the tactics in your plan.
For example, you might say something like, “Since we’re looking to deepen relationships with our current members/customers, we need to invest in platforms that allow us more exposure to our audience. The audience we’d have access to on Facebook is actually 20% more likely to visit our site and spread our message than the average person. 56% of our members/customers have a Facebook page. Right now, we are not maximizing this opportunity.”
3. What’s it going to cost me?
Marketing plans always include budget numbers. Here are a couple of questions to consider as you put together your budget based on the plans from the questions above:
- What are you going to spend on communicating the message to your current members/customers and/or potential members/customers?
- What market segments have you chosen to maximize the dollars you are spending per campaign?
4. How do you know if it will be successful?
Your marketing efforts are only as good as the measurements you take before and after any new campaign or initiative. Always do a financial analysis of the areas of your balance sheet this new program is intended to affect so you have a baseline. Then ask yourself a few questions:
- How much of
do I need to capture in order to break even? - How much of
do I anticipate us gaining because of the marketing program? - Where are we currently trending for this particular product or service?
In order to make any marketing objective successful, you must know not only where you are going, but also where you have been. Numbers are important, but trends tell all, and they are your most effective tool when it comes to goal setting and calculating ROI for a campaign or initiative.
5. How are you going to make it successful?
This particular piece is one of the most important pieces of the marketing puzzle. You have solid business objectives, you have a plan outlined to drive those business objectives, and a budget to get the work done. Now comes the hard part…what steps do you have in place to make sure the plan is successful when you start executing? Smart, effective marketing isn’t done once a postcard is out the door, or when your online ad goes up. Do as much work after you launch the program as you did to prepare for it. This includes working with all of the employees at your financial institution to make sure they are prepared and ready to support your marketing plans.
Constant measurement of the results of a campaign or program is critical to its success. If it isn’t going as well as you forecasted, make adjustments in the message, keyword, target audience, etc. until you start to see results. Talk to members, operations, front line sales personnel, ambassadors and managers to get their feedback on what is working and what is not as they will be key players in helping marketing be successful.
6. What was your ROI?
Now comes the fun part: running the final numbers! (We are numbers geeks so this part gets me really excited). To do this, we need to do a calculation of Return on Investment. This answers the question, “what kind of return did I get on my marketing expenditure?”
Two quick things I want to explain first:
- Incremental Profit: what profit did you get above and beyond what you would have normally gained in the course of doing business without a marketing campaign? (You will need to know the margin rate per loan if it is a loan campaign or the profitability of the product/service). If you don’t know the margin rate or profitability of this particular product/service, I recommend you take your CFO out to lunch and learn these numbers. (They’ll be happy you asked…I guarantee it).
- Marketing Investment: what is the total dollar amount you are investing in marketing for this particular campaign?
So back to the numbers…to calculate Return on Investment, use the following formula:
Take Incremental Profit – Marketing Investment and then divide that number by the Marketing Investment and this will give you your total ROI.
Measuring performance and quality control is the last step in your marketing efforts, and it is great data to have not only to show the boss how great of a job you did, but it will also help your future marketing efforts be even more successful!
Answer these six questions about marketing for your boss and he or she will see you as the marketing rockstar that you are!
Amanda
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