“Opportunities come to us every day in the form of decisions.”
So says Mike Whitaker, author of The Decision Makeover. If this holds true, then how marketers make decisions can directly affect their ability to unearth and act on growth opportunities.
Here are three tips to help ensure you’re making decisions in a manner that leads to opportunities.
Focus On Your #1 Goal
Making better decisions in consumer marketing, much like in life, depends on starting with the end in mind. As Whitaker puts it, “You can only have one #1 goal.”
For marketers the goal is clear and consistent: Create value.
Ensure Your KPIs Track Progress To Your Goal
To ensure your efforts are progressing toward your goal, be sure that your KPIs correlate; for example, if your goal is financial, your metrics must be too.
According to the annual CMO survey, 63.8 percent agree that demonstrating financial impact is the #1 C-suite communication challenge, and yet nearly half acknowledge still relying on qualitative metrics, like awareness, to demonstrate the impact of their marketing spends.
Test and Learn…Be Sure You’re Learning
Consistently driving value requires continuous improvement and innovation. As you test new programs and channels it’s important to be able to learn, iterate and even fail fast.
Even successful decision-makers get it wrong now and then; it’s called being human. The difference is knowing when to jump…and not being afraid to do it.
First you have to be able to assess if a program is delivering what you expect. That comes from having the right metrics available at the right time.
And then you have to have the will to jump; but if you’re making the leap based on data and not just “hope,” it’s a lot less stressful.
The key is to decide.
Learn more about principles for successful decision making and how the marketing industry is improving its ability to make good decisions.
Learn more about Keen’s decision framework here.
