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Marketing is just a Revenue Generator, it is NOT a Cost Centre if you get involve in the marketing for any length of time. It is likely that you would have heard something like this before.

When it is been viewed this way, the marketing department and also its programs are no longer a cost center. But they are now a profit center for the organization. Many of the effective marketing organizations that are available today speak in terms of the building demand generation the machines. An integrated approach that relies on a variety of programs. And is tied to business growth strategy, that produces a repeatable, a consistent, a predictable result: For every $100,000 that you put into the machine, you should get $1 million, $1.5 million, $2 million, etc. back in the sales.

This does not imply that the marketing is replacing the sales team. Its role is to augment the sales efforts, to go beyond serving the existing customers. And the word of mouth referrals that drive any business. Marketing’s role is just simply to bring the sales team additional warm the opportunities that they can then just close with more certainty. And in less time than cold prospecting efforts.

The Machine

If we have a machine that is repeatable and also predictable, then the financial calculus is equally predictable.

But once you determine those variables, you can count on the machine to run and generate its revenue return. One of our client in the contract manufacturing space relies on a very strong sales team. With a strategic approach in place for both the new customer prospecting. As well as the obtaining of deeper account penetration to grow existing accounts. However, they have recognition for the impact of augmenting that their direct sales model with digital marketing efforts. That can accelerate the sales that is processed by generating qualified opportunities. Ready to pursue, at a far lower cost than that of the sales team cold calling. That can take months off their sales cycle and can dramatically reduce their cost of selling.

And, in fact, it does. Just in the year 2020, that is a subdued year for manufacturing the sales growth to say the least. This company has generated about a 160:1 ROI return on the opportunities. For every dollar spent on the digital marketing. They put about $160 in qualified opportunities into their sales funnel that immediately moved to the quote stage. In fact, the digital marketing produced more opportunities for the company last year than any other source. Including referrals, new work from the existing customers or the sales team’s prospecting programs.

 

Making Use of Better Data Analytics To Drive The ROI Machine

None of all this works without the foundational analytics infrastructure that will you can use to support it. We use the HubSpot marketing automation for most of our clients. Although other of the tools provide the same front-end analytical tracking of the lead flow into the sales funnel. The revenue attribution tools that we are able to make use of provide the data that we need to get beneath the superficial metrics. About the leads and the clicks to revenue generated by the content, by campaign and also by ad buy.

Finding marketing opportunities that is within a business ecosystem

If have settled and you are now convinced that you need to adopt an ecosystem perspective for your marketing efforts to make it better. What next now?

Like all the communities, there are gatekeepers and there are barriers to entry. Not all parts of a business ecosystem are made open or are connected from the outset. This is where a great PR and the marketing agency can come in. A firm specializing in your sector should already be well connected in the ecosystem. And should be willing to act as an intermediary on your behalf. Tapping into the existing relationships with the analysts. The editors and the management behind your sector’s outlets and the events can be priceless. As also can a Rolodex of the industry thinkers, the speakers and the players who exist as the interlocutors. And also exit as the mouthpieces of some corners of the ecosystem.

A particularly robust firm may be having its own ecosystem channels and you can plug right into. Even with an internal team of creatives, the strategists and practitioners that are sharp, many in-house teams are lacking this kind of industry knowledge. And they are also lacking the relationships to people and to the publications. With your in-house team that are working together with a strong PR and the marketing firm. You can possibly link your messaging to the hubs of an industry ecosystem.

 

Developing The Marketing Ecosystem

Further, making use of the firm channels and the connections to integrate your brand into an existing business. Ecosystem can also enhance your ability to create and to grow your company’s own small-view ecosystem. With this you can see that adding one plus one can equal three.

Fully developing your organization’s reach will really require you stepping outside your garden to engage with the greater network of the industry voices. The marketing teams need to tend to their garden which are the: advertising, the email, the search, the social. These are all very vital to a company’s success with external messaging. However, it is worth considering whether your garden is in touch with the neighborhood outside of your own backyard.

When you start developing your marketing ecosystem. The first step for you to take is to identify all the potential buying centric venues your target audience visits to seek information and also the solutions to their chief challenges. For you to accomplish this effectively, you should first ask critical questions. And then dive deep into your customers’ preferences and the place where they are interacting with other businesses for you. To identify where your marketing activities (and money) is best directed. You should leverage the channels that your customers are making use of most to reach the right people at the right time with your message. Offering different solutions to their challenges.

