MARKETING FRAMEWORK

How do prospects purchase your product or service?

Does a single decision-maker find your product or service and buy it on the spot, or do they go through many steps and approvals first? Perhaps there are multiple departments involved in the decision, each department with its own needs.

Crystallizing your marketing framework adds more science around your selling activities. It starts with your sales process – a series of steps you follow as you guide prospects from initial contact to purchase. It begins when you first identify a new prospect.

Sample Sales Process
STEP 1
A prospect responds to a campaign & requests information
STEP 2
A sales rep calls the prospect to explain your offering
STEP 3
In-person meeting & offering demo
STEP 4
Your team submits a proposal
STEP 5
Prospect signs an agreement & makes first payment

A documented sales process is a flowchart that describes:

• Each distinct step a prospect takes
• Knowledge the prospect needs to move to the next step
• Literature & tools you can provide to help the prospect move forward
• Length of time a prospect needs at each step
• Conversion rates: the percentage of prospects who move from one step to the next

With a documented sales process, you have a powerful tool that enables you to:

• Sell more efficiently
• Generate more accurate sales and revenue reports
• Estimate the revenue and return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns
• See which stages take the most time and find ways to move prospects forward
• Create better literature and tools
• Improve your campaigns
• Minimize the amount of time your reps spend on estimates and forecasts

Some B2C companies have an extremely short sales process. That’s okay – if you’re selling an impulse-buy product or something that requires persuading only a single person, your sales process might only be two steps.

Marketing Campaigns

After you’ve defined your sales process for each product/distribution channel, begin to structure your lead generation activities. In many companies, a sales team is the primary method for reaching out to the market. Salespeople call prospects and customers, but they can do only so much in a day. Marketing campaigns create leverage and dramatically increase your reach.

A marketing campaign is a series of touches with your market to communicate a key message. The key word is “series” since it usually takes multiple touches for your audience to recognize your message and respond.

Marketing campaigns can include many different media:

• Email, search, banners, and other online marketing
• Publicity
• Direct mail
• Telemarketing
• Trade shows and events
• Print, radio and other traditional media

Here are three sample campaigns:

GENERATE NEW LEADS
1. Use search to generate traffic to your website.
2. Prospect requests information via email.
3. Email the requested information.
4. Call the prospect. Qualify the prospect further and determine next steps.

DRIVE EXISTING PROSPECTS TO YOUR TRADE SHOW BOOTH & VIP RECEPTION
1. Mail a postcard to attendees 3 weeks before the show. Invite them to your booth with an intriguing incentive.
2. Mail a special invite to key prospects and customers for a VIP reception. Ask them to RSVP by phone, email, or URL.
3. Call key prospects and customers as a second effort.
4. Send an email to all confirmed attendees 3 days before the event.
5. Email the non-respondents one last time.

HIT YOUR MARKET WITH A SPECIAL OFFER
1. Run banner ads on industry websites and targeted email newsletters.
2. Send out a special email to your house list.
3. Create an intriguing story and tie it to your offer. Write a search-optimized press release and post it on your site. Distribute releases and pitch to a key industry reporter.
4. Run a series of paid search ads.

It’s always best to start with your company’s annual goals and develop campaigns to meet those numbers. For example, when you know how many new customers you need, you can calculate how many leads you’ll need, and then design campaigns to generate those leads throughout the year.

With solid planning, a jolt of creativity, and focus on measurement, you’ll be in a strong position for success.

Key Marketing Framework Concepts & Steps

If you don’t have a defined sales process, it’s a valuable investment that can improve your entire sales and marketing program. Create processes for each distribution channel, offering, and customer segment.

Determine how your prospects buy

List the steps you think prospects logically take from the time they recognize a problem to the time they buy. Talk with customers, or ask your sales reps for more insight. Figure out what steps they take, what they need to know, and how you can deliver that information most effectively.

Create your process

For each step your prospects take, list the following:

• What the prospect needs to learn
• Literature & tools you can provide to help the prospect move forward
• The length of time a prospect needs to move through the step
• The percentage of prospects who progress from each step to the next (your conversion rate)

Quantify your campaign goals

• Plan your campaigns to meet your annual revenue and volume goals. For example, if you’re trying to generate 100 new customers, figure out how many leads you’ll need and when you’ll need them.
• Think about how you’ll use different media. For example, your sales team may be able to generate 30% of your leads through prospecting; the rest may come from telemarketing, email, direct mail, search marketing, Webinars, trade shows, and other venues.

Generate campaign ideas and strategies

• Identify all the business goals that will need marketing support. You may need campaigns to generate and nurture prospects, sell direct or through a channel, or market to existing customers.
• Evaluate ideas and options: traditional sales activities, Internet marketing, telemarketing, direct mail, email, publicity, and others.

Target your audience

• With more specific targeting, you can speak more directly to the prospect and raise your response rates in the process.

Deliver one or two key messages and your call-to-action

• If you include every detail about your product and company, it’s easy for prospects to become overwhelmed. It’s more effective to move a prospect one step at a time.
• Be creative — your market is bombarded with messages daily, so grab their attention and engage them.

Plan to measure

• When you measure your campaigns, it’s easier to gain budget approval the next time around. You’ll also know exactly which programs produce the highest return.
• Determine how you’ll measure the success of each campaign. If there are variables you can’t measure, decide how you will account for those results.
• Identify how you’ll capture the data you’ll need – unique phone numbers, unique URLs, etc.

Plan your fulfillment

• Your fulfillment processes can help or hurt your close rate, so be sure to outline your requirements. For example, if you’re running a campaign where prospects request a software demo, but that demo doesn’t arrive for a week, your prospects may lose interest.

Continually test and improve

• Even on a small campaign, you can evaluate your ad, copy, list, and other factors before you exhaust your entire budget.
• Choose a subset of your list or two versions of an ad; test them in small quantities and choose the best one for rollout. Then you can test a second variable against the winner of the first test.
• Keep the testing cycle going, and track your results over time. You’ll improve your response rates and return on investment.

What’s next?

Include your major campaigns in your annual marketing plan and budget, and then implement your plans and strategies throughout the year: email marketing, traditional media, business development, search marketing, trade shows, publicity, online advertising, customer retention, and other campaign events and activities.

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