Four Steps to Marketing Success
Six tips for producing more effective newsletter content
Client Profile: IBM Solution Provider
Make sure you’re telling the right story for today’s marketplace
You understand how national economic cycles work. The economy is great
(1999), it tanks (2001), and we recover (2004). Those cycles become more
telling when mapped against the evolution and, more importantly, the
acceptance of technologies in the buyer community. Do customers not spend
because they can’t afford it (result of a bad economy) or because it just
doesn’t make sense for their business (result of non-acceptance)?
What makes this analysis particularly important is that we have reached a
“once in a blue moon” point in economic trends: Technology demand and open
purse strings are going to align this year and part of next. And, you
better be ready, because you can bet your competitors will!
The investments you make this year in marketing will determine your rate
of growth over the next few years. Why? First, converged
technology/business solutions exist and have proven themselves. Customers
are eager to integrate systems, applications, and processes to
drive business goals. Today’s business is not about throwing technology at
a problem, but optimizing operations through integrated solutions built
upon standards-based protocols.
Second, budgets are opening. Customers are once again beginning to look at
more visionary investments that will positively impact business
performance, versus the “leaky pipe” technology solutions of the last
three years. Instead of just fixing what’s broken, customers want to see
how you’re going to help them grow. With that in mind, you should be
tackling these four steps this year:
Step 1: Get your story right
Today, you’re not only selling solutions or products. You’re also selling
your company—your vision and your intellectual capital. Customers are
looking to you for strategic counsel—not just for one-off products,
services, or solutions. They want you to provide a “big picture” vision
that they can hang their hats on.
In other words, your marketing messages have never been more important.
You need to ensure that they are crisp, succinct, and aligned with the
challenges your customers are facing.
Step 2: Fix your mix
Once you’ve crafted the right marketing messages, you must ensure that
your portfolio of services, products, and/or solutions maps to those
messages. The messages and selling strategies you’ve used over the last
three years won’t work in today’s growth-focused environment. You need to
build or reposition your portfolio so that you’re addressing customers’
needs for increased integration of business processes and systems.
Step 3: Communicate!
Once you’ve crafted new messages and mapped your solutions accordingly,
you’ve got to share your story. In addition to traditional advertising,
demand generation campaigns and other communications tools can help you
spread the word. And, don’t forget to communicate with your sales force;
they need to know how to position your organization with current and
prospective customers.
Step 4: Build a pipeline that makes good business sense
Once you’ve sold your new vision, harvest those successes through
well-developed case studies. Highlight the ways in which your strategy and
solution are delivering real results. And, publicize the case studies
through demand-generation and/or public relations campaigns. Ultimately,
you’ll build a pipeline that makes good business sense.
For more information about developing spot-on marketing messages, write us
at
info@launchintl.com or visit our website at
www.launchintl.com.
