Marketing Control (Part 2) – Four Ways to Control Marketing In Your Business

Here are 4 ways to help you develop the monitoring and control procedures for your marketing plan.

1. Planning for Marketing Planning

This is making sure that you are constantly evaluating and reviewing key marketing performance indicators for marketing in your business on a regular basis against your overall business plan and then keep all staff informed of progress:

• Work out a sequence of steps within a timetable cycle to control and schedule your marketing plan e.g. twelve steps x one each month to cover each part of your marketing planning process within your annual cycle
• Establish a task force with the right knowledge, skills and attitude to embrace marketing planning and manage the change process
• Brief each selected member of the marketing planning team for the role that they are required to play
• Be flexible to introduce corrective action, contingency plans and improvements on an ongoing basis while taking into account the aspirations and needs of your customers/consumers
• Constantly evaluate that your marketing objectives are achieving your marketing mix (the marketing strategies and tactics for implementing your range of marketing activities)
• Seek and ask questions on testing measures and actions

2. Marketing Research

• Identify and collect specific data from the external environment
• Match this data with appropriate information from internal sources in order to dovetail with your business and marketing capabilities and customer/consumer needs and wants
• Analyse the complexity of this overall data and information to produce and review the SWOT with the aim to create wise marketing objectives in line with your business goals

3. Market Information Systems (MIS)

• Create and manage a marketing database to collect and decipher marketing intelligence from both internal and external sources to provide accurate data in order to assist marketing planning
• Create an information system which is flexible to the changing needs and evolution of your marketing strategy e.g. a visual diagram to clearly show the system and procedures

4. Key issues that need to be addressed

• Is there a requirement for collaborative marketing planning within your business to gain acceptance or the process
• Encourage openness, commitment, responsiveness and energy within your business for the challenge of marketing planning and the long-term nature of the task
• Clarify of key roles for everyone involved
• Encourage learning and training for developing marketing skills
• Decide: who will co-ordinate marketing planning; how will it be communicated; who manages the marketing research and the MIS; and what budget is available for marketing activities
• Decide if there a need to benchmark marketing planning
• Decide if there is a need for recruiting or insourcing marketing talent and experience on either a full-time, part-time, secondment, consultancy or internal transfer
• Create a momentum to sustain and improve the way in which marketing planning is organised in your business

By incorporating and using these 4 key ways to monitor and control marketing planning in your business they will not only support your marketing plan, but also actively check and review the system to improve your marketing, bring about change and enhance the reputation of the need for marketing planning… A focus on getting customer attention and their interest, nurturing them along their journey with you, and ultimately help convert your offers into customer sales.

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