We all want the same thing from marketing regardless of the approach we take – content – social – digital – traditional – conversational – WE WANT SALES!
The Common Communication Challenge
I still shudder and wake up with a hot sweat from my sleep sometimes when I see companies miss massive market opportunities to maximize their potential. I suppose that’s the sales and marketer in me. Constantly thinking, constantly reading, constantly listening, wanting to share, wanting to sell.
You see – my background is working in digital markets and as all digital marketers know – people do not consume media in silos. That means that organizations should not approach their marketing in silos. This is a common challenge STILL facing organizations in the US and the UK.
Below are a few ideas and tips on how we can address that:
Embed Marketing Across Your Organization
In today’s competitive B2B market, the alignment of sales and marketing has never been more crucial. What’s more, the alignment of marketing across all discipline in your organization is now a necessity in order to achieve maximum ROMI – return on marketing investment.
It’s not just about aligning marketing with various internal department, it’s about aligning strategies and sharing information across all external marketing channels ranging from social media to email. It’s about building a marketing organization that involves everyone from the front desk to the CEO. How we structure our marketing organizations and communicate internally in 2012 has a massive impact on how effectively we can communicate with our prospects and measure marketing success.
There are many ways that marketing can be further built into your organization and its success measured more effectively. Marketing has a vital role to play across all areas of your organization. In a forward thinking company marketing should be at the center of all activity across all areas of the organization.
For me, marketing should be driving strategy, leading sales and fostering a culture of team selling across all your business functions.
To read more about this visual the full article is here.
Getting maximum value from this is not something that happens overnight – it requires leadership & organizational change.
Your Marketing Strategy is Your Communication Strategy
It’s all about COMMUNICATION. It always has been. Utilize every marketing channel and technique you have in 2012 to reach your client in the most relevant way. Here is just one of my ideas;
C - Produce quality Content
O - Ensure this content is Optimized for delivery across all your marketing channels
M - Then choose the right Media channel mix that fits your audience
M - Make sure you plan and set success (hard or soft) Metrics
U - Reach out to Universal audiences – influencers and connectors
N - And engage with your Niche audiences through emerging channels such as social
I - Interact with your audience in various circles (you have heard of Google+ right?)
C - Don’t be afraid to be Conversational
A - But always be Accountable
T - Build Trust and rapport with your audience
I - Inspire them
O – Show them new Opportunities
N – And win more New business
The success of your marketing depends upon how creatively you can communicate.
I hope you have found this post to be useful. I welcome your feedback and ideas.
-Andy Betts
To learn more from our special guest blogger Andy Betts, follow him on Twitter, or connect with him on LinkedIn.
