Extreme Marketing: Setting the Stage for Imminent Growth
Many companies want to grow sales but do not have the marketing engine to support that growth. That is a problem, particularly when between 50% and 90% of purchase decisions are now made before buyers interact with salespeople (according to data from Prospecta). Today, your company’s marketing is on the front lines. Your marketing is your visual salesforce. And, this is why it is essential to understand and invest in the kind of marketing that drives immediate results.
First, let's acknowledge two common reasons for underfunding marketing:
Marketing earned a bad reputation - The previous marketing function was not aligned with business outcomes and didn't prove its impact on revenue, so its people and budgets were ultimately cut.
Leadership undervalues marketing - Business leaders may have chosen to invest in marketing as a last resort. This response is sometimes related to the fallacy that great products sell themselves. It may also stem from a lack of understanding of the potential impact marketing can have on the business or it can simply be a response to a leader’s previous experience with issue number one (above).
Either way, companies with anemic marketing capabilities are at risk of watching sales fall off a cliff. To help these companies restart their revenue pipelines, I offer the following four steps to building a high-impact, growth-oriented marketing engine:
Step 1: Find an Entrepreneurial Marketing Leader
Transformation requires a solid operational leader who will bring experience, communicate well, guide the team and maintain accountability. This requires a solid operator who knows how to orchestrate people, processes, technology and metrics around the plan of action. I’m talking about a problem solver with a bias for action.
In 2007, when I got the chance to lead a revenue team for the first time, I was coming from the position of having recently founded and sold my own successful startup. This experience offered me a few advantages, including a better sense of what my CEO and CFO were trying to accomplish. Many marketers today have experience with side hustles, and this can be a good thing. Learning to create, market and sell a product or service builds experience, resourcefulness and business acumen - each of which is needed in an environment where the marketer is called on to build from the ground up.
For more suggestions on how to hire a great marketing leader, see my article, Powerful Interview Questions For Hiring a Game-Changing CMO.
Step 2: Build from Insights
Avoid costly missteps and save valuable time by seeking insights from those closest to the problem. Interview partners, salespeople, customer success managers and individuals who interact with prospects and customers regularly to find out what is motivating them to buy, where to find them, how to get their attention, and how best to influence them. Use tools like ahrefs to review your competitors' backlinks to uncover websites indicative of their marketing channels. These backlinks often disclose their advertising partners, integration partners, strategic partnerships, conferences they attend, and the like. Next, take your understanding from secondary sources and interview your ideal buyers directly to validate, add depth and uncover new opportunities.
With the right insights, you can begin developing and aligning internal stakeholders around a plan of action.
Step 3: Develop a Plan of Action
When building a winning plan of action, you must clearly define a number of key areas. At a minimum, those are:
Your company's DNA and differentiated position in the market
Your best customers and the problems you can help them solve
The people and market trends that influence your best buyers
The category and competitors you are positioning against
Take these findings and workshop a strategy with the C-Suite. This collaboration will not only help to fill in gaps, but it it's also important for establishing internal alignment and preventing future roadblocks.
Once the plan of action is agreed upon, allow your prospective customers' core motivations, closest influencers and most important channels guide which tests you prioritise. Putting all your eggs in one basket is risky, so diversify your investments by reinforcing your marketing outreach using an integrated, stage-based approach. Your final plan of action should organize your marketing touchpoints according to an ideal buyer journey informed by the insights gained from your best buyers. Define first, second and third touchpoints, follow-ups, and the processes necessary to respond quickly and effectively.
Once the plan is ready, it’s time to put it into action.
Step 4: Build a High-Performing Marketing Team
Great missions demand operational excellence and individuals who strive for quality, creativity, collaboration, efficiency and effectiveness. It's now time to ready your own dedicated band of world changers and execute the plan of action. To build something great you’ll need a diverse group of capable people with shared values and purpose. Attitude, resilience and a growth mindset are particularly valuable when times are tough, inevitable conflicts arise, and success is uncertain. Remember that these qualities are much more important than any specific channel or technology experience.
Ready. Set. Go.
When there is a lot on the line and it’s imperative for your company to perform, it’s important to have the right marketing leader, insights, plan of action, and team in place. If your company is missing these right now, consider what AH Marketing can offer. AH Marketing provides busy founders and revenue leaders with an experienced fractional marketing team led by a proven growth strategist.
Though the goal is ultimately to establish your own in-house capabilities, AH Marketing can lend you its best-in-class team to help you get the results you need now. Please CONTACT US if you need help.
