Bringing in leads, closing sales, creating a brand image, climbing search engines, and creating a buzz are a few of the many things that a marketing team has to consider when divvying up their budget. Failure to use all of the budget at some companies will lead to management reducing that budget for future quarters. Not all businesses are going to have the same goals for their marketing teams as new businesses might want to focus more on branding than building a sales funnel. The following are common goals of marketing teams when trying to figure out how they are going to divide their monthly or quarterly budget.
Educating Customers
Dealing with a customer that is clueless of how a product or service can help them can be extremely frustrating. Educating customers is imperative as they will begin to understand the reasoning behind working with a company. Newsletters with key articles from the week being sent out to customers can help educate them along with online trainings if necessary. You cannot force a client to educate themselves about something but putting the necessary material in front of them is the best that you can do. This not only will make the sales process easier but it will make the jobs of the customer service team easier as they will not have to deal with questions that may or may not be pertinent to the product or contract at hand.
Engaging Readers
The comments section of the blog needs to be monitored and comments need responses in a timely manner. Engaging with readers is a great way to keep them coming back daily or weekly. Loyal readers often times can turn into loyal customers over the course of time depending on what type of business is being run. Social media is another way to engage with readers as it is the perfect platform to answer questions or involve the company in a back and forth conversation for other followers to see. There are going to be those followers that are trolls or even employees of competitors that try to make the company look bad. The social media manager needs to be level-headed as well as be in line with the brand’s voice throughout their postings.
Diversifying Content
A dermatology practice might want to have their content be image based as issues can arise that need to be seen rather than read about. Whether it is precancerous skin or something like a hemorrhoid pictures it is important to have images as it could be the difference between life or death in some circumstances. Written content is not always the best way to reach an audience as other people might like video content or listening to a podcast. Do not alienate a demographic of potential customers due to reducing exposure of the company due to lack of diversification of content.
Becoming a Thought Leader In a Niche
Becoming a thought leader by producing great content consistently is a huge goal of many marketing teams. This can allow those at the company to be invited to speak at industry functions or even get an invite to be a part of another company’s podcast or contribute an article to an industry publication. In ever-evolving industries this is going to take quite a bit of education of staff on a consistent basis. The last thing that you want to happen is to be stumped by a question after a presentation in front of a bulk of big names in a niche.
Climbing Those Search Engine Rankings
For those marketing teams that work for an ecommerce based business climbing the search engines is imperative. The cheapest priced item will sell the fastest but comparably priced items will be bought from the online store that ranks at the top of the page of search results. Competing against much larger ecommerce companies can be difficult but with a unique approach it is more than possible to edge them out. Targeting specific phrases that a competitor does not dominate is the first step as competing with a company that has worked for years on one phrase simply is not wise. Start by targeting less competitive keywords related to the products to see which one yield the most traffic as well as conversions.
Dividing budget for the marketing team relies heavily on the goals the marketing team has. The above goals are common across industries and can change the trajectory of a company’s success if accomplished. Define your marketing goal then achieve it!
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