What is modern marketing strategy? Marketing to a deep understanding of customer needs, inbound sales journeys and outbound promotion.

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Modern marketing strategy. 7 strands of new marketing that focus on revenue growth.

‘Modern Marketing’: What does that mean?

Marketing has always been about identify customers with a need and selling to them profitably. But how people buy has changed and marketing tools have changed, so what’s different?

The principles of Modern Marketing centre on 7 components …

1. Elevate customers’ brand experiences at every touchpoint
2. Build personalised connections with individuals
3. Integrate omni-channel strategy and tactics
4. Adapt quickly to changes in the marketing landscape
5. Maximise efficiencies through technology and automation
6. Combine inbound marketing education with outbound promotion
7. Measure and analyse performance and results

Do marketing professional constitutionally over-promise and under-deliver?

At a party, a Marketing professional is likely to be ushered by the host to stand in the corner with the Accountants and Real Estate Agents. Why is that?

Is it because the Marketer’s conversation will be rooted in promising jam tomorrow, selling dreams that lack foundation in science and real-world business operations and P and L? Or is it that, like the Accountant, the Marketer has an historical view of the world, based in past glories? A classic Accountant admits to giving a customer a financial view of the world observed in the rear view mirror. Or is the Marketer just too glossy and flash?

Generally, it’s because, one, there is no single definition of marketing that business people agree about, and two, marketers haven’t done a great job at demonstrating results that translate into cash.

(As an aside, I should qualify the party observation as you may be allowed to join the general throng if you are in B2C marketing, but as a B2B marketer, you may even be asked to spend time in the garden minding the kids because the Evans family couldn’t get a babysitter.)

Marketing is one of the two disciplines for business success

Astute commentators such as Peter Drucker once suggested that, to be successful, companies need only two things, innovation and marketing. Perhaps it’s time to think about a new definition for marketing, if it is to recover the respect it once held for people like Drucker.

More than a few things changed when the economy changed in 2008/9. We saw companies’ traditional power performer, the Sales Department, shrink in size and suddenly put under pressure to deliver targets, and deliver them fast. Some glamour sales performers were exposed as ‘order takers’ rather than the hunters and opportunity creators they appeared to be when the economy was buoyant. Some Marketing Departments we worked with at international enterprises virtually disappeared. Budgets were cut to zero as though marketing is a discretionary spend.

The fate of both Sales and Marketing professionals became intertwined as their roles became muddled in the minds of CXOs.

The end of interruption marketing

What has also happened in the last ten years, driven by the self-help opportunities created by the always-on digital world and the increase in purchase consideration in a challenging economy, is that the way people buy has fundamentally changed.

People resist interruption marketing (e.g., TV ads) as much as they do SPIN selling (situation, problem, implication, need … but there doesn’t always HAVE to be a ‘problem’!).

People have grown more accustomed to having control when reviewing their purchase options and expect respect, understanding and product expertise in sales people, account handlers, marketers and company reps.

The marketing-sales continuum, from awareness to purchase

It is relatively straightforward to generate consensus around the relationship between marketing and sales. We describe the five steps required to move a prospect from being unaware of your services, through comprehension, to purchase, as a continuum in which each discipline plays its part in sales conversion at the appropriate time.

In the event that an opportunity doesn’t convert, there is a fall-back position, nurture. A simple diagram and list of activities and responsibilities rarely meet with any disagreement.

Good so far, in terms of overcoming the need for agreement on what marketing is; it is part of a sales process designed to achieve maximum win rates at maximum margins.

The modern marketing outlook: Stop selling, let people buy!

Given that people don’t like to think that they are being manipulated and resist overt sales tactics, by extension, we need a new way to look at Sales too.

For several years now, Allround Creative been saying: “stop selling, make it easier for customers to buy.”

And it has worked insofar that our customers, small and large, have grown faster than the market.

Sometimes it is all too easy to overlook the obvious. What has proved obvious is that if you know what’s important to prospects, what information they value, where they hang out, what concerns them, how they want to engage with partners or suppliers, then you can fashion your customer journey and sales information to meet their needs and move them along the sales path considerately.

And no, sorry, you can’t just send out another on-line survey and get the answers back neat and tidy by Friday lunchtime!

Simple research to provide confidence in marketing activity

Iit doesn’t have to be complicated, to get to the gold that gives you true customer and, therefore, sales insight. When people buy they have both rational and emotional needs and concerns. That’s what you need to uncover; and it won’t take long.

So, when asked now what we do at Allround Creative – being aware that we may get sent to the corner to join the Estate Agent folk – we answer, “we grow companies.” Generally that receives a positive response, and it’s only later in the conversation - having winked knowingly at the chap in the corner explaining his latest spreadsheet analysis technique - that we refer to marketing and sales process improvement as the tools that make growth possible.

That pretty much covers us at parties so that we get to circulate and chat.

As for the category for our business, the clue’s in the name ‘Allround Creative’. We use today’s design and marketing tools and techniques, and we bring creativity to every aspect, from marketing plan to marketing campaign.