ALL CYLINDERS GO! How To Create a Simple, High-Performing Marketing Strategy

First, let’s start with the basic principles of a successful marketing strategy:

1. You need to think like your customer. 2. Understand which channels and tactics work best. 3. Know that Content drives every part of your marketing 4. Understand the power of Email Marketing and CRM tools. 5. Constantly measure and adjust for the best ROI Before you dive in, there are a few marketing problems you must solve...

Problem #1 By the time you connect with consumers, they are far into their buying journey.

Solution: Understand The Customer Mindset

Nobody wants to be sold to. We want to do our homework before purchasing. We want our time to be efficient. We want the information we’re looking for to be at our fingertips. Think about your own customer journey when you buy. Then, design a sales process that makes it as easy as possible for people to get the information they need to make a purchase decision.

Problem #2 Buyers Bounce All Over on the Buyer’s Journey

Solution: Find ways to touch your customer where they are as they bounce along.

This is where your multichannel marketing strategy comes in. You can’t simply put products, information, and marketing collateral on your website and expect customers to find it. Instead, you have to purposely figure out ways to touch them with different information at different points in their customer journey.

Problem #3 Touching customers once won’t make an impact You need to touch consumers at least 12 times through various

channels along their journey to purchase.

Solution: Use multiple channels to reach consumers repeatedly

Engaging with your customers requires repetition. You must constantly engage with your customers through website content, email marketing, social media marketing, and all of your marketing channels. It takes touchpoint after touchpoint after touchpoint to build a relationship and guide them to purchase.

The Next Step: Create a Customer Centric Strategy

Set goals for your customer centric strategy Engage more prospects Get faster at identifying qualified leads Increase your close ratio Leverage and keep existing customers

Now that you understand the need to touch customers at multiple touch points along their journey, your strategy needs to:

How do we go about setting goals for a strategy that touches customers along their journey?

Goal Setting Questions You Must Ask Yourself

What are our business goals and objectives? What are we trying to accomplish and how does this align with our business needs? How will we know if we’re successful? Who is our typical buyer and what does their journey look like? How will we align internal resources, campaigns, content, etc. with this journey? What about our current customers? How do we drive effective engagement, meet

their needs, and increase share-of-wallet? How often will we evaluate and adjust?

Your number one goal: Reach more prospects

When you’re thinking about your laying out a marketing strategy what you really need to consider is: How do we touch more prospects?

Research shows that the average response to marketing campaigns indicates that you need to touch a lot of consumers to grow revenue...

Why?

Your number one goal: Reach more prospects

Research shows that the average response to marketing campaigns means you need to touch a lot of consumers to grow revenue...

The average response rate to campaigns is .5%

Source: 2016 Benchmark Report. Content Marketing Institute + Marketing Profs

Demand Funnel Benchmarks

A marketing calculator will help you understand what is needed, and plan accordingly.

Start with your hottest leads

Those similar to recent/existing customers Those who recently inquired Those currently visiting your site Those actively searching on the Web Those already in your database How will you reach them?

Plan Your Marketing Mix to Hit Your Goals

The most effective B2B/B2C marketing tactics include a combination of inbound and outbound. Content Email PPC Retargeting Influencer Marketing Marketing Automation

and Lead Nurturing

Content & Messaging is Key to Reaching Prospects Content drives every part of your marketing. Map your content to the buyer journey. Differentiate content for each stage and

persona. Focus on your buyers’ pain points. Give them what they want and need, where and when they want and need it.

You Must Create a Content Machine

Focus on your prospects’ pain when developing content:

What is their pain? Why do they have pain? How can you fix it?

Next, Create a Content Map

You need to reach:

Internal Communications Customers Influencers Distribution/Partners Prospects

Start with your hottest leads

Those similar to recent/existing customers Those who recently inquired Those currently visiting your site Those actively searching on the Web Those already in your database How will you reach them?

Create a Content Map

Executive Meetings Industry Research Customer Events

Info Kits How-to Guides Whitepapers

Case studies Assessments Webinars

Consultations ROI Calculations Buy Now Incentives

Mapping out your content will help you touch customers along their buying journey.

Now that you have created a content map and tons of great content, you need to get it to your customers and new

prospects. You need to reach:

Internal Communications Customers Influencers Distribution/Partners Prospects

To do that, you need to use outbound marketing tactics.

The Most Effective Outbound Tactic: Email Marketing

Why?

