Does your marketing strategy have certain expectations? Sure it does. You want to establish awareness for your products and services to ultimately grow sales.
There are many possible channels to make this happen. You’ve established new marketing material. You’ve developed an advertising plan. You’ve developed a strategy.
Do your marketing and sales teams contribute to the bottom-line? That’s not necessarily a rhetorical question.
It takes a strategy.
You’re CFO isn’t interested to learn about “strategy possibilities”. Your CFO doesn’t deal with possibilities – preferring certainty. Dollars spent need to result in fiscal returns.
You need certainty.
Past experience can provide some certainty. But the marketing landscape is rapidly changing. It wasn’t too long ago that advertisers used your door nob to hang their latest test product. The social media revolution changed everything.
Word-of-mouth touch points have accelerated the spread of knowledge and information rapidly across the Internet. Certainly, the very notion of certainty has changed.
So let’s adjust a bit and back up. All companies want marketing results – even non-profits want profits.
I’m here to tell you a shocking truth. Marketing needs to provide certainty. You need a real strategy. When I say real, I mean real, as in human – real. Not fluffy and bloated. Real.
Ultimately, you want results.
Getting Certainty From Marketing & Sales
Have you ever wondered what went wrong when you launched the new product or service?
Fix Issue #1
In Fortune 500 companies and even small businesses, the marketing and sales departments are in separate silos. The Silo Effect commonly refers to the lack of communication and support between departments. Size doesn’t matter.
Each silo or department has an arsenal of knowledge. Join your silos together and leverage the expertise of your valuable employees when building a go-to-market strategy. Integrate the marketing plan in every department. Be transparent. Be on the same page. Be a complete team.
Achieving certainty requires that you work as a cohesive team and pool your knowledge across departments.
Fix Issue #2
Many companies develop marketing programs without completely understanding their target market. Where do they hang out? What do they think about? What problems do they have? How can your product or service solve their problems?
Completely understand your target market by researching, researching and researching. Study web trends. Listen to online discussions. Put yourself in their shoes.
Think you know your consumer? How could you? There are many small micro-communities. It’s hard to know where they are and how to reach them.
More and more seniors are getting online – if just to see pictures of grandkids on Facebook, it’s still an incredible demographic with significant buying power.
Creating certainty requires that you understand your target market and stay open to new ones.
Fix Issue #3
Priority number one is your existing customer. It’s harder and more expensive to get a new customer than to follow up and take care of an existing customer. Follow up is key.
Perhaps you gave a talk last month and asked for newsletter sign-ups. Have they been contacted? Do you have a plan? Are they segmented?
Is your website up to date with the latest information or just floundering out there with no real purpose. Are you providing value or just selling. Are you thinking in terms of the user experience?
Are you providing valuable information that helps someone else?
Achieving certainty requires that you follow up and follow through with your strategy, especially when it comes to prospects, existing customers, and future customers.
It’s a tall order. Sure. It’s more than customer service; it’s enthusiastic customer care.
It has to be real.
