Just like baking the perfect chocolate cake, creating a successful marketing program that drives lead generation is a mix of the right ingredients. Use too much of one thing, and your entire recipe may fail. From the pros at Marketo, here are the ingredients you need for a marketing program that delivers demand generating results.
1. Target Line of Business: Successful demand generation managers create the right mix of demand by targeting each line of business to keep their sales teams happy. Try segmenting your clients by size, and create marketing strategies that fit each segment.
2. Target Role: Consider the different roles held by the people you are targeting. Are they marketing executives, sales managers, marketing practitioners, or corporate officers? Avoid alienating your prospects by tailoring your marketing strategies appropriately.
3. Types of Programs: When it comes to marketing programs, you’ve got to mix it up to be sure you’re reaching everyone in your target market. Even if you love creating webinars, and they seem to bring in plenty of business, surely there are other people to reach by branching out into display advertising, direct mail and trade shows – so mix it up!
4. Types of Offers: Similarly, smart marketers know to vary their offers to attract different audiences and to avoid becoming dull. This doesn’t mean you have to create new offers for every single marketing program you launch; the key is to rotate your offers to different target demographics, so that no one gets tired of the same old thing.
5. Timing: If you work on quarterly budgeting and planning cycles, you may be tempted to drive all your leads in the last few days of that cycle to be sure to hit your targets. However, this approach does not create a sustainable lead flow for your sales team, so ensuring a consistent flow of marketing initiatives is crucial.
6. Billing Terms: To keep the business bank account healthy, many demand generation managers must negotiate payment terms along with price. Therefore, it’s important to work with vendors that are flexible with payment terms when creating the marketing program mix.
7. Categories: Depending on its goal, a marketing program may aim to create new leads, nurture existing ones, or upsell to current customers. A successful campaign mixes elements together that maximize all of these target customer categories.
8. The Long Tail: Does your program continue long after you’ve stopped paying for it (an example is posting a webinar you’ve created to your website)? These programs have a long tail effect and should be considered when calculating program costs.
9. Time to Revenue: Smart demand gen managers create a mix filled with fast movers and slower leads so their sales team gets a steady stream of opportunities. For example, leads acquired through virtual events or social media may take a long time to become real-life opportunities. But, leads gathered from a live demo or a test drive campaign can become opportunities very quickly.
Next time you begin planning a new marketing program, take out this recipe, and check off each ingredient to cook up a demand generating marketing program that takes the cake!
Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae
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Tags: Marketing
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