Maturity (n):

A measure of an organization’s ability to achieve continuous improvement in a particular discipline.

As an organization grows, its infrastructure and processes must continually improve in order to properly support increasing functional volume and responsibilities. This is particularly true in marketing, which benefits from longevity in the field combined with an experimental approach that builds on prior learnings.

Young Marketing Consulting has developed the marketing maturity model below to help our clients continually improve their marketing performance.

The Five Elements of Marketing Maturity

Audience

How well do you (and your team) understand your audience, their pain points, and where they go for information? How well does your value proposition reflect your audience’s needs? Does that message resonate?

Branding

Does your message stand out in a crowded market? How does your audience think of you (if they even do)? Does the experience you deliver match your promise? Are your visuals, copy, and calls-to-action as effective as possible?

Planning

Are the business goals your marketing must support clearly defined throughout the organization? Is your current infrastructure and budget able to support those goals? Do campaign metrics and results link to larger department goals?

Execution

Are you getting the details right? Do you know where to place your messages, in what formats, and what you need to say to be most effective?

Evaluation

Are you regularly assessing progress and shifting resources to what works? Do you have the tools and process in place to do so? What validation do you have that your message is working?

Not sure where to start? Take our marketing assessment.

Use our tool to identify areas of potential marketing improvement for your organization.

The Stages of Marketing Maturity

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Ad Hoc/Individual-Driven Extant Process Well-Managed Continual Improvement
In this stage, marketing moves in fits and starts when someone has the time.

  • Longer-term performance is erratic
  • No one can say what works best
  • Revenue is often tied to an individual’s actions
 In stage 2, marketing largely knows what to do but can have trouble sticking to plans and deadlines due to resource or infrastructure limitations.

  • Campaign execution and results vary widely
  • Regular debate exists about best tools, channels, etc.
  • Management focuses on defining (and re-defining) processes
 Stage 3 can be thought of as the “muscle memory” stage, where rigorous execution leads to high-performing campaigns

  • Marketing possesses a strong understanding of its goals and the activities required to reach them
  • Campaigns are executed at a high level and regularly assessed for improvement
  • Management focuses on skills training and best practice implementation
 A fully mature marketing function looks to break new revenue ground and test new tools to improve efficiency.

  • The organization is pushing into new markets and categories with a defined plan
  • Marketing activities are regularly evaluated and revised based on ROI
  • Management focuses on product development, growth planning and continual staff improvement