How to Capitalize on Your Marketing Spend in 2020

John Wanamaker famously stated, “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” Now, he was probably being a bit facetious back when he said that, but history proves he wasn’t far off!

Forrester recently published the “Why Marketers Can’t Ignore Data Quality” report, and statistics found that 37% of marketers waste marketing spend as a result of poor marketing or media data quality. About 35% suffer from inaccurate targeting, and 30% have lost customers due to this problem (Marketing Revolution).

That’s a lot of missed opportunities and lost revenue! BUT HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS: just like most issues in life, today’s marketers are making things a lot more difficult than they need to be.

We simply have to get back to the basic information gathering and problem-solving skills we all learned back in elementary school. We’ve got to ask the right questions, take a look at the answers, make a few assumptions, and be ready to make adjustments along the way. So, how do we do that?

The Five W’s: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY.

The effectiveness of understanding these simple questions dates back centuries — from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas, Cicero to countless other philosophers, theologians, politicians, and ancient academies throughout history.

If you start with WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, more often than not, you’ll have a much better understanding of HOW MUCH.

BLU recently created a WANAMAKER blog series (WANATRACK; WANATARGET; WANAREACH; WANAINFLUENCE; and WANACREATE) that helps assess and address Wanamaker’s age-old issue while explaining how we essentially use the Five W’s to help our customers, clients, partners, and friends save money while creating more effective, meaningful, and lasting marketing efforts for their business.

Take a look for yourself. If you look closely, you’ll see that the answers really are quite simple — sure, they can sometimes be difficult to wrap your head around, but quite easy to overcome when you start with the the Five W’s.

And BLU can help!

Blu can help you track your total marketing spend to the very cent through our 24/7 web portal. From creating content that engages emotionally and rationally with individuals, to posting content on channels that engages your most potentially profitable customers, to tracking that customer to a sale or transaction. We can show you where every last nickel of your ad budget is sparking results. Learn more about our Brandwashing process.