Rough set of numbers in for H1? Here’s how to turn it around and crush your marketing review anyway.
Okay, so the first half of the year didn’t go as you hoped. Don’t despair – embracing the mid-year marketing review can be surprisingly liberating. Heading into meetings with a plan of attack for H2 is far better than burying your head in the sand. Taking responsibility for what’s gone wrong can also be refreshing – it puts you back in control of the situation, with the mandate to act on it.
Get the right inputs – qualitative & quantitative for your review
A clear, honest picture of the first half of the year is vital. For a lot of marketers, we over-rely on data to tell the story for us. But it’s only ever half of of the picture. Chat to sales, product, ops, finance – or whatever your organisation calls them, and hear their understanding of what worked and what didn’t. You might be surprised by what you learn, and how it brings some clarity to the data.
Breakdown the moving parts of your marketing strategy and review what went wrong
📐 Planning & process – were you aiming for the right segments, focussing on the right products or teams? Where you over ambitious with your projections? Did you have the right systems & platforms in place to monitor and track what you were doing?
🥎 Performance of your team & tactics – did you execute correctly? Did your content flop? Social engagement drop? Getting a good understanding of what did and didn’t work at the tactical level is just as important as the right strategy. Did your team get distracted by other tasks and ad hoc management requests? Did your stakeholders and agencies deliver what they were meant to?
🏛️ External influences on your plan – you can’t control the market, and while it’s not about finding excuses sometimes other things just get in the way. Especially with this year’s….packed…news cycle. Think of this as a way to lern how you can better anticipate or manage them in future.
Get back on track and adjust – but don’t overcompensate
There’s a big temptation to over compensate in the second half of the year. But stacking more onto your plate probably won’t help you or your team get where you want to go. And your full year marketing review probably won’t look any better.
Instead, look at what’s feasible for remaining months of the year, contextualised for your environment. Is your sales team ahead of pipeline? Then look at the initiatives that set up long term success. If they’re really struggling, then your one goal is bringing in high quality leads for them to act on.
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