Here are 5 marketing essentials from top speakers at the Power of Marketing 2014 conference held in Liverpool, 18 and 19 June 2014. Some you will know, some will be brand new and others will be like discovering a long, lost friend.
1. No substitute for 1:1
We do marketing because we can't talk to all of our customers individually, all of the time. But the personal touch is still incredibly important and underpins Everton Football Club's community programmes.The club is a growing global brand - especially on the back of the club's stylish, winning performances last season under new manager Roberto Martinez - but it's also an SME, with it's heritage firmly anchored in Liverpool.
4 point strategy
Robert Elstone, CEO and Richard Kenyon, Director of Marketing and Communications at the club explained how engaging fans 1:1 was their number one priority. They achieve this by a 4 point strategy:
- knowledge to shape and inform decisions
- make ticket purchase easy
- memorable match days
- ownership and participation to build loyalty
Winning formula
The strategy is brought to life by an extensive series of community programmes including Blue Crimbo bringing Christmas cheer to the people of Liverpool, the fan zone on match days and retro days where former players meet the fans. Maximising the use of social media, Everton's approach is a winner with more sell out games and very high fan satisfaction ratings.
2. How to plug holes in a leaky funnel
Basware, the Finnish company dedicated to simplifying and streamlining financial processes by providing open, secure, cloud-based purchase-to-pay and e-invoicing solutions, provided a masterclass on how to maximise the value of a sales funnel and make sure marketing and sales operations are correctly aligned.Sales v marketing The thorny issue of aligning sales marketing in in a B2B environment has bedevilled business for as long as anyone can remember and it's still an issue today. The video sums up the problem.
Seeding demand
Ceri Jones, Vice President Demand Generation and Marketing Operations explained how his company had streamlined systems and processes to benefit the bottom line. He explained that they used the Waterfall model developed by Sirius Decisions Ltd to align sales and marketing activity that involves:
- seeding demand
- creating demand
- accelerating sales
CRM
Once an enquiry is in the pipeline or funnel, the enquiry is handled using MS Dynamics and Oracle Eloqua with the following sales and marketing actions take place:
- marketing qualified lead
- sales accredited lead
- sales qualified lead
Refining funnel operations
Financial pressures meant there was a need to review process to get more out of the pipeline. The review found that better pipeline management would produce benefits. In particular, the there was a need for sales and marketing to agree what their actions in the funnel process were as they had some differing interpretations leading to inconsistencies in dealing with enquiries.
Impressive results
The result was a service level agreement between sales and marketing to define their relationship and make sure the funnel was set up to work effectively for both.The results were impressive:
- 18% increase in leads
- 136% increase in sales accepted leads.
3. Marketing shock - no one love your brand but ...
Every marketer thinks their customers love their brand - they don't! The shocking truth according to Tom Lindley, Marketing Director, Mars Care and Treats is that the challenge is to get customers to buy your brand more often than those of competitors and innovation has a fundamental role to play. Companies who don't innovate will eventually die.
Innovation
According to Lindley, when innovating companies should:
- understand the needs of customers
- understand the needs of stakeholders e.g. in FMCG, this will include not only include the customer buying in shops but understanding the needs of the retailer so your product meets their needs too
- understand that innovation can be amplified by channel activity, marketing communications e.g. align newly introduced products to supporting marketing activity.
4. Inbound marketing - customers looking for you
Pre Google, marketers looked for customers; now customers look for products and service using search engines - increasingly mobile, and also increasingly, social media. That was the scenario outlined by Mike Kirwan of Latitude Digital Marketing.
Killer stats
The stats are illuminating:
- 17% of search is now on mobile devices
- 26% of marketing spend in on search
- 58% of companies are increasing their search budget.
More stats from Latitude's Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report May 2014.
Measure ROI
Kirwan likened not having a mobile website to being closed for business on a Wednesday. He is a firm believer in using Google Analytics to identify what marketing activity is responsible for the visit and attribute value to all clicks to a companies website e.g. from entry page to all pages visited - without proper tracking, it's not possible to attribute ROI.
Get the most from online
His recommendations for every company to get maximum value from it's marketing activity:
- get the most out of search and digital channels - they are here to stay
- understand ROI
- focus on conversion to
- make sure online spend is not wasted
- profile and segment to engage more of your targets.
5. One letter is not a customer relationship
One letter to a customer who doesn't know you is not a relationship says SME marketing guru, Dee Blick. Instead, businesses should focus on getting the marketing basics right to develop profitable customers. Blick who's new book is titled The 15 Essential Marketing Masterclasses, reminded the conference there is no short cuts to success.
Buying process
She identified the following as essential stages in the buying process that marketing communications needed to address, hence the unrealistic expectation of a customers buying with little knowledge of the selling company.
- awareness
- interest
- evaluation
- desire
- action
Articulate
As Blick said at the conference " There is no marketing miracle for success ... the secret is being brilliant at the basics, communicate articulately and charmingly in line with your marketing plan."
