Marketing And Business Growth

Marketing Sales And Lead Generation

UnityMarketing — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:48:00 +0000

When comparing marketing with sales and considering how they relate to one another I always think of the medium-sized business where I had my first job. The marketing department people were serious and analytical, always busy with statistics, marketing campaigns and meetings.

The sales people were breathless, always on the go, always on the phone or going to meet customers, always on the cusp of some enormous deal, some magic sale that would catapult the company’s turnover way over the annual target. As a junior it seemed to me that the marketing people and the sales people were from two different planets. I now know that they were simply two parts of the same continuum.

Marketing can be described as the set of activities that are undertaken in order to generate leads, while selling is the act of turning a prospect (a hot lead) into a buyer and later a repeat customer. The marketing and sales functions of any organization are glued together by lead generation.

If there are no leads, the two will fall foul of one another. I saw this in that business I was describing earlier. But leads work both ways. The marketing department has to deliver them and the sales department must act upon them to maximum advantage. But leads must first be generated and that is why marketing tends to overwhelm the sales function when the two are discussed.

The various forms that marketing takes are well-known because they are so visible. They range from cold canvassing to brand or corporate advertising, through to the more targeted types of marketing such as direct response advertising and referrals, where the particular benefits of the product is explained to the customer.

If this is done properly, then qualified prospects will actually approach the sales people for assistance. Sales people love those leads! It is in fact when the sales people take over the communication function that the lead ceases to be a lead and becomes a prospective customer, then a customer and finally a repeat customer.

Actually I have painted a somewhat idealistic picture of the lead relationship between the marketing function and the sales function. It is just not that simple because not all leads are equal. An extremely tiny percentage leads are customers who are ready to buy.

Most of them are merely interested in possibly buying at a future date and some are just mildly interested, just “browsing”. That’s why it is important to have some sort of lead management system so that potential customers can be turned into buyers and buyers can become repeat customers.

All follow-up communication should be friendly and informative, definitely not hard sell. The company representative should be regarded as a helpful expert rather than a rabid sales person.
Fortunately many of the follow-up functions can be automated to take the form of email, direct mail, voice broadcast and fax broadcast.

Obviously the lead would be encouraged each time to call directly if they have questions or a ready to buy. The follow-up effort is usually a function of the marketing and sales departments combined.

Free Web Site Promotion

UnityMarketing — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:30:00 +0000

You have finished making your own website. You have introduced your company and presented your products and services. You have added propositions and promos to catch your target audience’s attention. You have achieved the dos and don’ts of building a company web site. But why isn’t your website a major success?

Maybe you’re not planning the key to the best promotion of your web site. Here are some guidelines on how to acquire free web site promotion for your company’s success.

If you have started to promote your web site, keep it constant. If you promote your site with persistence, it will catch your audience’s attention.

Be patient. Try each method in promotion until you acquire the best, free promotion there is. You have to accept trial and error for your web site to reach the top.

There are many ways for your web site to be seen. Here are some free web site promotions you could try until you find the most effective.

*Free promotions such as search engines and directories would give your web site the deserved traffic you always wanted. Make sure to check your web site’s ranking to know whether or not this type of free promotion is right for you.

*Make a deal with other web sites on trading links which could help both web sites. Make sure to use words that could easily interest the audience.

*Find free classified ads that could boost the promotion of your web site. These ads could be seen by other people who you are not targeting for, but may as well be interested in your services.

*Free and low-cost internet banners are spread all through out the World Wide Web. Banners that pop-up at the top of a page or in a separate window would automatically catch your target audience’s attention.

If your web site and its free promotion did not work even after accomplishing these methods, analyze your web site. Track down all visitors, advertisements, and transactions. Then locate errors in your web site.

Upload new files to your web site continuously for audience to return for new products and services. Monitor your own web site if it’s up in the market or down.

Then be ready to try the methods again and surely it will work.

It has always been said that the best things in life are free. Yes they are. And as soon as your free web site promotion proves to the audience its worth, then you’ll believe it’s true.

Marketing Plan - How To Develop One

UnityMarketing — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Click Here To Find Out How To Develop The Ultimate Marketing Plan

Marketing can be described as the intellectual background to the sales effort. Without a solid marketing plan, the product of research, thought and creativity, the sales effort is doomed to failure.

When growing market share in a competitive market the additional requirements of sensitivity to the market and aggressive competitiveness are also required. Great marketers have strong personalities and from the above you can see why this is so.

Often the term “marketing” is confused with advertising, but this is just one facet of a complex diversity of research and promotion to the customer. It is the effectiveness of this multi-faceted plan that will determine the success of the marketing drive.

The greatest marketer will have the greatest market share and will become the market leader. Marketing is about positioning companies, services and products; it is about creating long-term relationships in the community and the market segments where the company’s products and services are directed.

The Golden 20/80 Rule

In marketing, as in life, the Golden 20/80 rule applies. Statistics have shown that 80% of sales come from just 20% of the client base. Expanding market share is therefore a combination of eliciting more sales from the top 20% of your customers and expanding your total customer base so that 20% of them is a larger percentage of prospects.

Research and understanding the market segment is the answer here. The marketer needs to go back to basics and ask who the existing clients are, what their needs are, why they use the company’s services or products, when they use them, who the company’s prospective customers are, how the company’s products and services can better serve existing and new customers, and so on.

Check Out The Competition

It can be fairly stated that no matter what business a company is in, someone somewhere with a similar business is competing with the company for its customers. It is their market share of the competition that the marketer is planning to reduce so he had better know the enemy. Don’t be deceived; customers are fickle.

If they feel they are getting a better deal elsewhere they will move. That applies to the competition too. The customers can be bought over, but then the marketer has to know what the firm is up against.

Develop market niches

It might mean changing existing services and products or it may mean introducing entirely new ones, but seasoned marketers know they must develop new niches – new groups of customers who are looking for something entirely new. Even users of existing products and services may change their preferences, creating a new market niche.

The serious marketer never takes customer loyalty for granted. He looks for ways to bring together changing demand and new products and services. Developing new niches is an excellent way for marketers to increase market share and deplete the customer base of the competition.

Click Here To Find Out How To Develop The Ultimate Marketing Plan