Long gone are the days when a single radio ad would send customers rushing to a store. Instead, companies must compete with a million distractions before they can direct customers to their products. Luckily, companies also have more ways to contact customers. Often called ‘channels’ in marketing, these ways to contact customers have grown over the years. In addition to television and radio marketing, companies can now take advantage of ways to contact people online, such as email and messaging via social media. 

Rather than focusing on a specific ad campaign in a specific location (such as a billboard), marketers now work to contact customers multiple times. Multi-channel marketing includes a variety of different approaches. Channels to include would be billboards, bus ads, emails, phone calls, TV ads, Google Adwords, Facebook, Twitter, websites and so forth. Any way to reach out to customers to sell a product can be included as a channel.

These repetitions or ‘contact points’ are considered essential. The customer is likely to remember the product when needed and visit the company’s store or website to purchase it; contact points enable the customer to continue the buyer’s journey toward an eventual purchase.

Developing a Multi-Channel Strategy

With so many channel options, businesses need to develop a multi-channel strategy. Without a careful strategy, companies attempt a ‘do-it-all’ approach—which Entrepreneur warns can be ineffective. A ‘focused’ approach is better by far. A 2006 article in the Journal of Service Research highlights these five challenges companies face when developing a multi-channel campaign:

• Integrating data
• Understanding customer behavior
• Evaluating channels
• Allocating resources across channels
• Coordinating strategies

These challenges and ways to successfully circumvent them are explained below.

Integrating Data

The only way to gauge the effectiveness of a multi-channel approach is to track customer responses. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Many channels do have excellent means of tracking customers. Facebook and Twitter have extensive analytics available. Google Analytics can track movement of every customer through the site. However, these bits of data do not integrate easily. Did the customer that came through Facebook initially see the advertisement on Twitter? It’s almost impossible to say. While each channel has data on customer behavior, these discrete snippets do not provide the whole picture.

To counter this challenge, companies can build robust data tracking systems. Many customer relationship management (CRM) software services work to integrate customer data from social media outlets with website visits. Businesses can also be better informed of customer traffic through the site by signing up for Google Analytics which can usually display what channel the customer used to reach the company’s website. These tools provide a better overview of customer behavior across channels so that companies can make adjustments to their multi-channel approach. Thus, if no customers are accessing the website via Twitter, it may be time to divert resources from Twitter to another channel.

Understanding Customer Behavior

If the data shows how customers are contacting the business, marketing managers can begin to understand how the customers behave. For example, they may start to see patterns. It may take four points of contact through multiple channels before most customers visit the website. This could imply that more points of contact may make customers more likely to visit the website. While such insights can help multi-channel campaigns be more successful, the challenge is that these conclusions are often guesswork.

To obviate this, marketing managers should constantly experiment and use the data to see what’s working. If Facebook is sending a bunch of customers to the company website, but no one can figure out exactly why, that’s okay. While it’s better to understand why a strategy is working, sometimes it’s just not possible. The alternative is to rely on data that shows what is working and stick with it for a successful multi-channel campaign.

Evaluating Channels

Data and insights into customer behavior help marketing managers decide what channels to keep and which to remove—but some customers may come through entirely unique channels too. It’s also hard to know which channel finally convinced the customer to buy. Since the data and behavior insights won’t have all the answers, companies need to continue experimenting. A flood of customers will signal that the multi-channel strategy is working.

Allocating Resources Across Channels

Another challenge that companies face is how to allocate time and money to each channel. Without knowing which channels are the highest performers, it’s difficult to know where to send resources. If a company sees a lot of traffic from Facebook, it’s tempting to adjust the multi-channel approach to direct more funding to Facebook ads. However, this may or may not increase the number of customers visiting via Facebook. It depends on many factors that may not be visible to the company or in the data.

To address this, companies should work on finding a balance of resources across multiple channels. It’s an art to find the right allocation to each channel, but the science shows that having more than one channel is a good option.

Coordinating Channel Strategies

Multi-channel approaches are inherently more complicated than selling through a single channel. A Facebook ad may highlight a certain sale. If the person clicks on the ad and lands on the main page of the company site instead of the sale item, a sale may be lost because the customer decides its not worth searching for it. Channels often have to be carefully aligned with each other for maximum benefit. Each ad for each channel may need its own landing page for the customer to make sense of the buying process. More channels usually add more complexity.

The best way to address this challenge is through careful planning. Each pathway to purchase should be analyzed to make sure it is clear and makes sense. A person that sees an online ad and goes to a brick-and-mortar store should be able to buy the item for the same price. As companies have improved at integrating channels, a new marketing approach has been developed: omni-channel marketing.

The Future of Marketing? The Omni-Channel Approach

The purpose of omni-channel marketing is to provide customers with a seamless buyer’s experience. It’s the next step in multi-channel coordination–every channel works together seamlessly. An example provided by Forbes provides insight into a successful omni-channel marketing strategy:

• Channel 1 (Smartphone): The customer decides to buy a pair of shoes via his smartphone, but he’s not quite ready to go through with it. He puts the shoes in his cart.
• Channel 2 (Desktop): He goes to his desktop to show the shoes to his daughter. She doesn’t like the color. He puts a new pair into his cart and waits to get his wife’s coupons before buying.
• Channel 3 (Email): The customer forgets about the purchase. However, an email arrives reminding him of the item in his cart.
• Channel 4 (Desktop): He purchases the shoes via the desktop.

