There are many entrepreneurs out there who have transitioned from a non-business or marketing background into the role of CEO or co-founder. These people are very bright and have lots of skills like programming, high levels of creative thinking, excellent management and strong sales instincts.
However, many execs and new businesses are utterly lost when it comes to understanding what makes great marketing.
At a high level, there is often a failure to realize that marketing is essentially tied to the growth of your company. Why is that? Because when marketing data is accurate and gathered correctly, you can spend X amount of $ and know you’re going to get Y dollars in return.
This knowledge is critical to you, as a co-founder or CEO, because that Y number determines the excess money you have to invest in new employees, product features, office real estate, more marketing – anything you can think of investing in to further grow your company.
If you accept this premise, then you have to ask yourself before you start marketing, “Do I have a handle on my data? Do I know the lifetime value of a customer, profit per sale, conversion and CPC rates?”
And once you know that stuff, you have to ask yourself what your marketing goals are going to be: Revenue? Profit? More users? More brand awareness? Targeted client (enterprise) acquisition? Is a round of funding coming up (because that can dictate budget)?
Furthermore, you need to know if your product is ready to hit the market or if it can be significantly upgraded quickly to make it more competitive and give your marketing efforts a true pilot before determining their effectiveness.
The truth is, there’s a ton you need to figure out before you start marketing, because you don’t want your marketing campaigns to end poorly without them being executed and analyzed in an environment that’s conducive to success.
So, if you’re one of those people who thinks they’re ready to start investing more in marketing, or if your marketing efforts before were not successful check out this slideshow – it will definitely help!
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