If you’re looking for PR firms to aid your marketing strategy, you’re in luck; there is an abundance of PR firms to choose from. If you want to get the most for your money, and support your marketing department in the process, you need to find the right fit.

So how do you choose the perfect PR firm for your needs? And how can you make sure your relationship is set up for success?

Marketing Due Diligence for Hiring PR Firms

PR firms come in many shapes and sizes. Some are designed to serve a wide, general audience, while others specifically serve businesses within a certain industry. Some have a formulaic, objective approach, while others are more flexible and dynamic. Some take pride in collaborating with the brands they partner with, while others adopt a more authoritative approach.

Choosing the right PR firm is important not only for your bottom-line results, but also for the experiences you have along the way. As an entrepreneur or a marketing leader, you owe it to your business – and yourself – to invest in the selection process.

So how do you choose between PR firms?

When reviewing various PR firms as potential candidates, here are some key elements to look for.

Experience

More experience is generally a good thing when it comes to reviewing PR firms from an entrepreneurial or marketing perspective. That’s not to say that a new PR firm can’t do good work, but it does mean that a more experienced PR firm is statistically more likely to elevate your strategy and serve you better. How long has this PR firm been in operation? And how much PR experience do its leaders have?

Industry Focus

Does this PR firm focus on a particular industry or type of business, or do they serve a broader audience? Generalists can be valuable and effective, but it’s sometimes better to work with a specialist. Specialists have richer and deeper experiences with your particular situation, so they can often deliver better results.

Strategic Philosophy

Look at each PR firm’s strategic philosophy. What exactly do they try to accomplish for their clients? How do they define success? And how closely does this align with your own strategic values and goals? Although you can usually compromise and navigate differences in strategic philosophy together, it’s often more efficient to simply choose a PR firm partner who already aligns with your vision.

Services and Communication Skills

What types of PR and marketing services does this firm offer? Do they try to be a comprehensive, one-stop shop, or do they specialize in a very narrow range of services? Further, do they bundle all their services together, or can you pick and choose which services you want a la carte?

In addition to knowing the services they offer, it’s also important to know that they have good communication skills. Communication is vital if you want your relationship with a PR firm to succeed. It’s going to set the tone for all your interactions, and it’s going to be instrumental in your collaborative output. Make sure you only consider PR firms with whom you can communicate effectively.

Flexibility and Willingness to Adapt

In a similar vein, how flexible is this PR firm? Do they have a focused, prescriptive approach, or are they willing to work with you to come up with a service package that works particularly for your needs?

Other types of questions to consider would be asking whether they offer long-term contracts or are willing to go month to month. If you plan this to be a lasting business relationship, it’s important to look for PR firms with an adaptable approach to your specific strategy.

Availability, Team, and Resources

Many PR firms are so popular that they don’t have the resources or capacity to take on new clients. Make sure you investigate availability before making any final calls.

It’s also a good idea to look at the team leading and doing the work behind the scenes at this PR firm. What types of individuals are responsible for executing the core work, and what types of backgrounds do they have?

Some entrepreneurs and marketing leaders look for PR firms so they can expand their capabilities and tap into new resources. Accordingly, it’s important to determine what types of resources each PR firm has access to. What tools and technologies do they use? How might this change in the future?

Past Results, Reviews, and Testimonials

Naturally, you should also see examples of past campaigns and past results. You should prefer to work with PR firms that have a proven history of success.

In the same vein, it’s valuable to investigate previous reviews and testimonials. What do former clients have to say about this PR firm? Are there any commonalities in what they have to say?

Pricing

It’s important to understand what you and your business are paying for, and to make sure you get sufficient value for your money, all within the scope of your budget. You need to be willing to pay enough money to get access to quality services, but you also don’t want to overpay. This is especially important if your spending is going to be under close scrutiny or if you’re on a tight startup budget.

Launching the Relationship

As an entrepreneur or marketing leader, you’ll likely be the point person in charge of communications and coordination between your business and the PR firm you choose to hire. Accordingly, choosing the right PR firm is only half of the battle strategy. It’s also important to invest in your PR firm relationship early so you can start building the momentum you need to achieve your business goals.

Kick things off with an onboarding process, including an opening discussion in which you lay out responsibilities, obligations, and expectations moving forward. If there are any important restrictions or caveats you want to add to this relationship, now is the time to address them. Make sure you also include a discussion about how communication should unfold in the coming months; this should be one of your highest priorities, as good communication can prevent or resolve most conceivable conflicts.

