So you’re designing a marketing campaign. Your team is running through the strategy, planning the content, organising rollout, but at which point should you be asking for a third-party assessment of your campaign? Do you even need one?
We argue that you do and that there are good reasons to do this, and a number of points at which it may be useful – here’s why.
You and your team (if you have one) are experts in your product, and that’s a good thing. They know what your customers are after and what your product offers… But is their understanding of how to convey this offering biased by how close they are to it? Can they re-see it from a fresh point of view?
That’s almost impossible.
It is easy for marketing teams to get bogged down in internal discussion and analysis, and in doing so find it increasingly difficult to relate to the external. If they have data, they will explore it and maybe they can do some research (often not, let’s be honest). But nonetheless, their read of the message they put out will be warped by their hyper-focused time-soaked perspective on the product they are selling.
In this case, outsider insight into your campaign, asset, content or idea can be instrumental to your success. An objective, third-party expert looking at what you’ve produced and giving you their honest, constructive opinion. It’s about fresh, untainted eyes being a proxy for your audience.
But when should you go looking for this insight? We argue that there are multiple points along your marketing process at which objective advice could be useful. Any time you make a big decision, you could run it by someone outside your team to get some external thoughts on it before you go ahead.
One example is the conception of assets. Say you’ve built the concept for a video ad, but you haven’t filmed or produced it yet. You want to make sure it will hit your market the way you think it will, so you ask someone outside your team what they think.
Another point at which an objective perspective on your work could be useful is that final editing stage, where you’re almost ready to hit ‘go’ and you want confirmation that what you’re putting out there will bring back what you expect it to.
But how to access this kind of feedback?
The reality is, most of the insight available to you from friends and colleagues will be biased. Your colleagues are living in the same bubble and paid advisors want to keep their jobs or at least keep you smiling. Friends and family will want to be “nice”. Their relationship with you trumps any doubts they may harbour.
So how could you get the kind of objective, outsider perspectives you’re looking for?
This is where SenseCheck is useful. We have gathered a team of marketing experts with a range of specialisations to look at your marketing collateral. Submit your idea, asset, piece of content or campaign to our board of advisors, and they will give you their thoughts on how well it will perform and how it will be received by your target audience – even on how your message comes across.
Check out our page for more on how it works or simply sign up and get started. You can also contact us to ask any questions you may have.
