So, you are here looking for an answer to the question – How to be successful in marketing? I keep receiving these questions a lot consistently from my network as well. If you are wondering that I will talk about the great white/gray or black marketing techniques here, then you should be looking for my eBook on Marketing Channels here. In this article, I am going to discuss the learning’s from my and my fellow marketers’ experiences.
Frankly, I was also in your place when I started with Sales and Marketing. I have the passion of browsing and I did come across frequent great articles on Inbound Marketing, Outbound marketing, Channels, Strategy and all was great. But the only piece was missing – SUCCESS.
During this whole journey of working as a Sales and Marketing Professional and becoming Sales and Marketing consultant, I have learnt about marketing that you will rarely find on web. So, I thought it would be good to share this experience with all of you. Let’s get started with our Journey to be successful in marketing.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing Plan without a strategy is something like to ride a bike not knowing where to reach. A Strategy is at the heart of the entire marketing plan guiding you at each step. So, it is important for you to understand the Straegy before designing your marketing plan. How Strategy impact your marketing plan? To understand, let’s take a look at different types of Strategies:
Increasing Marketing Presence
Increasing Brand Awareness.
Building Brand Reputation. Here I wrote one article on Brand Reputation.
Introducing new products/Service
Changing the Brand Logo/Name are few examples.
Now based on what you wish to achieve, Strategy will impact:
Business or Product Positioning
Digital or Online Marketing Channels
Offline Marketing Channels
Marketing Communication Strategy
Content Strategy
In short, your entire marketing plan will rest on your business strategy. Hence, it is said that strategy keeps you focused.
What is ULTIMATE Marketing AIM? Well, if you are thinking that you know this and its simple – lot of inquiries. No, then you are confusing your goal with the Aim. Yes, marketing goal is to get lot of qualified inquiries but that is not the aim of the marketing. So, then what is it? Marketing ULTIMATE goal is to build an exceptionally performing list of “ORGANIC CHANNELS” using a combination of “ORGANIC” and “PAID” Channels. Yes, in today’s Internet and Social Media era, we have access to multiple Organic and Paid channels like Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Distribution Platforms and the list goes on. These channels offer both Organic and Paid marketing options. For the initial boost to our marketing efforts and get the marketing engine going, we would need to use both type of options “Organic” & “Paid” but our ultimate aim is to get our Organic Channels performing way beyond our Paid Channels. The reason is simple; consistent quantity of quality prospects at the lowest cost possible is what is offered by Organic Channels. Sound’s cool right? What next?
Marketing is all about two things – Consistency and Analytic.
Yes, Marketing is all about consistency and analytic. You miss anything even a single time and your system will fall flat. First, let me highlight the importance of consistency. Yes, every company has tried everything in marketing at some point. You will rarely find a company that has not tried anything like Social Media, SEO, and Content Marketing etc... But still they have stayed far away from success and the single most reason to that is CONSISTENCY. If you can do the same thing again and again tirelessly then you are in right place otherwise marketing is not going to be your favorite area. The other reason being why companies find success hard way because they go easy on Analytic.
A company that constantly doesn’t monitor their channel key metrics finds it hard to succeed in generating any RIO from the selected channel. Whereas companies that constantly monitor each channel metrics finds soaring success with the channel. Some of the key points here is:
Select key metrics for each channel
Select only a few performance metric if you starting up new with the marketing – just so that you do not get lost in the details.
Constantly monitor metrics against each activity performed on the channel.
Experiment and record changes and monitor performance.
That brings me to another important point of how to measure the performance of a channel. A Channel is all about quality and not quantity. So, don't judge a channel by its volume but Quality. A channel is called successful when it delivers quality prospects that convert to sale. However, if it is filling your funnel with lots of leads and leads alone, then you are in a trap of burning your marketing resources for nothing. So, count the quality and not the number. If you are doing this, it is only the matter of time before your efforts pay off and pay off handsomely.
Marketing is a long pipe of multiple channels. Yes, Marketing is a long pipe of multiple channels. You ditch least performing ones, add new ones and maintain the consistent number of channels in the pipe. I am sure you would have heard of Marketing Funnel (like Sales Funnel). Marketing funnel, based on the reach of channels has multiple bands as part of it – right from top to bottom. Each Band has multiple channels to perform the same activity. Like if I wish to start my Social Media Marketing, I have Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Delicious, Stumble Upon and a huge list of such channels. Check out my article on – Social Media Strategy here. Now, it would be prudent to select the first 5 top channels in the category and start the efforts of promoting the business. Now, my target audience might be on all channels but heavily use only quite a few. So, I would measure the performance of each channel and start ditching channels that doesn’t perform and add new channels that might do the trick for me while keeping the existing performing channels. This would keep you floating forward and continue to grow the performance of your marketing funnel while keeping its size the same – in nut shell – an optimized marketing funnel.
Channel Performance is run by two common attributes. Yes, Channel performance is run by a common attribute of "KeyWords" and "Value Delivered" across all channels. Keyword is what precisely explains your specific audience segment. Keyword is the building block to any marketing efforts. If you have figured out this piece, then you just need to add this to every marketing activity and see the funnel blossom with high quality prospects that would be interested in your product/service. Another important attribute is: Deliver Value. In marketing, channels and keywords put you in front of your Target Audience, but that is not enough in itself to bring them into the funnel. “Value” does that hard part for you. So, how do you deliver value to your audience to bring them close to you?
High quality content
Offers
Takeaways
Surveys
Webinars
These are some of the tricks that bring your audience closer to you. If there is no value in what you are offering, brother, you are wasting your and your audience time. This is the experience I have to share and I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you think that my article has helped you gain something to move forward then why not share your experience in comments to help other move forward. And if you think, someone will be benefited from it, then lets share it.
