Before You Spend Another Marketing Dollar: Ask These 5 Questions

Before You Spend Another Marketing Dollar: Ask These 5 Questions

Have you ever felt that just nagging regret after buying into the latest marketing tactic or vendor promise, only to see little return? Yeah, I have been there, too. And that's why today I'm sharing a simple five-question filter to keep you from lighting marketing dollars on fire. If you are running a B2B business and tired of guessing with your marketing, trying to figure out what will actually move the needle, this one's for you.

Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in.

Man, people waste marketing dollars all the time. I have been there. I have done it plenty of times. So today, I'm going to walk you through the five questions that I use before making any marketing investments, big or It doesn't matter the size. So these five questions will help guide your decision making to help ensure that you make the best decision possible. No decision is foolproof, but these questions will help guide you.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Making Any Marketing Investments

So the first question, does this align with our strategy? Does this align with our strategy? Strategy is the fuel for your marketing engine. Without it, tactics are just a bunch of random parts that you've assembled. You've got to have strategy. So ask, Hey, does this support our ideal clients, our core offers, and our unique positioning? Is this going to get us in front of the people that we want to work with. So for example, if your core offers high touch consulting, but you're investing in TikTok ads and you're not sure if it's going to get you in front of your ideal clients, that may not be a good thing. So this question alone can help eliminate half the poor marketing decisions people make out there. You want to make sure does this align with our strategy? Is this going to help us get in front of the ideal clients we intend to attract and the people that we want to work with? We want to be targeted. We're not like, throwing stuff up against a wall hoping it sticks here. Does it align with the strategy?

Second question is, do we have the resources to execute this well? Do you have the time, the team, the tools, or the know-how to pull this off? Just because something looks good on paper doesn't mean you can make it work. So maybe you've got a killer podcast plan, but you have no one to write the script, you have no one to edit it and do postproduction. You're not sure how to promote it. You have to be able to execute on it. And if you don't have the resources, you're not going to be able to execute on it. So in that case, you either need to get the resources or you need to move on to something Otherwise, because if you don't have the resources to implement and execute it, it's not going to work well. You're going to waste time and money. If you're already maxed out, adding more isn't the right approach. It's just self-sabotage. You're not going to do it well. So we've got to make sure that we've got the resources. It aligns with our strategy. We need to then make sure that we've got the resources to execute on it well. If you don't have people in-house, that's okay. You can hire outside resources to execute on it. But you got to make sure you have the resources.

Next, we need to look at what's the expected return on investment or what the success look like. We need to know what the end goal is. What's the outcome that we expect? Are we looking for leads? Is it awareness? Are we looking for a certain number of clients? If we don't know what success looks like, how can you possibly measure it? I like to encourage people to define not just leading indicators, but lagging indicators. What indicators can we track up front that are going to help identify that we're on the right path. And then the lagging indicators are what happens after the initial action up front. So leading indicators could be landing page views versus lagging indicators of client conversions. What indicators up front can help give us an idea of how many client conversions we're going to get on the back-end? Okay. So use calibrated questions in this process. Like, what would have to happen for this particular tactic to be worth it? So we've got to So what the expected ROI is. What does success look like? We've got to define those elements.

Number four, are we ready for this tactic or is it too soon? Are you actually ready for this? Do you have the foundational pieces in place for this to work? So for example, running ads without a clear offer or a solid message that's driving people to a landing page that doesn't have a good message, doesn't have a good call to action is a waste of time. You're not ready for the tactic, right? That's like trying to tow a trailer with no hitch, okay? It's not going to work. We're putting the cart before the horse in this case. So you've got to make sure that you've got the foundational pieces in place for that particular tactic. Otherwise, you're not ready. It's too soon. Sometimes the best move is to actually pause and not jump into something or not pivot because you're not ready for it. So when you ask yourself that question, you need to be honest with yourself. Are you really ready for it?

Last question, if we didn't invest in this, what would we do instead? This is an opportunity cost question. It's identifying, Hey, if we didn't do this, what could we do instead? And if we don't do what we could instead, there's an opportunity cost. There's an opportunity cost in doing what you plan to do, and there's an opportunity cost in not doing what you could do instead. And you need to understand what that is. If you said no to this tactic or this tool, what could you say yes to and what could the benefits of that actually be? This forces you to prioritize, because just because something is good doesn't mean it's the best use of time, money, or focus for you do right now.

Conclusion

So when you're thinking about investing in a particular marketing tactic or tool, just ask yourself these five questions, and that's going to help you determine whether it may be a good fit. One, does it align with our strategy? Two, do we have the resources to execute this well? Three, what's the expected ROI or what does success look like? Four, are we ready for this tactic or is it too soon? And five, if we didn't invest in this, what would we do instead? Marketing is an investment, and like any good investment, you've got to have a framework to vet that investment. These five questions can help you vet it. They're a filter to help you make smarter decisions, get faster wins, and have fewer regrets. You don't have to chase every shiny marketing object. Use these questions to help you stay aligned with your strategy, and you're going to start to see marketing as a growth engine, not a gamble, not something that you're just going to throw spaghetti up against a wall.

So thank you so much for taking the time to tune in. I hope you found this helpful. If you did, if you've got questions about this or anything else related to building your marketing engine, and getting out of the marketing maze. You can do that over at rialtomarketing.com. It's rialtomarketing.com. The other free resource we've got for you is over at revenueroadblockscorecard.com. When we help clients build their marketing engine, we look at nine critical components. If you want to know which of the nine are slowing down your growth and are in your way, you can do that over at RevenueRoadblockscorecard.com. Takes less than five minutes to get your customized report. There's a ton of value there, so go take advantage of it. And until next time, take care.