Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
Smart Marketing Made Simple
Posted by 
on Monday, December 28, 2009 
at 11:27 AM 
in Smart Marketing is simple. Follow these 7 simple marketing steps for success!
Step:
- Review your target audience and be sure they match up to your product or service.
- Communicate with your target audience in the multiple marketing channels they communicate in (Social Media, Print, Electronic).
- Use the Marketing Medias (Mailers, Ad’s, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Email) and personalize the message where applicable.
- Integrate response mechanisms (QRCodes, PURLS , Web forms, 1-800) that are relevant to the audience, channel and media in use.
- Perform lead generation (Nurture).
- Measure, Measure, Measure.
- Repeat.
Tags The 2 Q’s
If you are a marketing services provider, or a marketer that needs to present an idea to management, finding the right value statement can work wonders.
There are plenty at your disposal – it might be that you can “increase response rates”. Or, that you can “streamline workflow process”, or “drive revenue”. These are all very good statements on how a well-run marketing campaign can bring benefits to an organization.
I was talking to a customer this week about an opportunity that they have with one of their prospects. The value statements that this customer is using were simple, but very effective.
Basically, they are offering this to their prospect:
- We can help improve the quality of your data, and the quantity of their data.
In regards to quantity, this customer is offering a direct mail and email campaign that will contain personalized URLs. When each recipient visits their URL and landing page, they will have the opportunity to enter the contact information of their associates. The system will generate and send an email to each friend, letting them know about what the company offers.
Yes, this customer is going to help increase the quantity of leads on hand, without needing to buy a new list.
The quality factor is just as important. For the existing mailing list, the client has standard data. Name, address, email, phone… But they do not know much else about their prospects. Thus, the landing page has a few questions that seek to learn a bit more about each person. The questions seek to find out the specific problems that individual faces on a daily basis. They also ask look to collect other areas of interest for that person.
With that new data, the client will now be able to follow-up on their leads with information that specifically appeals to each person. Rather than explaining all of the problems that they can solve, they can focus on the solutions that address the problems each individual faces. Also, they can use that data to personalize future mailings, emails, landing pages, and more.
So, while it may seem a bit simple, “quality and quantity” can still prove very effective in selling and launching new marketing initiatives.
It’s not how many leads you have, it’s….
If you are involved in the marketing efforts for your company, I am betting you would agree that the lead-generation process can be a lot of fun.
It typically goes like this – you come up with an interesting bit of content… Maybe it’s a mailer, an email, a blog post, a video, etc… You entice people to respond to that media and then provide additional information.
Each time someone clicks and submits, congratulations – you’ve got a lead.
As great of a feeling as this can be, there is more satisfaction to be found if you look further down the sales funnel. Yes, the role of a marketer is not just to bring in leads; it’s just as important to provide content that helps sales people convert the lead into a customer.
I found a statistic recently that said this: “80% of all sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact”.
So, that’s where the real challenge lies – can you provide enough interesting and compelling content to enable your sales people to “touch” their prospects that many times?
Below we’ve provided a few different ideas on what steps might make up those touches. It is by no means a magic formula. But if you are scratching your head right now, wondering what touches 1 through whatever could consist of, here is a possible list of materials or events that allow you to reach out to a prospect (in no particular order):
· Company Overview (PowerPoint on file)
· Product Features and Benefits (fact sheets)
· Direct Mail/Postcards (perhaps from a recent campaign? or a standard one that promotes benefits of working with your company)
· Case Studies
· Articles from the press (newspapers or magazines that you’ve appeared in)
· Phone Calls – checking in on the prospects
· E-Mails (allows you to check-in, without the fear of interrupting someone’s day with a phone call)
· Demonstration of your product or service
· Reference from another client, or testimonials
· Hand-written thank you note (perhaps the day after they sit through a demonstration)
· Monthly newsletter
· Social media - Friend them on Facebook? Send a message on Twitter? Reply to a post on LinkedIn?
That is a list of 12 unique ways to reach out to a prospect… Of course, there will no doubt be multiple phone calls, emails, and perhaps mailers in your relationship with a prospect. Those will all help you to make multiple touches.
Some prospects will buy before they reach the 12 touch. Others will opt-out before that point. But the bottom line is, moving people through the sales funnel can be just as important and satisfying as it is to bring in the lead in the first place.
