Marketing Strategy Sample 01
A sample marketing strategy plan for a 'marketing technology' consulting firm helping businesses build connected customer experiences. | [use navigation bar on the right side for easy reading.]
Marketing Challenges
With new offerings added, a unified and coherent value proposition is missing.
Some marketing channels such as webinars are failing to get results.
Grow Sitecore implementation revenue to US $10M in the next 12 months.
Target Customers
Industry Verticals > Accounts (companies) > Prospects (Individuals)
In practice, this need not be a linear selection process. Marketing needs to plan this along with sales and executive leadership to arrive at target accounts.
Other approached could be:
Start with existing customer base >> Seek similar customers.
Start with ICP >> Apply some criteria to refine the list.
Target Industry Verticals
"Core verticals for us are manufacturing, heavy assets, retail, healthcare, banking" - Steve Tzikakis, CEO Sitecore, Sep 1, 2020.
The firm can identify its sectors based on:
Alignment with Sitecore's vertical focus to maximize channel partner support.
Sectors with customers offerings higher gross margin projects.
Competitive insights suggesting to either skip, collaborate for or enter in sectors addressed by its competitors. For example, ValTech seems to be focused on retail, finance, manufacturing, and CPG companies.
Target Prospect Accounts
Within the selected verticals, the firm can then segment and target customers basis:
Company size
Revenue growth.
Marketing platforms/technology in use.
Estimated investment in marketing technologies.
Higher need to build connected customer experiences.
Pain points.
A hypothetical example of a target customer account could be:
Retail companies
With more than 250+ branches
Across North America
Frustrated with mid-size MarTech solutions.
Actively looking for enterprise solutions.
New CMO or Customer Experience leader joined.
Known for technology adoption.
Target Prospect Personas
CMOs.
Brand Marketers.
Customer Experience Leaders.
CTOs, CEOs.
Competitors
Tear-apart the competitors' websites and communication. Make a live document out of it. Include the following points in the marketing tear-downs:
What are their key solutions (value props) and benefits?
What are the headlines, sub-headings; what body copy do they use?
Where do you lag or where do you stand a good chance to win?
Possible competitors (and collaborators):
MarTech Consulting Firms: ValTech, Horizontal, Epsilon, Publicis-Sapient.
Large IT Consulting Firms: Accenture, PWC.
Large Agencies: Digitas, Ogilvy.
Value Proposition
I have included two value propositions as a sample; more should be explored.
Enterprise marketers are struggling to create consistent digital experiences for their customers across multiple channels using marketing technology platforms suitable for mid-market firms.
Marketers are struggling to make the most of their investments in enterprise marketing technology platforms.
Messaging
1) Use competitor marketing tear-downs, and value proposition design, to fine-tune the core messaging.
Example:
Create superior connected experiences for new world customers. | Achieve the highest ROI with your Sitecore implementation.
2) Keep the messaging consistent across:
blog
website
sales collateral
existing key content assets
3) Align the campaigns with the core messaging and value propositions.
Campaign Brief
Customers are showing resilience to come out stronger from the ongoing economic slowdown. Marketers are experiencing new consumer behaviors such as the adoption of digital technologies by a wider audience. At the same time caution is being exercised by digital-natives while engaging with digital experiences such as touch screens in public places. Brands can navigate this changing landscape successfully by building connected customer experiences using Sitecore.
Content
Once messaging is clear, along with keyword analysis, the following blocks of content can be developed.
Organize existing content systematically
example: separate out industry thought leadership work from "work from home" blog posts.
Create thought leadership content in the form of
White papers
Books
Re-purpose this thought-leadership content in
thousand of other avatars (blog, social media posts, videos) and distributed.
Customer enablement content
to drive product adoption - this includes internal emails,
product nudges.
Pillar-Cluster content
Pillar pages include content around several sub-topics.
Cluster pages include detailed content on those sub-topics.
Pillar and cluster pages are then linked together.
Landing pages with detailed content for large-scale campaigns.
For an even more detailed take on content for marketing, read a separate section:
Revenue Targets
Grow revenue to US $10M in 12 months for Sitecore implementation services comprising of Sitecore Experience Platform, Sitecore Experience Commerce and Sitecore Content Hub.