Let us take a holistic approach. Your analytics strategy that you are using should be much the same as your other marketing strategies. Ever-changing and always providing value for you. So, trite but true, it is very vital that you should build a strong foundation for the data-driven business decisions. With the continuous, the incremental improvements. I will recommend you starting by assigning the key performance indicator (KPIs) to every aspect of your digital goals and also SWOT analysis.

With digital marketing, the good, the clean, and the insightful data is a very key pillar which a business stands to drive growth and to also profit. Having a clear and a precise data-driven outcomes should be of a priority for all the marketers.

Data For Marketing

When used in the tandem with all the well-defined marketing and the sales goals, and various marketing tools and the techniques. The companies will discover that their lead to sale conversion process can be far less cumbersome for them and more rewarding.

Possessing a clean data will be of help to the marketers in identifying detailed segments based on the user attributes, the past behaviors, the interactions, and other necessary data points. Data can be leveraged for a highly targeted campaigns which will drive the marketing return on the investment (ROI).

Sales

Making use of a consolidated data and the automation to drive personalized customer experiences. In this our rapidly digitalizing world, the customers are much more amenable to purchasing something when they receive the highly personalized content. Customers expect the brands and the companies to know their likes, their preferences, and their interests. And to have them reflected in the marketing communications and in the products or services they are recommended also.

To do this, your company requires data that can be able to capture the target’s traits and their behaviors. Marketing teams can then start analyzing the data. Allowing the directed messages to get to the potential customers through the large-scale personalized campaigns.

 

Data Time

Gartner gave a report that in the year 2020, marketing analytics teams spent about 64% of their time. On the data management, the data integration, and the data formatting, up from about 52% in the year 2018. A very good automation platform will be able to cut your team’s data preparation time for you. So that they can focus on what really matters – acting on evidence-based insights.

The Customer data from the various sources requires consolidation, which when you look at it ideally. You can visualize via the user-friendly reports or the dashboards. While this may sound somehow difficult to achieve at scale, the well-integrated marketing automation platforms can also simplify this process.

Ensuring the effectiveness of your customer and also the organizational data.
The journey towards having a better sales does not just end here. Of utmost importance to a business is the level of high quality data. The bad quality data translates into the bad outcomes for businesses. The research that was carried out by Gartner has found that the US organizations believe that poor data quality was found to be responsible for an average of about US$ 15 million in losses yearly.

You should know that marketing is not a guessing game.

Frequently, in the marketing meetings and also in the client meetings, there is assumption that everyone has got an equal opinion and also equal knowledge.

Because I am making use of the Facebook, that means that I can do the social media marketing.
Because I have been sending emails before, that means that I know about the e-mail marketing.
I have read the newspaper severally, so I understand and know about public relations.
While it is important for you to listen to all sides of the story. It is also important for you to be based on the professional standards and best practices.

Here are some of the known tactics that have aided the 21st Century marketing scene:

Content Generation

To focus and to convert customers with precision. The content-driven marketing addressing potential needs and the concerns from the target audience is assured to bring in more leads. More often than not, the companies churn out content that is not just focused on their respective target audience and the runs, losing their attention. The research statistics indicate that the content marketing costs about 62% less than the traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads. For example, the content creation on TikTok, which is a social media application has generated buzz.

Age of Social Capital and Sustainable Marketing

In the age of sustainable marketing, the customers, especially the Millennials and the Gen Z, are significantly paying attention. To those brands that are well informed on the societal problems and the issues that are going on in the world.

This goes with the personal commerce, where customers co-curate their experiences with the brands. To reflect their preferences over a given period of time. In this instance, the businesses are to serve and engage with what they believe in, which may range from the traditional to the liberal views.

Brands build effective sustainability marketing when they are able to speak the customer’s language. And when they have actions that can solve a particular social problem. For instance, the Ghanaian skincare brand, the Nokware, appeals to the customers with its natural products and it’s sustainable packaging.

Technology and Automation

Less than two decades ago, the businesses focused their marketing efforts on the cold calls, billboards, the newspapers, and the tv adverts with stringent workflows and the processes.

