With the uncertainty created by COVID-19, marketing leaders must be laser focused, must prioritize where their teams place their focus to drive growth and success
Deal with unexpected conditions across channels and marketing interventions - for ex: address customer engagement efforts, address pipeline challenges (net new and existing), develop flexible communication plans. The pandemic has affected all types of companies — no company is immune. All leaders have seen their time being absorbed to handle the crisis. This initial phase is almost coming to an end for some and no action has been taken by many mid size companies.
Marketing leaders will need to revisit and adjust their mid-term and longer-term strategies and plans. The reality is that due to the pandemic, we will see a long lasting impact, so organizations with strong foundations and capabilities will find themselves in a better place than their competitors.
With that in mind, one thing I recommend my clients consider over the next couple of months is taking a proactive approach to identifying the maturity of their marketing organization and prioritize gaps they must address going forward.
A Marketing audit can help marketing leaders in identifying, prioritizing critical gaps, enabling a proactive, insight driven approach.
How does this help the marketing leaders?
Refine strategy - Pinpoint strategic opportunities that will direct the marketing organization in the coming year.
Redirect focus to impact performance - Identify areas an organization has overemphasized, signaling opportunities to redirect the energies.
Sharpen Focus - Identify and prioritize critical B2B marketing gaps across the entire marketing organization.
Allocate resources - Align the marketing function on how to reallocate scarce resources to leverage the knowledge of key stakeholders.
Optimize the channels - Focus on few channels with a data driven approach.
The Marketing Audit can be used at any time to surface areas for improvement, or in times of flux caused by internal or external conditions. While the pandemic has created unprecedented challenges, i am a strong believer that every crisis creates an opportunity. With the economic uncertainty and it's impact on companies, marketing leaders should look for opportunities to strengthen the focus, optimize the channels and maximize the capabilities of their teams. During the coming months, take a step back to perform a SWOT analysis of the organization and align the marketing organization that address the gaps that are important to sustain and grow the business.