[Please scroll through the below-embedded file to see all the details or visit the original file] The file outlines customer targets (vertical-wise) and the marketing budget. Additionally, I have also calculated no. of AEs required in outbound sales.
Marketing Budget
Please note that this is a broad level distribution. The next level of distribution should by marketing initiatives. I would avoid a budget framed by the channel as it doesn't provide the right control.
Sales Funnel
A lead enters the funnel due to efforts on two fronts:
Outbound sales.
Marketing programs.
Leads via Outbound Sales
SDR (sales development rep) runs outbound campaigns using targeted emails, LinkedIn messages, and telecalls.
to generate leads
and qualify generated leads [ "do they fit the ILP - ideal lead profile?"]
These qualified leads are passed on to Account Executives (AEs)
to convert leads into opportunities.
and to convert opportunities into customers.
SDR-AE Lead Flow:
An outbound campaign by SDR ---> Lead generated and qualified by SDR ---> Lead assigned to AE ---> converted to an Opportunity ---> converted to a Customer.
Leads via Marketing Programs
Marketing programs -
use two sources:
Earned attention - content marketing, word-of-mouth, etc.
Bought attention - paid ads, sponsorships, etc. to generate leads.
which are qualified by MRR (market response rep) to either pass on to
an Account Executive (AE) to convert (then it goes to 'SDR - AE Lead Flow' (see above)
or worked upon by Marketing to nurture via emails to warm up for sales.
Outbound leads or marketing leads which don't get converted into customers are nurtured via 'stay-in-touch' campaigns. And whenever they show signs of 'ready-to-purchase', then they are put back into the sales funnel for AEs to re-contact (enterprise leads).
Marketing Initiatives
Four Buckets
Marketing objectives to be bucketed under the 4 headings:
Demand Generation: Activities to drive sales in specified timelines.
Customer Equity: Activities to make the most of acquired customers.
Branding and Awareness: Activities to drive awareness to a larger audience.
Shaping Markets: Activities to make the larger audience receptive via third-party recommendations.
Spiral Up
Generate demand, acquire customers >> serve acquired customers well, build and make use of customer equity to >> create further awareness to reach among a new audience >> make use of customer equity, and awareness to shape markets to further drive demand, acquire customers.
Three Owners
These marketing objective buckets are owned by three specialists in product marketing, demand generation, and brand marketing.
If the team size is small, then one individual may wear multiple hats. However, this distinction is important to maintain.
Without a good 'A' set-up i.e...
product marketing (customers, competitors, value proposition, messaging)
marketing technology stacks
the core thought leadership content and subject matter content (in pillar - cluster) format
...it is difficult to start with the objectives in 'B' i.e.
demand generation
customer equity
branding and awareness
shaping markets .....in that order.
This structure should sustain and accommodate a growing marketing function without causing chaos.
Channels
Here is a comprehensive list of channels for each of the four typical marketing objectives.
Paid For
Offline ads [ this should be under Brand and Awareness ]
Direct mail.
Paid ads:
Ad platforms:
Google Ads
LinkedIn ads
Facebook ads
Instagram ads
Native content ads
Retargeting
Other aspects that go with paid ads:
Ad copy and creatives
Landing pages
Ad optimization
Via Product / Website
SEO [includes content marketing].
On-page optimization - technical and content.
Offline optimization - content marketing.
Manual link outreach.
Automated link outreach.
Broken link outreach.
HARO.
Guest posting.
ASO.
☛ Growth loops.
Widgets, free tools, games, quizzes, calculators, browser plugins.
Webinars, virtual events:
Webinars, virtual events. [ need to source speakers, email market] [tricky ]
Offline micro-events (product demos via customers)
CRO
Onboarding flow
Conversion tracking
User surveys
Sales Focused (Marketing's intervention required)
Platform integrations [ a big effort in itself].
Affiliate programs (could go with bloggers, influencers)
Offline micro-events (product demos via customers).
Referral programs
Channels Excluded:
Outbound Sales - excluded out of 'sales focused' demand gen channels since this is a fairly independent channel.
Business Development: Partnerships, re-sellers not included since these are sales driven channels.
One Year Plan
First, Demand Generation:
Address Bottom-of-the-funnel >> Middle-of-the-funnel >> and then Top-of-the- Funnel prospects.
