Signs You May Need Executive level Marketing Support To Accelerate Growth

Signs You May Need Executive level Marketing Support To Accelerate Growth

There comes a time in every business where you need leadership, help and support over and above what you can handle yourself. This becomes even more pronounced in high growth companies. So today, what I'm going to do is share some of the telltale signs that you may need executive-level marketing support to accelerate growth. Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult. All you need is the right plan.

Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in today. I really appreciate you.

Before I dig into these, I have seven signs that I'm going to share with you. Before I dig into these, I want to share the assumptions that I am making when I share these. First off, I am assuming that you as the business owner founder are still managing and leading your marketing efforts along with all the other things that you do.

A lot of business owners, myself included, wear many hats. You're wearing many hats. Marketing is one of them. That's the first assumption I'm making. The second assumption that I am making is one of two things that you are already investing in marketing your business consistently in some way, shape or form. That could mean that you have a small in house team. Maybe you have a marketing coordinator or a marketing manager in place and or you have outsourced some of your marketing execution to an agency that is doing it for you. They're creating content for you, or they're making social posts or managing your website, whatever. Maybe they're managing paid ads. They could be doing a number of things, but you are outsourcing some of your work.

So two assumptions. You as the owner are managing and trying to lead your marketing efforts along with all the other stuff you're doing and you're investing in marketing consistently, whether that's with an in house team and or outsourcing to an agency. Those are the assumptions that I am making.

The 7 Signs You may Need Executive-level Marketing Support

So the seven telltale signs that you may need executive level marketing support. The first one is you don't have the time, skill set or expertise to take ownership of your marketing to drive results. As an owner, you feel like you need to but gosh, when you're spinning five different plates, are you really giving something that is as important as marketing the time that it needs? You may even hate marketing, but you're doing it because you're managing it because you feel like you need to. Right. But if you don't have the skill set for it, if it's not the highest and best use of our time, are you really doing marketing the service that it needs? I don't think so. And if you don't have the expertise, you're trying to manage people without the tools that you need to be able to properly manage those people. Right. So if you're in this boat, you are not alone. There are so many people in this boat, but it's important to have the self awareness to say, you know what? This is probably not something that I should be driving at this point. And I may need some help because I guarantee you, if you're in this boat, you're missing out on opportunities that you just can't see because it's not your thing. Okay.

Second telltale sign. You feel like you are gambling your marketing budget each month. You've got in house people that are executing, or you have an agency that's taking action on your marketing each and every month. But gosh, you feel like you're just putting that money out there on the roulette table. How many leads am I going to get this month? I have no idea. Some months it may be good, some months it's not good at all. You feel like you're gambling each and every month. This comes down to, in my opinion, a lot of times it's a lack of a clear plan that's driving consistent, repeatable results. Right. You may be taking very haphazard approach. If this is happening for you, you need executive level marketing support.

Number three, you don't know what's working and what's not. The metrics are the issue. And an executive level marketing person can help identify the right metrics to track so that you know what's working, what's not, and you can make very informed decisions about the updates and changes you need to make as you continue to optimize and execute on your marketing. But if you're in this boat, it means that you're either not tracking any metrics at all or the metrics you are tracking are not the right metrics.

Number four, you're tired of not getting results from your agency or in house staff. And I got news for you, this may have nothing to do with the quality or caliber of your agency or your in house staff. They may be very good, but your in house staff and your agency, they are executing for you. They are the channels that they are using, the tactics they're using, those are the vehicles. If what they're doing isn't working, they may not have the proper fuel for those vehicles to actually work. So you're not giving them what they need to be successful. To me, the fuel are the fundamentals, your target market, the message, your marketing message to that market, and your plan to get that message in front of those people. If you don't have those things in place, your in house team or your agency has vehicles, they have no fuel. That's where an executive level marketing person can help, because they can help put those things in place.

Number five, knowing that your marketing could be doing more for your business but not knowing what you need to fix it. You need somebody who has the skill set to come in and diagnose that, identify where the problems are, where you have growth and profit opportunities, and then put that plan in place and manage the execution and implementation of that plan and manage the ongoing optimization of the plan. And as the owner, if you're spending five plates, there's no way that you're going to be able to do that effectively.

Number six, your marketing efforts and initiatives are scattered, right? They're all over the place. You're trying this one month. You're trying this the next month. This comes down to a lack of planning. You don't have a solid plan in place. You don't know what your priorities should be and what your priorities are for the next month, two months, 90 days. When you don't have a plan in place, everything looks like an opportunity. That's why marketing efforts and initiatives get scattered. There's a lack of proper planning. And if you don't have the skill set to put together a proper plan, that's a telltale sign that you need executive level marketing support. If you are expecting a marketing manager or a marketing coordinator to put together a strategic marketing plan, it's totally unrealistic. It is not going to happen.

Last one. Number seven, you feel like your marketing lacks direction and focus. Like number six, this comes back down to a lack of planning. When we don't have a plan in place, we don't know what our priorities are, we don't know what direction we're headed and we don't have focus. But when we have a plan, we know what our priorities are and we have clarity. Super important. But you can't expect somebody that is an implementer to put together a strategic marketing plan that's going to drive your entire marketing efforts. It's just not realistic.

Why You Shouldn't Default to Hiring Full-time if You Need Help

So those are the telltale signs that you may need executive level marketing support. If you're in this boat, you are not alone. There are so many businesses that are in this boat. But if you're in this boat, don't default to I've got to hire a fulltime person. There's a plenty of businesses out there that do not need a full time chief marketing officer or a Vice President of marketing. They don't. In fact, what I found is most companies that are in that 2 million to $20 million range in revenue. And this does vary a little bit depending on what you do, how profitable your business is, how many people you have. But as a general rule of thumb, if you're in that two to 20 million in revenue range, you probably don't need to hire a full time marketing executive. Okay. This is a $175 to $250,000 a year position plus benefits. It's a lot of money. There are plenty of companies, mine included, that offer part time support. That ongoing advisory and guidance each and every month. Somebody that can take the leadership role, drive results, report the results to you so you know what's going on and make sure that they can put the plan in place. Make sure that you've got the fuel behind the tactics so that they're going to work and somebody that can just be there to sit on your side of the table and on an ongoing basis manage the implementation and execution of your plan and continually optimize it so that you know that you're getting consistent repeatable results. So you can hire a full time but you don't have to. There are companies like mine that can help with that. Don't always default to I've got to hire full time. You don't. And frankly, if you're in that two to 20 million range you are probably much better off using the additional funds that you save by hiring somebody part time to invest in other aspects of your marketing. And that person that you hire part time can have a larger budget and do more with it.

Conclusion

So I hope you found this helpful. I do appreciate you taking the time to tune in. If you want to get a glimpse at the 90 day marketing plans that we use for our business and our customers so that you can see what the planning process is like, head on over to growthmarketingplan.com. That's growthmarketingplan.com. There's an introductory video there that shows you the plan walks you through each of the elements. The template is there, sample plans are there. Everything you need to get started on your marketing plan so that you can start seeing more consistent repeatable results can be found right there at growthmarketingp lan.com. You can also always find us over at RialtoMarketing.com R-I-A-L-T-O Marketing.com. If you want to get a free consult, you'll find that button there. I would be happy to chat with you and give you some clarity on where you should be focusing your efforts, your marketing efforts based on where you are currently and where you want to go. Thanks again for tuning in. Til next time. Take care.