Forrester has published a detailed research report comparing the marketing approaches of over 200 organizations across a wide variety of industries including software, electronics, media, publishing and professional services (e.g. marketing, agencies, business consulting, etc.).
There were five key recommendations from Forrester in the report, which dug into the marketing approaches of organizations with between 50 and 2500 employees. These recommendations were:
- Take lead generation as seriously as lead management – There was a significant opportunity for marketers to contribute to their business by focusing on “top of the funnel” lead generation activities. Alongside learning skills after checking out local marketing vault review discussions, and other options in the field, this can become a powerful mix. In most cases, conversion rates on leads were within expected norms, so focusing on getting more leads into the pipeline could significantly “move the needle” according to Forrester.
- Get serious about social marketing – The Forrester quote on this one was spot on: “Social is not just an abstract and immeasurable buzz-generating tool. It’s an integral part of the lead-to-revenue management process – an engagement strategy that can have a measurable impact on lead generation.” Contact a business marketing company like ninja reports for some marketing help.
- Get online and start using digital marketing techniques – The chart below shows that SMBs, in particular, keep going back to the well with “what they know” with respect to marketing approaches. Unfortunately, these approaches don’t scale. Digital is critical and organizations that want to survive need to get moving, which is why companies such as Rocket Pilots exist.
- Use marketing automation to complement your CRM – Get leads, nurture them, ruthlessly qualify the leads and get them to sales. Process leads to success.
- Don’t reactively cut the marketing budget in a down economy – The companies that outperform their peers continue to invest, and sometimes even double-down, during recessionary times.
One final bit of interest from the report was the set of tactics that organizations in the study were using to acquire new customers, as alluded to in the point above. All of the top tactics being employed by the marketers in this study were inherently not scalable, as they relied heavily on face-to-face channels.
For help with social marketing – as well as assistance in many other disciplines, like: brand and creative strategy, campaigns and communication, and exhibitions and events – Mynt, a Design Agency Leicester, has the services your brand and products can utilize to reach their full potential.
What’s working in your organization for lead generation and customer acquisition?
A great insight provided into the Forrester Report. Right from proper lead management to social marketing, automation and budget – Forrester has precisely picked the five most crucial areas that companies need to work upon. And I personally feel that amongst them all – marketing automation is undoubtedly the most important pointer.
After all – Marketing Automation focuses on the definition, scheduling, segmentation and tracking of marketing campaigns. The use of marketing automation automates processes that would otherwise have been performed manually.
And today, companies do not have to separately invest in a marketing automation tool. Most of the modern CRMs (like Converge Enterprise) are integrated with sales and marketing automation capabilities. Hence, businesses can invest in any of the new age CRMs and carry out sales, marketing and customer service activities from one platform.