The idea is to focus on demand generation first to meet revenue targets. And even within demand generation, reach out to those to the prospects first who are actively looking out to buy solutions (i.e. bottom of the funnel) and then move up using relevant channels to reach out to middle-of-the-funnel prospects and then top-of-the-funnel prospects.
And then, spiral up:
Demand Generation >> Customer Equity >> Brand and Awareness >> Shaping Markets >> Leading to even more demand.
Once demand generation is working to deliver on revenue targets, then activate the other three marketing objectives.
The progressive introduction of objectives and channels
The below table outlines the progressive introduction of channels and initiatives over a 0, 3, 6, and 9 months timeline to achieve those objectives. If you see new, it means that initiative and channel are added newly during that timeline.
Basic requirements ('A' in image above) are first to be put in place which will determine the success or failure of various marketing programs ('B' in image above).
Product Marketing
Customers - industry verticals, target accounts, prospect personas.
Competitors - ongoing tracking, marketing rip-apart, identify vantage points.
Value propositions - Fine-tune and document.
Messaging - Consistent messaging across the website, sales collaterals, social channels, LinkedIn, and build campaigns around those.
Marketing stack
Make changes only upon seeing the actual lead flow and talking to users. Current stack possibly in use:
CRM: Salesforce.
CMS: Sitecore.
Outbound Prospecting and Contact Builder: Seamless.ai.
Email tool: Mail Chimp / Mailjet + Stripo.
Analytics: Amplitude / Segment and GA integrated.
Demand Gen: Sales Funnel, Tracking, Analytics
Lead flow.
Conversion tracking.
Daily, weekly analytics reporting. Note down metrics at the beginning.
Clean-up and Enrich Marketing Database
Use a contact provider to acquire the entire set of relevant contacts at target accounts. Also, link the contact provider to the CRM for an always-updated database.
Import the list into the CRM database as leads; connect leads (individuals) to accounts.
Thus get a holistic view of relevant leads (individuals) at target accounts (companies).
This is perhaps the single most important aspect which is often ignored at many firms.
Basic Content Assets
Prepare sales collaterals.
Prepare all of the case studies - preferably in video format as well.
Pillar-Cluster content around key terms and the product.
Work on the website.
Outbound Sales
Set up or fine-tune outbound sales team.
Match outbound efforts and marketing programs.
Set up metrics and reporting.
Mistake to avoid: Few, ill-trained SDRs generate, qualify, and then pass on leads to many, well-paid AEs. Solution: SDRs are the first point of contact with customers. Reverse the team size. More well-trained, well-paid SDRs to generate, qualify, and then pass on leads to few AEs. 1 SDR to 1 AE doesn't work always.
Hiring / Re-alignment
[ see separate header ]
[ scroll up to view content in rest of the tabs ꜛ ]
Weekly Tracking
Use the following chart to track details on a weekly basis. Scroll around within the embedded file to view data and graphs. All are dummy numbers. [ link to the original file. ]
Hiring / Re-organising
The below format can be referred to build a marketing team. In practice, existing skills and budget to be taken into consideration.
1) Product Marketing [ 1 person ]
A1: Product marketing- Competition tracking, analysis, customer analysis.B4: Shaping markets- Analyst relations, expert/influencer relations.
2) Demand Generation [ 4 people ]
A2: Marketing stack
Coder, web-developer - MarTech, On-page SEO (tech), Sales funnel, CRM, Database, Growth loops.
B1: Demand Generation
Paid ads
Lead nurturing
SEO - Off-page + On-page (content)
3) Brand Marketing Content [ 5 people ]
A3: Content and Creative
Generic content writer - deep content.
Content re-purposing - writing skills + creative
Industry analyst (agency, retail, or MarTech background)
Creative - web and print creative, video editing.
B2: Brand and Awareness
PR, social, events, digital sponsorships.
B3: Customer Equity
Drive all activities related to customers:
Drive product adoption, ensure new case-studies are built, stakeholder engagement, customer council, customer events, customer testimonials, product newsletters. [ * can take the help of content team - overlap].
Customer deal analysis.
Customer reviews on third-party review sites # [ # overlap with 'Shaping Markets']
4) Outbound Sales [10 people]
Lead (1)
SDRs (6)
AEs. (3) (one for each customer segment)
[above numbers are merely indicative]
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