How about increasing sales by 200% to 300%? Have I got your attention? Good. Let’s talk about Integrated Marketing benefits.
- As stated, Integrated Marketing can increase sales between 200% and 300% (DemandCon 2012)
- The latest CRM and Marketing Automation technologies generate 75% more sales leads (Marketing Sherpa)
- Companies in which Sales and Marketing activities are aligned attain a revenue growth rate of 32%, while companies that don’t have such an alignment will suffer a 7% negative growth. (Aberdeen Act On)
Of course, this kind of growth can’t just be ‘’installed’’ into a company. Rather, it is the result of continuous, beneficial processes (technological or organizational), that define Integrated Marketing.
Sales and Marketing must share company objectives. They both must be operationally and strategically aligned on the same corporate goals, whether these goals are sales or profitability targets, or whether they focus on new territory development or increasing market share, the key is to constantly realign with each other in service of the goal.
When it comes to the ‘fusion area’ between sales and marketing, the point when the customer is considering and comparing your solution with that of your competitors, both Sales and Marketing must have commonly defined processes to lead the prospect to conversion.
If sales and marketing are not aligned and have conflicting actions or messaging, other company activities such as public relations, communications or customer service cannot be expected to operate in an optimal way either.
Measurement
Analytical tools available today can measure, segment and compare data, whether online, offline or combinations of both, and enable companies to be responsive to customer segments and sub segments like never before and thus increase their chances of success. Fed by this precision, each channel can then realize its full qualitative and quantitative potential. Then, the more precisely activities have been measured, the better-optimized budgets can become, reducing waste. Best of all, continual measurement can lead to continual improvement.
Improvement
Using CRM and Marketing Automation tools, future customer behaviours and needs can be anticipated. As customers become more and more finely targeted, they will feel more listened to. Companies then wielding this incoming customer feedback as an improvement tool can increase their ability to adjust to rapidly changing demands.
The end result is creating a customer base with a stronger lifetime value. Finally, encouraging results can lead to continuous improvement becoming ingrained in the company’s culture.
Summary of the benefits of Integrated Marketing
Companies acquire the ability to become nimble in the face of dynamic, rapidly changing segments
- Budgets become optimized
- Sales channels become optimized
- Companies can develop the ability to anticipate customer behaviours
- Customers feel more listened to and can even contribute to the improvement of the company
In next week’s blog post, we’ll talk about the kind of paradigm changes needed to successfully implement Integrated Marketing. Stay tuned.
