Welcome to the second edition of the Marketing with Intent newsletter, by Resultful.
In this edition, we’re going to be deep diving into the importance of having an effective marketing strategy in place and how marketing can (and should) support overarching business objectives.
Let me know what you think – and, as always, if you need any help, or just want to chew through some ideas over a 15-minute chat (with no obligation), don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Director & Founder, Resultful
Marketing strategies: so, what?
I’ve had the privilege to work with somewhere close to 200 channel partners over the past couple of years. It gives you a very unique perspective on where challenges and opportunities lie.
If this experience and exposure has taught me one thing, it’s that the partners investing in marketing are the ones growing quickest. And by investment, that covers off both in resource as well as strategy.
Having an effective (effective being the key word here) marketing strategy in place gives you a clear route to success. When you connect business goals, resource and budget availability and target audiences in a strategic way, you can create a clear roadmap on how you get from A to B. Which, for me, is exactly what a strategy serves to do.
Let’s not confuse strategy and planning – they’re different things
A strategy acts as a top-level blueprint. It should – at a strategic level – explain what you’re trying to do and how you get there. Think about it as a 12-month roadmap: how do we get from where we are today to where we want to be in a years time?
A plan, on the other hand, is much more tactical, detailing what you’re going to do and when.
It’s important that you have both because without the other, they’re less effective. Naturally, you should start with the strategic piece – linking back to business objectives (we’ve hammered this point hard by now), with the plan linking back to the strategy. How do we use the next 4/8/12 weeks to chip away at our overarching goals? And how do we ensure that, by the end of it, we’ve made good progress?
What makes an effective marketing strategy?
This is by no means a detailed overview of what you need to be thinking about, but this structure will keep you on the right lines:
- Objectives – what are we trying to achieve? (These should link to business objectives to ensure alignment).
- Target audience – what does a good prospect or opportunity look like? (Break this down into granular detail such as industries, job titles and company size, where possible).
- Key messaging – what do we want to say? (Don’t worry about having campaign messaging – this is more about overarching points to land. You can finesse when you get into the nitty gritty of planning).
- Marketing tactics – what are we going to do? (Split this into primary and secondary tactics. For example, we might use PPC ads as a primary channel, with LinkedIn Ads as a secondary method of retargeting).
- Reporting – how will we measure success? What does good look like?
Remember: a strategy should last 12+ months (unless something drastic changes within your business and your strategy needs to adopt and evolve). A plan, on the other hand, can cover a period of anywhere from as short as a week or a month (Technically, a content calendar would be a form of plan, linked to a specific tactic).
Key mistakes partners make when building a strategy
- Adopting too many channels – they try and do everything from day one, without appreciation for the time and effort it takes to do things right.
- Thinking organic social holds all the answers – it doesn’t. Not unless you’re Burger King, Pepsi or another B2C brand that can be fun, engaging and has a strong brand presence. Remember, with organic company pages, you’re talking to the same audiences – usually customers and colleagues, not a net new audience. Is it worth the time you’re investing?
- Not utilising thought leaders – whenever I speak to a partner, one of the USPs they beam about is their expertise and how long they’ve been in the game. But nobody uses that to their advantage. A missed opportunity. The quickest way to drive brand awareness and build credibility? Utilising your senior leaders. Build their audiences across core social channels and begin posting. Within a matter of months, you’re almost guaranteed to start seeing a return. Consistency, however, is key.
- Refusing to find a niche – the partners who niche down are the ones who grow quickest and easiest. You don’t have to nail your flag to one fence only, but my ask is this: commit to a sector focus for 6 months and see how you get on. Tailor content, messaging and activities to that audience type. If you approach it properly (and your strategy is fit for purpose), you’ll see a return.
Making marketing jargon make sense
CPA? CPL? What are you on about?
"CPA" is short for "Cost per acquisition" - the total cost to your business to acquire a new customer. Typically, this covers off paid ad costs (and is a term often used in this space), but if you wanted to drill down deeper, you could factor in the cost of email platforms, and so on. It's common to have a CPA per channel. By approaching it this way, you actually find out which channels are more cost-effective.
"CPL" stands for "Cost per lead", a level above CPA. Remember, you might need 4 or more leads.to acquire a customer (assuming your customer conversion rate is 1 in 4, for example).
Your CPL would typically be lower than your CPA.
Spotlight: Illuminate Learning
Partners are almost always technically excellent, but lack the time, effort, desire or experience to support their customers with training and adoption, which are arguably as (if not more) important than the implementation itself.
That’s where Illuminate Learning come in. Experts in training and adoption – from supporting teams to sell Microsoft solutions via training and sales enablement, to helping you ensure your customers drive value out of their investments early on. A prime example? Copilot. The Illuminate Learning team are at the top of their game when it comes to understanding, selling and adopting Copilot. So, if you’re looking for a partner to help you level up what you’re doing in that space, check them out.
Follow them on LinkedIn here.
About us
We’re Resultful, a Microsoft-focused marketing agency. We’re passionate about three core areas
- Supporting partner growth
- Increasing partner marketing capability
- Making marketing accessible
