Things to Consider As You Evaluate Your Marketing Communication Program

by Frank L. Williams

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This Tuesday I was the featured 10-minute speaker at the Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce’s afternoon business connections event. My topic was things to consider as you evaluate your marketing communication program. Below is a brief outline of the topics I touched on.

Things to Consider As You Evaluate Your Marketing Communication Program

• What do you want your business to do for you personally?
• What long-term business goals should your marketing communication program help advance?
• List up to ten adjectives or descriptive phrases you want people to use when they describe your business.
• Do you live up to the traits on your list? If not, what changes do you need to make?
• If someone could remember only one thing about your business, what should it be?
• What value do you deliver to clients? How do you make their lives easier / better? What makes you different from all the rest? Sell benefits, not features, and emphasize your competitive advantages.
• What people and groups inside your organization impact how others view you? Are they all conveying the same message in what they say, how they conduct themselves, and how they treat others?
• Is your branding and messaging consistent across all channels (print, online, signage, sales, etc.)?
• What external people and groups impact your ability to achieve your goals? This includes customers, but also includes referral sources, business leaders, civic leaders and even competitors.
• Which of these people or groups are the highest priority?
• Are your sales, marketing, public relations and networking activities reaching the most important groups?
• Are you employing the right mix of marketing and public relations tools, or are you veering to one of the extremes (putting all of your eggs in one basket, or spreading yourself too thin to be effective)?
• Have you researched your print marketing techniques, whether book binding, creating business cards or using a digital cutting table yourself to make these prints? And have you learnt how to adopt them for good effect?
• Once you commit to a marketing communication tool, are you demonstrating the patience to give it time to work, or are you pulling the plug too soon?

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