Do you actually need a marketing plan?

Perhaps we could look at this question from a different angle, would you start a business without a business marketing plan?

The answer is of course, no! But why should the approach to marketing be any different? You are going to be investing in marketing and if done correctly, marketing will deliver ROI to grow your client base, revenue and ultimately business. It is therefore a critical aspect of your go to market strategy and should be thought through and planned.

Do you appreciate the importance of marketing?

You would expect us to ask this question, we are a marketing agency, we feel that marketing is vital to business success. But let’s explore this question.

For your business to survive, and of course thrive in a market place you have to attract and retain your customers. But if your business never told the market what you offer, why you are better than your competitors, your ethics, why you exist etc, then would customers simply come to you? No doubt a small number may stumble across you, but it’s unlikely that you will attract the number of customers needed for your business to survive.

Marketing is not simply the expensive advertising campaign you see on TV or the brochure that will cost a lot to produce and may quickly become outdated. It’s likely that marketing will have an influence over every touchpoint that your customers experience; from your telephone message, your welcome email, that customer service call or a client portal login. The messaging, branding, look and feel are all influenced by marketing.

Why create a marketing plan?

A plan gives you the opportunity to really understand:

* Who you want to target, why and how you will reach them?

* It prompts you to assess your competitors, what activity are they doing, could you be doing something similar?

* And to dive into your product or service – put your customer hat on, why would you purchase your product or use your service, are the benefits clear?

All of these questions need to be thoroughly thought through to carry out effective business marketing.

Putting this into a plan, allows you to focus your resource (time as well as capital) alongside specific, measurable timeframes and goals. This plan will help you with the day to day running of your business; sensible and realistic resources allocated ahead of time, will help you manage performance of your marketing efforts. This will keep your team motivated and allow you to test, refine and edit activity to produce the best results.

The marketing plan is your roadmap, it provides you with clear direction making it straight forward to align execution and reporting to your objectives.

You don’t have to do it alone…

Planning your marketing for 6 months, 1 year or even 2 years in advance can seem daunting but you don’t have to undertake this task alone. In fact, having an outside perspective involved with your planning, asking different questions, challenging your thinking – can produce even better results.

And don’t forget this is not a one-off exercise that is completed and stored to never be looked at again. This is a living plan, to be referred to, updated and amended regularly – make it your friend not your foe. Find out more about marketing planning with Roots to Market here.

GDPR – opportunity for telemarketing

This May the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect across the European Union. The new legal requirements have been designed to improve transparency between businesses and their clients, strengthening the control individuals have over their personal data.

It’s safe to say that the new regulations have implemented a major change in the way marketers and sales teams approach their work and how organisations obtain, store, manage and process the personal data of their EU clients.

A couple of decades ago, data in digital marketing referred to simple things like demographics and response rates.

Today, living in an interconnected world, data enables marketers to predict customer behaviour, create targeted campaigns, build brands, and drive development and sales.

However, as GDPR came into place marketers immediately became concerned that they were going to become restricted in their ability to target individual customers based on personal data collection, slowing database growth therefore shaking up the digital landscape.

At Air we see GDPR differently

From our experience here at Air we are looking at GDPR differently, not as an issue but as an opportunity.  Instead asking the question, how can we better engage with those who share a legitimate business interest and make more of those who are looking for our services?

GDPR is pushing us to reassess how we perform market research and understand how we can help those who need our products and services.

As telemarketers we know person to person communication is the most effective method when understanding prospect needs, situation and pain points.

How Air telemarketing and GDPR can help build your database:

  • Building your pipeline by creating bespoke campaigns that really talk to your prospects.
  • Generating sales by using a tailored approach.
  • Increasing revenue by engaging the decision makers.

There are no restrictions in place that limit us contacting prospects who you share a legitimate business interest with. In fact, by avoiding contacting huge irrelevant mailing lists and focusing solely on contacting prospects that have a shared interest means we will be having more conversations of worth on your behalf and you will see better results from your telemarketing because of this.

GDPR is pushing all of us to be more transparent and personable, this can only build stronger relationships that grow your database and increase your revenue.

Apprehensive about telemarketing? It’s ok you’re not the only one

At Air we understand that you may feel apprehensive when investing in a telemarketing strategy, however with the new regulations in place we believe it’s one of the best ways to make the most of your relevant data and really engage with your prospects. As a company that already prides itself on transparency, we provide the following to keep you in the loop:

  • Live time reporting accessible at any time by clients
  • Involvement in strategy building and training by the clients directly
  • Regular feedback from your campaign manager
  • Direct contact with the team making calls
  • Digital call recordings requested as often and many as you would like

If you’d like to find out more information on how Air Marketing Group can help you post GDPR get in touch. GDPR isn’t an issue, it’s an opportunity!