6 Things Every Marketer Should Have in Their Tool Kit

Marketing is hard. But the problem is that too many people think it isn’t. As modern day marketers, we’re expected to be a creative agency and a data scientist all at the same time. Now, I don't know how to convince the rest of our colleagues that we are indispensable. However, I wanted to share some important building blocks I have identified as important to creating a solid marketing foundation and the partners that are a pleasure to work with. At the end of the day most SaaS and SaaP do the same thing, what makes the real difference is the customer service you receive. And if you are strapped for resources, partners that function as an extension of your marketing department are crucial.

1.    Performance Marketing Partner

It's a fact, everything you do manually takes more time. Yet many of us still relay on tedious methods to communicate leads to sales reps via e-mail, chat or phone, which slowdown operations, this is the last thing you want if you are looking to scale.

But I get it, there are prevalent issues surrounding martech and lead generation. Including a lack of transparency, low quality leads, and increasing operational costs-- the struggles are real-- 68% of companies struggle to generate quality leads! PX was created by lead gen specialists when they couldn't find a suitable platform for their business on the market. A differentiator is the lead scoring algorithms which validate, verify and score each lead in real-time. Resulting in much greater transparency and insight into leads. And as I mentioned before, I am big on customer service, and these guys go above and beyond!

 2.    Content Plan

Content is still king, for several reasons. Such as SEO, lead generation, educating potential customers, creating brand affinity and increasing brand credibility. You're creating stories, a communications strategy for your brand. And if that doesn't convince you, 68% of people spend time reading about brands that interest them; 70% of customers feel closer to a company because of content marketing.

All awesome, but what is a marketer to do with limited resources? And the most important one being time. Writing good copy is understandably time consuming. My saving grace is Contentoo, a freelance centre for top-notch journalists and copywriters. I have worked with a few similar service providers, but I like how they do business. Often, they facilitate interviews between freelancers and my industry experts. This way we can convey in-depth knowledge that might not come across in a content brief. 

3.    Engagement Strategy

From a professional standpoint, I LOVE our socially driven digital world. We have more outlets than ever to engage with customers. And in a perfect world they would be just as eager to engage with us. But we know this isn't the case. We must compete more intensely then ever for attention. In a world with so many options how do I set myself apart from the pack? How do I stand out? How do I make them want ME. I imagine this is what it must feel like to be a teenage boy trying to get the prom queens attention...

A solid engagement strategy is critical. And the right channels will be different for every company. Defining yours early on will save your time and resources down the line. Professionally, I don't really think of our ESP as just the tool to send emails, I see it as an engagement platform and the core of a successful engagement strategy. Your partner will of course depend on budget, needs, and current tech deck. The best bang for the buck in my book is Infusionsoft.

4.    Thick Skin

I was talking with a marketer friend the other day and he brought up a good point, no one is ever happy with marketing. It could be packaging, pricing or even the product, itself. And we will always get blamed. Open communication is so necessary. Be open to constructive feedback and don’t get defensive (much easier said than done.) And making sure everyone is on the same page, expectation management.

5.    Metrics to Measure Marketing Effectiveness

A number of CMOs have trouble proving ROI of their marketing efforts - 67% of them to be specific. All initiatives need to be measured, and measured properly. Obviously, ultimately you need to measure success within the context of your particular event or campaign. 

For example: Content Piece Goal: Grow brand awareness Metrics: blog traffic, social followers, social media mentions, social shares, and third-party articles How we’ll measure them: Google Analytics for blog traffic, social channels for follower numbers, mention for social media mentions, Google Alerts for third-party articles

6.    Sales Friends

If you are a B2B marketer today you are in a tough spot. As a marketer, your job is to drive revenue and grow the business. Unfortunately as the B2B buying cycle becomes more complex, the number of challenges you face has grown. But you aren’t in it alone! Your sales team is struggling with the same challenges and they also have the same end goal. Unlike B2C marketing, where potentially everyone and anyone could be a consumer, B2B only have so many clients that are a fit for the product or service.

As far as friends go, sales are the most important kind in the work world. Working in silos isn't efficient. I would suggest taking a step back and connect with your sales team.

A coordinated, integrated go-to-market effort between marketing & sales is a recipe for a formidable strategy. This will increase marketing contribution to pipeline and focus marketing on more profitable strategies and tactics. Solving the issues we face in proving ROI.

I Hope this listicle helps arm you and your team for the upcoming year with the right tech and the right mindset! We are at the cusp of so much innovation and cutting edge technology, it truly is an awesome time to be in the field of marketing. If you have any must haves in your marketing tool kit I would love to hear about them, please leave a comment below!