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How marketing supports sales: volume, margin and lifetime value
Marketers are often asked to generate more leads in response to a business growth goal. This is volume growth, but it’s not always the kind of growth you need or want. In fact, marketing (working closely with customer service and sales) can support different kinds of growth – existing customers, warm prospects as well as engaging with the right prospects.
Creating seamless marketing, sales and service teams
10 years ago the CIM predicted that by 2022 there would be no such thing as separate marketing and sales departments. It turned out to be wishful thinking, but it is no less important today that customer services, sales and marketing work hand-in-hand.
There are all sorts of reasons why they are often separate, but the best reason for them not to be is that they are supporting the same customer journey.
What matters most to effective marketing, context or competence?
Competence of course is a key factor in determining how effective your marketing is. It’s a combination of experience, knowledge and skills. However, a marketer is unlikely to thrive and be truly effective, however good they are, if the business doesn’t provide the right context.
Shining a light on your vision, values and milestones
Agreeing vision, values, goals and milestones is a shared responsibility across the leadership team. Marketing’s role is to turn these into something that engages and inspires employees, suppliers, clients and prospects alike. To do that, you use both numbers and narrative. Each has an important part in motivating your audience.
Creating an organisational marketing capability
As any in-house marketer will tell you, there will come a time when you might need to use external specialists. There are all sorts of factors involved in deciding what to keep in-house and what might need outsourcing.
What to insource and what to outsource
As any in-house marketer will tell you, there will come a time when you might need to use external specialists. There are all sorts of factors involved in deciding what to keep in-house and what might need outsourcing.
Using Metrics to get Buy-in From Your Colleagues
Are you getting results you and your business needs from marketing? Since you’re investing time, energy and money on marketing, you’ll no doubt be thinking (and others asking) about value for money, return on investment and how to measure marketing success.
What skills does a marketing director need?
Getting the backing of your board for the marketing budget you need to do a good job is a key skill of a client-side marketer. If you’re getting push back on your budget requests, here are three key ways to get better buy-in by distinguishing the three marketing budgets, index-linking your requests, and using Visual Budgeting to express your rationale.
How do you get buy-in to your marketing budget?
Getting the backing of your board for the marketing budget you need to do a good job is a key skill of a client-side marketer. If you’re getting push back on your budget requests, here are three key ways to get better buy-in by distinguishing the three marketing budgets, index-linking your requests, and using Visual Budgeting to express your rationale.
What is marketing strategy, and whose job is it?
How do you draw the distinction between strategy and tactics? More importantly, what do others in your business think strategy is and who needs to be involved? Where marketing strategy sits within your organisation and whether your colleagues see it as you do can vary enormously. So, the starting point for a marketing strategist is often being clear about what strategy is and isn’t.
How to shift the perception of marketing in your organisation
How do your colleagues see marketing? Do they see it as strategic? Central to everything in the business and firmly at the core of operations?
Or is marketing a peripheral ‘nice-to-have?’ A non-essential activity that you invest in only when times are good?