The cart provides a seamless experience for the customer. No matter what channel he uses, he is able to continue the journey towards his purchase.

While this level of integration may seem difficult, omni-channel solutions are available to businesses. CRM software solutions can integrate various channels. For example, a CRM system may respond to a Facebook message with a reminder email a week later. These software solutions help companies develop more seamless buying experiences for customers.

Connecting with customers through multiple points of contact is an effective marketing strategy. However, the multi-channel approach should be monitored via integrated data. Combined with an understanding of customer behavior, this data guides the implementation of further strategies. The complexity of a multi-channel approach can make it difficult to make clear strategic decisions. However, close monitoring and experimentation help marketers home in on the best strategies for each company. Finally, careful coordination of each channel makes a multi-channel approach more likely to be successful. The goal of coordination is likely to be an omni-channel approach which provides a seamless customer experience, no matter what channels the customer uses.

Source: Tenfold

Market qualification (MQ) representatives, sometimes also known as lead qualification or lead qual reps, are highly specialized agents whose role in inside sales transactions is to qualify an inbound lead. Compared to lead development specialists who engage a sourced outbound lead, MQ reps are the ones who research a client who proactively engaged the service to see if there is a possible sale that can be made.

Marketing qualification reps: The tasks

While market qualification is similar to lead development, MQ is much easier to carry out due to a much lower level of research needed to qualify the client. Additionally, since the initiative is with the customer, MQ reps generally need a shorter engagement time to qualify a lead.

The only potential issue is that it’s possible to acquire leads that are not really the target of a service. This can be detrimental as the MQ rep can lose time that could have been used to qualify other incoming leads. A silver lining is that it could still open up good opportunities due to the number of potential clients who are interested in the service.

Tools of the Pre-Trade

Market qualification reps definitely need CRM tools when they engage their leads, moreso than their outbound lead counterparts. This is mostly because MQ reps have less targeted groups of customers to address, whereas outbound lead development specialists are already aware of the specific consumer group they are targeting (i.e. sourced from lead generation, etc.). Specific  CRM functions like the ability to record information, track the customer life cycle, and remind the team to follow up on a lead at specific stages—even after handing off to sales—are very important in market qualification. Even the circumstances of a customer who do not continue with the sales process is a rich source of market intelligence data and can further help MQ reps in improving their qualification process.

In line with having a strong CRM foundation, another good tool is marketing automation software. Because some leads can be qualified immediately based on social media, transaction and payment histories, or even based on their credit rating (if involving financial information), market automation software can help an MQ rep identify and prioritize strong leads. This will increase the velocity of lead hand-overs to the sales team, which allows them to work down their leads immediately and get back quickly to leads that need more research and identification.

Source: Tenfold

Lead generation, the art of attracting potential customers to your business and converting them into buyers, has seen a rapid development in the last decades. Although it is still common to a certain degree to generate leads through conventional channels like personal referrals or telemarketing, the internet has clearly established itself as the preferred lead generation channel. Even the modern field of online marketing is changing at unmeasurable velocities. One clear sign is that lead generation techniques are shifting from an outbound perspective, to an inbound marketing strategy.

It is estimated that only 17% of marketers last year considered outbound marketing practices to provide the highest quality leads.  Sure, traditional techniques such as social media to generate awareness and email marketing to nurture captured leads are still commonly used in the sales funnel, but for the actual lead generation process of converting visitors into prospects, inbound is king. Naturally, traffic plays a key role in this process, and HubSpot estimates that at least 80% of the companies not meeting their revenue goals have less than 10 000 visitors. Nonetheless, no inbound strategy is complete without proper lead generation techniques.

There are hundreds of diverse lead generation strategies being implemented, some more successful than others. Among all the noise in the market, there are some clear trends that apply for this year and keeping up-to-date with the latest technologies and tactics will ensure that your company doesn’t miss valuable conversions out of your inbound visitors. Here are the five most promising trends in online lead generation for 2017.

1. No single channel, no unique device

Diversity is the name of the game in 2017. The time where lead generation channels were limited to a few alternatives, like the telephone or email, are long gone. Today you not only have a great deal of channels which you can choose from, even within a channel you have hundreds of options. Think of social media: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, the list goes on… Great opportunities exist within this huge diversity. The key lies in leveraging the most important ones for your desired target group and combining them with adequate strategies. Nonetheless, one thing is certain: just a few channels, let alone a single one, will not suffice for a successful lead generation strategy.

