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1-Person Marketing Department
If you were a 1-person marketing department for a B2B services company that had no prior marketing program, how would you prioritize your day?
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6 Answers
First, go to the CEO and demand the biggest budget possible. Second, take that budget and outsource all of the things that a marketing department is responsible for to agencies, design firms, lead gen providers, copywriters...
Seriously, I would first ask the CEO to tell you what the top objectives are for marketing. Do not allow him to name more than three. Then understand what resources will be available (budget, staff, third parties like agencies) to support those objectives. Maybe your CEO is different, but most will start by saying something like "Your job is to support sales by generating leads and you have no budget to do so. Go figure it out." In my opinion, your top priority is to create demand for the sales organization, but that is extremely difficult to do with limited resources so make sure you spend time specifying what campaigns you would like to run to create demand, what the key metrics are for success, and the cost to run those campaigns. There is a lot of data and information on Focus that can help you with this. Take it to the CEO and get him to say "I get it." Then, start your day.
Been there, done that.....good luck! Are you doing sales also? Or do you have a separate sales team? When I was in that kind of position I was a 1-man marketing and sales department and spent just about the entire day on the phone. Top priority was customer support and building relationships with existing clients. Secondary priority was acquiring new leads and prospecting. What's the point in acquiring new customers if you cannot take care of the ones you already have? It's pointless to acquire a new client if you are going to lose an existing one in the process.
Next, think of how you can work smarter rather than harder. Develop and define your sales process step-by-step and identify different indicators to help categorize your sales (prospects, leads, customers, clients, etc.). You can then manage the sales process and categories rather than try to manage hundreds of individual sales.
I'm not doing sales yet, but will be learning how to produce quotes...so, yes, I will be doing sales at some point.
What is your product, what is your service?
What is your target market?
What has your company done in the past to go to market?
As Eric said, you need to work smarter, not harder.
One way you can help lead nurture is by adding marketing automation (or a virtual marketing person). If you are unfamiliar with marketing automation - basically it combines the power of web analytics, email, and CRM and then can carry on a relationship with that lead until they are sales ready. (You can learn more on FOCUS's Marketing Automation area - http://www.focus.com/product/marketing-automation/)
First I would determine what marketing methods had been used in the past and the results.
I would then find out what your budget is.
There are some methods that return well but cost.
If your company's website does not support B2B then I would look into something like CRELoaded's B2B software. Multiple levels of customer, price displays, quantity breaks, & designed to be PCI compliant.
Write out what marketing options are available to you and build a plan.
Cover the virtual and the internet.
Look at local business functions, COC, business clubs, local advertising, sponsoring, trade shows, local TV.
Determine your market's area of influence and work outwards from local.
On line.
IMO B2B = Website Software, Industry certifications, trade magazines, vertical silos, industry portals, (Kelly Search, Thomasnet), product portals, social networking, blogging, article writing, PPC, general link building.
Online, the most return on investment (ROI) is seen from Search Engine Optimization. (SEO). (70% of traffic for non bloggin, non social networking client.)
The next is from industry portals. (30%)
If the company has not had a marketing department then it is quite likely that it is a bit behind the times in inter office communications.
IM chats on the network and perhaps even website live support, provided by the receptionist.
A contact program and policy will have to be worked out to deal with email.
I know you are marketing but how about website customer management?
CM is a form of marketing.
If you can afford to do it, hire the experts.
best,
Reg
http://DotCom-Productions.com
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