Accountable marketing or reckless marketing? The choice is yours.

I’m a firm believer in one of our core values: Accountable Marketing = ‘What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t matter.’ Here’s why:

Did you know that 80% of my new clients come to me needing a complete marketing overhaul? They’ve been misled by so-called ‘professionals,’ resulting in significant spend with little to show for it. Sound familiar? It’s a common story, unfortunately.

What puzzles me is how often companies treat marketing differently from other sales-driven initiatives. Why is that? Accountable marketing demands purpose, results, and a return on investment for every piece of marketing communication, much like the accountability expected of a salesperson.

When embarking on a rebrand or launching new campaigns, the excitement is palpable. This is the fun part of marketing, but remember, pretty is as pretty does. Your new brand might look stunning, and your campaign might seem ingenious, but that’s subjective – akin to a parent boasting about their child’s cuteness. This is where the rubber meets the road with accountable marketing. It’s time for unbiased feedback because numbers never lie.

At this juncture, we guide businesses to set aside personal biases and focus squarely on results. Every ad, post, and email must justify its existence.

Without measurable outcomes, how can you ascertain the value of a marketing initiative? For instance, blindly increasing your social media marketing budget is futile unless you’re tracking metrics like:

• The amount of traffic previous campaigns drove to your site
• The conversion rate of this traffic
• The quality of inquiries generated
• Sales derived from social media marketing efforts

Elevate your strategy further by incorporating A/B testing.

A/B testing, or split testing, is a marketer’s ace in the hole for making informed, data-driven decisions. It’s a straightforward yet potent method to pit two versions of a marketing asset against each other to see which performs better. Whether on Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram or within your email campaigns, A/B testing reveals critical insights that directly influence your bottom line.

On Meta, A/B testing lets you test variations of an ad to identify what resonates best with your audience. Tweaking simple elements like the headline, imagery, or call-to-action and measuring the differences in engagement, click-throughs, and conversions can help refine your strategy, ensuring your budget is invested in high-performing ads.

In email marketing, A/B testing focuses on variables such as subject lines, content, layout, and timing. Sending two versions to a segment of your list and analysing which yields better open rates or conversions allows for email optimization, ensuring broader audience engagement.

So why is A/B testing indispensable to your bottom line? Simple, it eradicates guesswork. By providing concrete data on audience preferences, it enables more strategic budget allocation to proven strategies– not hunches. Furthermore, A/B testing promotes continual refinement, enhancing ROI, conversion rates, and, ultimately, your bottom line.

Ultimately, it is that data underpins accountable marketing, guiding effort allocation, identifying lucrative channels, and informing campaign timing decisions.

It boils down to this: if your aim is three new deals a month and your sales team has a 50% conversion rate, your marketing needs to generate at least six solid leads monthly. Understanding your website’s conversion rates can further sharpen this target.

In essence, accountable marketing is about transparency and outcomes. Every content piece and campaign should align with and contribute to your business objectives.

Bringing it all together, whether I am consulting or guiding clients through my marketing agency, Salt and Candy, accountable marketing is in my DNA. It’s not just about aesthetically pleasing campaigns; it’s about tangible, bottom-line results. A significant portion of our clients’ revenue stems from our data-driven, strategic approach. 

Are you ready to make your marketing meaningful? Let’s Chat.