7 Steps to Building a Repeatable Marketing Process

This may be hard for you to come to grips with but marketing is a process, plain and simple. Now, some people take that to mean that you simply create a one size fits all, turn-key set of tactics and call it a day.

The truth, however, lies not in the repeatable tactics, but in the repeatable process based on the right strategy.

There is, in my view, a very systematic way to come up with a predictable path for growing any business, but every business is different — so, their process is unique, while the method for getting there does not need to be.

Below you will find the seven essential steps that address today’s marketing and sales challenges for small businesses. I’ve developed these 7 steps for creating marketing success from working and having discussions with businesses owners and CEOs over the years.

1. Develop vision before strategy.

Vision and strategy are both important to your marketing success. But there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first. If you develop a clear vision, you will attract the right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you.

Once you get clear on what you want, the how will take care of itself.

Most business owners and organizations don’t take the time to ask, “What are my marketing goals and what is my marketing vision?” Devoting time and energy during your planning process is the most important aspect of any successful marketing implementation.

2. Focus on the customer experience.

Nothing matters more to a business than how they make customers feel. How the customer feels determines whether your business survives or sinks. The secret to every businesses growth is word-of-mouth marketing, not the marketing done in the pages of a magazine, newspaper, trade publication, on TV, or other media outlets.

Word-of-mouth is generated because you made the customer experience referable. If someone chooses to refer your product or service, I then call that a “referable experience” because that’s what we share, our experiences with a product or service. (Products includes your blog, podcast, newsletter, online radio show, and more.)

3. Become the new media company.

Today you must commit to creating content much like a publisher might. Not just any content though, you need to create content that focuses on intention.

The Internet has disrupted the traditional sales process, allowing the prospective customer or client to begin on their own terms via search and social media. This means savvy business owners or marketing departments must adapt to the information-empowered prospect in a fashion that more resembles courting than it does selling.

The best way to produce content that works as marketing is to have it focus on the problems and desires of prospects and customers. It’s all about delivering independent value with content before you attempt to make the sale.

4.Adapt the engagement model.

Mapping out the evolving relationship your prospects have with your organization in a way that makes sense is a powerful tool.

Most people view the customer experience as a traditional marketing funnel with stages such as Awareness, Consideration and Purchase, but I consult on executing a much more modern and effective approach in this “customer centered era” we live in today: Awareness, Education, Sample, Purchase and Refer.

Now that you’re thinking about interactions and touchpoints you can start to fill in the your customer journey with the initiatives, campaigns, processes and touchpoints that will lead to a great experience.

• How will your firm generate awareness among it’s target market?
• What does the education about your value proposition look like?
• What is your offering for prospects to sample your expertise, product or service?
• What does your new customer gain access to when they say yes: key personnel, result meetings or content?
• How do you encourage or motivate your current customers to refer?

5. Educate to generate and close.

Don’t think of yourself as a salesperson but as a educator and partner to your prospect. This healthy mindset improves both your perspective and your chances of closing.

Realize that you have an opportunity to educate your prospects to succeed at whatever they wish to succeed at. As soon as possible, learn what it is that your prospect wishes to succeed at, and then show how what you are selling can make that success achievable.

You can educate them through:

• workshops
• seminars
• webinars
• teleseminar
• classes
• blogs
• newsletters
• infogrpahics
• slide shares

6. Develop a selling process.

In the same way that your marketing generates leads, you need to also take that same approach when a prospect wants to learn more. Have a well thought out road map that every new lead walks, a way to develop trust and rapport, and a proven process for orienting new clients can positively influence the bottom line conversion results you experience.

7. Create a marketing calendar.

The one thing that is finite for any business is time. There is always more month than time.

So you must identify how and when you would like to launch your program to market your products and services. By creating monthly projects and themes, weekly action steps, and daily marketing appointments, you keep the focus, enthusiasm, and creativity on marketing.

Follow your marketing calendar even if it doesn’t seem to be producing results. Avoid the temptation to alter it for at least a few months. Give it time, remember process not an event.

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