However, recently with the emergence of technology, there are multiple marketing. And there are also the automation software that are helping companies to reach their goals. And to scale across multiple platforms with ease. It has inevitably made it really effortless to respond to customers, to also take orders and maintain connections. To support the content schedules and the customer relationships, brands now have got the power to schedule their posts ahead of time. Now automating initial inquiry responses on the WhatsApp, the Instagram, or the email, etc. For instance, the Nigerian hair company, the Natural Hair Wigs, make use of an automated email workflow as one of its revenue-generating channels.

 

The way the marketing automation came from behind  and changed the game is really alarming. It  currently known as the new whale oil.

As the number of tools that the marketers are making use of to collect and collate data grows exponentially every passing of year. The need for an integration mechanism has never been more pressing.

 

The Super effective techniques for the digital branding

​With COVID still accelerating brands to go digital. It has really created so much clutter online. That most of the formats of the digital have now become standard.

Customers are now leaving their data clues just like a breadcrumb trail as they are roaming the far corners of the internet. And also their favorite websites and the apps. For marketers, it is a challenge for them to make sense of this barrage of information. The keyword right here is insight, the backbone of any of the data-driven growth strategy. Here, a robust marketing automation solution shines for the consumer brands. That are having millions of customers, disheveled data, and an urgent need for the enhancement of the user experience.

According to an Ascend2 survey. About 64% of the respondents prioritized optimizing marketing automation for the creating of a successful marketing strategy. In an Invespcro study. About 91% of respondents rated the marketing automation as a very vital part of their online marketing success.

 

Marketing Automation Solution

The MAS known to be the most critical enabler of the crucial customer insights. That is fueling the delightful customer experiences and that also defines a brand. Gone are the days where the “martech” platforms were just limited to running mass-blast campaigns.

The modern-day “martech” solutions have really come a long way, helping the brands to craft an intelligent engagement strategy. That combines with the personal preferences, the demographic and the behavioral data. The idea is to help serve a one-to-one experience to every of the single customer, even at the scale.

 

Sales Number

If we are to look at Amazon, their UX can seem kind of intimidating at first. Yet, for the individual user, the chaos will slowly starts to make sense. Their homepage which is (web + mobile) deeply personalized, the custom-built for each user. Their engagement strategy focuses on the delivering hyper-personalized recommendations given. By assimilating the data from past purchases, the search behavior, the personal data. The platform sales numbers, and other of the inputs. The algorithm serves a tailor-made experience that feels the one-to-one. (It powers about those 35% of their platform sales, by the way.)

For the brands to do the same, they need to get a singular, a powerful marketing automation solution. That is capable of handling the scale and also empowering marketing and product teams to start creating data-driven engagement loops.

 

The leadership author and a retired U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has made a suggestion that, “Many leaders are tempted to lead just like a chess master, striving to control every of the move. When they should be the ones leading like the gardeners, creating and also maintaining a viable ecosystem in which the organization is operating.”

This holds true when it is you apply it to a company’s marketing efforts as well.

However, what if you are just thinking too small in regard to your company’s marketing ecosystem? What about if the larger network your company is existing within? Are you among those that are missing out on being part of the conversations in your industry’s overarching and their permeating ecosystem? Let us take a step back and see, what is a business ecosystem anyway, and why should you care about it at all? How can thinking about the business ecosystems be of help to you, and how can an agency be helpful to getting you there? You should put on your favorite gardening gloves and read on.

What Is Ecosystem Marketing?

The idea of a marketing ecosystem has in recent time become a hot term. Referring to the creation of a connected system of the analytics and the content. With you and your website serving as a central hub.

Looking at this view, the idea of an ecosystem web. Featuring some aspects like the social media feeds, the hosted blog posts and the SEO efforts. Has replaced the concept of a lead funnel. Let us call this just a small-view ecosystem.

While this approach is indeed a very useful approach, narrowing your scope this much just to only your business’s own ecosystem of channels. It can result into missing out on the industry forest for the marketing trees. What will happen when we take a broader, richer look at what a marketing ecosystem can be?

In “The Predators and Prey: A New Ecology of Competition,” the writer and advisor James F. Moore describes the idea of a business ecosystem as:

Business communities, unlike the biological communities of co-evolving organisms, are social systems. And the social systems are mainly made up of real people who make decisions. The larger patterns are being maintained by a complex network of choices. Which are dependent, at least in part, on what the participants are aware of. As the [anthropologist] Gregory Bateson noted, if you have changed the ideas in a social system, then you have change the system itself.

