Real time is a new mindset in marketing,

and that is what inbound marketing is all about. Interruptive sales approaches include telemarketing calls, direct mail, email spam, print advertising, television and radio ads, interstitial and transitional online and pre-rolls ads. And you know what? Your customers are fed up with these outdated and traditional approaches. In the digital era, outbound sales practices such as the ones mentioned above are losing their effectiveness rapidly.

Inbound marketing strategy is the new kid on the block!

Rather than pushing your product/service to consumers, an inbound approach focuses on educating them about a particular offering. Inbound marketing is a type of permission-based marketing which concentrates on presenting offers and related information to people who are actively looking for the same product/service. There are several ways to increase your leads, but the most effective way is to increase your lead capture rate. An inbound marketing approach could also help your sales team in maximizing this rate. So how does this methodology help your sales team in boosting their work productivity? Let’s find out…

Why your sales team needs an inbound marketing strategy ASAP!

Saves Time and Money (and a lot of it)

A primary advantage of the inbound methodology is that you can easily identify your customer’s behavior and develop a precise buyer persona. This approach saves a lot of money and time for your sales team as they can quickly eliminate all the leads which don’t match the persona. Your sales team can easily identify the ideal prospect which enables them to focus more on the leads that require more attention, in terms of calls or in-person meetings.

Helps you get more Qualified Leads

Sales teams wind up losing tremendous time and effort on low quality leads. With inbound marketing, you can improve your lead quality by running more relevant and effective campaigns. Let’s say your sales team is using a CRM to track conversions. With inbound marketing, your sales rep can record all their activities in the CRM and send it to the marketing team to review. Your marketing team can then check all the logs and collaborate easily with the sales team for better feedback. This invaluable data enables marketing department to learn more about the effectiveness of each campaign and improve the buyer persona in the future. These small improvements can generate high quality leads for your sales team in the future.

Inbound methodology attracts a customer base that is truly interested in your product or service. By offering the most valuable and relevant content to visitors, the entire process not only assists your sales team in getting better leads but also provides a huge amount of relevant content to share during the sales process. As a result, you can build your own loyal customer base. This method also helps amplify  the reach of your content which boosts your chances of getting more qualified leads.

Enables Collaboration Between Sales & Marketing teams! (smarketing!)

In most companies, sales and marketing teams tend to have a troubled relationship.There is no alignment between both teams and blame games are quite common. Inbound marketing strategy plays cupid between both teams! Inbound methodology increases collaboration between ales and marketing teams through a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This agreement:

• Holds both teams accountable to each other
• Measures outcomes of respective teams
• Helps in determining exactly what is going wrong if enough leads aren’t being generated.

The whole process creates a unified sales and marketing alignment or as we like to call it – Smarketing

Facilitates meaningful Sales Conversations:

Gone are the days when a sales rep closes a deal by blabbering a few persuasive words. Due to information explosion on the digital platform, people refuse to accept traditional sales gimmicks. In inbound marketing, the role of a sales rep is more of an educator than a hardcore seller. By understanding the buyer persona and buyer journey of a customer, a sales rep can have a much more meaningful communication with the prospect. By determining interest levels of a customer and establishing a plan beforehand, your sales team can close deals armed with relevant knowledge about the prospect. Has your sales team considered going inbound? Or have you already adopted the inbound route? How well did it work out for you?

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

 Here's some Inbound Marketing Strategies for Your Business

-“Inbound” has become a bit of a buzzword in the world of marketing lately –

so much so that many business owners, CEOs, and marketing managers are beginning to abandon their old ways, choosing to market their business with inbound strategies instead. They’re catching on to the fact that outdated “interruption marketing” strategies like cold-calling and impersonal spam emails simply don’t work. Inbound marketing is all about attracting visitors with strategies tailored to their individual needs, rather than going out into the market and begging for their attention.

Savvy marketers know that a customer who is earned, rather than forced, is more likely to convert. Even better, they’re more likely to become a long-term account than someone who wasn’t the right fit for your products or services from the start. Regardless of your niche, every business can adapt at least a few inbound marketing strategies to meet their needs. And when you do, you’ll understand what the inbound buzz is about.

Creation of marketing plans

Every inbound strategy is basically the same – attract leads, turn them into qualified accounts, close the deal, and keep them coming back for more. The mistake that many marketers make is jumping right into the Attraction phase, without knowing who their customer really is. Inbound marketing’s biggest strength is the personalization behind every single strategy. Regardless of whether it’s a seemingly insignificant social post or a complex, time-intensive whitepaper, every strategy must be perfect tailored to the intended audience. The scope of the project is relatively insignificant here – what really matters is the targeting.

For your strategy to be perfectly targeted, understanding your buyer persona in relation to your marketing plan is the first thing you need to do. When you don’t have a definitive plan that clearly outlines your business goals and how they relate to your ideal customer, your strategy is bound to fail. The most effective inbound marketing plan calls for a clear definition of your target customer, or buyer persona. Everything you do from then on depends on your buyer personas. Well-researched buyer personas tell you not only what content you should create, but where it should be placed, on what networks to advertise, how to position yourself, and even what language to use.