The same applies to devices: limit your online business to a single device and you are almost certainly doomed to fail. With the increased usage of mobile devices, an online marketing campaign can no longer be focused on desktop computers and laptops alone. Last year there were 2.6 billion smartphone users globally and it is estimated that this number will grow to 6.1 billion by 2020. In the USA, at least two thirds of the population use a smartphone to access the internet. Thus, mobile friendliness is vital for every single online business nowadays. From display to functionality, SEO to traffic measurement, online businesses need to provide not only a UX that is adapted to mobile needs, but they also need to focus on the adequate lead generation tactics and technologies.

2. Quality-driven content marketing = quality lead generation 

In the inbound community, it is popularly stated that content is king. Studies show that per dollar spent, content marketing generates at least 3 times more leads than conventional marketing techniques. It is a great strategy to attract traffic through SEO techniques and also guide a customer along the Buyer’s Journey with proper educational information. However, there is a popular belief that although this technique does help increase audience numbers, it does not ensure high-quality lead generation. This is something that is bound to change and has already been changing for a while.

The immense amount of content offer available at the web is increasing with every single day. This has resulted in large content offer which usually consists of a huge portion of mediocre content published towards SEO goals and a small portion of valuable content. The second one is extremely important from an inbound marketing perspective and will see an increase in the next years. Companies will start focusing in acquiring content professionals and aiming towards content quality instead of quantity and frequency. Moreover, content will be tailored towards specific audiences and customers along specific phases of the Buyer’s Journey, instead of looking to attract a more general public based on virality.

3. Customized lead generation tools 

Just as with high-quality content, lead generation tools are starting to be customized so that they better fit the lead’s requirements, provide a more engaging user experience and thus generate more contacts for your business. A study by Econsultancy and Adobe showed that B2B marketers considered customer experience and personalization to be the most promising marketing trends in the next years along big data. One fourth of them even mentioned customer experience as the single most important opportunity. Engaging content will ensure that the inbound traffic that a business experiences can more effectively be converted towards potential customers. Moreover, personalized experiences from the earliest interaction phases between your leads and your business will give potential buyers a further reason to hang around.

Boring contact forms on a separate page are starting to appear less attractive than customized, gated content in online presentations or videos. Other great examples are quizzes and calculators, which have a much more appealing effect than a regular contact form or newsletter subscription and thus provide a more interesting variant to convert visitors into leads. Even integrated microsites that allow you to track specific user engagement are gaining large popularity.

Which tools you implement depend on the public you address with your content and combining different strategies with diverse tools can help find the adequate approach. And if you’re dubious about the success of adapting your lead forms towards your customer experience, remember that Expedia generated an extra $12 million a year just by removing one field from their regular contact form. Image if they introduced interactive lead generation tools…

4. Data-driven lead generation 

In the age of information, data is essential. It is estimated that 42% of marketers consider that lack of quality data is their largest obstacle towards quality lead generation. Detailed information on the behavior of prospects provide valuable insights on his journey along the sales funnels and helps sales reps take more accurate decisions based on specific data analysis. From tools like Google Analytics, to lead scoring systems, tracking the behavior of leads and registering it in large databases that can be analyzed will be essential. This trend in data analysis is reflected in three main aspects:

• Big data professionals: The increased need for professionals in analyzing large amounts of data on lead and customer behavior.

• Data Analytics Tools: From Google Analytics to CRM solutions such as HubSpot or Salesforce, there is a clear increase in the usage of tools that provide a statistical analysis of customer and lead behavior.

• Machine Learning: Although still on its infancy, machine learning is bound to be large in the following years, with lead scoring systems and other smart data being managed by artificial intelligence.

5. Automated prospecting 

The term marketing automation is probably more popular in the business environment nowadays, than Napoleon Bonaparte was at the beginning of the 19th century in France. It is a trend that is changing the way marketing and sales are done online. Over 70% of businesses are currently using or implementing a marketing automation solution and it is estimated that at the overall investments of companies in marketing technologies has surpassed that of advertising and that a company’s CMO on average invests more in automation technologies than a CIO in IT.

There is no question that marketing automation is big. However, CRM tools and automated lead nurturing have been around for a while, so what is the actual innovative trend here? Two words: automated prospecting. Automated lead generation has been introduced by diverse tools that not only generate lead data and capture contact details from inbound traffic, they also automate or semi-automate activities such as lead scoring and even follow-ups. This on the other hand gives marketers and sales reps more time to concentrate in other key activities along the sales funnels, such as closing main deals. Prospecting is usually one of the most resource-intensive activities of a company, and thus the possibility of automating most of this steps with technologies is bound to have a brilliant future for both, sales and marketing.

AS the VP of marketing from Google Cloud Alison Wagonfeld brilliantly pointed out:

“Marketing still needs art to go with the science.”

No matter how effective the new marketing and sales technologies are and how significantly the are improving the way business is done, we should never lose track of the human side of business. A healthy balance between both will ensure great success for your business in the years to come.

Source: Tenfold

Increasing B2B sales isn’t simply a matter of putting out your shingle and hoping that more customers will come your way. Businesses who purchase from you want to believe they have the right vendor at the right time for the right price. Because there are more people involved and there are higher price points, it can sometimes take months to close a B2B sale.

