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24-Steps to becoming a Marketing Prodigy

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Content marketing has become a big part of consumer engagement and attracting the attention of the right audience online. That means that a lot more companies are doing it, and it’s getting increasingly challenging to stand out amid the sea of audio, video, images, documents, blogs, and more.

To make matters worse, virtually every marketer and business owner have found themselves in a rut trying to create enough marketing content, get the desired engagement, and find interesting ways to innovate.

Research shows that that 70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they were the year before, and 54% find it difficult to produce engaging content.

There’s a distinct difference between B2B and B2C marketing, and each comes with its own unique challenges. Despite that, you can still benefit from these tips to get out of that rut and start to churn out something new and exciting.

 

Here are 24 content marketing tips you need to know in order to become a ‘Marketing Prodigy’:
  1. Use your content to gently guide your customers through your buying cycle. Don’t treat it like a speedboat, full-throttle through to conversion.
  2. Use social ads as a way to amplify the reach of your content marketing when you push it out through your social channels. A slight budget boost on Facebook can go a long way.
  3. Promote your content through a .com domain as often as possible.84% of top-ranking pages use .com as their top-level domain.
  4. “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing,”says Tom Fishburne of Marketoonist. If you have to force your audience to see the value in the content, or hard sell it, it won’t work. Build content around a takeaway for the audience.
  5. Don’t write short posts just to get the job done and over with. Write long-form content of 1,000+ words to help improve your search rank, traffic, and value to the reader.
  6. Create a buyer persona before you start planning or producing content. That way you have a better understanding of who is reading it and the answers they’re looking for. That leads to much higher conversions.
  7. Guest blog on popular industry sites and put a link back to your site within your byline or bio. This builds traffic as well as personal brand authority.
  8. Avoid verbose headlines and go with short, simple, optimized titles that get the point across. The closer you get to looking like click-bait, the more wary your audience may become.
  9. Never skip an opportunity to leverage email in your content marketing.80% of businesses report that email is directly tied to their primary revenue.
  10. Blog consistently, not sporadically. According to a recent survey, 82% of marketers who blogged daily reported acquiring at least one customer via their blog, compared to 57% who were only blogging monthly.
  11. Share your own content and use the social sharing buttons next to your content. You can use a plugin to make this process even easier.
  12. Re-purpose old content in a new way to bring something fresh to users who may not have seen it. “In the end, the re-purposed content needs to provide some level of unique value to people, or it’s not worth doing,” says Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing.
  13. Syndicate your content to reach a new audience and drive referral traffic back to your site.
  14. Always create a content strategy. The most effective content marketers are more likely to have a documented strategy in place.
  15. Create a strategy for content promotion. Use a checklist for each post that lists all of the social channels and applications you’ll use to promote your content.
  16. Always have a plan for building your audience. Use time-saving content marketing tools that work with you to help organically grow your following.
  17. Make reference to influencers by linking to their content or quoting them within your content marketing. Then reach out and let them know when you’ve mentioned them, either through manual social notifications, via email, or with an online marketing tool.
  18. Don’t generate one-off pieces of content. Create series pieces to drive repeat traffic.
  19. Remember to use the basic principles of conversion optimization so that all of your content, on every channel, has a higher chance of generating leads and sales for your team. Think about headlines, visual engagement, content layout, and call to action, just to name a few.
  20. Pay close attention to your analytics so you can keep track of the most popular topics and content types that are bringing in or driving traffic to your site. Do a lot more of what works, and cut the dead weight from your strategy.
  21. Trending content is important, but remember to include evergreen content that will continue to product traffic month after month, year after year.
  22. Always keep the focus on your audience when you produce content, no matter the type or channel. “Don’t focus on having a great blog,” says Brian Clark, Founder of CopyBlogger. “Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
  23. Talk and write as if you were having a conversation with a friend. Your audience is far more likely to relate to and engage with content that is conversational in nature. Speak on their level. You’re not a textbook.
  24. You can’t force good writing. Try different conditions, influences, and times of day for writing. Find the conditions that are most conducive to your creativity. If you can’t manage, you can always turn to freelancers to help you produce the content that your audience is hungry to find.

 

We hope you have found these 24 tips useful. Explore different ways of utilising them in your marketing strategy to see how they can work for you! The difference in traffic generation could be astounding and prove to be worth every effort. Good luck!

Are you interested in careers in marketing? We may have the perfect opportunity for you! Check out our latest Marketing Manager role by following this link.

 

– Sujan Patel

What is Business Development?

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“Business Development Executive”, “Business Development Manager” are impressive and heavyweight titles often heard of in organisations.

Sales, strategic initiatives, business partnerships, market development, business expansion, and marketing–all of these fields are involved in business development, and are often mixed up and mistakenly taken as the sole function of business development, which leaves the question: “What exactly is business development?”

