5 ways to connect your marketing strategy to your business strategy.

When talking with an SME business owner the other day, he was unsure what the point of their marketing activity was. The marketing team seemed to be busy but he couldn't put his finger on how that activity made his business any better. So are there some simple ways to make sure that the marketing strategy is actually delivering the business strategy?
In this era of online activity and social media, marketing can appear more than ever a "dark art". I suspect more than this one business owner simply nods sagely and keeps writing out cheques rather than getting to the bottom of what it's all about. But not understanding the mechanics should not be a pass for lack of accountability. 

Here are five questions to consider:

1. Have you been honest about what your business is trying to do? A business strategy needs to be more than a sales target. Is your business in a growth phase or defending against a changing marketplace? Is it undergoing internal change such as preparing to sell or merge? If these issues are not clearly identified, the marketing strategy will never achieve them.

2. What do you want marketing to focus on? We would all love to sell more of everything to everyone. However there needs to be a clear idea of which areas of your business will give you the greatest return on your marketing dollar. We call this connecting your "star products" to your "star customers".   

3. What are you measuring? Is there a logical connection between your marketing metrics and your business goals? Do you have SMART goals that are quantifiable? 

4. Where does the head of marketing sit in your organisation? There is an argument to be made that marketing is the most important aspect of your business. After all, customers will buy a poor product that is well marketed, but they will not buy a great product that is poorly presented. The person responsible for marketing must be privy to the highest level of company thinking; they should not simply be a brief taker.

5. Is your business aligned to a common goal? To achieve the highest performance, the 4 key drivers of sales, marketing, your products and your people must all be rowing together. A business that shares a vision will ensure that all strategies, features and behaviours will work to support each other. Without a clear vision, a business is destined to fall into independent empires.

The difference between science and faith is that an assumption can be falsifiable. If Marketing believe that social media activity will assist with the customer decision making process, there should be evidence of that occurring. Clear goals, accountability and respect for professionalism, are the foundations of a highly performing marketing team.

Andrew Wylie, Director of Pandemonium Creative, strategic thinkers in marketing, sales and creative.