In companies without marketing analytics, decisions are made by employees with no marketing experience. And the responsibility is placed on the marketer and/or agency, who often act as a punching bag for lack of results. The opinion of the marketer and/or agency is not taken into account, but advice from the accountant, engineer, driver and other employees.

Let’s play out a little play where the lead roles are:

  • Accountant
  • The marketer (the lone wizard or marketing agency of wizards)
  • BO (business owner)
  • EC (employee of the company)

Scene #1.

(First negotiations between the marketer and BO)

– BO: I want to increase sales and profits!

– Marketer: Okay, we will analyse the market and make a strategy.

– BO: I don’t need these analyses and strategies, I want sales and profit!

– Marketer:

– BO: Okay, do it, but you have a month to do it,

I’m waiting for the results, we’re not paying you so much for nothing.

Remark: in our country it so happens that marketing is often perceived as “advertising”. In the planned economy there was no marketing as such, and in the 90’s, marketing was mostly called “mega creative” commercials for TV screens.

So, most founders of companies that have been around for a while. in the marketplace, they don’t understand what marketers do and what marketing in general.

Scene #2

(Work with BO, Engineer)

– BO: The strategy is great, no changes, we agree with everything, let’s start working!

– Marketer: Ok, we have a YouTube blog planned, we need the right speakers.

– EC: Actually, we don’t have the right people, and what the ***** has anything to do with marketing? How are we going to increase sales with this?

– Accountant: EC: That’s a good point, and spending so much money on a video… no, we’re not ready for that, but a video is a good idea.

– BO: I consulted with the team, you’re a bad agency, and you’re not very good marketers, charlatans!

Remark: The marketer works with the site, handles negative feedback, works with social networks, raises site traffic, writes articles, runs targeted and contextual advertising, leads a lot of conversions, but no one pays attention to it. The employees decided that the marketer was bad.

In general, the moral of the play is clear. Just as in the rule of the state, at all times, where there were no meaningful counsellors, who primarily fight for their place and interests, so in the “rule” of business, there are many nuances and “wily” advisors.

Next, let’s break down 7 different situations in which business owners blame the marketer and/or agency. However, in such situations, the main thing is not to blame the “magicians”, but to understand why things are going so badly in your kingdom of business.

Situation #1: Delving into the problems of turnip landing instead of strengthening the kingdom’s position

(Engaging in micromanagement rather than managing the business according to goals)

Your kingdom is under your complete control, there you advise how to shear sheep and there you advise how to grow cabbage. Basically, you want to get into every little detail of every process of your business.

It’s not a bad thing to understand everything, but think about what’s more important: proofreading every targeting ad and replacing the targeting agent, or finding some innovative solution for your business that will help you get to the next level? You don’t need to know all the nuances, understanding the system and the basic principles will be enough. Is your goal to grow the kingdom and strengthen its influence or to know when to plant a turnip? Follow your company’s strategy and make sure your goals are being met, and let your employees understand the nuances.

Situation #2: Fighting fires, not the dragon’s invasion of the kingdom

(Fighting is not the cause, but the effect.)

Your kingdom is under your complete control, there you advise how to shear sheep, and there you advise how to grow cabbages. Basically, you want to get into every little detail of every process of your business.

If your customers are consistently negative, then some chain is failing. Your job is to find out where and why. For example, check Google My Business reviews, 2gis reviews, social media comments and posts, tech support requests, and write out common problems.

Don’t delete negative reviews under any circumstances, address the cause rather than fighting the effect. Often business owners start berating the marketer for bad reviews instead of addressing what led to them.

Tip: don’t delegate this task, do it yourself. Remember the evil tongues in the yard and in your meeting room. Only you will be able to objectively assess the situation.

Once you have figured out the causes of the fires, try to figure out how and with what you can “slay the dragon”. This is where you can listen to your team, i.e. your subjects. Ask them to be open and tell you why this happens.

