Ask any executive or owner of a company and they will probably tell you that marketing is a key component of their business and the driver of brand awareness and growth.  I suspect they would say the same about the accounting department that handles orders and invoices and manages the financial health of the business.  What I find interesting, however, is that every business has an accounting department or perhaps a college-degreed accountant on staff to manage its finances, but a lot of businesses, especially smaller ones have no marketing department or marketing person.  If marketing is a key component to the growth and success of the business, it begs the question, why not?

Sales vs Marketing

It is rare to find a company that has no sales organization. Perhaps some businesses sell their products or services on-line or via distributors and value-added resellers; and while these people may not work directly for the company of the products and services they are selling, they are in fact that company’s sales team.

In smaller businesses there are always salespeople, but marketing seems to take a back seat to sales. While one must appreciate the need for a sales team to stay in business, people seem to forget that marketing is the driver of new business opportunities and key to the success of the sales team.

Big M vs Little M

Larger organizations often have team of experienced marketing representatives who focus on the company’s brand awareness, produce written content like white papers, product brochures, gather customer testimonials, manage e-mail campaigns, and update the company web site. I call this the “Big M”.

At the street level (for example, a regional sales office) they need the marketing tools and expertise to properly introduce their products and services to prospects in their geographic region and to maintain a relationship with their local customers.  I call this the “Little M” and in many instances there is no marketing program or plan in place.  I have seen within my own firm’s customer base that for many there is no Big or Little M. In fact, there is no M at all.

How To Address This

I think we have established that marketing, like accounting, is a critical component of every business. For decades businesses have used accounting software to manage their finances and today there are several very good marketing software programs for small to mid-size firms to manage the Little M.   The challenge is that many of these firms do not have the expertise onboard to properly utilize the tools or they cannot afford to hire an experienced marketing professional to address this requirement.

Commence Corporation, a CRM software and Marketing company, has recognized this and has coupled their marketing software with a team of experienced marketing personnel that work jointly with customers to build and execute a marketing plan for the business.  The Commence marketing team manages several tasks such as obtaining a targeted prospect list, building a series of professional e-mail templates, and distributing them on a scheduled basis. In addition, the marketing program includes campaign reports that illustrate performance such as how many prospects opened the mailer, who clicked on a call to action and who asked to be unsubscribed. The Commence software is coupled with an experienced team of marketing experts that become an extension of your business and provide the Little M you need to build brand recognition and most importantly generate new business for your sales organization.

See how it works by viewing the brief video below.

Using E-Mail Marketing to Create Top Of Mind Awareness “TOMA” – YouTube