You are responsible for the company’s marketing and lead generation program, and you are working diligently to uncover new business opportunities. Perhaps you have even engaged a third-party company to assist you but it’s not working. There are not enough new leads.  The sales team is frustrated and so are you.

Designing and executing an effective marketing program is critical to turn prospects into paying customers, but it is not an easy process. It requires the proper tools and expertise that many small to mid-size businesses may not have or cannot afford to hire. This can prevent companies from experiencing growth and profitability. There are steps you can take however that can help marketers overcome the challenges they may be facing.

5 Components Necessary to Build Successful Marketing Campaigns

It’s important to first identify the components required to design and execute a series of marketing campaigns that will result in building brand recognition and generating more new business opportunities for your company.

1. Who is Your Target Audience

If you have not already done so you need to meet with management to identify who is the target audience for your product or service. Think of it as what customers do you serve better than anyone else? That’s your target. Find out why they selected your product or service. There are rarely more than one or two reasons.

2. The Prospect List

Do you have a list of prospects to market to?  You need to reach several thousand prospects a month to build brand recognition and generate interest. Do you know how and where you can attain this list?

3. Building Marketing Campaigns

Do you have the tools and expertise to design a series of professional marketing mail campaigns that properly communicate your value proposition and incorporate a call to action?

4. Bulk E-mail Distribution

Consistency is the king of marketing, which means you will need to send out several thousand campaigns for several months to build your brand. You cannot do this via MS Outlook or Gmail.   You will need a third-party service for this.

5. Measuring Results

What process do you have in place to measure the success of your campaigns – who opened them, who clicked on a call to action and who requested to unsubscribe? You need to do an A/B test sending out two different campaigns to see which one generated the most interest.

These components are critical for building a series of successful campaigns, but there is more.   Businesses often overlook the need for quality content such as white papers, customer testimonials, videos and documents that illustrate how your product or service compares to the competition. Once again this requires tools and marketing expertise to design and distribute marketing templates on a consistent basis.  If you do not have the above, how do you plan to bridge this gap? Maintaining your web site is another challenge for small to mid-size businesses.  Your web site is the face of your business. It sets the tone for what customers and prospects should expect when doing business with you. If it is not properly maintained and in sync with your marketing messages, you run the risk of driving prospects away and hurting your positioning on search engines like Google. The good news is that there are a number of quality companies that can provide the expertise you need to build your brand, generate interest and result in more new business opportunities.

One company on the forefront of this is Commence Corporation. Commence is differentiated by their one stop shopping solution. Most marketing automation firms assist with building and distributing templates, but they don’t help you fine tune your message, acquire a targeted list of prospects or rank and color code new leads based on their behavior. Commence does and even provides a copy of their CRM system for lead management that captures notes and automates follow-up activity for each new lead.  Commence does it all for you.  Below is a brief video that illustrates how the Commence program works, its deliverables and how it will ensure you get more new inquiries and business opportunities.

Click this brief video to learn more.