 

Building Followers

You might have an engagement in a Twitter campaign to tease your followers for them to view your Instagram account. Where you have posted a short animation or short video that then drives people to your YouTube account. Where they can possibly watch an extended video or a webinar about your product or service. From here, they are encouraged not to only visit your website just to join your email list but also initiate a conversation or sale as well. You might even ask for them to expand your reach through sharing opportunities on their own personal social channels. Which would provide an insights into other ecosystem-expansion opportunities to explore as you are growing your influence.

 

The Ecosystem marketing (Where One Plus One Equals To Three)

Applying the Moore’s concept of a business ecosystem to the marketing efforts. We are forced to ask ourselves questions like how our organization’s small-view marketing system can fit into the larger industry one. This larger ecosystem is less of a market and it is more of a community. These has earned the media, it has the paid media and owned media. It is onsite, it is also offsite and offline. It has customers, competitors and also categories. Also it has individuals and organizations. It’s platforms, the agencies, the suppliers, the distributors, the providers, the vendors and other related and adjacent parties — together and interdependent.

 

How the Ecosystem Marketing Fits Into Your Marketing Strategy

The function of marketing ecosystems are so many and they also varies: They connect the stakeholders, the spread knowledge, the expand consumer choice and the uncover new discoveries.

Devoting your resources toward increasing your involvement in a business ecosystem can most times be a savvy marketing strategy. Another thing is you could just post a persuasive article on your company’s website and then you’ll promote it through your own channels. Or you could also contribute an informational piece in an industry publication. The second option that we have stated contributes to the community while heightening your organization’s visibility. It is possible you could host your personal promotional webinar, or you could participate in a third party’s educational panel if you choose. The latter will increase your audience and it will allow you to interact with them in a more meaningful way.

By envisioning your brand positioning in the terms of a business ecosystem. You can also leverage multiple channels. Individuals and the companies working together to engage the industry audiences in the new ways and spaces.

Establishing the leadership boosts your marketing effectiveness across the board. As far as how the collaborating in an ecosystem can be of help to you. It is a vehicle for you to build others’ confidence in your company’s promise and the position. As authors Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler put it: Trust is the main currency of ecosystems. In fact, it is the future of your brand.

Working the (eco)system

Very interesting benefit to the complexity of the marketing ecosystem is the opportunity that is given to leverage multiple channels. So to work with one another to build a truly effective and engaging campaigns. Each and every component of your ecosystem has the ability to engage your audience in a different, but a very coordinated ways. Allowing each channel to start working effectively in its own particular way so to engage your audience’s imagination. Then start building upon the emotional responses that you have created. It is very key to moving your own audience and around your own micro-system. With the ultimate goal that is pursued – of building relationships and also closing sales.

The digital marketing is a pivotal part of most of the modern business success. While it may be a powerful marketing tool to make use of. Creating an effective digital marketing strategy can also feel overwhelming.

Here we have just a few ideas that will help you to pull together an effective strategy for your online marketing activities.

Assess and Strategize First

Before you start to spend your money, you need to slow down and then consider what your marketing strategy is in the first place. For many SMBs (small and medium sized businesses), their marketing is in most times a patchwork effort. To tap into as many digital marketing services as possible and that includes just quite a few options. The digital marketing agency “Hennessey Digital” defines the digital marketing services as an “umbrella category” that includes, among some other things:

1. Website development;
2. Social media marketing;
3. PPC (pay per click) advertising;
4. SEO (search engine optimization).
The ability to make use of these various online options can create a diverse, an affordable, and a scalable marketing strategy. In other words, they are accessible to the small and the large businesses alike. However, the diversity of options can create a bit of a problem also. With so many choices available, it can become pretty easy to overstretch your marketing budget.

This is why, before you start spending a penny, you should first create a clear and a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. This should help you select what online channels that will help you reach your audience. The way you should spend your time and your resources in those areas, and what metrics can help you to gauge your effectiveness.

All this may seem like a lot of preparatory work. But, it is an essential first step for you in creating a quality digital marketing strategy. Without setting the stage beforehand, you can end up just frittering away your marketing funds with just little to nothing to show for all your effort.

