The Marketing Performance Blueprint: Strategies and Technologies to Build and Measure Business Success

Chapter 8 Perform a Marketing Assessment

The assessment is a marketing strategy gateway.

POTENTIAL FOR SUCCESS

Every marketing plan should start with an honest internal marketing assessment. The assessment should consider perspectives from multiple stakeholders, including marketing and sales leaders, as well as key executives. The more involved all parties are in the entire strategic process, the easier it is to align needs, goals, expectations, and priorities.

For example, let's say a CMO, who has been in the position for only a few months, rates his marketing team above average, with perceived strengths in critical areas, including copywriting, social media, and analytics. Meanwhile, the CEO, who has more extensive experience with the team, rates them below average overall, with weaknesses across the board.

This obvious disconnect can have a profound impact on resource allocation and performance. Had the assessment taken only the CMO's view into consideration, the company may have understaffed and underperformed.

When conducting an assessment, invest the time to get a true pulse of the company's foundation, reach, expectations, and potential, all of which play essential roles in marketing talent, technology, and strategy decisions.

Foundation

The foundation tells marketers how much building needs to be done. If your foundation is weak, then resources need to be allocated to strengthen critical areas. If your foundation is strong, then time and money can be focused on ...