Without a marketing plan that ties goals to buyer personas, any strategies you use will be a shot in the dark. Conversions happen when your content is aligned with the right audience. Aside from creating necessary buyer personas, things like market research, data analysis, and deep discovery help create a strong foundation for your marketing plan. When you’re armed with the right data and buyer personas, you can better leverage any other marketing strategy you want to use.

Emphasis on content

We’ve already mentioned content quite a few times by now. That’s because without content, you don’t really have an inbound marketing strategy – or any marketing strategy for that matter. The new age of marketing is all about proving your worth by using content to educate, engage, and ultimately encourage the lead to become a customer. Content can be anything from the 140 words your tweet out to your followers on a daily basis to the 1,000-word blog post you carefully curated to help solve a problem your potential customer might have. Inbound marketing stresses the importance of content because without it, you’re left with very few ways to prove you’re valuable to potential customers.

But can content really provide that much value? According to Curata, 95% of buyers consider vendor-related content as trustworthy. This means that the whitepapers, eBooks, blog posts, and even Facebook updates your company puts out increases your trustworthiness among your potential customers. And when people trust you, they want to buy from you. Even other non-vendor related content like informational blogs or educational infographics create trust. This happens when the content becomes highly useful to the reader, or even helps to answer a question or solve a problem they have. Gaining the customer’s trust well before your services are even introduced sets you up for long-term success more than anything else can – all thanks to good content.

Running email campaigns

The final big inbound marketing strategy every marketer should be using is a good email campaign. You may recall a few years back when marketers were claiming that email was dead. Just like snail mail, people were calling email out as the next biggest waste of marketing dollars. They claimed there was very little return for all of the effort you’d need to put into running a campaign. While email open rates and click-through greatly depend on your given industry, they are rarely above 25% and 6% respectively. In the past, marketers have looked at these numbers as proof that their time and money is better spent elsewhere.

Despite lower engagement metrics than other strategies, an email marketing campaign is arguably the best way to nurture your leads. How else are you going to deliver on offers leads may have shown interest in and signed-up to receive? Email campaigns go far beyond delivering an offer, though. They can help turn leads into customers, than eventually nurture that relationship into a lasting one. A drip email campaign is the perfect way to align the goals and objective in your marketing plan with the content you created, presenting it to your ideal user at just the right time. You can deliver on a promised offer like an eBook or whitepaper download. Then once you have that person’s email, they can be shifted into an entirely new email campaign aimed at getting them closer to a bigger conversion.

These new campaign are often referred to as “drip” campaigns – as they work to create multiple touch-points, getting you in front of the right customer at the right time in their buying journey. Drip campaigns cans are used to nurture the lead, moving them further down the sales funnel and closer to a conversion. You can use these to send leads informational content like an eBook, then later an offer for a free demo when you know they’re closer to being ready to buy.

Email is also effective for forging a bond between your company and an existing client. Have someone that recently purchased a specific product? Create a return customer email campaign to send discount codes and coupons personalized to past purchases. From the first interaction after signing up for an offer to regular interactions to encourage a return purchase, an email campaign helps take your lead full circle.

These are just a few inbound strategies that can boost your marketing strategies to the next level. Inbound marketing revolves around the customer, earning their attention and giving them valuable information through their entire buyer’s journey. Instead of aiming and missing, take the time to target your marketing to right customer at the right time, and the conversions will follow.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Tools to Develop an Outstanding Social Media Marketing Strategy

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Digital Marketing Stats That Got Our Attention This Week

Social TV, gamers and Wonder Woman chatter

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Is this Business Development strategy  Correct? 

Our expert has given us some pointers on how to address the various issues

below. A strong and experienced business leader, he has worked in the aerospace, defence and energy sectors for industry leading global companies. Identified as a high potential individual early in his career he has a proven track record in new business and product development, project management of manufacturing and process plant engineering and procurement and construction (EPC) projects.

He has extensive international experience, having worked in the MENA region for more than half of his career including his most recent role growing a ‘start-up’ business from company registration to a significant multi-sector, multi-product 300m+ AED order book, based in the United Arab Emirates  He challenges the norm and has the long term strategic focus required to successfully lead and manage business at executive level.

What is the most important aspect of developing a BD strategy?

Macro level marketing is important as a first step when developing a business development strategy, however, it is not enough to truly understand the market conditions for a given product or service. Upfront, limited level of investment in field marketing is critical to define the market entry requirements, the competitive landscape, and the delivery model. This must be executed by a combination of personnel that have in depth knowledge and experience of the

a) Company’s existing business and

b) Those of a similar knowledge, experience and network in the particular market in which you are developing business.

You have a proven track record in developing and delivering new businesses to grow organisation structure – what is the most important ingredients to make this happen? It is my firm believe that success in successfully developing and delivering new business is driven by clearly addressing the strategy, tactics and operations of the business through the following:-

Business Planning & Preparation

The upfront marketing is paramount to set a clear vision for the business and to then follow that with a strategic plan which adequately addresses the steps required to enter (‘right to play’) and to succeed (‘right to win’). It is important to aim high, to get the attention of the top executives in the business and get them to believe that the particular venture is worth exploring and investing in.

