The future of your business relies on how to maximise your efforts in creating a marketing strategy that generates qualified leads and nurtures customers with little effort, whilst keeping up with the pressures of your competitors and needs of your customers.
Please define ‘simple’ I hear you say. Truth is, we know what we need to do but actually doing it is another story all together, right?
The challenges of the today’s digital marketplace can appear at times quite overwhelming. Like a vast ocean of opportunities where the waters are calm and seemingly inviting one minute, yet stormy and unpredictable the next.
For a business, navigating through these uncharted waters can be daunting and for today’s consumer this is their ecosystem – this is where they live and engage with vendors! Where they move at ease and speed, expecting marketers like you to continually explore, adapt and invent new ways of engaging with them.
Welcome to the New Science of Marketing and here’s the thing - it is still evolving and being refined as you read this. One thing we can all anticipate is more change and new challenges as the Internet of Things starts to light up our world.
Called Inbound Marketing, it’s a major shift to a more sophisticated approach to engaging new prospects and existing customers. And with this is a new way of selling called Inbound Sales that’s helping connect the dots across the entire buyer journey of the new consumer.
So, what have we discovered about the new environment and the way customers behave in the new digital ecosystem?
1. Your product or brand will sink in the ocean unless you put customers at the centre of your sales and marketing strategy. The old marketing formula of price, product, promotion and place fails when confronted by the empowerment consumers experience when using the web. It’s no longer a matter of one way communication through brochures, websites or even social media - digital customers want to engage, talk about their preferences and opinions and expect answers to their questions whether in forums, social media or direct contact with your organisation.
2. The channel or device doesn’t matter. Many businesses have invested heavily in multi-channel marketing strategies only to realise that customers are bouncing around from one channel to the next. Breaking down barriers between channels, sharing customer data throughout your organisation and integrating new technology platforms to provide a seamless encounter that is more like a conversation than a series of transactions is the future of marketing.
3. Your brand will fail if it contradicts the values held by your customers. This principle stems from what we know about Millennials (who will make up 40 percent of the global workforce by 2020). They have particular characteristics. For example, over 40 percent are more likely to trust experts (even experts that are strangers to them initially) than advertisements. Generation Z (following the Millennials) is even more skeptical. They don’t merely judge individual products, they take a deeper look at the companies that sit behind these brands. Earning the trust of these customers is essential and requires strategy.
These new prospects are your company’s most valuable asset. Once trust is earned, they will become advocates for you and your brand. But, understanding customers is the first hurdle. Re-orienting your company to put them at the centre is the second and co-ordinating your end to end engagement with them across their entire buyer journey is the third and also where the right technology platform can help.
So make a start right now with the four m’s of marketing today …
• Manipulate the buyer journey by understanding customer behaviour across your channels in a single data repository and sharing relevant, valuable content
• Motivate your prospects with highly personal engagements that build deeper relationships
• Measure and maximise the impact of your marketing investments across channels with real-time data analysis
• Manage a co-ordinated strategy across your entire team, from marketing to sales, to create a whole a new ‘revenue department’
Learn and master the new science of marketing engagement and connect that with some of your traditional tactics to nurture more qualified leads that drive significant sales for your business.
Tony Eades is principal at Brand Manager. Want to get more out of your marketing efforts? Discover the latest smart automation technologies and marketing strategies that generate qualified enquiries and leads? Tony Eades will be sharing the ‘Marketing strategies you must invest in for 2017’ at a special business breakfast, Tuesday March 28th at the Hills Shire Council, Norwest Business Park, Bella Vista. Register now https://marketing2017.eventbrite.com.au to secure the future of your business, by building a marketing strategy that captures new markets like the Millennials and delivers the best return on investment.