Making the Final Call

Eventually, after reviewing a suitable number of PR firm candidates, you’ll be ready to make the final call on who you want to be your partner moving forward. Review your contract carefully, consider alternative and contingency plans, and otherwise, get ready for a collaborative relationship that can take your brand, your marketing department, and your business to new heights.

While it’s said that people will come if you build something, that’s never really been the case.

That’s all the more true in the internet age, where more than 1.1 billion websites are online — although fewer than 194 million are active. With so many websites available, it’s unrealistic to assume that your target customer will find and patronize you.

After building “it” — whatever “it” is — you need to reach out to your demographic, sell them on your unique value proposition, and then convince them to buy from you rather than someone else. That takes a lot of work, and not all businesses are up to the challenge.

Whether because there are already too few hands on deck or the marketing skill set is lacking in-house, you might want to hire a third party specializing in helping businesses with marketing.

Reasons You Should Outsource Your Marketing Needs

Here are 10 signs that you should consider outsourcing your company’s marketing needs.

1. Limited In-House Expertise

One telltale sign you should outsource your marketing needs is that you lack in-house marketing expertise and experience. Marketing takes a specialized skill set. If you want to reach prospective customers online, your digital marketing strategy should be on point.

An agency offering marketing services will understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization and ensure your marketing strategy nets the desired results. You’ll have access to experts who know the marketing process inside and out and have experience working with businesses like yours. It can be a cost-effective way to pick the brains of marketing savants.

2. Inconsistent Marketing Results

How much should your company spend on marketing? One source says B2C companies should earmark between 5% and 10% of revenue on marketing, while B2B companies should earmark between 2% and 5%.

However much your business spends on marketing, the goal should be to get the most out of your investment, so that you achieve the right results. It will be hard to do that if you are not dedicating enough to marketing or are using your budget inefficiently.

But you don’t just want to get the right results once in a while. You need consistency. So, if your business’ marketing performance is more of the hit-and-miss variety, outsourcing your marketing needs can make sense. A professional marketing services provider will spearhead digital marketing campaigns, monitor analytics, and make changes as necessary.

3. Overwhelmed Team

If your company is already short-staffed, it might be asking too much to ask employees to take on marketing responsibilities. That’s especially true if you don’t have a dedicated marketing department. It’s never a good idea to stretch your staff members too thin — particularly if you’re burdening them with responsibilities they’re ill-equipped to take on.

In such a scenario, you should consider the benefits of retaining the services of a marketing company. Outsourcing doesn’t have to mean being completely hands-off. It’s about getting the help you need.

4. Budget Constraints

The average marketing salary in the U.S. works out to $67,677 annually. But what should a company do if it has a shoestring budget and can’t afford to staff a marketing department? The option of foregoing a marketing team is a no-go since every company needs marketing.

If you lack the funds to build a marketing team from the ground up, you might outsource your marketing needs to a qualified third party that can handle that responsibility for you.

5. No Clear Marketing Strategy

Marketing won’t work if there’s no clear direction. It’s a good idea to consider outsourcing your marketing if your efforts have fallen flat. A third party can help devise a strategy and execute that plan. The right marketing strategy will be a game-changer for your business.

6. Fresh Perspective

It’s been said that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. If what you’ve been doing on the marketing front hasn’t worked, isn’t working, and probably won’t work going forward, outsourcing your company’s marketing strategy makes sense. A different approach might turn things around.

Hiring an experienced, results-driven, and focused third-party service provider can offer fresh and unbiased insights.

7. Faster Results

Yet another reason to outsource marketing to a third party is that you’ll get faster results than if you do it yourself.

There’s no guarantee you’ll get good results if you do marketing in-house. It’s hard to guarantee results if your company lacks in-house marketing experience and expertise. You might feel like a hamster on a wheel — running furiously but getting nowhere.

But a dependable third party with a verifiable track record of success will get you results sooner rather than later. They’ll develop, execute, and fine-tune marketing campaigns that get relatively fast results.

8. Reduced Risk

If you do marketing in-house but make mistakes during the planning and execution stages, you’ll waste time and money. However, such errors are common in businesses lacking in-house marketing savvy and expertise.

You can greatly reduce risks by hiring a reliable third party to spearhead the marketing campaigns. The third party will leverage its marketing expertise to reach your target demographic and maximize results.

The last thing you want is to waste your marketing budget. You want to make the most of it, and a marketing services provider can help.

9. Better ROI

Another reason to consider outsourcing your business’ marketing needs is to achieve a better return on your investment. You don’t want to merely throw money at marketing campaigns. You need to get your money’s worth.

