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So Your Ad Agency Got an Award. Now What?

by Jennifer Beever

results not awardsEffective marketing is not about winning design awards. Effective marketing is about getting results.

Over the years as a marketing consultant (I founded New Incite in April of 1997), I have observed that a lot of people get bogged down in the details and don’t pay enough attention to results. This is evidenced in the value the marketing and advertising industry and some businesses place on creative and design awards.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that awards are great. Kudos to the award winners. But, as a marketing consultant, I need to ask – did the campaign, ad or website get you results? Results in the way of leads, revenue, brand awareness?

In the book, Professional Services Marketing: How the Best Firms Build Premier Brands, Thriving Lead Generation Engines, and Cultures of Business Development Success, authors Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr provide a list of marketing details to avoid. I think it’s a good one:

1. Keep your eye on the prize: the end marketing result you need to achieve, not on little design details.

2. Collaborate with few. Keep those committee and team sizes to a minimum!

3. Observe Ockham’s Razor – the idea that, in trying to understand something, getting unnecessary information and details out of the way is the fastest way to the truth or to the best explanation. See my previous post on this – What Does Occam’s Razor Have to Do with B2B Marketing?

4. If you are not a professional graphic designer, don’t try to be one! Ask questions like, “Will this attract visitors to our exhibit at the trade show?” instead of, “Don’t you think this shade of green will be better?

5. Don’t dither, become dilatory, or be delusional (thinking marketing is graphic design rather than growing revenue).

What do you think? Have you observed some of the above in your marketing projects? Do you think things are changing as we can now report on more results with digital marketing?

If you need help focusing your marketing on results, contact New Incite today. We provide strategic marketing analysis and planning and implementation services, including traditional marketing, websites and social media.

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