4 Ways to Rally Around a Marketing Program

Beyond simply creating a series of emails or events, developing a digital "tool" for clients will help your business stand out from the crowd.

In last month’s column, I discussed ways to advance digital marketing within your organization. The final of the three tips focused on ways to rally around a program, and in this month’s column, I wanted to expand upon that tip.

All too often, I see marketers quickly dissolve their efforts from campaign objectives and top-line messages into just a series of emails (and events, if you’re a B2B marketer). Learning how to develop a digital “tool” for your clients will allow you to easily stand out from the crowd. If you can develop the skills to conceive, design, and launch campaigns around a helpful tool, then you are sure to stand out in your industry. It will also give you a rallying cry within your company, allowing you to more easily gain the support of all of your colleagues across business units. Not only does it increase your marketing efficiency and effectiveness, it also provides you an easy way to measure program investments and ROI.

The examples I outline below will help you get ideas for the different formats the tool can take, as it becomes all about launching something that is much more memorable in the minds of your customers and prospects. Each example is a unique digital marketing program that drives significant business results – helping these marketing teams stand out in their respective organizations.

I specifically chose not to highlight specific client case studies because I want you to use these examples as a springboard to imagining what you can do with your products or services and with your digital marketing creative talents. These scenarios can leverage the vast power of marketing automation capabilities such as implicit and progressive profiling, scoring, and personalized content. And, of course the real power of marketing automation in these scenarios is that they are all completely set up in advance, leaving core staff the time and energy to focus on new initiatives.

Personal Diet or Supplement Analyzer

If you are selling nutritional supplements or other health aids, offer to analyze website visitors’ current diet and personal needs, subsequently proposing specific supplements that will improve their condition. Everyone who completes the analyzer receives a free e-booklet describing the recommendations in detail and why your products are better than any that they could get elsewhere.

Hint: Make sure your analyzer is mobile-friendly!

Product Migration Workbench

Allow site visitors the opportunity to enter (on a Web form) their current product, the age of the product, and their biggest concerns about migrating. This can be the entry point into a weekly drip nurture reviewing their specified concerns and explaining the advantages of the latest product. Reserve the last few steps for explaining the benefits of your solution over competitive offerings.

Hint: At every step in the nurture, give the program participant a way to contact sales to begin the demo or order process. But, also honor the prospect’s wishes if he/she indicates that they are not yet ready for a sales discussion and want to continue with your digital nurture.

Sport Transformation Program

Segment prospects into buyer personas. What is each persona thinking about the possible hurdles of upgrading? Use this to help you be empathetic with your content. Provide a microsite where visitors can tell you about the type of athlete they are, how often they are active in their sport, and what their competitive goals are for the upcoming season. Then, ask them what their current equipment is (e.g. manufacturer, specifications, sizes). From there, you can provide custom recommendations and a detailed report of what they should consider. Make sure to let them know that the phone representatives are all equipment users themselves and that they have experience with folks at their same level. Include testimonials of others that have been through the same program.

Hint: Plan for an upsell/add-on program to make sure you are marketing all the extras that are appropriate for the recommended configuration.

Business Case Builder

A business case builder is especially helpful in a complex B2B sales environment. Here, you’re asking folks who visit your microsite a series of questions about their current situation. How much time, headcount, and/or budget it is taking them to do things with their current product or processes. From here, you can compare the visitors’ inputs against your benchmark results and automatically construct the anticipated ROI that a purchaser would expect from using your products.

Hint: Consider implementing dynamic content based on the data collected to construct a personalized guide to investing in your solution.

No matter your company’s industry or size, there are creative ways to leverage marketing automation technology to create tools, builders, analyzers, and more to help your prospects understand your offerings and justify their way to a sale. It is exactly these sorts of initiatives that will allow you to create a profitable long-term legacy both inside and outside your company.

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