Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
If part of your role is the marketing of your product or service, you realize that a part of the routine is to look for the “next best thing” in communication.
What’s the latest? What is working? Should we be doing that? – Are the questions you ask when facing the morning mirror. In the rush to stay on the edge, we spend precious time and resources chasing an idea only to loose focus on the fundamentals that we all know work. So, consider applying these 5 principles to your routine in an effort to focus activities on fundamentals:
1. Target
All good marketing starts with having quality contact information and a clear trait picture of that audience. If you have a CRM, this means making sure the data is up-to-date and that you have segmented the information to appropriate target messaging. If you do not have a CRM, there are many tools available, some at no cost. A quick search on TechRepublic will get you started.
2. Engage
This principle demands that any communication you create remain meaningful to the audience. When considering content developed at BlueStar, we always ask ourselves, “is this meaningful to our customer?” When you keep an eye on engagement, or the propensity for your audience to consume your content, the material produced will set its own course.
3. Convert
The marketing mantra states, on average it takes 6-8 “touches” to move a prospect to action. There are many ways to automate electronic campaigns to facilitate many of these touches. Make sure you are aware of all the automation features your current toolsets offer. If you do not have marketing automation, simply Google the phrase and you will find a number of companies that offer free to low cost automation suitable for many small to medium size companies. These tools are designed to help you facilitate In-Bound marketing and lead nurturing.
4. Analyze
Nothing could be worse than to go through all of the above efforts and not quantify the effort. Live by the belief that every effort demands accountability and ROI. Analytics no matter what form (e.g. CRM, Google, Email service) will provide the guidance you need to be efficient and effective. Put a date in your calendar, once a month at minimum, to spend an hour or so analyzing your efforts.
5. Integrate and Communicate
If your sales and marketing team are more than one, make sure that the business intelligence you are getting from these efforts are communicated through the organization. Information remains the number one commodity. So, focusing on the dissemination of the information (be it leads, statistics, trends, etc.) is the critical last piece to bring focus to your efforts.
