7Every business thrives on its ability to have a sustainable marketing strategy. The ‘marketing machine’ in this case constitutes different marketing ‘parts’ which are rightly put together in a coordinated manner, just like a machine. This marketing machine becomes the driving force for your company growth.
Why a machine?
Just like any machine, the parts need to be oiled to keep functioning well. Other parts may also need to be replaced in the long run. The durability of the parts of the machine before replacement depends on quality. The same applies with the marketing function; different marketing parts need to be of great quality to produce a strong marketing machine. Marketing parts include:
- branding & advertising campaigns
- media & digital marketing
- financing & budgeting
- market research & distribution
- pricing, product & promotion
- lead generation & selling
- Segmenting & differentiation
Why sustainability?
Sustainability by definition is the ability to maintain an object at a certain rate or level. The marketing machine needs to be sustainable if your company is to survive for a long time while being productive at optimum level. A car is a perfect example of a machine. For your car to be maintained at optimum performance, it needs constant service.
When servicing a car, there is re-tuning and calibration of parts while some parts are removed and replaced with new ones. This means that you need to adjust your marketing activities to suit the changing needs and preferences of your customers. You need to adapt to the changing trends of the market environment your company operates in.
Below are 3 main characteristics of how to build a sustainable marketing machine:
Do Extensive Market Research
Most high performing marketing companies invest a significant amount of their resources on market research. To have a sustainable marketing machine, you need to dive deep and gather customer information and insights. Build customer data that you can use to improve the targeting of messages.
You need to integrate data on what customers are doing and why they are doing it. This helps you to get new insights into consumer needs and how to best meet them. Market research should be an ongoing process before and after sale. Customers can post their experiences and testimonials on social media and you can use their reviews as a source of usable data that you can utilize for re-targeting and promotion.
Be Holistic in Your Approach
You need to be exhaustive and holistic in your approach to marketing when building a sustainable marketing machine. You need to monitor and evaluate every area of the marketing function. Your ability to constantly reshape to the changes of your business environment will buy you a ticket to the top.
You need to constantly engage with customers and inspire your employees. A powerful and holistic approach to your brand positioning improves alignment with marketing strategy goals and ensures consistent operation of the marketing machine.
Automate Marketing Activities
Marketing automation refers to a variety of software that exists with the goal of automating marketing activities. Many marketing companies have to automate repetitive tasks such as emails, social media promotion, and other website actions such as buffering marketing content and re-targeting. The technology of marketing automation makes tasks easier.
Tweet: The technology of marketing automation makes tasks easier.
Technology is a huge business driver in this digital era. Marketing tasks are coordinated harmoniously and faster. It enables marketers to measure performance using different analytics platforms. Google analytics is a useful tool to measure and monitor marketing performances.
Oil the Marketing Machine
A good marketing machine which is sustainable in the long run requires a strong financial backing. To build and operate it efficiently means servicing it more often than not. The quality of the ‘marketing parts’ for this machine is determined by the amount of financial resources that are available to calibrate parts or even to change some for better ones. In this case, financing is the oil to the marketing machine.
Use an efficient PO System
The financing of marketing activities needs to be budgeted for. A good automated purchase order system can be handy in this regard. Procurementexpress.com is a suitable PO system that enhances good budget control. It helps managers to decline or approve user requests.
There’s a graphical view of each unique workflow routing, a centralized approval screen or console to enable all approvers to approve cost requests individually or in bulk. In addition, managers can get real-time notifications via email or alerts of user requests and approvals. This helps to avoid duplicate purchase orders.
It’s a user-friendly application which is adaptable to each user’s preferences and is an efficient 1-click approval system. It also provides tailored reports on fully customizable PDF.
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