This article explores the base aspects of business development, what it encompasses, and what, if any, standard practices and principles to follow.

 

What is Business Development (BD)?

In the simplest terms, business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions. But it’s challenging to boil down the definition of BD. First, let’s look at the underlying concept, and how it connects to the overall business objectives.

 

Concept and Scope of Business Development

BD activities extend across different departments, including sales, marketing, project management, product management and vendor management. Networking, negotiations, partnerships, and cost-savings efforts are also involved. All these different departments and activities are driven by and aligned to the BD goals.

For instance, a business has a product/service which is successful in one region (e.g Shropshire). The BD team assesses further expansion potential. After all due diligence, research and studies, it finds that the product/service can be expanded to a new region (e.g Staffordshire). Let’s understand how this BD goal can be tied to the various functions and departments:

  • Sales: Sales personnel focus on a particular market or a particular (set of) client(s), often for a targeted revenue number. Business Development personnel assess the market and establish an achievable sales figure over the course of 2-3 years. With such set goals, the sales department targets the customer base in the new market with their sales strategies.
  • Marketing: Marketing involves promotion and advertising aimed towards the successful sale of products to the end-customers. Marketing plays a complementary role in achieving the sales targets. Business development initiatives may allocate an estimated marketing budget. Higher budgets allow aggressive marketing strategies like cold-calling, personal visits, road shows, and free sample distribution. Lower budgets tend to result in passive marketing strategies, such as limited print and media ads, and billboards.
  • Strategic Initiatives or Partnerships: To enter a new market, will it be worth going solo by clearing all required formalities, or will it be more pragmatic to strategically partner with local firms already operating in the region? Assisted by legal and finance teams, the business development team weighs all the pros and cons of the available options, and selects which one best serves the business.
  • Project Management/Business Planning: Does the business expansion require a new facility in the new market, or will all the products be manufactured in the base country and then imported into the targeted market? Will the latter option require an additional facility in the base country? Such decisions are finalized by the business development team based on their cost-, time- and related assessments. Then project management/implementation team swings into action to work towards the desired goal.
  • Product Management: Regulatory standards and market requirements vary across countries. A medicine of a certain composition may be allowed in India but not in the U.K., for example. Does the new market require any customized (or altogether new) version of the product? These requirements drive the work of product management and manufacturing departments, as decided by the business strategy. Cost consideration, legal approvals and regulatory adherence are all assessed as a part of a business development plan.
  • Vendor Management: Will the new business need external vendors? For example, will shipping of product need a dedicated courier service? Or will the firm partner with any established retail chain for retail sales? What are the costs associated with these engagements? The business development team works through these questions.
  • Negotiations, Networking and Lobbying: A few business initiatives may need expertise in soft skills. For example, lobbying is legal in some locales, and may become necessary for penetrating the market. Other soft-skills like networking and negotiating may be needed with different third-parties such as vendors, agencies, government authorities, and regulators. All such initiatives are part of business development.
  • Cost Savings: Business development is not just about increasing sales, products and market reach. Strategic decisions are also needed to improve the bottom line, which include cost-cutting measures. An internal assessment revealing high spending on travel, for instance, may lead to travel policy changes, such as hosting video conference calls instead of on-site meetings, or opting for less expensive transportation modes. Similar cost-saving initiatives can be implemented by outsourcing non-core work like billing and accounting, financials, IT operations and customer service. Strategic partnerships needed for these initiatives are a part of business development.

The BD scenario discussed above is specific to a business expansion plan, whose impact can be felt by almost every unit of the business. There can be similar business development objectives, such as development of a new business line, new sales channel development, new product development, new partnership in existing/new market, and even merger/acquisition/sell-off decisions.

For example, in the case of a merger, significant cost savings can be accomplished by integrating the common functions of the house-keeping, finance, and legal departments of the two firms. Or, a business operating from five different offices in a city can be moved to a large central facility resulting in significant operating cost savings. But would this lead to employee attrition, if the new location isn’t convenient for everyone? It’s up to the business development team to assess such concerns. In essence, business development involves high level decision-making based on a realistic assessment of all potential changes and their impact. Through new ideas and initiatives, it aims to improve the overall business prospects, which drive the functioning of the different business units. It is not sales, it is not marketing, it is not partnering. Instead, it is the eco-system encompassing the entire business and its various divisions, driving overall growth.

 

The Right Fit for Business Development

A Business Developer can be the business owner(s), or the designated employee(s) working in business development. Anyone who can make or suggest a strategic business change for a value-add to the business can contribute towards business development. Businesses often encourage employees to come up with innovative ideas, which can help in improving the overall business potential.

