SEARCH

If people in marketing are being honest, a big percentage of their job is guesswork. Done by the book, customer profiling and focus groups give clues as to the need and direction the company’s target market is headed. Soon thereafter, new products and services follow and a marketing message is created. Not everyone follows that game plan, however. On one end of the spectrum you have navel-gazers who spend countless hours studying, analyzing, and crafting a message. On the other end, there are the Steve Jobs-types who will claim they know the market better than the market knows the market (famously, Jobs never asked. He told). But, regardless of how they got there, once a message is formulated, there is no guarantee it’s the right message. It is not unusual for a new initiative to tank even after great care has been taken prior to its launch. Wouldn’t it be great if marketers could test out a message before going all in? For example, Chevy car executives would not have been embarrassed …

If 2020 had a theme, it might be “Expect the Unexpected.” I don’t know of one company that has seen this year go according to plan. Many have faced unprecedented challenges. A few have benefitted from offering the right solution at the right time. Most of us have had to pivot in some way, and not one of us knows what 2021 will bring. So how are we supposed to craft sound marketing strategies, with all of this uncertainty?  My advice: think of this planning season as an invitation to get back to basics. Keep it simple by sticking to these 4 steps.  Choose one high-level marketing goal.  A good mantra during times like these is, “Focus.” Whether you need to build brand awareness, generate more leads, or increase customer satisfaction and retention, choose a single must-complete, high-level goal for 2021.  Use this goal as your North Star all year long. As you consider new projects or marketing activities during the year, ask yourself whether they will help you achieve your goal. When …

In previous blogs about successfully working the sales funnel, we’ve examined, first, various tactics to make people aware of your existence (top of the funnel), and then ways to spark their interest in what you have to offer (mid-funnel). Now, let’s turn our attention to converting interested buyers into confirmed customers … AKA, the bottom of the sales funnel.   Here, our old friend email can really shine, but its approach fundamentally changes when working to convert prospects into customers.   Email debuted nicely in the mid-funnel. Here, you’ve built an email list of those who viewed blogs and other content from you website, or commented on your social posts. You’ve asked them to register to access other smart content, such as expert guides, white papers, and webcasts, all of which demonstrate your ability to solve their problems and needs.   But now you’ve identified a select few who seem like really warm leads. You’ve done that from the your lead-scoring data collected by CRM …