“You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” - Beth Comstock
Often one that is ripe with questions of who, what, when, where, and how. Who is our audience? What should we even talk about? When should we be sending something? Where do we look? How do we measure our success?
These questions are the first steps into understanding the value of marketing and how, by implementing a systematic approach, you can create a repeatable, successful marketing opportunity.
In the Inside the Industry webinar hosted by Scott Marshall, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sarah Buscaino, Director of Digital Strategy, and me, Callie Hawley, Senior Manager of Content & Social Media, discussed more than just optimizing your messaging.
Let’s get one thing right—your message is important. Paramount, in fact. Without it, you wind up talking about your services without a north star of what you stand for as a company. There are key elements of crafting your message appropriately:
- Your market definition - Who is your audience? Which people buy from you most often? Are you targeting someone outside of the norm? Check out our podcast around building a database for more insight here.
- Key personas - Once you identify your target audience, who are the people within the organization that you need to speak with? What are their challenges that you can help solve? What are their buying motivations? Are they your decision-maker, or do they need more input before signing the contract?
- Your mission - What is your company trying to accomplish? Make this unique to your business. You want someone to hear that mission and believe that you’re holding strong to it for their success as your client.
- Positioning - Define your market and what separates you from your competitors. What value does your company deliver? Why is that different from the TSP down the street? What is the reason that a prospect should believe you?
So, you take those four elements and craft a message you’re proud of, but then you’re left with a big “What now?” How do you get this message in front of your prospects? How do you communicate with them effectively?
First, you want to infuse that message into content that serves a prospect during every phase of their buyer’s journey. You want to make them aware of what you offer, help them understand what solutions you have to their problems, educate them on why your company is the best, and remove roadblocks and risk of them signing on with you, eventually leading to a signed agreement. And within that journey, content that hits every portion of the marketing funnel: top (awareness building), middle (solution education, and competitive comparisons), and bottom (solidifying their decision).
Once you have a few solid pieces of content, it’s time to rev up your marketing engine to get that content in front of your prospects effectively. Remember, these are the ingredients of a solid campaign, but you have to find a balance. You can’t do all things at all times, so knowing what levers to pull is the key to your success.
For example, you don’t need to send three separate emails to the same list of prospects, each with a different piece of content or message. Instead, find a consolidated way to get your information across. The same goes for your website. You don’t have to put every single thing you ever want to say on there, but instead, focus on the main things you want a prospect to know about what you offer and why you’re different. How can they get in touch with you quickly?
With your campaign elements moving, it’s imperative to measure your success so that you can pivot quickly if something isn’t working.
The reason you need marketing is for predictable revenue growth. If you don’t want to predict that, then you don’t need to invest in amping up your marketing. But if you want to predict your revenue growth with accuracy, understanding how to back into your goal number will help you plan and execute your campaigns.
- Start with your won deals. You know the value of a won deal, and you likely know that x% of your opportunities result in a won deal.
- Identify how many leads (people raising their hands) turn into opportunities. For example, if you know that 25% of every lead becomes a legitimate opportunity, build that percentage into your model.
- Take a look at your database size. Do you have enough prospects in your database to generate the right amount of leads that would result in enough opportunities to end up as won deals? Be sure to listen to our podcast about building a database if you need some help priming the pump.
Marketing is a multifaceted, complicated, and sometimes confusing process. However, if done right, implementing a marketing strategy that will amplify your message to your prospects will result in predictable revenue growth. Stay tuned for more marketing tips and guidance as we continue to break down key elements of your marketing journey.