An experienced third party will employ the right strategies to maximize your ROI. It won’t just plan and launch marketing campaigns. You can count on the third party to assess performance and make changes as needed.

10. Global Reach

Yet another benefit of working with a company offering marketing services is the global reach. The service provider can launch campaigns that help your business expand into new markets at home and abroad.

You can’t treat marketing like an afterthought. That said, you don’t have to do it in-house if it makes more sense to outsource your marketing needs to a third party. It’s about doing what’s best for your business.

Growing environmental concerns are driving eco-conscious consumers to make choices based on what is best for planet Earth. They’re not only seeking brands prioritizing eco-friendly business practices but also going out of their way to support these companies. Moreover, some consumers are willing to pay more to ensure that their dollars go to support greener practices.

The rise in eco-conscious consumers means companies must think twice about their current practices. Buyers are savvy, meaning they will see right through a company that falsely promises to do good for the environment. This deceitful practice is known as greenwashing.

In reality, delivering on your brand’s eco-friendly promises isn’t incredibly difficult. You can implement numerous green strategies without deviating too far from your current practices. Here are three ways to align your marketing efforts with eco-conscious consumers.

1. Incorporate Sustainability Into Your Core Values

What you stand for matters. It reflects your brand’s value proposition, mission, and vision. If you want to align with eco-conscious consumers, sustainability should be woven into your core values. This means assessing your company’s objectives and determining how to put a green spin on them without sacrificing product quality.

Patagonia is an example of a brand that lives and breathes sustainability. The clothing and outdoor gear company aligns its intentions with real actions. Starting in 2002, Patagonia pledged to give 1% of total sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. In addition, the brand regularly updates consumers on their progress, educating them on how they’re making a difference. This level of commitment shows buyers that they are putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.

Patagonia may be a leader in the sustainability space, but that doesn’t mean you can’t follow suit! Assess your current environmental and social impact, identifying areas for improvement and setting specific goals that are realistic and achievable. If you want to be plastic-free by 2030, address how to make this happen with smaller goals. Perhaps you need to find a new manufacturing company that is more eco-friendly or maybe consider changing your packaging. Top marketing agencies will assist in redefining your objective, ensuring you’ve covered your bases and aren’t making impractical, unattainable promises.

Once your goals are set, relay this information to your consumers. Communicate your new goals prominently on your website, perhaps on your “about us” page or using a dedicated “sustainability” page. You might also decide to work with a PR company to publish a press piece on your new eco-conscious goals. This can help create buzz about your brand and establish your company in the sustainability marketplace.

2. Collaborate With Other Sustainable Brands

No one brand will save planet Earth. By collaborating with other sustainability-minded companies, you can team up to strengthen your cause and commitment. Collaborations often increase brand awareness, widen audience pools, and improve brand reputation. An eco-friendly collaboration may do even more for planet Earth, accelerating change and making a lasting difference.

When looking for a potential collaborator, consider what you want to achieve from the partnership. If the goal is to make a product that’s never been made, join forces with another brand for additional resources. Be transparent about what you can bring to the table, whether that is your audience, product ideation, or brand readiness. Ensuring both companies are a good fit to partner up is essential. Both brands should respect one another for their uniqueness while coming together in a shared, mutual interest for sustainability.

Collaboration doesn’t necessarily mean partnering with a non-competitor. In 2022, Adidas and Allbirds banded together to create the lowest-carbon running shoe. The Adizero x Allbirds 2.94 kg CO2e shoe proved competitors can work together for the betterment of the environment.

3. Encourage Customer Participation

Environmental advocates are consumers, too, and they want to do their part in helping the planet. Empowering customers to lean in on a green-focused initiative keeps them engaged and invites them into your inner loyalty circle. One example might be to offer a discount to shoppers who bring their reusable bags to a store. Or, create a loyalty program based on green initiatives, such as forgoing a paper coffee cup for a reusable one.

Recycling or upcycling programs have also gained popularity in recent years. This circular business model reduces environmental and social impact while incentivizing shoppers to participate for a reward. Madewell, Girlfriend Collective, and Rothy’s accept unwanted clothes in exchange for a gift card or redemption value. Some brands even recycle these used products to make future products. Every year, Marine Layer takes T-shirts from their Respun program, making new clothing from the fabrics of these donated items.

Other ways to encourage participation include starting a competition and deeming points for the green actions a consumer makes. A leaderboard model may inspire individuals to continue accumulating points while boosting brand loyalty at the same time. Working with eco-friendly influencers can also spread the word about your recycling programs. This could lead to a wider audience reach and inspire positive change.

