There is a constant battle between Sales and Marketing. Many feel they are one in the same thing, while others understand the difference between them. So, what is the difference, you ask? The sole purpose of marketing is to bring leads into the sales funnel. The goal of sales is to take those leads and close them or convert them to a sale or purchase. Seems simple enough, however many people still do not understand the relationship between sales and marketing. Yes, they work hand in hand, but have very different functions. This whitepaper focuses on how marketing provides leads to sales. I am going to outline the different types of lead generation to help you understand the full range of marketing you and your MSP can be doing. The following list is outlined from Marketo and can be found here.
Inbound Marketing
These are truly your modern day meat and potatoes marketing efforts. This is the TV and billboard marketing of the 21st century. Inbound marketing is essentially letting people know all about your company before they know they need you. This means brand awareness, getting your name out there and establishing yourself as an industry expert. Now, Inbound has been around forever, but the modern twist is that most of this brand awareness is created online. From websites to social media, we are utilizing the free power of the internet to push brand awareness.
Content Marketing and SEO
Who says SEO is dead? No matter what side of the debate you are on, SEO is still an important factor of your website and search engine results. SEO (search engine optimization) is very critical to getting your website found. If you’re a
technology company who repairs Macs, you’d better mention that on your website. If not, when someone searches for local Mac repair, you’re not going to show up! Pretty simple right? Well, SEO actually gets much more complicated than I’d like to get into on this whitepaper, so just understand this is critical for Google, Bing, and Yahoo searches.
In terms of content, be sure you’re original, fresh, and not a carbon copy of your competition. If your content sounds the same as all of your competition, why would anyone be inclined to select you over them? Be creative and make sure your content captures your brand, mission, and overall goal. To assist in the discovery process of your company, add proper keywords for SEO, and you have a solid start on your marketing!
Website
Everyone, and I repeat, EVERYONE should have a website. Now let’s take this a step further, is your website easy to navigate? Do visitors get to something that is visually appealing or do they have to read an essay full of content? Make it simple and clean up your homepage. Give them a taste of what you do in the first layer of the website. Next, break down the overview into individual products and services – this is the second layer. Finally, if they want more information, have
to collect information and have a service like Visitor ID or Google Analytics so you can see who viewed your site but didn’t fill anything out.
Blog
One of the most valuable digital tools out there today is the blog! I personally read dozens of blogs for great info,
education, and all around entertainment. If you’re not blogging, you really need to start! When blogging, you are engaging with value, which gives you an opportunity to show off just how much you know! No, this is NOT the place for selling, you can however add a call to action at the end. Keep readers engaged and looking forward to your next post. Invite other industry or community experts to guest blog on your blog. This will help build credibility and help overall awareness. Be sure to share your posts on every business and personal social site you have. The more you share, the more people know about it. The goal is to get them hooked on the value of the blog so they check out the rest of your site.
Social Media
How many of your clients and prospects are on social media? The better question is how many of your clients or prospects are not on social media? Most people are on social media for entertainment, keeping in touch with friends and family, and reading and keeping up with current events. Most brands, large and small are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and a multitude of other social media sites. How are you utilizing these platforms for maximum exposure? Use social media to spread the word and share your content, blogs, highlight employees or clients, or just post something funny! Utilize social media to push traffic to your website. You can utilize social media for PR and for recruiting purposes, as well.
Outbound Marketing
Our General Interest Track is a perfect example of a primary outbound marketing campaign, including a scheduled set of emails, calls, and other touch points (i.e. postcards or promo items). We use calls to action about products with witty and clever messaging, so we don’t sound too pushy. These are sent to a specific group of people (as loosely targeted as an event attendee list or tightly targeted like a handful of business cards from prospects you talked to at the trade show). With a mix of great art, content, and a good call to action you have a great outbound marketing strategy.
Email Marketing
Display Ads
Place these on websites with maximum exposure to your clients and prospects. For our MSP, ARRC Technology, we place them on our most popular local news station’s website. We then use website tracking to see the effectiveness of the campaign or have a promo code offer that they can use in-house for a discount to track our ROI from the ad. If we make money or build large volumes of site traffic, it may be worthwhile to do the ad again. Tracking carefully allows you to narrow your focus to sites that your clients frequent.
Pay Per Click Ads
If SEO and organic search are not working for you, it may be time to look into pay-per-click ads. Essentially, you can pay your way to the top of a search. You place a bid and you are promising to pay (say Google) $4 per click for Bakersfield Mac Repair. Each time someone clicks on it, Google will charge you. This is great to use if you are trying to get your name out there among stiff competition. Also, depending on your marketing, will determine price and frequency on the ads. We use a special phone number and call tracking, so if someone does call and click from the ad, we can track that they came from Google.
Content Syndication
Have you heard of guest blogging? How about writing articles for your local chamber? Well, you need to be doing both of these things! This is a great way to help other organizations come up with content for themselves, while showcasing your work and getting more awareness and recognition. This is also a great way to gather referral links to your website. Finally, it can boost content on your newsletter, blog, etc. Exchanging articles or guest blogs every few months is a great way to get some fresh content and a break from writing. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Direct Mail
Postcards, promo items, and invitations – direct mail is still a key marketing initiative for us. In the Bakersfield market, traditional marketing is still alive and thriving, so direct mail works well. Even for CharTec, direct mail works great for touching bases with people from an event or for sending some cool swag. Think about it, how cool is it to get something awesome in the mail now-a-days? With powerful messaging, direct mail can make its way throughout an office no matter what you’re selling. Imagery, copy, and a solid call to action is critical for a good direct mail piece. Use the postcard to send them back to your website for an even better way of tracking your campaign!
Events
work with them when sending out an email to their database. This is where you really get more bang for your buck. For booth type events like expos or trade shows, always be sure to have something cool to see or to giveaway. We have had a variety of technology baskets we have given out in exchange for business cards and have had some great luck showcasing some of our best products from the Lenovo Yoga to the MondoPad. Hands on demos work well too. Once we had people play tic-tac-tow on our Mondopad. Not only did this drive traffic to our booth like crazy, but it also got us some serious leads for video conferencing.
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