Making Use of Your Website as an Online Content Hub

The content marketing is an integral part of most digital marketing strategies. The concept revolves around consistently and creating content that is very relevant to your audience. It provides genuine value, and it helps to set your brand up to become an authority in your field. When done well, the content marketing can help you to attract new customers and also to retain existing clients, as well.

If you are craving to have a powerful digital marketing strategy, then it should be built on content marketing. This is not an easy task, but it is one task that requires an upfront investment and it can continue to reward you far into the future.

 

 

1) Supply Chain

You need to research suppliers thoroughly and you need to have multiple options available for you. When possible so to avoid being at the mercy of the wholesalers who might increase the prices for raw materials or for product components. You should manage supplies more effectively by making use of the multiple wholesalers to keep the costs in check. Always be on the lookout for those new suppliers who might be willing to offer deals to you just to gain your business.

When you are shopping around for wholesalers. It is also worth checking if the prefabricated items might represent the cost savings over doing it by yourself.

 

2) Positioning

It is important for you to know where you fit in the market. And knowing your competition is also a big part of this. You might have a larger operation that you are hoping can be all things to all people. But it is more likely that you will be zeroing in on a specific demographic. Such as those people that are seeking premium quality items or services, those that are seeking discounted products or services, or something in between.

If you are a low-priced pizza parlor that is struggling in a town full of low-priced pizza parlors. You might find out that you will be able to improve your market share. By just targeting those that are willing to pay a premium for top-quality ingredients or toppings.

 

3) Promotion

You can do a better job of reaching your potential customers simply by figuring out where your potential customers are at. If you are trying to reach an audience through the social media, for example, it is good to know which age group is making use of which platforms.

A 2019 Pew Research Center survey showed that the adults are nearly twice as likely to be on the Facebook than on the Instagram. However, when you are looking only at those aged 18-24, the gap narrows significantly with about 71 per cent on Instagram and 80% on the Facebook. Using that data as an example, it is wise for you to make sure that you don’t forget about the Instagram if you are trying to reach a younger audience.

4) Pricing

You need to review your pricing strategy to be sure it makes sense for everything that you are offering. Consumer demand, the product availability, and other of the external factors all can play a role in how much you should be charging for the goods and for the services you are selling.

Perhaps you are running an ice cream shop in a town that draws a lot of tourists during the summer months. When the demand is high and the more customers are entering your store, it is fair to charge a premium for the items that is on your menu. However, during the colder months when all of the tourist crowd is gone, you should try and update your menu and offer winter-themed items at discount prices just to keep traffic heavy.

 

How you can creating an effective marketing and Sales Strategy in this recent times.

Review of your sales and marketing strategy so to boost profits and to gain ground on your competitors. A good way for you to start is by breaking down the process into discrete. And also manageable elements.
You will end up with a checklist that can be reviewed to prioritise the areas that are needing improvement. And serve as the groundwork for an effective marketing strategy.

1) Markets

You should research your current and the future markets to learn why your customers buy from you. And what are the things you could offer to attract more customers. Identify the ways for you to sell more to your most profitable customers. And if there are bulk, the institutional, the industrial, or the corporate markets beyond normal retail that you are ignoring. This data can help you to determine if new features or new services will attract new customers or if people will be able to pay more for them.

For you to collect information, you need to study what your competitors are doing and then collect information about your customers.

You can also make use of surveys to gather information, and you also can establish your customer loyalty programs. That require the participants to register by just providing some basic information about themselves. These details can be of help to you in figuring out what demographics you are attracting—or failing to attract.

2) Competition

You need to know who your competitors are and what your competitors are up to. Also what the overall market trend and is and how are you holding up in terms of market share and the profit position? How can you rank against your competitors? What substitutes are possibly there to your products and how much of a threat are they?

Make use of the competitive intelligence to maintain and to enhance your business’s market share. This involves you researching what your competitors offer, their price points, and also what their marketing strategies are saying about the demographics that they are targeting.

 

3) Distribution

Identify the ways for you to get your products or your services to new outlets profitably. This could involve you increasing your web sales, the expanding delivery options, the contracting with additional retail outlets to carry your products, and much more. You might even be able to find mutually beneficial ways for you to collaborate with other businesses. For example, if you are an event photographer, it is possible you could work with a florist or a caterer to offer purchasing options that include the both of your services. Such an arrangement will allow both parties to possibly expand their client bases.