Objectives and Channels

Channels and Initiatives List

Once we know our target, here are channels and initiatives to achieve marketing objectives.

Click on the image below to see how 4 marketing objectives and few other tasks which can be distributed / led under 3 main marketing expertise i.e. product marketing, demand generation, and brand marketing. This structure should sustain and accomodate a growing marketing function without causing chaos.

Marketing objectives distributed under 3 heads.

Then see the below list of channels and initiatives under each of the 4 marketing objectives.

Categorising channels gets blurry if categorised as paid, earned, own, organic, inorganic, inbound, outbound, etc. - the jargon. Instead use the below table - far easier to understand and use.

[ Click on individual tabs ]

Demand Generation

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 optimisation

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.

• Busines Development: Partnerships, re-sellers not included since these are sales driven channels.

Customer Equity

Empower the advocates

• Customer enablement to drive product adoption.

• Customer engagement programs, product newsletters.

• Create customer case studies, engage approvers (CMOs, legal, agencies at customer's end).

• Drive customer reviews on third party review sites.

• Forming and nurturing a customer council.

• Reseller Advisory Council. [sales involvement].

• Give company awards to customers.

• Customer events. [overlaps with PR agency work area].

• Drive NPS.

Brand, Awareness

Voice Out

• PR, Unconventional PR

• Print ads, Outdoor media

• Speaking, Evangelizing

• Sponsor podcasts, newsletters, webinars, with media portals, industry bodies.

• Events:

  • customer events*

  • industry events (booth, delegation, speaking, prospects meetups).

[*covered under 'customer equity as well]

Shaping Markets

Shape Opinions

• Analyst relations

• Win industry awards

• Participate in industry benchmark surveys

• Engage experts, advisors, independent analysts.

• Contribute to initiatives by various industry bodies.

• Reviews on third party review sites. [included under customer equity as well]

Build a Tribe

• Build an email list, engage.

• Organic social media marketing

• Build a community

• Crowdfunding

Join Other Tribes

• Engage bloggers

• Engage influencers.

• Buy out a complimentary product / audience aggregator having an engaged audience.

How to Decide on Channels?

• Can I target my accounts via this channel?

• Will this channel allow me to send a personalised message? Mostly, yes. Find that tech, vendor.

• Can you reach multiple stakeholders within an account via that channel? But this also means that your campaigns need to be multi-channel.

• Budget

• Which programs/channels contributed the most to the revenue and not just MQLs and SQLs?

• Comparative analysis of channels and ranking them in order of effectiveness.

[ This is from the perspective of ABM; source: Chris Golec ]

..

Notes before I forget; will plug-in elsewhere in the book:

• Method to re-activate or re-sell : Conduct a survey among that specific audience. Ask questions "what's your plan this season?" "What's your challenge to do ....' and couple of other questions. Answers will tell you who is ready to buy now, and what are their challenges. Use this information when you / sales person reaches out to them.