Budgets seem to get tighter and tighter every year. Businesses want to get the most out of their money spent, the best ROI.
Sometimes, it’s hard to know how to focus your efforts, and dollars, and to know where you’re wasting money. We have studied these tasks, how long they take, and their ROIs. Here is a list of marketing initiatives that can make or break your 2020 budget.
Top of the Funnel vs. Bottom of the Funnel Content
When we see content that is being created and shared, it’s usually top of the funnel content. It’s educational and generally aimed at lead generation. While it’s important to have this kind of content available, having content aimed at the bottom of the funnel is incredibly valuable for closing the deal.
Why? Prospects who are close to or in the decision-making phase are looking for content, too. The kind of information business should share to encourage closing the deal should answer the following questions:
- Cost: You don’t have to divulge your costs openly, just talk about what drives costs up and down, where industry averages are, etc. Talk about how you can help them keep their investment cost down while still providing a solution to them.
- Problems: Talk about who your organization is and is not a fit for. When does your solution not work? What are misconceptions about other solutions in the marketplace?
- Comparisons: Talk about what some of your industry peers may actually be better at. For instance, Grey Matter has a great video team. Is it the video team for everyone, or are they more talented than the agency that just does video? Maybe not. But here’s when you’d need ‘just’ a video agency.
- Reviews: What do other people say about you? Even share what they’d hoped you would deliver on, and maybe fell short. Transparency is key. That will build trust.
- Best in class: What do the best people in your industry do? How does the best company do it? Talk about success, as you are an advocate for your customer’s success.
Stop Spamming Your Contacts
Everyone knows email marketing is an important tool in every marketing strategy. But to make it an effective strategy, you have to be sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
Think about your readers’ pain points or needs when crafting your email campaign. Sharing general or irrelevant information can cause disinterest, lower open and click through rates, and create a sense of distrust.
To combat this issue, we recommend keeping your contact list clean. Regularly remove old or stale contacts, people who have unsubscribed, and hard bounce emails. Also consider removing contacts with low engagement rates, especially those who never open the emails.
Another resolution is to plan marketing emails. Consider to whom they’re being sent and what those people want to read about. Break up your contact lists so only certain contacts receive certain emails, instead of blasting every email to every person in your database. As you build strong email lists, you will realize higher email open and click through rates.
Buyer Personas
We hear a lot about the importance of buyer personas. While we shouldn’t discount the importance, they do help businesses understand their ideal buyers, businesses often put too much thought, and often money, into them, halting marketing efforts.
The best route to take is to start marketing efforts now and tailor them as you learn more about your buyer personas. Marketing is what drives sales and revenue. Don’t delay marketing efforts for fear of your knowledge, or lack thereof, about your buyers. In fact, your business probably knows more about your buyer personas than you think.
Paid Advertising
An area you SHOULD spend your time doing your research before you spend money is paid ads. This would include paid search, like Google Ads and social media advertising, like FaceBook or LinkedIn Ads.
The paid ad industry is highly competitive, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could end up wasting thousands of dollars and countless hours with no return.
Paying to advertise on these platforms can be incredibly profitable, but make sure you do your research first. Research your keywords, your target market, understand how a prospect would search for a product or service like yours.
CRM Software
We often see clients with bulky and overwhelming CRM software. Their marketing and sales teams are frustrated with this program that they often have had little training on, and don’t really know how to use.
Companies are convinced a marketing platform will solve all their problems. And while they can, if you don’t know how to use it, it won’t do anything but frustrate and slow you down. These softwares often have endless tools that aren’t meant for every business, they offer a wide variety of solutions in one package. This can be confusing and cause businesses to give up on an entire program they’ve already sunk tons of money into.
Instead of giving up entirely, look inward. Consider your processes, your pain points. Then, look for the tools within the program that can offer solutions to these problems. These programs also often have training within them.
Need help with your CRM? Grey Matter is a HubSpot certified agency. We can help you get the tools you need and nothing more. No bulky, murky program. Just the program features that will get you the growth you’re looking for. We can even teach you how to use it, or manage it for you.
Stop wasting your time and money. Take the time to review your processes and find out where you could improve.
Not sure where to start? Let us know. Our team is trained to find weak points and help businesses realize growth without waste.
