In my experience building award-winning marketing teams and speaking with marketers, the challenge of generating high quality leads for the sales team is paramount. Along with that, it is often necessary to build out new systems and processes, as a company’s sales and marketing teams adapt new tooling and technologies into the fold. Here are some of the top considerations for marketing and sales leaders working on evolving a marketing practice within the organization.
1. Applying change management for teams
A challenge for busy marketing professionals is often how to keep up to date with all of their campaign topics and staying up to date on the newest trends and technologies to help their own teams and their clients to adapt their thinking about digital transformation.
Not only that — Often, saying ‘no’ to doing things the old way can be equally as hard. Doing things differently in a group setting is even harder because we’re conditioned as humans to form habits. It is often necessary within a larger team to unravel bad habits and socialize new positive habits within an organizational environment. This takes deliberate and ongoing proactive training and communication to succeed.
2. Leveraging data as part of your marketing stack
Trying to attain closed loop analytics is the best way to get a real sense of your team’s ROI, as relative to revenue generation. It’s most CMOs dream to be a revenue driver as opposed to a cost centre, but very few new marketing teams achieve amazing results immediately. The art and science behind marketing takes time. There will be some wins and some losses – and it’s unrealistic to expect that every campaign will be a home run. However, perfecting the art of lead scoring and continually adjusting and making refinements to scores and personas as you go, by adapting your campaigns and translating learnings across departments and teams will give you an advantage. As you test and measure campaigns, the marketing team and the organization will benefit from your findings.
3. Honing your communication
Communication is key and yet, we so often do the hard work and don’t communicate enough about it. My best advice is to over-communicate with your marketing team and the wider company team. Be honest with yourself and others about what you can improve on. Really effective marketing ought to be about continuous improvement over time as you get to know your industry, your market segments, and your customers. Developing programs to convert new sales and business is the goal, as is providing value to your community and clients. Both are doable with the right plan and team in place.
4. Staying ahead of trends
In order to stay abreast of trends, you need to read and consume sources of current marketing information. Sources like Forbes CMO Network, HBR on Marketing, and searching out your competitors and top-tier consulting firms (such as Deloitte and McKinsey) that release white papers are valuable. Attending events locally and conferences abroad are excellent for both networking and professional development.
The series of Lean Branding books by O’Reilly are also very good. Podcasts are another great source: HBR Ideacast, The Women in Tech Podcast by Espree Devora and Startup by Gimlet.
5. Hiring for high-potential and track-record
I value marketers who understand their role within the greater context of the team, are team players who have creativity, excellent communication skills, problem-solving capacity, tenacity and grit.
It’s a balancing act, but it’s always nice to find someone who is both hungry to learn and grow, but who has already mastered their craft. It’s best practice to hire team members who are clear about their own vision and mission and ensure that there’s a clear fit with the company and its vision and values. Don’t hold back from hiring people who have deep specific knowledge you might not have yourself. Your skills and knowledge will be complimentary.
6. Defining and articulating value for your customers
When talking about the value of a product or services firm, it’s important to acknowledge that value is determined by the needs of the users and the community that will be engaging with your brand. You should always lead your team with the customer in mind. Your marketing program is an extension of the product or service. It should be something that enhances their life, bringing them joy, or convenience, solving a need or a pain point, and making them feel better in some way. There’s an emotive component to branding and marketing and content should often be communicated through stories that evoke emotion on the part of the reader or viewer. Those stories that connect with audiences emotionally will have a far longer lasting impact and be remembered. But the experience should not stop there, the experience should continue through every marketing touch-point created, even after the point of sale, so you have loyal customers and clients evangelizing what you do.
…
Do you want to get started on a new marketing initiative with an expert who gets it? Contact us.