The marketing strategy blog post I probably shouldn't write.
Lots of firms do not have a clear, bottom line focused marketing strategy for qualified online leads.
(Despite the fact they could win on the web!)
Here are two juicy reasons. See if they ring true to you.
1.
As a discipline, marketing is seen as an expense or as the producer of collateral sales support. Marketing is not measured and held accountable for ROI in the same way that sales departments are. But maybe they should be held accountable for sales.
2.
Unlike other disciplines, everyone is a marketing expert. The CEO, the VP of Sales and sales team, the CFO, the IT manager… everyone has a strong opinion. And they might be right to some extent. But too many cooks spoil the broth.
So the marketing team takes on the non-strategic support role of doing a little bit of everything that everyone else wants. They are creatives and makers. But not strategic “sellers”.
Marketers are personally productive, but sales "wins".
And marketers know where their bread is buttered. The sales department, for good reason, has lots of influence over what marketing does. But sales folks often know little about what is new or even common in digital online marketing and lead generation. They won't or can't support it. That's not their job (yet). They have a quota to meet, work to do.
Further, some sales cultures and commission incentive packages inadvertently encourage denying attribution of success to online selling. "I sold that. That's my commision" But it doesn't have to work like that.
The buyer experience is online.
In many categories buyers are comfortable researching and "deciding" long before ever talking to sales. Certainly qualified leads are lost because the competition's online experience is more useful and their monitoring identifies the lead and closes the deal first.
Marketing is under-invested in online selling.
Expense and budget accountability? Clearly yes. Marketers "do it right". And the work is probably good.
But revenue or ROI accountability? None. Is this project the right thing? Where does it fit in the sales process? How many people did it move, change, or influence? Did it generate sales qualified leads?
Here’s the strategic lead generation and selling opportunity:
"Caveat emptor" has become "caveat venditor"... seller beware.
You must make a great first impression online and then identify, contact and nurture prospects, all online.
Fortunately, every online activity is measurable. Everything you measure gets better. Establish K.P. I.'s. Measure the web traffic, the content, the email, theSEO/SEM, the social media... measure twice, cut once. Make it all strategically great.
Prioritize online marketing and measurement.
Real data has a way of focusing effort and forcing priorities. With good data, strategies can be developed, and measured and improved. Investing in methodologies like inbound marketing and marketing automation inherently makes that happen.
Low accountability to high accountability.
Back in the 1990’s top marketing people started to talk about Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). Over simplified, it meant getting away from business "silos" and the laundry list of things marketing “could” be doing to having a single clear integrated hymnal that all of mar-com would sing from.
Look up Integrated Marketing Communications:
From Mass Media to Specialized Media
From Low Accountability in Marketing Spend to High Accountability in Marketing Spend
From Limited Connectivity to Pervasive Connectedness [6]
Notice the shift from traditonal to digital/interactive marketing?
Notice the shift from low accountability spend to high accountability spend?
Notice "fundamental shifts".
Inbound Marketing is measurable for ROI.
So here’s why I shouldn’t have written this blog post about strategy:
Marketing managers at small and medium sized companies don’t want to hire marketing vendors who want to talk or create strategy. They already have a long to-do list. They really don't need any more "to do". They want to hire more doers who will effectively get stuff done. That’s simply the culture and necessity.
So… if you want a video, I’ll make a great video.
On the other hand…
Inbound Marketing makes all the online "to do's" coherent, and strategic, and provides measurable results. Coombs Marketing can take care of those "to do's" too. But we'll probably have to talk strategy a bit. ;-)
What do you think? Do you have a clear measurable marketing strategy that goes to the bottom line? Should marketing be accountable for more than “expense”? Could you "sell" better with web and online tools?
Should I have written this blog post?
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