Starting from day one of setting up your marketing program, you need to be set up for future growth and success.
Forging ahead without giving some time and attention to what can possibly go wrong will yield only chaos and setbacks.
Think of your marketing program as the core infrastructure upon which every future sale of your business will originate.
When your infrastructure is sturdy and well-constructed, you'll be able to support and manage all future challenges that come your way.
Provide a Collaborative Platform
Technology has enabled businesses to provide collaborative platforms where team members can refer back to one another and to supervisors for guidance, support, and project completion goals.
An online collaborative platform is similar to what we used to call an intranet. It's a central place for communication and source materials.
Third-party providers of collaborative platforms abound, and most of them offer redundant levels of privacy protection, international access via any WiFi connection, special administrative privileges and control, and more.
As the article, “Is your marketing program set up for measurable success?” looks at, it soon will be.
Once you have your collaborative platform set up, you will enjoy dashboard-like control over the entirety of your marketing program, including at-a-glance data and analysis tools.
Define Terms
Before you begin, it's essential to define the terms so that your entire sales force and marketing team are on the same page.
The term "qualified lead" may mean one thing to one person and something entirely different to someone else on your team.
Construct a glossary of terms that defines things your marketing team needs to be agreed upon. Remember that the glossary pertains to your individual business, so it doesn't necessarily have to reflect common definitions by the general public.
The glossary can be uploaded onto your collaborative platform as reference material.
Create Buyer Personas
Buyer personas help every salesperson on your team to envision exactly what your target customer needs.
You can develop a set of buyer personas yourself, or you can work with one of your top salesmen to write up a paragraph or two about each buyer persona.
These should also be uploaded onto your collaborative platform to be used as reference material for your sales team.
Develop a Timeline
As sales progress, potential buyers move from one stage to the next before making a purchasing decision.
One of the most valuable tools you can implement as a business owner is to develop a timeline that represents the stages of the buying decision.
As your sales team works a lead, they can move the buyer between stages, so that everyone else in the company knows where that lead is in their buying decision.
In your timeline, include the average length of time that a lead might be expected to stay in that stage. Leads that don't progress can be flagged, to receive special attention by a member of your sales force.
When you build a solid marketing infrastructure, your whole business will be stronger because of it.