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You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin': When Your Marketing Loses Focus

© Karen Kalis

We all start our marketing with the best of intentions -- a written plan, a defined audience, the best products and services. But what do you do when your best laid marketing plans don't yield the results you are looking for? In one word: reevaluate.

Unfortunately, reevaluation is sometimes needed because marketing isn't a precise science. Even our best planning and efforts may yield negligible results. When you decide to revise your marketing, the first thing to do is to pull out your marketing plan.

Refocus: The Marketing Plan

If you didn't prepare a cohesive written marketing plan before launching your product or service, you may have already discovered the reason why your marketing is lackluster. Just in case, let's review.

A marketing plan includes information about your product or service, your target market, information about your competition and characteristics of probable clients and consumers. Start by looking at sales that you have made and ask yourself a few questions.

• Do these customers exhibit the characteristics detailed in my plan?
• How did these clients hear about my product?
• Was their purchase directly related to my marketing efforts?

If your answer is "yes" to these questions, then you may just be suffering through the ramp-up time it takes to implement a serious marketing program. Hang in there and continue putting your efforts into attracting the customers you've profiled.

Refocus: A Missed Target

On the other hand, if your data reveals that most of your sales are not related to your marketing plan, it's time to take a serious look at your tactics. Observe your product with fresh eyes. Is it's quality comparable to the competition in your industry? Is it packaged attractively? Also, think about your competitors. If possible, purchase some of the competing product to compare it to your own. You may notice aspects of your product upon direct comparison that you haven't seen before.

Once you've taken a look at your product, it's time to look at your past customers. Make a fresh list of the characteristics of people who have actually purchased your product, their age, sex, occupation and any other aspects that may help define why they bought your product (such as proximity to your location). Now compare these results with your marketing. You may have discovered that you have more male customers than female when you expected the opposite. If so, simply refocus your efforts toward the pertinent characteristics and your efforts should yield good results.

Refocus: Your Time

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