So at this point you’ve read ‘Feel the Burn’ Part 1, and now you’re looking for the meatier sections? Here are a few more reasons why your marketing consultant should behave like a great fitness coach (the ‘Biggest Loser’ kind, not the creepy Richard Simmons type <shudder>. )
Customized Programs
At your first consultation with a trainer, they will typically ask you a number of questions regarding your activity level, lifestyle, and eating habits. They will check your height/weight, and ask about your goals. Then they will develop a custom program based on your needs. For instance, the training schedules for someone looking to lose 100 pounds, someone training for a marathon, and someone trying to tone up for a big event will be vastly different. And generally so will their schedules and budgets.
A successful marketing consultant will provide you a customized program in much the same way. There is no solution that fits in a box, between the pages of a book, or in a video. A corporate B2C company and a private B2B service provider will need vastly different campaigns, even though they may be using many of the same tools and techniques. Just as one organization is never identical to another, successful marketing programs cannot be built on the same cookie-cutter templates. If you want to see real results, do yourself a favor and hire the marketing company that refuses to provide you a custom proposal until they’ve met with you, learned about your business, and completely analyzed your objectives. The extra time and energy will be well worth it in the long run.
Goal Setting
Let’s face it, sometimes even the most successful entrepreneur or athlete needs someone waiting in the wings to monitor his progress. It’s the reason why programs such as Weight Watchers are so effective: when you have to answer to someone about your progress, you are far more likely to skip that extra slice of pie, and make time for the early morning Spinning class.
Your marketing consultant should work with you to outline goals, and schedule times to monitor progress and results. And it is not enough to simply monitor results, you should know why each project was successful or unsuccessful, and what you can do to improve results for the next campaign.
Stay tuned for the last segment of ‘Feel the Burn’ – simply subscribe to this blog via the RSS feed on our website at https://grapevinemktg.wpengine.com/blog to receive automatic updates.