Every $1 spent on email offers a return of $44

Email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%

61% of marketers say email is the most effective tactic

Email marketing works 40x better than Facebook & Twitter

Why Outbound Email Marketing Works

It educates and creates relationships with your prospects & customers

It gives you detailed analytics (track activity, interest, and more)

You can launch relatively quickly

Long term email marketing can be inexpensive

Email has the highest marketing ROI

Why Outbound Email Marketing Works Messaging Craft a compelling subject line Provide a valuable offer with a strong call to action Deliver content in digestible chunks – short sentences, bullets, numbers, etc.

Performance Know the rules to protect your IP - Create a new email domain - Warm up your IP address - Send to a verified list (remove hard and soft bounces) User responsive templates (mobile-friendly) A/B test everything you can (subject lines, offers, timing, etc.) Incorporate a healthy mix of HTML and Plain Text emails Use fast-loading, engaging graphics and alt tags

Follow Up Resent to non-opens (40-60% increase in conversions) Utilize a tool to track engagement and behavior (Marketing automation tool) Nurture leads - One-off Campaigns rarely work

Touch Your Prospects & Customers via Email with Strong Offer Ideas • Application notes

• Articles

• Assessments

• Case studies

• Checklists

• Configurators

• Demonstrations

• Discounts

• Buy-now incentives

• E-books

• E-Courses

• Executive Briefings

• Free samples

• Free trials

• Gift with purchase

• How-to guides

• Information kits

• Lunch and learns

• Needs assessments

• Seminars

• Tutorials

• Videos

• Webinars

• Whitepapers

• Workshops

• News

• Newsletter subscriptions

• Phone consultations

• Pricing

• Product comparisons

• References

• ROI calculators

• Self-assessments

A CRM will supercharge your email marketing

All of the information about your existing customers is right at your fingertips. You can measure and track your success with each customer segment. You can create follow up offers based on customer purchases. You can retarget consumers who have previously shown interest. It’s your insurance policy. If a salesperson has control over your customer

information, you lose everything if they leave.

Your CRM is capable of email automation

Marketing automation creates a 451% increase in qualified leads Triggered emails average 70.5% higher ORs and 152% higher CTRs 79% of top companies have had MA for 2+ years 78% of marketers cite MA for improving revenue Lead nurturing results in 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost

Why Should You Use Marketing Automation?

Sources: The Annuitas Group, Epsilon Email Institute, Gleanster, The Lenskold Group

The Benefits of Using Email Marketing Automation with Your CRM

Track & Score Leads: Tracking and scoring leads helps utilize your most precious commodity (your time) more efficiently by helping your sales team focus on lead showing buying behavior vs. tire kickers. Route Leads: Routing Leads Automatically helps improve follow-up. If a lead is followed up in 5 minutes the chances of reaching that lead increases 85%. Nurture Leads: Nurture leads not ready to buy now – Statistically only 25% of the leads generated today will buy from you in first 12 months while the other 75% don't purchase until year two or three. Without lead nurturing you waste 75% of your marketing budget. Stay Up-to-Date: Daily email alerts can help you stay on top of leads showing the most buying behavior supporting sales and Marketing Alignment.

A CRM allows for more sophisticated email marketing and personalization of your outreach

Some clients require a more sophisticated email marketing

strategy, which usually requires a marketing automation

platform (MAP). A MAP allows you to send more campaigns

to targeted individuals automatically over any period of

time, while tracking and scoring their activity in email, on

your website, or on your landing pages. You can also upload

contacts obtained from any offline activities, like business

lunches and tradeshows. A MAP will allow you to do the

following:

Lead Scoring Lead Routing Lead Nurturing CRM Integration Improve Sales & Marketing Alignment

Remain Customer Centric after the sale:

So many times, after we sell someone something, we are just done with them. How are you engaging your existing customers after they purchase? How are you telling them about special offers? How are you telling them about your customer loyalty program? Are you sending them things that might be of interest to them? The most commonly missed opportunities involve overlooking existing customers.

You’ve now got the knowledge to build a high-powered Marketing Strategy. Follow the The Steps:

Understand how your customer thinks & moves along the buying journey.

Calculate how many leads you need in order to reach your revenue goals

Calculate how many pieces of content you need to create.

Map that content to buyer personas & buying stages.

Design a marketing mix using content as the foundation & email as the engine.

Don’t fly blind—Integrate a CRM into the mix. Immediately.