4 Steps to Making Better Marketing Decisions

The direction our marketing takes depends on the decisions we make and that can be scary, especially if marketing is an area of weakness. One decision seems safe, the other decision more exciting, but risky. One seems easy, the other more difficult. We know that our decision could potentially increase or maybe even decrease our business and the negative possibility scares us to the point that we get stuck in the matrix of indecision.

Often it isn’t that we can’t make a decision on our marketing, it’s that we won’t. Here are 4 tips to help you overcome your timidity or uneasiness towards making that marketing decision you know you need to make.

#1. Accept That You Will Make Both Good & Bad Marketing Decisions
It might be helpful to remind ourselves that not every “good” marketing decision is going to lead to absolute prosperity any more than every “bad” marketing decision is going to lead to our utter destruction. Most of our day-to-day marketing decisions are more akin to the compound effect – an accumulation of decisions and actions over a period of time.

It’s important to understand that our perception of a “good” marketing decision can change depending on our circumstances and that’s different than saying it was a bad decision. For example, many companies kicked themselves for spending money on website redesigns right before mobile activity spiked demanding responsive web designs and costing them more fees to update their site once again. The timing on taking action with those initial changes were not bad decisions – technology changed, plain and simple. They had made the best decision with the best information they had at the time. Give yourself permission to be human and move on. 

#2. Collect 100% of the Information
Do you actively research and collect all of the information necessary that you will need in order to make that smart marketing decision? It could be comparative pricing, reviewing a vendor’s portfolio, or simply having all of your questions asked and answered.
Sometimes we struggle with making a decision simply because we haven’t done our due diligence. Even if we’re the sole decision maker, we can benefit by pretending we need to present this to a supervisor, because we will put in extra effort to be sure we have all of the information.

#3. Make a List of Pros & Cons