Businesses also seek help from external incubator firms, business development companies (BDC) and small business development centers (SBDC). However, these entities assist in business establishment and the necessary fine-tuning only during the early stages of business setup. As a business matures, it should aim to build its business development expertise internally.

 

What Should a Business Developer Know?

Since business development involves high-level decision making, the business developer should remain informed about the following:

  • The current state of the business in terms of SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). (For more, see: Executing a SWOT Analysis.)
  • The current state of overall industry sector and growth projections
  • Competitor developments
  • Primary sources of sales/revenues of current business and dependencies
  • The customer profile
  • New and unexplored market opportunities
  • New domains/products/sectors eligible for business expansion, which may complement the existing business
  • The long-term view, especially with regards to the initiatives being proposed
  • The cost areas, and the possible options of cost-savings

What Drives Business Development Activity?

Due to the wide open scope of business development and activities, there are no standard practices and principles. From exploring new opportunities in external markets, to introducing efficiencies in internal business operations, everything can fit under the business development umbrella.

Those involved in business development need to come up with creative ideas, but their proposals may prove to be unfeasible or unrealistic. It’s important to be flexible, to seek out and take constructive criticism, and to remember that it’s a process.

 

The Bottom Line

Business Development may be difficult to define concisely, but it can be easily understood using a working concept. An open mindset, willingness for an honest and realistic self-assessment, and the ability to accept failures, are a few of the skills needed for successful business development. Beyond the ideation, implementation and execution of a business development idea, the end results matter the most. The bright minds in business development should be ready to accommodate change in order to achieve the best results. Every approval or disapproval is learning experience, bettering preparing you for the next challenge.

Are you already familiar with the fundamental principles of Business Development? Our most recent Business Development Executive role may be just right for you. Check it out by clicking here!

– Shobhit Seth

A guide to building a good Marketing Team!

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A Detailed Guide on how to build good Marketing Teams

The right team dynamic can have a huge impact on productivity, business growth and employee retention. Marketers at Notonthehighstreet.com, Aldi, Boden and ClearScore share what it takes to create the perfect team.

There is no set model for building and nurturing an effective marketing team, as all teams and objectives are different. As marketing functions and communication channels become increasingly dispersed, however, businesses are changing how they structure and manage their teams. This is reflected in the emergence of new job titles such as chief digital officer or chief customer officer.

One of the best ways to understand effective team-building is to look at high-performing brands and the team dynamics that drive them.

Supermarket chain Aldi, for example, has enjoyed a long run of success in the UK thanks in large part to the strength and skill of its marketing team. At the Marketing Week Awards last month, Aldi came away with two of the top awards – Team of the Year and Brand of the Year – in recognition of its continuing business growth and recent executions, such as its partnership with the Great Britain Olympic team.

Aldi’s UK marketing director Adam Zavalis, who heads up a team of 19 at the retailer’s headquarters in Atherstone, Warwickshire, believes there are several core attributes needed to build a successful marketing team. “An effective team is made up of complementary skill sets, great people managers and personalities with the right mindset,” he says.

“They should be hungry to keep learning, not afraid to share their knowledge with others and willing to embrace change and be agile.”

Zavalis adds that his marketing team constantly searches for “marginal gains” that will help it improve and maintain its momentum. “Effective teams need to understand the direction of travel that you as a brand and organization are headed in,” he says.

“The individuals within the team need to understand their roles and responsibilities and collaborate across departments so they can make significant contributions towards achieving those goals and know how to take all stakeholders on the same journey.”

Clothing retailer Boden also places great importance on having a clear delineation of roles and duties in its marketing team. Responsibility for leading a team of 70 is split between global brand director Penny Herriman and commercial director Mark Binnington. Herriman explains that she is responsible for “the customer, the brand and communication”, while Binnington looks after performance marketing functions and sales.

“There’s an inherent tension that is a good thing to have in a business,” she says. “It’s the right brain and the left brain – the creative brain and the rational brain, the instinct and the data. Ultimately, as a senior marketer you have got to be able to wrap all those things up together.”

The Boden business has undergone considerable restructuring in recent years and in 2015 launched a new “more contemporary” brand positioning using the slogan ‘New British’. The change reflects the ongoing evolution of Boden as a digital company geared around ecommerce, having started life as a direct mail catalogue business in 1991.

“It starts with changes in customer behavior and making sure that we change our business to reflect that,” says Herriman. “As always in business, there are people under 30 years old who understand this because they are the digital natives, but then you also have to skill up.

“We have had a big digital development programme for the people who need to learn that stuff. It’s also about bringing agility into the business – digital has enabled us to speed up, whereas a catalogue business is generally very fixed and slower.”

Accommodating different skill sets is also important to online retailer Notonthehighstreet.com. Earlier this month, the company hired customer director Hannah Webley-Smith from Benefit Cosmetics, where she was marketing director for UK and Ireland. Her appointment is the latest in a string of new hires for the retailer, which includes Sarah Atkins joining as head of brand marketing from John Lewis and Louise Winmill as head of corporate communications and CSR, from PR agency Freuds.

