Lead Liaison

Do Not Complicate Marketing, Simplify It

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Don't Complicate Marketing - Simplify ItScott Brinker, a marketing technologist and author of the chiefmartec.com blog, recently posted an article on Why marketers should learn how to program. We couldn’t disagree more with several of Scott’s thought-provoking concepts. Do not complicate marketing – simplify it.

Technology changes marketing – without question. Social media, blogs, online surveys, email marketing, YouTube are all examples of technology that inspires marketers to think differently about marketing strategies and campaigns. Learning to program doesn’t help a marketer harness marketing technology. Computer programming is not for everyone. Some marketers are technical and some are not. For the ones that aren’t technical or analytically-minded, don’t try telling them to program as the solution. You’ll have better luck asking an English teacher to become a microbiologist. There are many types of programming (C/C++, Java, PHP, ASP…the list goes on), all programming is different (web based, machine languages) and learning is not an overnight endeavor. You’ll just confuse the marketer. Make their life simpler, not harder. The answer to how to embrace new and innovative marketing technology is…hold your breath, new and innovative marketing technology.

Technology can improve processes and also simplify them at the same time. Scott is correct; there are a growing number of choices for marketing software. However, marketers must choose wisely. They must be careful to not adopt software platforms designed by engineers – which virtually requires a programmer to configure. Adopting marketing software designed by sales and marketers, instead of engineers, is vital. These packages were built to offer simplicity and ease of use that marketers expect. Case in point, Scott showed a screen shot (snippet below) of a complicated flow chart depicting a marketing campaign. If you want marketers to run then show them a flow chart like this.

Marketing Campaign Flow Chart

Scott also discusses a few other points. He suggests the cast of players around a marketer is growing and learning programming will help you speak their ‘native tongue’. Why not learn from the players themselves? Surely the players don’t understand some of your marketing terms. They might be interested in a quick lesson. Collaborating with your colleagues will only foster intra-company relations and build moral. Maybe you could send them to Douglass Karr’s The Marketing Technology Blog to read about these marketing terms.

Whether it’s marketing terms or marketing software, let’s not complicate marketing, let’s simplify it.

For a simplistic, yet amazingly powerful, software package that increases effectiveness of your sales and marketing team check out Lead Liaison’s Revenue Generation Software.

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Lead Liaison

Why Marketing Automation for Small Business?

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Why Marketing Automation for Small BusinessWhy choose marketing automation for small business? If you’re a micro-sized business (< $5M in revenue) or a small business (< $20M in revenue) then there’s less than one percent (1%) chance you’re using marketing automation technology to help grow your small business. Interestingly, when comparing penetration rates of marketing automation (reference our write-up on the “Marketing Automation Market”) for micro and small-sized businesses to penetration rates of mid-size and large businesses, micro and small-sized businesses have the lowest adoption rates. Adoption rates should be much higher than mid-size and large businesses.

Small businesses stand to gain a lot from marketing automation technology. Two fundamental needs are commonplace in almost every small business:

Two fundamental needs of a small business…
• Rapid growth
• Large presence

First, small businesses need to grow rapidly to satisfy investors. When there’s growth, especially fast growth, there’s interest from additional investors in injecting capital into your company’s business. In the venture capital (VC) world, entrepreneurs win when multiple VCs want to invest – VCs end up competing against each other, fighting for their (unfair) share of your business.

Second, small businesses need to appear large, as a formidable competitor in their space and as a viable company customers are willing to invest in. Very few potential buyers will find interest in a company that appears small and unstable with limited resources. Appearing larger improves the chances of your business “winning the deal”.

Fortunately, marketing automation help small businesses grow and appear larger. In particular, marketing automation technology introduces a great deal of personalized automation thereby reducing the need to have dedicated resources managing mundane, yet critical, tasks. Lead Liaison goes many steps ahead of traditional marketing automation packages with our revenue generation software that automates emails, lead qualification (lead scoring, buy signals, lead activity), lead distribution, lead nurturing, lead capture and more. Our software provides a cost-effective framework for small businesses to help structure their lead management process.

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Marketing Campaign Messaging

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Marketing Campaign MessagingMarketing campaign messaging is important, but it’s more important to think about who you’re messaging to. When building a campaign, it doesn’t make sense to make a one-size fits all message. Sales and marketing people need to tailor messaging around the recipient. Similar to giving a presentation, before you present you’ve got to know your audience. You must know who you’re presenting to. Are they engineers or marketers, technical or business savvy? If you don’t know the exact title or role of your recipients then try categorizing them into organization levels. We suggest using three levels; C-level, Director/VP-level and everyone else (rank and file). Here are some tips on how to focus your marketing campaign messaging around these organizational levels:

C-level

Focus campaign messaging on outcome and results.

Director and VP-level

Focus campaign messaging on process and improvement results.

Rank and File

Focus campaign messaging on features and benefits.

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