When you begin a marketing campaign it is common to want to take everything on all at once. It is important to remember though to start small, especially if you do not have consistent marketing in place right now.
Marketing initiatives such as white papers, landing pages, lead management, and marketing automation systems, are all essential components of an overall marketing strategy but before you can implement them you need to have leads to nurture and all the basics in place.
Take things slow and steady and take the time to develop systems and consistency within your marketing initiatives to develop a steady flow of inbound leads. Once you have developed the leads, and a consistent system, you can put a plan in place to manage, nurture, and optimize them.
I know it can take some patience to pump the breaks and start small, but eventually, it will save you time and allow you to create more efficient and effective marketing campaigns.
Before you can establish lead management and nurturing campaigns, you need to:
- Have a steady flow of inbound leads
- Have a way to segment inbound leads so you can develop nurturing campaigns around them
- Track what is working and what is not
- Have a dedicated marketing professional on your team (whether in-house or an outsourced marketer).
I have found that in firms with revenue between 1 million and 10 million, marketing campaigns can often get off the ground for a little without a high-level marketing professional, but the marketing efforts will usually come to a screeching halt.
These marketing campaigns are usually inconsistent and short-lived because there is no one on the team to keep anyone accountable for their marketing actions.
If an entry-level marketing person is leading the charge, there is often turnover, so time is wasted as new team members must be trained. In addition, these entry-level people can be good at implementing some tactics but not establishing them and creating a strategy around them.
If a professional says they will develop the strategy and oversee the efforts, that can be a problem too. Most professionals did not get into their line of work to be marketers or business developers. They got into their line of work because they loved the law, accounting, or financial advising, for example. Even though a professional may be skilled in marketing, their day-to-day workload often gets in the way, so when it comes down to it, it is easy for them to push off marketing.
Unless you have someone dedicated to implementing a well-thought-out marketing strategy and there is accountability to ensure marketing tasks are completed, marketing plans will fall apart.
What I love about what I am doing now as a fractional marketer and business developer, is I can put in a lot of time with a client in upfront to develop a solid marketing foundation. Once it is set up, I can offer ongoing maintenance of the plan to ensure there is accountability to implement the plan that was agreed upon.
Should needs arise throughout the year beyond the maintenance services that I offer, I can ramp up my services as needed, providing a more cost-effective solution than having a high-level marketing professional in-house on a full-time basis.
Firms can use my years of experience and expertise to establish a marketing foundation and manage lower-level marketing staff in-house to provide a win-win solution for all.
What makes for a successful marketing campaign? The marketing campaign’s success must be evaluated by increased leads and revenue goals that are established up-front. At the beginning of any marketing campaign, we select what revenue numbers it would take to be deemed a successful marketing campaign. We follow up on progress throughout the year so we can pivot if needed and ensure we meet our goals.
Interested in finding out if we might be fit to establish your marketing foundation? Complete this form on our website to see if we can help you.
