If the results of your marketing efforts are underwhelming, chances are something’s wrong that needs fixing… Fast. After all, marketing is a core pillar of every successful business
As you know, marketing plays a key role in the growth of every business today. If you don’t get your marketing right, you won’t attract enough quality leads. It will then prevent you from making more sales, raking in more profits, and taking your business to the next level.
Understandably, failed marketing campaigns make business owners anxious and frustrated. And making things more complicated is the fact that experiencing plateaus in marketing is common. That is, they could happen to any business in any location at any time.
What’s important is to arrest the situation before things get out of hand.
Keep reading because you’ll discover the three-step process to turn things around when your marketing returns plateau. Plus, discover the pros and cons of hiring an agency for your marketing versus using in-house marketing.
The 3-Step Process
Step #1 – Figure Out The Problem
Before you think about any solutions, you must first diagnose the problem.
Think about the possible reasons for the decline in your marketing returns. Are you using old ideas that are no longer working? Or maybe you’re reusing the same angle in your ad messages.
Figure out what the cause is. But ensure that your suspicions are backed up by data. This entails having a look into the following:
- Your year-on-year traffic. Compare the changes in your traffic sources over the years. Some of them may not be functioning as they should anymore.
- Your year-on-year conversion rate. What are the changes in the conversion rate of each of your marketing funnels?
- Changes in your customer demographic. They may have shifting needs, for example.
- Your best-performing assets. This includes your best landing pages in terms of traffic, conversion, etc. Compare those assets with your current assets and see where they stand.
Analysing your year-on-year metrics will reveal recent trends that will help you deduce what’s no longer working in your marketing.
Step #2 – Stop Using the Strategies That Are Making You Lose Money
Let’s say you’ve identified the root cause of the problem. If it’s a strategy you’ve been doing, you have to stop doing it. Identify which areas cause the biggest losses in your business and plug any gaping holes you see.
Sure, some losses could be due to seasonal trends. And there’s nothing you can do about those. Markets can also dry up and old trends do fizzle out, after all. But if the loss is due to a certain activity you’re doing, you need to stop doing it.
That’s why you should ask yourself this important question:
Are you spending money on some marketing initiatives or services that aren’t giving me decent returns?
If you are, put an end to those initiatives.
It’s true that doing this is easier said than done because it’s likely that you’ve already used up a lot of resources on that venture. But if you don’t stop in time, it could lead to further losses.
Step #3 – Find Ways to Increase Your Marketing Returns
There are other things you can do to boost your marketing returns apart from halting whatever’s making you lose money.
If your conversion rate is low, for example, you can start practising Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO). This will go a long way in providing you with more clients and improve your marketing returns.
But if you’re getting lots of bad feedback about a product or service that is performing poorly, rework it to satisfy your customers’ needs. You can even launch a new product or service for that purpose.
Also, maybe you haven’t been retargeting your prospects. Or maybe you aren’t retargeting them as much as you should. If so, it’s time to change that.
You can also replace low-performing ad campaigns, refine those that are doing okay, and expand on those that are performing greatly.
That said, you have to dedicate enough effort to your marketing campaigns. You should also churn out new marketing ideas consistently. But if you can’t do that, it’s time to consider hiring a digital marketing agency.
But how does that compare with having an in-house marketing person or team?
What You Need To Know About Hiring a Marketing Agency vs Using In-house Marketing
Having an in-house team dedicated to your marketing efforts is great. After all, they’re more familiar with your brand, you have easy access to them, and control will not be a problem.
However, you have a better chance of scaling your marketing when you hire a digital marketing agency.
There are several benefits when you let an agency handle your marketing, three of which are:
- An agency team analyses ads all day every day for many companies. As a result, they have more exposure and are better experienced. They are more capable of helping you boost returns from your marketing efforts.
- An in-house team, in most cases, is composed of individuals who aren’t marketing experts. An agency, on the other hand, typically has a dedicated team with several professionals. They have better resources and are more knowledgeable in solving problems related to marketing.
- In-house marketing teams are more expensive to set up and operate. The more people you hire for this purpose, the higher your costs. An agency’s fees are relatively lower in comparison.
Make Great Returns From Your Marketing Efforts
Marketing plays a core part in the success of your business. If you aren’t making great returns on your marketing investments, it’s a sign that you have inefficient marketing. And if you don’t fix the issue in time, it could lead to serious consequences.
If you know that there’s more you can get out of your marketing, follow the 3-step process discussed in this article. This is a process that will help you turn things around.
Ultimately, you should look into hiring a digital marketing agency to solve your marketing worries and make it scale. We at the GMS Media Group are experts in doing this. If you’re looking for a capable digital marketing agency, we are ready to help you.
Get in touch with us if you want to capture more quality leads via search engine marketing. Go ahead and schedule your free consult with one of our GMS experts.
