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Marketing into the Storm: How and why the financial
crisis will turn you into a better marketer
by
Mike Gospe
The financial crisis will have a detrimental impact on our marketing and sales budgets in 2009. In this crisis, marketing leaders need to re-invent marketing not just as a functional discipline, but as the business fiber that connects prospects to companies like never before.
For the last 10 years, if not longer, the marketing function has been trapped within a confining connotation of "tactical, logistics execution." In fact, many CMOs I know continue to struggle against internal perception regarding the unappreciated strategic versus the taken-for-granted tactical natures of their role. To further compound this perception, product marketers everywhere still believe they are entitled to produce the traditional marketing materials created for their products whether they are appropriate or not -- the press release, direct mail piece, website article and landing pages, etc. It's the marcom obligatory checklist. Survival of the marketing function depends on our ability to change this reality. Now.
Crisis creates opportunity
Rather than falling victim to the "deer in the headlights" stance,
a time of crisis is an opportunity for re-evaluation and
change. It's time to look anew at our marketing assumptions
and reprioritize our choices. Against
the hard edge of this crisis, we must hone our marketing
skills and refocus on what are truly the only important things:
the prospect and the customer.
Gone are the days of flamboyant marketing budgets that include Donna Summer as the headliner for a customer event. Tossed aside is the mantra that "more (products, datasheets, webinars, marketing programs and campaigns) is better." Marketing silos can no longer be accepted. Truly integrated marketing campaigns must replace yesterday's isolated and random "marketing popcorn" activities.
"Marketing as usual" must change. Those companies that succeed and excel in 2009 will be the ones that embrace three marketing truths and proactively act upon them with vigor:
- "It's about the prospect and customer, stupid. Not
the product." Successfully selling to business people
means that marketers effectively understand the business
problem the customer is trying to solve. Only then can
you really know how your products and services will be
relevant and meaningful to this audience. If you don't know, conduct
a Customer
Advisory Board Meeting and find out.
- It's not enough to target "CFOs of the global 3000." Tighten
your market segmentation criteria using adjectives and
descriptors to clearly identify the demographics, psychographics,
and behaviors of the target audience. Success requires
being even more draconian in your target audience selection
and prioritization.
- To better understand your target audience(s), take time to build
and refine a persona to challenge your assumptions. On
a scale of 1-10, how well do you really understand the
person you are marketing to? Anything lower than an 8
is not good enough. Whoever understands the target audience
the best, wins.
- Hold a marketing-sales
summit to talk about customers and align priorities. Talk
to sales reps to find out who they are talking to and
what conversations they are having. Too many marketers
spend their whole career never talking to an actual
customer. Team up with sales to bridge the gap.
- "Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." This
quote by Dwight Eisenhower, US General and President, tells
it like it is. Pursuing an annual business or marketing
plan is only as relevant as the cross-functional dialog
it inspires. Plans are static documents that gather dust, but planning
is the ongoing, effective interchange that challenges our
perceptions and priorities in order to focus our marketing
efforts.
- Approach marketing like you are playing a game of chess. Take
the time to look two or three moves ahead. What happens
after you launch a new product? How will the competition
likely respond? What
messages will you communicate then? How can you nurture
a meaningful dialog with prospects throughout the year so you can
guide them quickly through (or out of) the sales funnel?
- Take 30 minutes to craft a Marketing
Blueprint that visually links your activities and offers
together in a meaningful, logical way. Marketing
blueprints are the newest tool in a marketer's arsenal.
Learn what they are and how to use them.
- Hire a marketing operations expert if you aren't sure where
to start.
Seasoned marketing operations experts can help you quickly
assess the quality of your team and their skills, the caliber of
any current planning templates and documents, and the effectiveness
of any existing (formal or informal) processes. Their focused recommendations
can help you establish an effective planning process
with confidence so you can get ahead of the 2009 planning curve.
- "Marketing is not an event. It's a process." I
like this quote from Jay Conrad Levinson, father of "guerilla
marketing," because it challenges the notion that if we
suspend marketing activities and assume a "wait it out"
strategy until economic times improve, we'll somehow survive.
Avoid this temptation! While marketing budgets will be
tighter and our ability to execute will be curtailed, prospects
and customers will still have needs. If they forget who
we are, how can we ever hope to sell to them? The real
issue is to separate the wasteful ineffective marketing
tactics from the high-ROI engagement tactics that are worth
continued investment. The
good news is that it
is possible to determine which half of your marketing investment
is the half you need to keep.
- Instead of starting 2009 with a pre-defined list of marketing projects,
use the persona exercise and the marketing
blueprint exercises described above. The most effective marketing
activities and offers will become immediately apparent
and will flow out of these exercises. And because the activities
and offers will now be directly linked to a marketing blueprint,
they will be easier to prioritize and defend internally.
- The act of marketing is a cross-functional team sport. Although
we have the word "marketing" on our business cards, the
fact is that everyone from sales to customer support plays
a role in the successful marketing of a company. The most
effective marketing blueprints are developed by cross-functional
team players working together. Use
these exercises to build camaraderie, gain buy-in, and
energize the team.
- Stick to the marketing blueprint, but be willing to make changes. Life never proceeds according to plan. As you monitor the success of any marketing campaign or program, be ready to change messages and offers in order to optimize your campaigns and programs.
Reshaping Marketing
The truth is that this financial
crisis will cause many enterprises and consumers to delay
spending. It's already happening. As
such, many of us will see our marketing budgets and staff
shrink. Ironically,
the critical importance of the marketing role will only increase
as companies strive to maximize lead conversion rates while
demanding higher ROI for their decreasing marketing investment.
This will put marketers in the hot seat, but we'll have
a new opportunity to show leadership to guide our companies
through the financial storm.
The companies left standing at the end of 2009 will be the ones that have invested in their marketing teams to teach them how to become better marketers. The following links can help your team hone their skills and prepare for 2009.
Articles on:
About the Author
Mike Gospe is an author, market strategist, and co-founder
of KickStart Alliance. He
has helped companies like Ariba, Genesys, HP, Informatica,
Sun, Symantec, and many startups architect and execute winning marketing
campaigns. For more information on these and other tips and tricks,
please contact Mike at 650.94.8974.
October 2008