Do your marketing and sales activities extract enough value for every marketing dollar you spend? Think about these ideas as you plan your 2010 marketing roadmap and budget.
Form Alliances and Partnerships that Deliver Co-Marketing Dollars: The return on your investment doubles when you only pay for half of the campaign.
Negotiate Extras: most marketing investments can be negotiated to include more than what is actually being purchased. Get online banner placements thrown in with ad placements. Have the printer use the extra stock from brochures to deliver direct mail postcards. Ask the trade show sponsor to upsize your ad in the program. Get maximum value from every dollar spent.
Close the Gap Between Marketing and Sales: In the end, sales delivers the real return on marketing’s investment. The ongoing battle between sales (they don’t utilize the leads!) and marketing (all of their leads are terrible!) is counterproductive to working as a team to maximize the efforts of both groups. Open communication and genuine integration are the keys to optimal return on the marketing investment.
Give Prospects More Than Just a Slick Marketing Pitch: As the competition to get customers’ attention grows, so does their skepticism of everyone trying to get it. The company that delivers meaningful information to help the customer address their business objectives will benefit by positioning themselves as an industry expert, and elevating themselves above the noise. For the cost of a flash pop-up window, a company can instead deliver a whitepaper – not on their product, but on the space. Web content can go beyond self-promotion to offer industry insights. Blogs can summarize current analyst reports, etc…through value, vendors build trust.
Leads – Decide What To Do With Them: Filling in the blanks between lead generation goals and revenue goals is key to realizing meaningful ROI. What is the process for qualifying and following up on a lead? Is that process consistent with the size and bandwidth of the sales team? How is it tracked? Who is accountable? What stages does a prospect go through as they move “down the funnel”?