Business owners have been urged to plan their marketing strategy based on results.

New research from marketingQED has indicated that British businesses could be wasting as much as £2.5 billion a year by sticking with old marketing habits regardless of their success.

According to research-live.com, a poll conducted as part of the research revealed that just 12.9 per cent of marketers are likely to seek advice from third parties at their job. Meanwhile, almost 40 per cent suggested they normally just stick to what a company has done in the past and 35 per cent said they persist with tried-and-tested industry methods.

The survey could certainly be of interest to marketers involved with a franchise agreement. After all, it’s very easy for a franchise to mirror the marketing strategy of other stores with their branding.

Yet, in an interview with thedrum.com, marketingQED CEO Glenn Granger suggested that this might not always be the best way forward.

He said: “Marketing is fiendishly complicated. Most single purchases are the result of many messages received through many channels, in many places, over a period of time, and this is too much data for our brains to process.

“Marketers can guess what works and what doesn’t, but their guesses are often wrong. At worst, they are playing darts blindfold.”