Businesses small or large need to continue to increase their return on marketing investments. However, in economic downturns such as the one we are currently experiencing, staying on track is a big challenge. Expenses have to be moderated, which means classical solutions to increasing returns are not available. You can’t add lots of employees, and you can’t launch huge ad campaigns. So how does a company reach its goals? Many point to outbound marketing over the internet. But is that all it really takes?
Outbound marketing has already been revolutionized by the internet. For a relatively minimal cost, these activities can scale endlessly. However, outbound marketing only works if the internal marketing staff, policies, and procedures can produce the right products or services, with the appropriate messaging and positioning that will draw the prospective customer through the outbound activities. What has been lost in the “gold rush” frenzy to market over the internet is that there is a whole process of marketing a product or service that has not evolved as quickly as the outbound component and as a result cannot support the endless outbound activities growth.
Marketing has to start with a clear plan for developing the product or service, and establish communication and commitment within the entire company on its value. All departments, from finance to engineering, still have to march toward producing the product or service with the right messaging in order for the outbound marketing function to be effective. Without streamlining the processes then, the internal structure limits the outbound activities in number and effectiveness. If you answer yes to any of these questions, chances are your experiencing it first hand:
The solution is to innovate. By injecting new marketing techniques into the process, internal marketing development can reset with outbound marketing, and even keep pace! There are several areas where sensible and cost effective changes can make a difference:
Summary
The rebalancing of internal marketing development activities to accommodate the rapid speed and breadth of audience that outbound marketing now can support is essential to increasing the return on marketing investments. Making sensible changes based on innovative new techniques allows internal marketing processes to transition with minimal disruption and to do so affordably.
Final Note
The reality today for many companies is that the challenges highlighted here are not just about the economic downturn, but are part of a necessary fundamental change in the way marketing departments must operate to keep up with outbound marketing opportunities. It is highly unlikely that the outbound frenzy will slow down any time soon. And so the changes recommended in this article should be viewed as permanent. There will never be enough marketing people in any company to keep up with the rate of acceleration of outbound marketing. The question now is how does a company get marketing smarter?
Internet Marketing When Your Not Internet Selling
What is the difference between marketing and selling your products or services on the internet and using the internet just to market but not sell your products or services? A sales and distribution channel that must be maintained when not selling over the internet.Making the Right Marketing Calls
Marketing departments are often asked to make judgment calls around product or service features. But many products and services have become so complex that making the call is not so easy.