As a business who markets to other businesses, how can you ‘tilt the playing field’ and make sure that when the customer is ready to buy, YOUR company is the only one that comes to mind?

1. Collect Honest Feedback

Feedback, whether received through surveys, in-person interactions, or email, is vital for both technical improvements to your site and funnels and your customer-facing work. Because in-depth and useful feedback from clients is hard to come by, it’s important that you take steps to automate the process and encourage your clients to provide you with more.

Talk with your clients. Find out what they liked and what they didn’t like. Talk about the number of steps that they took to get to the sale and the process that they went through. Ask them what about your company caught their attention.

Your customer’s needs are constantly evolving. By listening to what they are saying and keeping your ‘finger on the pulse’ you can stay ahead of the competition, making more sales for your company.

2. Try video

There are compelling reasons to have video on your site, but the biggest reason is that it’s one of the most effective means of selling your company’s product.  Customers and clients engage with video, often watching and engaging with the shorter ones for the entirety of the clip.

Here are some noteworthy statistics about video marketing.

• 43% of customers want to see more video from marketers
• 9% of marketers name video as the type of content with the highest ROI
• 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it
• Shoppers who view video are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-video viewers
• 4 in 5 customers believe that demo videos are helpful

Depending on your products, your videos can have many purposes.

• How-to videos explaining a single part of your product.
• Explainer videos that outline what your company does and how it does it.
• Funny videos designed to get others to think about your product.
• Video testimonials from your clients to persuade others.

3. Upselling and cross-selling

Upselling and cross-selling have increased sales of B2B and B2C companies for ages. Upselling simply offers a higher version of the product itself. Cross-selling offers related products to your clients.

Upselling

Amazon has this tactic down cold. For instance, If you place an order for a laptop, you will inevitably be asked whether you want to upgrade the memory card or get a better one. While it might seem like a logical thing to do but shown to billions of people every day can really boost your sales. The intent behind this is showing the customers that he could get a better product by spending a little extra.

Cross-Selling

The McDonald’s sales force are also pros at this tactic.  Cross-selling offers your client something different but related to the first product. For instance, you’ll most likely be asked the famous question, ‘would you like fries with that?’ or the less leading, ‘will that complete your order?’ with every order. This gives McDonald’s customers to look at the menu for another few moments, pondering their next tasty treat.

Cross-selling and upselling tactics can be applied to nearly any business who wants to improve its bottom line and increase B2B sales. By offering multiple versions of the same service or related services, you can create a selling juggernaut with your already ‘warm’ clients.

4. Events

Local events can boost your bottom line like nothing else because they allow you to put a face to the name of the client. Savvy businesses regularly hold events to keep their brand at the top of mind for their customers.  Here are some statistics about event marketing for your reading pleasure. Certain has gathered over 75 statistics for a larger view of the event marketing picture. Here are a few:

• 84% of consumers repurchase the product promoted at the event, after their first purchase (EventTrack Study)
• 51% of marketers surveyed believe that events strengthen existing customer relationships (Marketing Charts)
• 60% of marketers use tradeshows and events for face-to-face customer meetings (Marketing Charts)
• 58% of marketers believe that events and conferences are important ways to improve customer experiences of their services or products (E-Strategy Trends)
• 31% of event marketers believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and channel events are essential to doing business in their target customer markets (Marketing Charts)
• 69% of B2B marketers consider in-person events effective (Sensible Marketing)
• The top 5 B2B content marketing tactics: Social Media Content (92%); eNewletters (83%); Articles on your Web Site (81%); Blogs (80%); In-Person Events (77%). (IMN Inc.)

The event that you hold doesn’t have to be something incredibly formal. You can set up something on Meetup for your clients to attend.  By offering your clients something different to get them in the door, you are getting your brand to stand out and receive more sales. 

5. Case studies

Whether Your business constantly generates data and whether you have hired a marketing agency or you are the one doing all the SEO, leveraging that data into the creation of case studies is crucial for your business. Case studies generate fuel for the fire to get more clients interested in your product or service because it’s measurable proof of what your company does.

73% of buyers used case studies in B2B purchasing decisions (2016 DemandGen Report).  Fortunately, developing a case study mostly involves the collation of materials rather than the creation of new materials. Look at your customer successes.  Are there ways that you can parlay that into viable case studies?

These 5 marketing tactics to increase B2B sales are by no means the only way to capture the attention from customers and get more money from each of them. Each of them has their pros and cons, but all of them have the chance to increase your bottom line. What can you do to increase your company’s bottom line?

Source: Tenfold

The business development representative’s job is critical to the success of an organization. In fact, there is no role in a company that more directly impacts future prosperity, growth, and overall stability.  After all, without sales, a company is quickly out of business. For this reason, it is vital to find a BDR that has the personality traits to thrive in this role.

The Right Fit

There are many important elements to consider before hiring a business development executive. It’s important to have realistic expectations for the role itself, and for the person who is hired. Every manager wants a BDR professional that knows everyone and has an easy affability that instantly endears long-term customers and prospects. This person would also be able to write killer proposals that net huge margins, build the company’s market share, bring in lots of leads, command the respect of the in-house team, and put out account fires when and if required. Does this sound like far too much for one person to handle? It can easily be if the wrong person is selected for the job, or if they do not have adequate support.