It is also fundamental to be clear from as early as possible in the business development process the estimated investment requirements, the associated business case (Return On Investment, Internal Rate of Return etc.), and timescale required to win and deliver business and in doing so build the organisation as business volume grows, whether it be via internal product development, organic growth, strategic partnering, or mergers & acquisitions.

People

Recruitment of the right type of people is another key ingredient in developing and growing business. This has to be a dynamic and complementary mix of vastly experienced people with less experienced people motivated and driven to succeed, and willing challenge ‘the norm’.

Policies, Processes, & Procedures

Clear policies, processes and procedures aligned to the regulatory, market and company requirements must be in place and available to all as part of a robust management system for a new and developing business. This has to be complimented with meaningful induction and training to ensure that there is a consistent approach and that any issues or concerns are addressed as part of continuous improvement initiatives.

Communications

Open and transparent communications must be encourage up and down the various levels in the organisation as it grows to ensure that there is a ‘no surprises good or bad’ culture in the organisation. This has to be both formal via reporting, regular review meetings, electronic communications, social media, ‘townhall’ sessions etc., and informal by creating an environment where all levels in the organisation are encouraged to interact transparently, whilst maintaining mutual respect for their respective roles.

The key to the success has been striking a balance between global brand and best practice, whilst localising the organisation, operations and business management systems to ensure that a robust and cost competitive delivery model is in place to give clients the overall technical and commercial solution that they require.

What strategy did you implement to grow from to 300m+ AED in less than 2 years?

We conducted a thorough assessment of market entry options for an engineering services business offering products and services similar to Doosan Babcock. This involved a complete cross sector (i.e. oil & gas, power & water, nuclear and industrial) analysis of client business delivery models, project pipelines, and procurement systems, as well as the competitions’ business models and business performance – benchmarking. This exercise established 3 core options to satisfy the legislative market entry requirements, delivery infrastructure and competitive, profitable product and service offering.

1. Aggressive organic growth

• Head hunt key personnel from main competitors to provide client confidence and improved competitive position
• Invest in establish the offices and facilities required to satisfy customer of delivery capability
• Pre-qualify with key customers and develop strong relationships to grow business sales pipeline
• Develop new product and service offerings outside of traditional offering, specific to the market
• Invest in training and integration of new organising to ensure that a consistent, robust business management model and common understanding of the company’s standard and expectations of its people.

2. Merger & Acquisition

• Purchase controlling shareholding in competitor best aligned to company’s core business and future business aspiration with ‘1 + 1 = 3’ philosophy.
• Embed post-merger integration team to establish common business management system.

3. Strategic Partnering

• Form incorporated or unincorporated joint venture (JV) with complimentary interest and clear division of responsibility covering technical delivery and corporate governance requirements, managed by an integrated executive committee.

Following consultation and review with board, Option 1 was adopted as the initial business development route that could bring the required short term (1 to 2 years) success when compared with the investment required. This has proven to be a good selection, and now that the business has achieved significant organic growth in this short term, all of these options are being revisited on regular basis (as part of the business planning cycle) to ensure that the future growth aspirations are achieved

What advice would you give anyone trying to emulate the above?

Minimal upfront investment is required to conduct detailed field marketing to drive robust business planning. This cannot be independently so make sure that you put experienced, dynamic team players around you to support in achieving excellence!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

How to Create a Typical
Business Development Plan

    

A Typical Business Development Plan:

You should plan out the whole year and review / revise quarterly. List your existing accounts and plan what activities / actions need to be completed in order to fully exhaust all opportunities. You may for instance, plan to cover more bases within the decision making unit or contact associated companies or offices. The Strategic Account Profile can be used as a prompt.

Begin to target new accounts using business directories etc. and set targets per week / month / quarter i.e. I normally allow for eight hours per week as a minimum (Don’t forget to continually refer back to your Ideal Profile). Then build in what assistance you need from your marketing function ñ i.e. qualified leads, seminars, exhibition attendance etc. Finally share your plan with your manager and then commit to it. You should also measure it against S.M.A.R.T.E.R. i.e. is it. S.pecific, M.easurable, A.chievable, R.elevant, T.imed, E.xciting, R.ecorded

Linking With Your Commercial Plan:

I have suggested that your Business Development Strategy, would link with your Master Business Plan but logically you should also integrate it into your Commercial Kit(this is a document that outlines your monthly,quarterly and annual targets) specifically the areas that deal with new business generation, account management and development, four tier account lists etc. These three documents when combined should drive and guide you through the next twelve months and beyond.

Summary:

As I have said often enough “People do not fail because they planned to fail but rather because they failed to plan” The man who knows where he wants to go is more likely to get there, he just has to decide how to get there. All plans are essentially maps and guides; the strategic element is the How. Do be prepared to change course, flexibility is key, and don’t be afraid to experiment, look outside the square.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member