Situation #3: Poorly organised work of messengers

(Poor work with applications and customers)

Do you have salespeople as your main link? Then – install a call tracking module and end-to-end analytics. If the size of the business does not allow, there are complex solutions where call tracking is built into the functionality of, for example, CRM-systems. Perhaps managers need sales scripts or are not up to the task.

Once, our agency installed a call tracking module with the ability to listen to calls and were shocked to find that the manager was referring clients to competitors.

There is another example that happened in one of the companies. From our side, the analytics showed a huge number of conversions (before that we connected CRM-system and call tracking module), at the same time, the call tracking module showed a lot of missed calls by managers, and in the CRM-system for half of the calls was labelled “advertising”.

How could this happen? Very simple: managers did not want to handle calls, they were not motivated to do so, they fulfilled the norm without continuing their work.

And another interesting example, the same situation: a lot of conversions, and the owner complains about the lack of customers. We look into it and realise that the director has let both salespeople handling the calls go on holiday at the same time. The calls are being taken at this time by a full-time marketer who has many tasks of his own.

Unlike a king who doesn’t know how his messengers are delivering the news, you can monitor the work of the sales department. Maybe managers need help, the system is not working properly, or employees are not performing their duties properly.

Situation #4: The cook will not become the commander, and a commander will not become a cook

(Listening to the opinions of incompetent people)

Your accountant has read some articles on SMM and advises you on how to run your Instagram account. Since he has been working for you for 15 years, you think you can trust him in all matters and start thinking that your marketing agency is not properly promoting your brand with SMM tools.

If you really suspect an agency of something wrong, ask them for statistics or analytics. If you can see results, please never listen to someone who is not an expert in their field. A cook doesn’t become a great warlord, just like a warlord doesn’t become a chef.

Situation #5: Selling rotten vegetables

(Substandard service/goods)

Your castle is under attack by disgruntled angry customers! Do you want to surrender, pay a ransom, or march an army on them? There’s only one solution here — change the quality of your product or service.

There may be a small problem, but there may be bigger problems but there could be bigger problems. Finding out what’s wrong can be helped by a focus group, actual customer feedback and, of course, market and competitor research.

Situation #6: Both the sons and daughters of the labour market

(Problem of distribution of responsibilities and lack of staff)

Do you know the situation where the commercial director rules the posts and is in charge of the website, and at the same time answering angry reviews on Google My Business? I think you can realise how much of the company is left with that kind of power-sharing.

Remember that each field requires its own specialist. And the field of marketing is already so broad that it requires a separate specialist for each area. You realise that you are short of staff, and one sad marketer is just ready to cry at the meeting? Try bringing in outside help in the form of a contractor or agency. Help your specialist be responsible for what they are a specialist in. Let it be a job efficiently done and the employee is satisfied and meaningful.

Situation #7: And this is what I told you to do, that’s what I told you to do!

(Distrust of the marketing agency’s actions)

Yes, there has been a lot of talk here about the various intrigues in the court council. However, you should trust those who are good at what they do well and get results.

Take a marketing agency, for example. Most business owners only know about marketing from the famous YouTube videos that are made for interesting pastimes, and there isn’t much left of marketing there.

After listening to such commercials, owners or directors begin to suspect marketers of something that there is not enough creativity, or that coverage is not growing at a staggering rate. Marketers, in fact, do their work well, backing it up with statistics and analytics with statistics and analytics. But everyone, the owner has already formed his own image of marketing as CREATIVE. It doesn’t matter to him that sales are growing, it doesn’t matter that profits are increasing, only one thing matters — no creativity.

The mistake here is that by chasing after phantom creativity, you’re not trusting the experts who have actually improved your business. It turns out that you are demanding to implement an approach whose effectiveness cannot be evaluated. Trust a specialist if you see growth in analytics, not pretty words!

As you can see, marketing isn’t always magic, and marketers aren’t always magicians. And only depends on you whether your business, and subsequently marketing will work and grow. I hope the article is cautionary and the situations are fictitious. Growth for your business and new clients!