Intelligence and natural curiosity: They must be smart and passionate about learning. To effectively sell, they need to know the products or services well and be the company’s most vocal cheerleader.

Persistence: Obviously, taking the first ‘no’ for an answer is not the best sign of a closer. Successful BDR’s know that it is a numbers game, and every ‘no’ gets them closer to ‘yes’. For this reason, they won’t get discouraged; they’ll get creative instead.

They understand people: Marketers know that today’s buyers are well into the decision-making process before they contact a business. Lots of information is available online, and buyers are extremely educated. A BDR needs to be one step ahead, and take on the role of advisor that personalizes solutions to their challenges. Consultative selling is key in this environment.

They’re an integral part of the inbound marketing team: Inbound marketing is the way of the business world today, and a business development representative that buys into inbound and seizes the opportunities it offers can multiply successes. Owners and executives who understand how important connecting inbound marketing with their BDR is, will provide added tools to increase the growth of the entire company. A well-known statistic from a CMO study is often quoted by Michael Gass, the founder of Fuel Lines. He says that 80% of CMOs surveyed found their vendors, rather than vendors finding customers.

Good Internet abilities: Savvy sales development representatives know their way around the Internet; they understand Social Media and how it works like word of mouth on steroids. They also know that marketing online gains them a larger audience and a venue to craft a solid brand for the company. Communicating what is different and better about the company is what sets apart the average BDR and the star business representative.

Quick on their feet: Top-tier business development professionals ask the right questions and follow-up consistently. Through natural relationship-building skills, they can ferret out the information needed to provide the right solution for a client’s purposes.

Goal setters: – Although setting goals is often seen as the company’s job, the best BDR sales representatives set goals for themselves, as well as planning how to get there.  

Overall, the new business development representative organization hires can make or break the future success for that company. This is not a position that should be filled by a timid person or one that is not willing to think outside the box. They need to be creative in their work. Times have changed drastically, and the way people go about making purchases today is very different. Having a sales development representative that understands what it takes to get the job done is key. Hiring the person with compatible personality traits and arming them with all the tools they need to overcome any challenges, help clients solve business problems, and meet lofty financial metrics for maximum success, is equally vital. 

This article is originally published at Tenfold.

All businesses share a measure of complexity. The activities of a company can never be said to be a simple and smooth ride from point A to point B; activities should rather be regarded as an intricate web of processes. These processes fall under the collective term ‘business operations, ‘ and as such, these can differ from company to company.

What Exactly is Business Operations?

Operations start as words on a piece of paper. They are—for all intents and purposes—essential to any business endeavor. At first, they are inserted into the business plan to function as a rough roadmap. Both investors and founders can easily access them and gain a better grasp on all the moving parts of a company, such as personnel, equipment and the processes needed to increase the organization’s value.

While the broad definition of the term is set in stone, the operations themselves are not. They are meant to allow an overview and provide oversight in regards to the organization’s activity.  They help with assigning clear-cut roles and responsibilities, with the management of risk, resources, and allocation as well as with revealing the best course of action at all times. They are both a guide and a failsafe, ensuring that a company stays within its budget and that departments cooperate effectively. Here is where theory ends and practice starts; a point where variables must be taken into consideration.

Perhaps the business in question is a product manufacturer. Depending on what it produces, the supply chain can be longer or shorter. Depending on how many processes are automated, the number of employees can differ. If the company sells its products through brick-and-mortar stores, it’ll need the proper location—to maximize sales but also respect regulations—while if involved in eCommerce, the business will require suitable software. These are only a few factors that can influence business operations within a company.

Operations are also subjected to change as the business grows. While it’s common practice in a small company for a single person to have more responsibilities, the same is hardly ideal in a larger one. Business operations should evolve alongside the organization, or glitches in the system will soon make their presence felt. If there’s too much pressure or too many responsibilities resting on the shoulders of one individual, here will be errors and omissions almost inevitably. This, in turn, tends to become cumulative and will lead to more of the same, creating a destructive domino effect.  It’s up to all departments to continually adapt and tweak business operations to keep up with the company’s growth.

What Are Business Operations Within a Company?

While strategies and processes can always change, certain guidelines remain true for almost any business that wishes to grow. Here are some guidelines that all companies should consider adhering to:

• Building the right foundation from the start. A close-knit team that shares the same goals and is dedicated to achieving those goals can make a huge difference down the line;
• Aiming for transparency within and between departments. The more information travels from one team to another, the lower the risk of errors and mishaps;
• Choosing the right person for the job. Different individuals have different qualities. It’s important to delegate with this in mind;
• Making use of data for decision-making. Caution is advised when planning for the future. Data collection and interpreting can eliminate a number of variables and increase the chances of smooth-sailing;
• Receiving team feedback. Founders and stakeholders can easily lose track of core operations, which impedes their decision-making capabilities. Having constant communication with employees can eliminate this;
• Focusing on customer service. Whether a manufacturer or a service provider, a business relies on its customers. They should never be ignored or even underestimated;
• Having a long-term plan. Constant change in external factors can topple companies lacking foresight. Good adaptability and planning can ensure both the survival and growth of an organization.

