what-do-best-in-class-marketers-do-that-you-dont

What do Best in Class Marketers Do That You Don’t?

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Have you ever looked at an admirable marketing campaign and thought, “how do they do that?”

Best in class marketers have a knack for making profitable campaigns appear easy. How do they do it?

Research company Aberdeen recently looked at 160 end-user organizations to find out how these companies marketed their business. To pull out the “best in class” marketers, they used the following criteria:

  • 60% average marketing contribution to sales pipeline;
  • 9.9% average year-over-year improvement in incremental sales lift;
  • 9.5% average year-over-year increase in customer retention rate.

Each of these figures is higher than the industry average, putting these marketers on top as the best in class.

Here’s what Aberdeen discovered worked best among these top performers:

Video in Content Marketing

95% of best in class marketers use video in content marketing, according to a recent study by Aberdeen. One reason for video marketing is that companies using this media require 37% fewer visitors to achieve the same results as companies not using video. That equates to 19% less spending per marketing-generated lead.

Video lets you add personality to your content. It gives your brand a human voice so your buyer feels less like she’s purchasing from a massive corporation and more like she’s working with people who understand her needs.

Optimized ROI in Marketing Campaigns

Marketing is meant to make you money, plain and simple. Best in class marketers understand that success is directly correlated with the business’s profitability.

The first step towards optimizing your marketing strategies to improve ROI is to understand how much money you’re bringing in. Once you know that, you’re better equipped to optimize each strategy for maximum performance. Practice agile marketing (LINK TO AGILE MARKETING POST NOT YET UPLOADED) to adapt and optimize faster and better.

Specific Channel and Campaign Analysis

This might seem obvious, but many marketers don’t analyze the breakdown of campaigns and channels. 13% more best in class marketers spend time digging into the analytics of what’s working in each campaign and marketing channel than other marketers.

The goal of this is simple: To determine which channels are most lucrative. Based on this information, marketers can reshape and reform messaging for future campaigns. For example, if Pinterest sharing brings in the most qualified leads, visually based marketing is probably worth a bigger investment than text based campaigns.

Marketing Activity Break Down Throughout the Customer’s Buying Journey

Each stage of the customer’s buying journey requires a different need. In the awareness stage, your prospect is still getting to know why she needs the solution. As she moves forward, she needs more information about your business and why she should work with you.

The marketing campaigns should vary at each stage. Serving the right message to the right customers at the right time isn’t always easy. Best in class marketers make it happen by optimizing campaigns for each touch-point in the customer lifecycle. It’s a more refined approach that yields greater returns over time.

Do You Do This?

Each of these strategies and unique tactics are directly linked to how much money the firm makes. To become a best in class marketer, you need to show that your campaigns drive profits. For that to happen, get familiar with how your buyer decides on your product, and what you can offer to make the purchase decision easier.

 

Image: Photospin