If you’re the CEO of a successful business that hasn’t in the past had to rely on much or any ‘marketing’, it may be difficult to understand why you need it now.

And on top of that, digital marketing is a whole other category of marketing that may seem even more distant in terms of how it adds value to your sales team.

In my role, I’m lucky to talk to many CEOs (and sales leaders) of traditional “sales-driven” businesses that are now exploring how to leverage marketing, specifically digital marketing, to grow their businesses. When a business is essentially starting from nothing on the digital marketing side of things, it can be very hard for CEOs to digest the associated costs, why they’re necessary, and when they will see a return on investment.

I get it.

That’s why Goose Digital offers a solution for these businesses, helping them jump start their journey into digital marketing. Our approach:

  1. Is lower risk
  2. Is more cost efficient
  3. Achieves results faster

Still not convinced this is something your sales team needs to be successful? Let me explain.

Why Do I Need a Sales and Marketing Alignment?

Like any marketing investment, you do it to grow your business. Perhaps you’re no longer happy with the current pace of growth, or perhaps you (or more likely your sales team) believe the sales team need to reach customers on digital channels to support their sales process.

Regardless as to what the inflection point is, one of two things is true:

  1. You can no longer grow your business without some level of digital marketing. Frankly, this is the case for many b2b businesses today.
  2. You want to grow your business faster or provide a new customer experience, which requires digital marketing to make that happen.

If you’re still not totally convinced, here’s some industry validated data to support this message:

  • McKinsey reports: On average, a B2B customer will regularly use six different interaction channels throughout the purchase process – if you’re not on these channels, you’re at a disadvantage.
  • MarketingProfs noted: Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions experience 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales win rates
  • Marketo research: Studied the sales and marketing alignment practices of 500 companies and found a 209% stronger contribution to revenue from marketing-generated leads as a result of tighter alignment.

But We Just Need Leads

Businesses that have successful Sales + Marketing teams are not approaching digital marketing as a purely ‘top of funnel’ (lead generation) exercise. The proverbial “I just want leads” comment does come out from time to time in my conversations. No, they’re integrating digital marketing at every step of the customer buying journey from Lead Generation, Pipeline Marketing, and Customer Marketing.

Remember, your business wasn’t built in a year or two, and neither will your Sales + Marketing team.

Understood, How Do I Make This Happen?

Once you, the board, and your leadership team agrees that the time has come to make strategic investments in Digital Marketing to create a winning Sales + Marketing approach, you need three things:

  1. Digital Marketing Team – Human resources that will build a strategic plan, drive activities, and run campaigns. They need to be professionals, highly skilled, and strategic. Usually a team of 2 or 3 individuals.
  2. Marketing Technology – A set of software tools (about 7 different tools) used by the team to effectively run your marketing department and digital marketing tactics. This includes a CRM if not already in the business.
  3. Program Budget – Effectively this is your digital advertising budget to spread the word and drive interest/awareness on paid media sources (Example: Google, LinkedIn, Industry Editorial Publications). This budget is also for creating content, improving your website, acquiring lists, etc.

Worried About Hiring and Leading a Digital Team?

I sympathize, it’s an entirely new world. Most commonly the concerns are a) we don’t know how to hire, run, and retain these resources b) it will take them time to get them effective (especially since we are starting from scratch) c) its expensive. All of this adds risk.

A good way to accelerate your digital marketing plan is to outsource parts of the function. Generally speaking, you will require a point person in the business, a Marketing Manager or a strong Marketing Coordinator. This person will learn the business, coordinate internally and with your digital marketing partner, and participate in developing content.

Goose Digital provides a turnkey solution for an Accelerated Digital Marketing Function that includes all the Human Resources and Marketing Technologies you will need along with quick start frameworks. From strategy to tactical execution, our team allows you to activate a strategic digital marketing function quickly.

It is a professionally run digital marketing solution that:

  1. Removes the hiring and leadership overhead.
  2. Achieves a time-to-value much faster than internal teams, with the first campaign launched within 60 days.
  3. Costs approximately 50% less than hiring a team and acquiring the technology directly, freeing up more Program Budget.

Let’s Have a Conversation

As a CEO you want to profitably grow your business, and Sales + Marketing is the next step. Unfortunately developing a digital marketing capability takes time and costs money, but it clearly adds value for businesses that get it right.

At Goose Digital, our job is to partner with you to reduce the risks, costs, and timeframes associated with getting your sales + marketing team in action.

For more information about our Accelerated Digital Marketing Solution, contact us.