Business Operations: Meaning and Purpose

A company’s success or failure relies heavily on the efficiency of operations. But what are these processes for? What can stakeholders expect from the right plan and the proper steps? For one, they can expect to increase their company’s value. This is done by making a profit. The value increase is affected by just how well a business performs financially, i.e. through dividends, interest and all income that comes back to it. If this return is larger than the investment, profit is registered. If a company manages to turn its profit into a constant over an extended period, its value increases exponentially.

To register a profit, a company has to assess the market properly. Often, the business with the superior product or service will be the one that outshines its competitors. The company’s investment in its product or service must also be taken into consideration. If the demand is high, if it can afford the investment, if the productivity is on par with the demand, then a business can be truly successful.

Business Operations Functions

Operational functions, much like the operations themselves, are often subjected to change. Company founders and stakeholders have a decisive hand in how these functions will be performed. There are also other factors for change, like human capital inventory, departmental responsibilities, level of streamlining and effectiveness of leaders in charge of overseeing and adapting business operations. Still, some of these functions remain common across the board, such as:

• Maintaining effective communications and striving for consensus;
• Providing senior level management with the right amount of coaching, tutoring and mentoring;
• Auditing and re-engineering business processes;
• Maximising performance by establishing a balance between departments and groups;
• Managing both the budget and planning processes, at a strategic and departmental level;
• Monitoring and guiding third party cooperations with due diligence;
• Performing contract reviews to ensure compliance.

There are many other functions to take into account but these are some of the most common. They are found in all companies that prioritise business operations, proper planning, and execution.

In the final analysis, the human factor is as decisive as the business operations themselves. The proper assessment of personnel, the company’s goals and object of activity, the size and subsequent growth of the business, the external factors—like supply and demand and competitors—all shape the operational functions. Still, the efficiency of processes is brought by the right people for the job. A competent operational team with the right leader can make the difference between what works on paper and what gives great results.

This article is originally published at Tenfold.

Have you ever wondered how Coke became so synonymous with cola, Hoover with vacuuming, or Google with searching the internet?

“Emotional connectivity,” says former Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts. “You want loyalty beyond reason and loyalty beyond recession.”

Emotional connectivity that becomes brand loyalty is what a true customer brand experience is all about. For every business seeking to thrive and create a lasting impact, emotional connectivity needs to be a mission-critical constant in their branding equation. Nowadays, customers no longer spend their money as a result of what they see and hear about brands; rather, they value brand and customer experience. Advertisers and brand managers are shifting their focus from creating simple brand messages towards building a lasting brand-customer relationship. Customers now equate brands with experiences, and they are willing to pay premium prices for excellent customer service and an outstanding retail experience. A single negative experience or unresolved issue is enough to make a client give up on a brand. Worse: a negative experience can easily become a negative review, and this can spread quicker than a wink online, thanks to social media and online review sites.

It’s vital for companies to connect with their customers on a deeper and more satisfying level – through positive customer experience. Here are five ways brands can create worthwhile and memorable customer experiences:

Make the brand stand out – in a good way

To customers, the uniqueness of a brand is what makes it stand out. The easiest way to do this is to create a memorable brand name. For instance, affixing the lowercase ‘i’ to its product offerings – like the iPhone, iMac, and iPad – has made each item a very recognizable Apple product.

Of course, Apple did not stop at brand recollection value; that alone would hardly make a customer use and keep using a new product or service. What makes the brand experience a meaningful one is when people use a product or service – and enjoy every minute of it.

In a fast-changing digital environment where each subsequent product tends to get more and more complicated, Apple went back to basics; the company decided to simplify everything. Apple built its brand by focusing not only on the features of each product but also on sleek and simple aesthetics – attributes that seemed like an afterthought to competitors. The strategy clearly worked; Apple has created a satisfactory customer experience that has morphed into a huge loyal brand following.

Adapt to the changing times

Staying current is a must for every brand that wants to endure over time. In the fast-paced Internet Age, doing so can be challenging, as evidenced by the many brands that have crashed and burned over the last few decades, like social media platform Friendster and mega-bookstore Borders. It seems like any brand that fails to stay relevant is signing its own death warrant.

Many businesses are finding ways to adapt to the changing times through social media, which has become an avenue for consistent, direct, and meaningful customer interaction. It provides tremendous insight into customer needs, wants, behavior, and engagement.

These days, having a website and a mobile app is pretty much non-negotiable, too. They provide information to consumers and help them not only to make informed purchasing decisions but also to resolve issues that could have a significant impact on how they perceive a brand.

