Last week we discussed Corporate DNA and the core values of an organization. As this is a marketing blog, I will endeavor this week to focus on the best practices for the “marketing driven” inclined.
Marketing Driven DNA has elements of:
- Positioning: look and feel of branding and messaging developed from a strong understanding of the current (ever changing) market landscape, climate, and economy as well as personas for prospects, partners and influencers.
- Product functionality, packaging and pricing: Development teams can usually build anything conceivable. The challenges is to deliver a set of market requirements documents that identify where the demand will go and not where it is today.
- Awareness and Influence: If you can’t be found or are largely unknown, then you will fail. Generating global awareness and influencing the influencers is a key requirement of all market driven organizations.
- Partnerships: Economies of scale are best accomplished through ecosystems with other organizations to help fill technology or service gaps as well as provide more efficient access to vertical or geographic sales opportunities.
- Demand Generation: Conceiving, building and managing a lead-to-cash infrastructure and campaign program will ensure predictable pipeline and revenue generation.
- Measurements and dashboards: If you don’t keep score, then how do you know If you are winning or losing? Measure everything! The let the data tell you what is going on and adjust accordingly. Avoid at all cost looking for your preconceived answers in the data you produce.
We’ve also talked at length on the need to shift marketing values from outbound to inbound. Doing so will meet current best practices as well as reduce overall costs and improve results.
Shifting your marketing mix to an inbound focus requires more than just a few dedicated people responsible for social media “conversations”, it requires a shift in corporate culture… at the DNA level. A recent Hubspot blog titled “How to develop a strong inbound company culture” identifies fives steps you should take to heart and act on immediately:
- Adopt a strategic planning process
- Learn to be nimble, adaptive and accountable
- Align your teams and get them working collaboratively
- Get comfortable with giving away information
- Be ready to move people off the bus is necessary
Ultimately it will be your Corporate DNA that will drive decisions (as well as results) so implementing inbound best practices will ensure a marketing driven company’s best chance at predictable success.
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