The team comprises “a good mix” of people who have worked within the business from the early years and those who have recently been hired as specialists.

“I know that all of them are hungry to learn from one another. This means we can work together to ensure the mission and ethos of the business remains at the heart of all we do, while also bringing in fresh thinking and ideas across the functions,” says Webley-Smith.

She sees the injection of new talent as “a brilliant opportunity” to develop her team, which numbers around 40 people. She adds that her title of customer director is an important statement about the direction and focus of her marketing team. “It’s because my job is about every touch point with our customers,” she explains.

“We have to deliver consistently, whether that is online, through an app, or the various offline channels and partnerships. Recent ‘Open Door’ experience showed how important the physical experience is for any business, including those that are online, and I am excited to have joined a business that is so inventive in that way.”

Productive meetings

Day-to-day interactions within a marketing team are just as important as its overall structure. According to new research by Wisembly, a collaborative working platform, marketing departments have the longest meetings of any other business department – an average 1 hour 42 minutes – and an average of seven meetings per week.

The survey of UK employees also finds that 37% of marketers feel their meetings could be more productive, while 22% believe they do not get the opportunity to voice their opinion in meetings – more than in any other department. Meanwhile, 100% of the marketers surveyed admit to multi-tasking on non-related tasks such as checking emails during meetings.

“Too many meetings can begin without a clear objective for the outcome,” says Webley-Smith. “Every participant should be clear as to why they are there and what they should be gaining from that meeting.”

However, that is not to say that all meetings should be about receiving direct action for your particular marketing or creative function, she adds. “It could be about gaining wider exposure to core business challenges that leads to a flash of inspiration that you didn’t expect.”

Anna Kilmurray, head of marketing at online credit check business ClearScore, says working in smaller groups and using collaborative tools have helped her to oversee more productive meetings. ClearScore features in Marketing Week’s list of 100 Disruptive Brands, published last month, and has grown from eight to 36 employees over the past year.

The company is seeking to maintain the fast pace of its early growth by fostering a competitive spirit, she says. This includes organizing projects into three-month long ‘races’, which are each divided further into ‘sprints’. “We even do our own mini awards to recognize those who have contributed over and above expectations,” she explains.

“We are not afraid to tear up the playbook and try different ways of working – we’re about to break the company into multi-disciplined factions to empower teams to deliver projects more autonomously.”

Q&A: Adam Zavalis, UK marketing director, Aldi

What is special or unique about the way the Aldi team works that makes it so effective?

“At Aldi, we never rest on our laurels or take anything for granted. If we are fortunate enough to gain a degree of success, we may pause for a short while and celebrate but most importantly we learn from what went well and also what didn’t quite work, so we can build on it.”

“Like the great Team GB athletes, we are supporting on the road to Rio, we keep searching for the marginal gains that will keep the momentum going and keep us moving forwards. It never stops and we know we’re simply the current custodians of this great brand with a duty to keep driving us towards greater growth.”

Are there any areas for improvement that you are looking to address in terms of the way your team works?

“We are always looking for improvements: new ideas, better ways of collaborating, greater efficiency so we can achieve more, and more killer consumer insights that keep the progression and growth moving. There are no secrets, it’s about constant progression.”

More than a third of marketers feel their meetings could be more productive. What can marketing leaders do to improve the quality of their meetings?

“Every meeting, marketing or otherwise, should have a purpose, a goal and everyone should go  into the meeting knowing what they expect to get out of it, what is expected of them and what they need to do as a result of the meeting.”

“However, as marketers we sometimes need longer meetings for ideas to flow and that can take time. Sometimes this can make people feel uncomfortable when they are under pressure and have a thousand other things to get done but if it’s managed within a framework, then it’s those moments that can lead you to something unique, compelling and sometimes something very special.”

“To build an effective team from the start you need to set out your vision for the culture, creativity and working environment you wish to create.”

“At its heart, the vision needs to reflect the importance of building connections between the multiple marketing functions. For a customer base to understand the brand, all channels and functions need to be aligned and conveying the same message. As the leader of that team, it is essential that this is a focus from the start.”

“Another key element is ensuring that all functions have built and bought into the plan – ensuring they are working towards a shared vision and goals. Building a culture that is both supportive and invests in team members is essential in gaining a team’s trust and bringing them with you in the direction required for the business.”

“Ensuring that every team member understands their part in the bigger picture, and can see progression and development for themselves that is intrinsically linked to the development of the business, is also important in building loyalty to the department and the brand.”

– Jonathan Bacon

If you have an interest in marketing then be sure to check out our latest marketing role here!

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