Everyone wants to get more out of their marketing efforts, and rightly so, with so many options and avenues to pursue in these days, it’s hard to clear yourself through the noise and chaos of today’s advertising landscape. Here are ten top tips for helping make your business more successful in sales and marketing:
1. Research
You may feel like this is a no-brainer, but after years of hammering away in your business – Do you know for sure you’re reaching your clientele, or more importantly, are their opportunities to engage new markets? Without unbiased, clear research you may be missing the larger picture.
2. Always Start with a Strategy
You wouldn’t plan a year-long trip around the world without planning, would you? Or buy a car without being sure that you are picking something to suit your needs, right? So, why would you ever consider doing a major push in sales and marketing if you have no plan of attack?
3. Be Tactical, about your Marketing Tactics
You can’t (and shouldn’t) be everywhere in marketing. Your strategy’s research will point to what efforts are going to be best for your business, your products and services. Certain industries, verticals may benefit greatly from Content Marketing, whereas trade shows may benefit others better – Your business is unique, because the needs of your customers are unique, never lose sight of that.
4. Make Yourself Approachable
Don’t make your business unapproachable. More and more clients are researching businesses well before they ever decide to act. Make sure that your business’ collateral is clear, concise and consistent across all of your efforts. Why would your Sales Team speak in sales terminology, but your Marketing Team speak casually? Make sure your messaging is consistent.
5. Website Calls to Action
Is your website static or an online brochure? It’s okay, admit it, and take action! Your website is the hub of all of your online marketing, but it needs to do more than spew information. Do you have clear calls to action? Ways to capture leads and start them through a journey with your business? If not, your potential customers could be visiting your site and not taking that critical next step.
6. Capture Leads and Segment
When email marketing first hit the scene, we were all trying to target everyone with the same messaging, and overtime, we realize we were losing clients and now sure of “why”. One mass message does not work in today’s world. Inbound Marketing can assist you convert visitors into leads into customers.
7. Track Everything
Online Marketing efforts are easier to track, even non-digital efforts can have effective calls to action to send a potential customer to a landing page, call your Sales Team, etc. Whatever the effort always be asking “Is there an effective way to measure this?”. Do also realize that some efforts, branding for example, aren’t easily measurable marketing efforts, but definitely worth investment!
7. Test, Test, Test!
Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your Marketing Campaign. As your strategic campaign rolls out, every few months review the results, tweak, pivot and realign your Marketing Tactics off of the initial results. Make sure that you’re not only measuring marketing, but marketing and sales conversions. Test your processes continually to optimize your results.
8. Have Open Communication
No initiative or issue resolution can be managed without open communication between all parties involved. When things are working great, celebrate them together. When things are proving to be a challenge, or not working in any part of the process, talk it through. Don’t wait for things to get overwhelming before speaking up.
9. Never Stop Planning
Your testing and communications about planning and alignment of your Sales and Marketing Teams will definitely start to show how measurable your marketing actually is and the success you can have. That doesn’t mean get things working and then stop innovating, planning and executing. Marketing is a never-stop kind of industry; what works today could be obselete or inefficient 6-months from now. Always be looking forward on how to reach, attract and convert clientele today and into your business’ future.
10. Form Good Partnerships
Nothing can cement measurable marketing efforts than a good partnership with professional marketers. While you may have a great internal resource, they simply cannot be effective in every area of marketing. If you don’t have an internal resource, marketing can seem overwhelming. This is where assistance from an innovative, adaptive Marketing Firm can be a benefit. Often the costs associated with marketing are similar to those of an internal staff member, however, executed by skilled professionals with years of experience in their area of expertise. Should you be wanting to streamline your sales and marketing processes, and truly make action plans off of research, strategy and measurable marketing tactics, we’d be excited to work alongside your business.
Our mantra as a Marketing Partner is simple: We’re not here to push you, we’re not here to drag you, we’re here to walk alongside your team as your Marketing Team and we’d be thrilled to talk with you!
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Brendan is the founder of Unison Measurable Marketing is a full service agency helping companies align their Sales and Marketing departments, and find the ROI in Marketing.
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