Deciding on the Marketing System for Your IT Company

This is where you have to ask yourself, “What kind of pen do I need to buy?” Once you have a strategy to increase your marketing ROI and a team in place you can then decide on a system. You need to have automation and CRM software that combines all aspects of the marketing and sales process. Try to reduce any type of manual bridging between social media and marketing into the sales department. No matter what, if you have multiple systems in place, there is always a gap - no matter how smoothly you run things.Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

It cannot be stressed enough that all members of the team must have an understanding of the process that exists between marketing and sales. There must be an agreement about what is communicated by marketing, and what should be communicated by sales. Poor sales and marketing alignment makes it too easy for leads to be lost or marked as dead because there is no recycling of the customers or insufficient CRM processes in place. Systems must be implemented that will include both the sales and the marketing departments if they are going to be effective.

Three Dimensions of Lead Relevance

1. Buying Stage: For the buyers that are in the earliest stages, it is very important that you don’t overload them with a ton of product information before they are ready for it (they just don’t care yet). The early stage buyer is looking for general information and someone that they can trust who is familiar with the field. Mid-stage buyers will be the ones looking for product knowledge and specifics, such as a catalogue or a buyer’s guide. The late stage buyer will want to know more about prices, data, statistics etc.

2. Persona: This is the stage in which you must uncover the needs of your buyer. A buyer persona tells you what potential customers are thinking and doing as they consider their options to address a need that your organization will resolve. This should be so much more than a simple profile of the type of people that you want to influence. It needs to uncover the specific concerns and criteria that will drive the customer to chose you over the competition (buyerpersona.com).

3. Customized Messages: Customizing specific messages, emails and landing pages to make sure that each message applies directly to the lead that you wish to nurture. This means making sure that the content is relevant to your potential prospect, and that the material will keep them interested. It is at this point that you can use the XYY model for content. In summary, for every two messages you have that are promotional (Y), you need to have at least one that is educational, informative, or entertaining (X). This will allow you to build relationships that are authentic in nature, and ensures that the buyer’s interest is piqued when they receive the promotional messages.