Marketing Experts Never Stop Learning
Do you have a Learning Agenda?
As the year is coming to an end, marketing teams are no doubt attempting to button up their calendars and budgets for the coming year. Both are very important pieces to determining success and meeting your business’ goals over the next twelve months. But, as part of your planning sessions, did your business also talk about how they want to grow and learn next year? Did you plan a learning agenda?
A learning agenda is usually a list of questions, that if answered, would have a direct impact on future business or marketing strategies. Items on the learning agenda could be determined by performing research or testing.
Typically, there is a process used to craft the learning agenda. It begins with understanding gaps of knowledge and applying the context of where your business is headed – does filling those gaps help you achieve a business objective? For instance: you many need to know the best price point before launching a new product. Are you looking for ways to save money by marketing in new channels – which is the most effective for your business? Should you be testing different acquisition offers to increase the rate of acquisition and meet company goals?
Why is a learning agenda so important?
Assists in planning for resources
Without proper planning of testing and research opportunities, documented in some type of list or agenda, your company may not have the people resources available to complete all of your valuable learning needs. Resources can be individuals or teams assembled to complete the learning project, and of course the budgets to do so. Ensuring you have the resources available will assist in timely execution and implementation of learnings to move your business forward more quickly.
Prioritization of tests
Prioritization is important because some testing items need to happen in a certain order to make the most logical or cost-effective sense. Here’s an example scenario: Two tests are planned – one is to test marketing channels (email vs. direct mail) for a campaign; the other is to test different email subject lines for the same campaign. Which test should run first? If the channel test is run first and direct mail wins, it may negate the need for the subject line testing. If the subject line testing is run first, it could make the channel test stronger in favor of email. Prioritizing your list of potential testing up-front can be helpful to saving time and money.
Better your business
Conducting learning surveys, research and tests throughout the year is the best way to grow and better your business. No business is perfect and no business is without gaps of knowledge or understanding about their unique market. If anything, learn to get better. Maybe you don’t have a problem to solve, but there’s always an opportunity to be better at what you are doing.
Need help plotting your learning path? Let our strategy experts facilitate a planning session with your team. We’d love to help brainstorm the best way to test and learn to answer your business questions. Contact us today at b2edirect.com.
Kari
Account Manager/Data Analyst