Connect with customers on a personal level

A personal touch can go a long way in strengthening a business’s branding. Gone are the days when one size fits all; customers now favor brands that offer and provide them with tailored experiences. ‘Tailoring’ can be as easy as having the customer’s name in an email newsletter. A ‘Dear Joe’, as opposed to a ‘Dear valued customer’, can be interpreted as solid customer engagement. Personalized email messages, in fact, increase their click-through rates by an average of 14%, according to a 2015 report by the Aberdeen Group. Conversion rates also increase by 10%. Furthermore, research by Experian has revealed that personalized emails increase transaction rate by up to six times.

Brands’ efforts to personalize their connection with their customers clear demonstrate gratitude and appreciation for their clients’ continuing patronage – and the gratitude and appreciation are reciprocal.

Be transparent

Brand transparency has become a way of humanizing the business and showcasing a company’s positive corporate values. According to a study by Label Insight, brand transparency is the best way to build consumer trust, with more than half of the respondents saying that they would be loyal to a company if it showed itself to be fully transparent. An excellent example of such a marketing campaign is McDonald’s Canada’s ‘Our Food, Your Questions’ campaign. Trying to dispel misinformation and urban myths surrounding its food and ingredients, the fast food giant saw an opportunity to educate its consumers and still stand behind its products. The campaign has garnered over 42,000 questions since its launch in 2014. Even though it is widely known that McDonald’s is not the best choice when it comes to healthy eating, the campaign has satisfied its customers’ need to know everything about a product – no skeletons in the closet.

Consistency is key

Finally, the key to creating a brand that resonates with customers is consistency. This means keeping the brand in sync with its strategies so that every product and/or service always points back to the brand—distinctly and directly. Coca-Cola is considered to be one of the most widely recognized brands in the world. Although it continues to evolve, its classic script and font can be identified anywhere in the world, even when displayed in different languages. Consistent branding eliminates confusion and shapes how people perceive the business.

Consistency is also important when it comes to messaging; it should always be in keeping with a brand’s mission and values.

For instance, clothing company Patagonia has always been clear about its mission to inspire social change and protect the environment by advocating sustainability. It launched a Fair Trade campaign that led people to be more mindful of how their clothes were being manufactured, thereby leading to a stronger demand for products coming from Fair Trade Certified factories that pay higher wages to workers.

Ultimately, bridging the gap between brand and customers boils down to creating memorable customer experiences. Sure, the brand message is still important, but customers become more invested in a company when it walks its talk and prioritizes customer well-being and satisfaction above all else. An outstanding customer experience is by far the best way to encourage the type of brand loyalty that transcends both reason and recession.

The television series Mad Men portrays the bustling world of advertising in the 1960’s when it first rose to prominence as its own driving force. Over the last ten years, a similar seismic shift in marketing has taken place. For decades, many corporations had their own marketing departments, often relegated to the end of the supply chain and then responsible for moving products designed by engineers and executives who were often out of touch with the market.

Marketing Operations (MO) is a next-level concept engaged in the actual process of creating, manufacturing and promoting products. A marketing operations department is likely to be a wild blend of creative left-brain thinkers and buttoned up right-brain statistic ninjas, all working in harmony towards a common goal.

1.  Various Roles of Marketing Operations

As a department, Marketing Operations is involved with much more than just ‘marketing’. At Estée Lauder, for example, marketing operations start with creative teams conceptualizing new beauty products in anticipation of both demands and trends. From the initial concept, Estée Lauder’s MO team then oversees materials sourcing—such as finding fair trade ingredients or new non-allergenic materials—as well as product testing, brand naming, and design. The team also gauges demand by polling retailers and sets projected inventory and delivery dates. From there, each project is handed off to manufacturing, accounting, and various other departments until it arrives in warehouses for shipping. Meanwhile, the MO plans product launches and brand promotions.

At some companies, MO plays a bigger role at the end of the production process—but nearly every  department is involved at some stage of the company’s brand process. Other roles include strategic planning, lead management, process improvement, budget management, stakeholder analysis, quality testing, and data management. MO thus has a much broader sweep, taking care of the ‘business of marketing’ and not just the creative aspects.

2.  Factors Driving the Creation of Marketing Ops

The term ‘marketing operations’ was originally coined by analyst firm IDC in early 2005 but only entered the mainstream corporate lexicon around 2011. Several factors contributed to the rise of MO as an integrated unit in company culture. Savvy corporations began consulting the marketing department before introducing new ideas to get important insights on demographic trends, competitive pressures, and customer feedback.

What was once considered a revolutionary idea—including the marketing team from the beginning—created a loop that improves and informs company branding from concept to delivery. Now, with ever-increasing pressure on companies to provide transparency and guarantees, MO departments have also moved into designing company workflows, providing training, and establishing company standards.

At Thomson Reuters, the most widely used news distribution network in the world, the Marketing Ops team was intensely involved in crafting the company’s branding mission. The marketing team at Thomson Reuters is responsible for clarifying its values to clients and employees in the realms of journalism and intellectual property rights, as well as the finance and legal industries to which it provides proprietary software.

