“What is the role of a marketing manager?”
This question came up at a recent training event for 20 newer marketing managers. Their experience ranged from just being hired to being in the position for multiple years. Even the veterans seemed to need clarification as to what should be the main focus of a marketing manager. My answer was very simple.
Generate Sales Opportunities.
We can debate the multitude of responsibilities a marketing manager may have but in the end, the business you are marketing for needs opportunities to sell their products and services. Period.
While the main goal of a marketing manager is simple, it is far from simple to draw a road map to more sales opportunities. Everyone has their own methodology, but there are five things I believe marketers need to focus on to excel in their position. Here is what I shared with the group.
Brand Message
Everything you do has to be guided by the brand message of the company. What does the company stand for? How does it differentiate itself in the market and what experience does the company want for its customers? Being clear on this messaging will inform how you create the messaging for individual campaigns or products.
A good first step to creating a solid brand message would be to read your reviews. What do your customers mention as the reason they do business with your company? Another source of reliable information lies internally. Ask those who have worked in the company over 5 years. Why do they stay? What do they see as the differentiators for customer experience? Put all of these words on a white board and begin to see what stands out.
Campaign Creation
Don’t get too ahead of yourself– the first decision for any content creation is discerning who the audience is for the campaign. The more specific you can envision the audience, the easier it will be to create a message which connects. Is the campaign designed for a high school senior, or for a 45 year old male? Is it designed for parents of children or business owner? All of these individuals will impact how you frame your creative and visuals of your product to connect with the audience.
The key will be finding the right wording and visuals to grab their attention.
Distribution
The next logical step after deciding who your audience is is determining where they consume the most information. If you are targeting younger generations you would not be running ads on Facebook, and instead should opt for Youtube pre-roll or Instagram ads. If it is targeting older demographics, then cable TV or Facebook may be the main distribution channel. Understanding where the audience consumes content will guide your distribution channel and budget for advertising.
Reporting Metrics
Making sure you are looking at the right metrics for each campaign to guide your marketing strategy is essential. Each campaign should have a specific goal. A video campaign, views might be the metric but for another ad, it could be the number of phone calls or clicks to the website. If you are partnering with a vendor who is doing some of the work, then you need to make sure the vendor is explaining their metrics in a language you understand.
My recommendation would be to focus on the 4 hard conversions: Calls, Lead Forms, Chats and Texts. These are tied to sales opportunities which goes back to the first responsibility of a marketing manager.
Bonus Tip: Testimonials
One of the most overlooked responsibilities of a marketing manager is getting feedback and testimonials from customers in order to validate your marketing efforts. Once you have these testimonials, I would find ways to leverage these in your marketing as well. Add a page on your website highlighting these testimonials. If you have video testimonials, leverage them on Facebook or YouTube.
As you can see, marketing managers have a lot of ways they can create sales opportunities. Following these steps and focusing on these 5 topics will help keep your marketing efforts on track, targeted and increasing sales.
