7 Questions For 2024

7 Questions To Ask Of Marketing for 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. What questions should you be asking?
3. Is messaging in alignment across the company?
4. Is the story the same across the enterprise?
5. Are you measuring everything you do?
6. Is Lead Generation filling the pipeline?
7. Where is Lead Generation the strongest, weakest?
8. How is AI enhancing marketing efforts?
9. The voice of authority in its industry
10. Conclusion

Marketing is changing, and in drastic ways from what we have seen before. Analytics and AI are becoming core parts of Marketing and in a manner most marketing executives have never considered. Companies who don’t recognize this will be left behind and given the pace of change this may happen quickly. Even industry-leaders who fail to recognize the important manner in which marketing is changing will leave doors wide open for competitors to walk through.

How is marketing changing today versus ten or twenty years ago? It is a holistic perspective of the enterprise that is needed to understand Marketing’s evolving role. First off, numbers matter more than ever. Every single thing you do today from a marketing perspective should be measured and the results quantified and their value defined. Second, in a sea of consumer possibilities, your corporate voice is key to distinguishing your products or services and building a recognizable brand. That is even true for small businesses. And third, keeping all of your efforts in alignment across all areas of the business—sales, marketing, product and external agencies—requires vigilance and a framework to manage it. We call this Marketing Orchestration—the people, processes and tools used to build a modern marketing team and framework.

What questions should you be asking of your Marketing Department for 2024

There are three key areas that need to be addressed in 2024. They all revolve around Messaging, Analytics, and Content.

1) Is messaging in alignment across the company?

Most undervalue the importance of messaging and how consistently it has to be used. And the days of marketing silos unilaterally deciding corporate messaging are gone. Does your Brand Style Guide include messaging (by product | service | category) and is it used by each department and all of your agencies? With so many avenues available today for company outreach it is important that messaging remains consistent across all channels.

2) Similarly, do Product, Sales, Marketing and external agents and agencies tell the same story?

A corporate story doesn’t just include messaging statements. It’s also about the keywords and visuals used in presentations, brochures and advertisements. The more complex the sales process is the more necessary this becomes. Are they in alignment across the enterprise? For instance, do your brochures, case studies, trade show booth and website all tell the same story? Are they in alignment?

3) Are you measuring everything you do?

Ads, Website Content, Landing Pages, Trade Shows, Email Campaigns, etc.: measuring the effectiveness of all marketing efforts and the ways they change over time is critical. Analytics have been around for a long time now, but many marketing teams still don’t use them well, or at all. Even Trade Shows and conferences should be measured for their efficacy—the trade show overall and rep by rep performance. Do you have a Marketing Dashboard where all of this is displayed, where upper management can get snapshot views of leading metrics?

4) Is Lead Generation filling the pipeline?

The number and quality of leads are key indicators. What is the cost of acquisition per lead? How about the cost per sale? This can be difficult to determine accurately for products and services that require a longer sales process. But it can still be valuable.

5) Where is Lead Generation the strongest, weakest?

Of all the company’s marketing efforts where are the most leads generated? Where are the most effective leads generated, those that become sales? The numbers can lead to consequential decisions down the road that can have a massive impact on sales and performance.

6) How is AI enhancing marketing efforts?

Online Ads, Content Creation, Content Analysis and Competitor Analysis: these are just a few of the ways to use AI in marketing. Third-party programs like MarketMuse, Jasper and Albert AI make integration straight-forward and valuable. They also address several different areas where their impact can be dramatic. This includes competitor analysis, advertising analysis and efficiency, landing page analysis, email marketing customization, and more. (Read this article about the five types of AI each marketing team should be using.)

7) How does Marketing use all of this to become the leader and voice of authority in its industry?

The ultimate goal of Marketing—beyond generating leads that become sales—is to elevate the company into industry leadership. How this is achieved can vary by industry and the company’s current standing, but should be part of the plan, even if it is an industry niche where the company becomes the voice of authority in that particular area. Company size can be irrelevant in niche areas. A great example of this is Untuckit, a shirt company whose niche are dress (button-down) shirts that are made to be worn untucked. Untuckit is the voice of authority in the niche of the market (dress shirts).

Conclusion

Marketing has changed in a lot of ways in the last few years. Today, Marketing has to orchestrate a continually changing effort that focuses on collaboration (getting all departments involved), numbers / metrics (measuring everything that is done), and producing content that gives the company a competitive advantage (from exploiting competitor weaknesses to developing a voice of authority). And the use of AI is revolutionizing this at scale. To stay competitive, successful Marketing departments must keep the company in alignment and take this holistic approach to everything they do.

[ This story also appears on Medium ]