3.  The Real Purpose of Marketing Operations

The word ‘operations’ in the title is just as important as ‘marketing’. Marketing Operations evolved as a way to help companies be more transparent, efficient, competitive, profitable, and accountable. Early adopters of this over-arching role include Cisco Systems, Symantec, and Adobe. Today, hundreds of companies across multiple industries draw their employees and recruits from backgrounds in branding, finance, technology, accounting, and sales.

The defining purpose of Marketing Ops is to create alignment and order within a company. MO teams are often responsible for creating work systems and workflows through every business unit, as well as overseeing deadlines and cooperation. In essence, although the MO team is often involved in tactical analysis and deployment, its main mission is that of strategy. A strong Marketing Operations department becomes the hub of the company, where people, processes, metrics and goals are brought into alignment.

4.  Oversight of Long-Term Goals

One of the key roles of Marketing Operations is to help define the company’s long-term goals and then provide the oversight necessary to keep a company on course. This involves everything from making sure the company is following through on marketing strategy, to ensuring a strong return on investments. As with traditional marketing teams, this means a continual focus on key performance indicators(KPI’s). MO may also be in charge of those KPI’s related to budgets, distribution, data flow, and procurement. Another key role is ensuring that the company stays ‘on brand’ at all times.

The word ‘branding’ used to mean what colors represent the company’s product, and what values are included in a (frequently vague) mission statement. Today, branding is a complicated and powerful field that affects the very essence of a company’s identity. Some MO departments will review everything from the company’s mission statement to its year-end investor portfolios to ensure that a company’s overall brand remains intact.

5.  Planning for Market Penetration

Of course, despite its many responsibilities, Marketing Operations is still about marketing. While overseeing a multitude of tasks, MO will also have a flourishing creative department working on print collateral, media campaigns and event planning. The integrated nature of Marketing Operations allows it to assimilate information and feedback from multiple company modules that were once in their own silos. MO can see which products sell faster than others or have seasonal fluctuations, enabling the team to anticipate demand for inventory. Coordination with accounting helps MO analyze which products are most profitable, and why. Data from warehousing and distribution can identify bottlenecks. MO can then work backward from an anticipated launch date to include more time for possible delivery glitches.

6.  Responding to Changing Market Trends and Requirements

Marketing Operations is also the catcher for the company’s tech awareness team. MO keeps abreast of improvements and competition in CRM, data analysis, and marketing and then translates that knowledge into actionable improvements.

Agility is key when it comes to staying ahead of the competition in 21st-century marketing. Online commerce means most companies are selling globally 24/7, which requires highly responsive customer service teams, real-time traffic and revenue reporting, an understanding of advertising exchange algorithms, and the ability to spot fresh opportunities.

As an example, Estée Lauder’s trend-setting MO Department gave one of its more mature brands, Bobby Brown, a digital makeover in 2013 by launching a YouTube channel called ‘I Love Makeup’ targeted at millennials. As Forbes reported at the time: “As the first brand to take such a step, it will be watched closely by everyone.”

7.  Identifying New Markets

The marriage of data and strategic planning make it easier for a company to identify and evaluate a variety of new opportunities like exports, franchising, additional product lines, and mobile advertising. However, the growing impact of digital marketing also has complications: every country has different legal and political concerns regarding data privacy, and it’s MO’s job to sort that out.

8.  Optimizing Marketing Channels

MO allows a company to exercise both versatility and specificity in its choice of marketing channels. A department can put different people or teams in charge of direct selling, wholesaling, digital marketing, print media, mobile advertising and so on. This allows each team to drill down into what works (or doesn’t) in each channel, while still functioning as part of a cohesive department that collates and analyzes data from all channels.

9.  A Typical Month in Marketing Operations

While the scope of the department’s role can be quite involved, individual responsibilities are generally clearly defined. The ultimate responsibility is supporting other teams or individuals. A data analyst would likely lend support to the sales team and working the CRM, then move on to A/B testing and analysis of email campaigns and finally, refine data and feed it into current ROI reporting.

At least twice a week, data teams might meet with their creative counterparts to get their input and answer questions. Data teams can share which types of franchise leads respond most favorably, and ask creative teams for tailored messaging to those demographics — or Creative may ask Data to assess various mobile advertising exchanges and pick the best ones for geo-targeting and fill speed.

Twice a month, both teams might meet with a larger strategic planning group that reports directly to decision makers. These meetings may focus on preparing year-end reports, assessing new markets, or creating workflow templates and training materials across the company.

10. The Future of Marketing Operations

According to a 2009 Lenskold Group study, companies with a marketing operations department are twice as likely (11% vs. 5%) to enjoy more “effective and efficient” marketing and are more likely to outgrow their competitors. In a survey conducted by the CMO Council and software company Alterian, 60% of respondents said the transformation of marketing operations is an essential area of focus, regardless of company size. In the Lenskold study, 59% of respondents reported having a dedicated Marketing Operations person or team.

For those seeking a career in marketing, MO may be a very smart choice—new hires are likely to get intensive experience in the discipline of their choice, while still being exposed to, and working with, teammates in other disciplines.

For companies small and large, Marketing Operations provides the integration and insight necessary to compete in a world of rapidly accelerating data and intelligence.