In a world where money talks, the cost-of-living crisis is putting more of a focus on budgets and business objectives as companies look at how they can best manage the economic situation that is sweeping across the UK in 2022.

Business goals can often lead to questions on cutting back marketing or advertising spend, but there is a step to tackle before taking such drastic measures – enhancing your marketing effectiveness.

Ben Quigley, Executive Chair at Different Narrative in Newcastle, delves into the topic.

What is marketing effectiveness?

While it does what it suggests, effectiveness can mean so much more for a business than the outputs that are delivered. Marketing effectiveness focuses on the business value that is added from the process of improving business performance from marketing activities, all made easier and more impactful by people, process and data technology. It must, however, not be mistaken with efficiency, which measures how much time and money was required to deliver the result.  Effectiveness will be more aligned to the scale of the effect in relation to the business context that is outlined at the objectives stage.

There are three key principles attached to marketing effectiveness, which work together to give you a more thorough process by which to measure your effectiveness.

1.      Evidence-based decision making

We’ve all been in a position where we make decisions based on previous experience and going with our gut, but to succeed at being effective with your marketing, you should tailor your decisions around evidence-based insight. How are consumers thinking? How do they engage? What does their purchase behaviour look like? Use data to back up your thought process to deliver better research and insights.

2.      Continuous learning loop

Every day is a school day. There are always things that we can do differently which allow us to enhance our offering. It’s important that your entire team learns the process together. Making a clear effectiveness strategy for your business and how it can be implemented is vital, but it is just as important not to be afraid to update and adapt your process in line with new research and information that comes to light.

3.      Inputs/outputs/outcomes

Crucial to any marketing campaign is its structure. We often identify the outcomes and outputs that we want to achieve, without stopping to think about how we achieve that. Take time to think and engage your team – or your client’s team – and consider the data needed to inform your inputs, which in turn will make your outputs and outcomes more effective.

Implementing marketing effectiveness

Effectiveness doesn’t happen overnight. Collective responsibility takes thought, time and an ongoing commitment from your teams to make it work. If some of your senior leaders are not on board with the process, it will fall down as the message should pass down the chain of command. You need that buy in from the whole team, but ultimately through united insight and creativity, your effectiveness will result in more distinctive brand assets.

To integrate your new effectiveness processes into your business way of life, you must also consider the tools your employees/marketing agency might need to tap into to be effective. This might be engaging with data hubs like YouGov or Global Web Index to discover new insights for your content, but equally it could be looking at Customer Lifetime Value metrics, Brand Index or even media monitoring software.

Measuring marketing effectiveness

How do you know if you are enhancing your marketing effectiveness? Finding ways to track your effectiveness can be powerful in not only showing your achievements against client KPIs and objectives, but also in understanding the cost-effective nature and business value of your endeavours.

By using robust data and outlining your KPIs from the outset, you can incorporate regular check ins to make sure you are on course for success. Whether your ambitions are around brand and product awareness, or increasing sales across all channels, you can track effectiveness through ad recall, brand mentions, website engagement and share of voice for your media planning objectives.

Where possible, make your data and measurements visual to show your efforts in a manner which is easy for your team and stakeholders to digest.

The best way to maximise your marketing offering is to review how effective your current practices are and work with your staff to explore how you can be more effective. Whether that is through time-saving new processes or more cost-effective ways of working, there’s always learning to be done to improve your systems.

If you’d like to discuss marketing effectiveness in more detail with the Different Narrative team, chat to us at hello@differentnarrative.com