You’ve entrusted the growth of your home services company to an internal marketing team - but how do you know they’re doing their job well?
Here are five signs that your internal marketing team isn’t performing well, so you can address any issues before they get out of hand and affect your company’s overall brand image and reputation.
(Note: We updated this amazing content as of July 2022. Enjoy!)
How can you evaluate your effectiveness as this group works alongside your other employees? It can be easy to assume they’re simply doing their jobs without problems or hitches. That may not always be the case, though. This lack of oversight could be costing you money and stunting business growth.
Here are some surefire signs that something’s amiss with your internal marketing team:
Sign #1: Marketing Teams Never Seem to "Have Time"Your internal marketing team often just doesn't have time to do their job. Why? One culprit could be they lack the proper digital tools to do the job effectively.
Your employees may not be accurately managing their time. Who is in charge of which task? When are the due dates? How much money does each step cost? Confusion about "getting things done" will waste time for everyone in your company.
You need a better tech stack to unify and streamline your team's outcomes. What is a tech stack? A technology stack, or tech stack for short, is the set of software or digital platforms a company uses for reaching goals.
A windows and doors company's tech stack might include:
If your internal marketing team is constantly coming to you asking for more money because they "just don't have enough time," it's a sign that they need better tools to do their job.
2) Your Marketing Department Stays IsolatedA home services marketing team that’s not speaking to and aligning with every department is of little use to the organization. Marketing success relies on identifying goals and constantly communicating with other teams.
The marketing department should reach out to sales, operations, and support teams to continue to help them succeed.
Once a marketing team takes time to know the needs of each department, they can develop ideas to help each meet their goals and get everyone "on the same page."
For example, we promote a system where marketing and sales meet monthly for an hour. This "Marketing and Sales Huddle" provides an opportunity to see what questions leads are asking and what sales need to address doubts from potential customers. The result? Useful marketing materials for the sales team and better sales results from marketing efforts!
3) There is a Lack of Strategy or FocusYour internal marketing team may not have clear goals or objectives. As a result, they could be trying to do too many things at once.
Does your marketing department present a clear plan at the beginning of each quarter? How many content pieces per week? How does this output align with social media efforts? What metrics is the team tracking to know if efforts are producing results?
Unfocused plans and a lack of clear goals often make internal marketing teams feel like they're "winging it." This can quickly lead to team members' frustration and apathy toward company goals.
A platform like Hubspot could be the foundation to keep everyone organized and on track.
4) The Playbook is OutdatedYour current marketing playbook has probably been around for decades. That's right. The strategies being used to reach today's customers are probably over a decade old. So what's the problem? That's enough time for technology and customer behavior to change significantly.
If your marketing team isn't keeping a continual eye on customer behavior and purchasing trends, you may have strategies that do not reach today's customers effectively.
So what's the solution? Internal marketing teams need a new playbook based on what works now. They need to be willing to let go of old habits and be willing to grow, too. That is sometimes easier said than done!
We have a great resource for your team to start with! Check out our free guide outlining marketing strategies that work for today's customers.
5) "Gut Feelings" Determine SuccessGut feelings are an important part of being a business owner—but intestinal sensations shouldn’t be the main thing guiding your marketing strategy.
You need hard data to measure your efforts' success and ensure your marketing team is actually performing well.
Without data, you may not know if your new customer acquisition efforts are actually paying off or why people aren’t responding to those promotions. It’s time to bring hard data into the picture by choosing relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure performance truly.
Sign #6: Your Marketing Team is Always in "Crisis Mode"If your internal marketing team is always in "crisis mode," it's a sign that they're not doing their job well. What does "crisis mode" look like?
It might be a never-ending cycle of putting out fires instead of preventing them. It could be working on projects that should have been completed weeks ago but were pushed to the side. Perhaps team members are always stressed and frazzled, never seeming to have a moment to breathe.
Crisis mode is unsustainable and will eventually lead to team members' burnout. If your internal marketing team is always in crisis mode, it's time to take a step back and figure out what's happening.
It could be that the team is taking on too much work, or internal issues may need to be addressed. In any case, it's important to get to the root of the problem so that it can be fixed.
If your internal marketing team is underperforming, there are ways to improve! We recommend taking three steps:
1) Improve your tech stack. Streamline performance by getting everyone on the same page with the right digital tools.
2) Align marketing & sales departments (to start). You will want your in-house team to work with every part of your organization.
3) Start using hard metrics to measure marketing performance. This will allow you to make data-driven decisions as your business grows.
4) Push your internal marketing team to adopt new strategies. A regular investment of research time must be made to determine what is working now for reaching your customers.
Take Time to Conduct a Proper Department AuditIf you're unsure where to start, we recommend conducting an internal audit of your marketing department. This will help you determine what's working well and what needs to be improved.
A department audit can be conducted by an external company, or you can do it yourself. If you decide to do it yourself, here are a few things to keep in mind:
1) Be objective. It can be difficult to be unbiased when you're looking at your own company, but it's important to try.
2) Get input from everyone on the team. This includes the marketing team, sales team, customer service, and anyone else who interacts with customers.
3) Be detailed. Look at everything from the team's structure to how they interact with customers.
4) Set realistic goals. After you've identified areas that need improvement, set achievable goals.
5) Make a plan. Once you have your goals, create an action plan to help achieve them.
Conducting an internal audit of your marketing department will help you identify areas that need improvement. From there, you can set realistic goals and plan to help your team succeed.
We've helped home services companies like yours review, optimize, and build stronger internal marketing teams. That's why we're offering you a FREE copy of our internal marketing audit checklist.
This guide will help you:
Click below to get your FREE copy of the internal marketing audit guide.
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