Author Og Mandino once wrote, “What you plant now, you will harvest later.” While this is the case in most aspects of life, it is especially true when it comes to marketing your business. Marketing is a long-game, trust-the-process proposal.
We’ve seen so many instances over the years of companies who decide to make a splash with XYZ campaign only to change direction months later because “there were no results yet.” These company types don’t fully understand the sales and marketing process, and you will find they are not strategic planners. They will typically “shoot from the hip” where sales and marketing strategy is concerned.
In our latest Whitepaper, “You Don’t Need a Big Budget to Compete with The Giants, But You Do Need to Be At the Right Place At the Right Time,” we discuss how to compete with a plan you can afford. We dive into some of the ways small to medium-sized software vendors can compete with the software giants with proper planning and execution. It’s a matter of planting the marketing seeds in many different fields, nurturing them over time, adjusting for where productivity is greatest, and being there when harvest time (leads) rolls around – which it will, if you stay the course using the data in your CRM/Marketing Automation systems.
Laying The Foundation
What does your business really do? If you – and your team! – can’t recite your “reason for being” on-demand, with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind you, you need to rethink your position in your space. It’s the concrete footer on which you will lay every brick going forward – bricks to include differentiation, branding, website development, and SEO, CRM, marketing automation tools, content marketing, public relations, social media, e-mail campaigns, and thought leadership (this is by no means an exhaustive list). And then, share the message with your team. They should be your biggest spokespeople.
As you begin to roll out a communications strategy, remember, you don’t water your garden with a fire hose. Cast out many soaker hoses instead. Spend your marketing dollars carefully and find creative (and often free) ways to keep your company’s logo and message in front of as many of your prospects as often as possible. Reach is nothing without frequency, and frequency is nothing without reach.
Trust The Process. Monitor It and Appreciate the Failures
A well-thought-out, well-executed marketing plan will pay big dividends, but it is a process. A “set it and forget” approach won’t maximize the harvest.
One of the many beauties of digital media is how quickly you can measure it, then make changes as often as necessary. This can be a double-edged sword of course, but the value of A/B testing a headline or a color scheme to see which one pulls best is priceless.
Ideally and ultimately, you need to do “marketing things.” You want to observe your marketing efforts by collecting data to determine what’s working and what’s failing. It’s these failures that you need to uncover and stop – all the while learning from and building upon the things that are working.
To do this effectively, you need the tools and processes to collect the data (CRM!), as well as the expertise to analyze and put it to good use. Perri Marketing can be a trusted ally in putting these tools into action; we’ve been doing this kind of thing for more than 20 years.
The Future Is Now!
If you haven’t begun planting your marketing seeds, there is no time like the present. It will shape the future success of your business. Just. Get. Started. Contact us for a free, no-strings consultation and let us point you in the right direction.