Tips and Takeaways

Today’s consumers are demanding that brands look into more sustainable practices. Green marketing initiatives will help businesses stand out from their competitors while contributing to a more environmentally responsible future.

Of course, like with any marketing tactic, it’s important to always keep your consumer first. Listen to what issues and matters are important to them and find ways to address them through your marketing strategies. Ask for direct feedback through surveys and social media polls to decipher what changes you can implement. Look for trends in what consumers are saying and address them appropriately. Closely monitor your competitors, assessing their strategies from a green living point-of-view, and considering the feasibility of a potential collaboration.

Sustainable marketing isn’t going anywhere. Small changes can make a big impact on the planet. Implementing green strategies will also help your brand attract and retain eco-conscious consumers. To meet their expectations, respond and act upon the environmental concerns that matter most to them.

Consumer behavior has changed radically over the past 20 years. Driven by advanced technologies, buyers are now exploring a variety of channels to discover, evaluate, and purchase goods and services. In fact, Impact Marketing and Public Relations estimates it takes at least six touchpoints to make a sale — and those touchpoints tend to take a criss-cross journey across diverse digital sites.

With this in mind, marketers have developed cross-channel marketing strategies. However, cross-channel marketing efforts can fall flat due to confusing, inconsistent messaging and non-intuitive content deployment. Fortunately, there’s a solution to make cross-channel marketing more streamlined and effective: The use of predictive audiences.

Predictive audiences leverage the power of predictive analytics. As explained by Nativo, a leader in the predictive audience space, predictive analytics use a combination of first-party data, AI, and machine learning to more deeply understand consumers based on their former actions. Consequently, it’s possible to reliably predict what a consumer is likely to do in the future. And when you can correctly anticipate the next moves of a customer, you have something akin to a crystal ball in your hands.

With predictive analytics and audience, you can segment consumers into audience cohorts and market to them accordingly. This is extremely beneficial when you’re taking a cross-channel approach because it allows you to tailor your content efficiently. Not only do you know what to say in an email to a consumer, but you know exactly how frequently to make contact, as well as when to engage with the customer on other channels like social media or display ads. As a result, your conversation rates and ROI should improve, giving you a leg up over the competition.

Not a “set it and forget it” tool

To get the most of predictive audiences for your cross-channel plans and campaigns, you’ll want to keep some best practices in mind. After all, you want to glean the full value from this marketing approach.

1. Start bucketing customers into predictive audiences

If you’ve been hesitant to pull the plug on your third-party cookie reliance and dive into predictive analytics, now is the time to make your move. Third-party cookies are falling out of fashion fast, even though Google hasn’t gone 100% cookieless yet. The sooner you begin to ramp up your collection of first-party cookie data, the faster you can begin to use the data insights to fuel and inform your cross-channel marketing decisions.

Remember that first-party cookies are those that come from visitors’ and customers’ behaviors on your owned sites. These can be anything from their purchasing patterns to their past interactions with different product pages. Amassing this information is critical to being able to determine the “next moves” of specific customer segments and avoid wasting energy and funds on blanket marketing campaigns.

Of course, you can’t start putting audiences into buckets until you have a software in place that will work with your existing CRM. IBM recently noted that when AI-based predictive analytics and CRM are combined, companies can gain plenty of advantages. However, even though 78% of leaders say they have this type of capability, more than half aren’t sure they’re using it efficiently. Consequently, when investigating software, look for a product with a user-friendly dashboard interface, a solid reputation for working with top-tier clients, and scalability potential. That way, you’ll be able to successfully develop predictive audiences and move onto the next stage in using them during your cross-channel marketing initiatives.

2. Explore techniques to personalize content across channels

Being able to deliver personalized content to certain audience segments allows you to engage in what feels like an individualized way to your customers. McKinsey research has shown time and again, personalization is becoming a must-do for all marketers. According to their surveys, more than seven out of 10 consumers expect to receive personal content from brands. And that means you need to structure your content to be customized no matter what channel you’re using.

For instance, your predictive analytics might tell you that a certain audience is likely to buy a product in the next two weeks based on historical data. You can then develop and deploy a tailored coupon to text to only those audience members. But that’s not all: You can further rely on your predictive analytics to further divide audiences into those who tend to respond to follow-up texts versus those who respond to follow-up emails.

Essentially, you can keep the messaging highly individualized throughout every touchpoint. Ultimately, your goal is to realize as many conversions as possible based on the predictive analytics that are driving different predictive audiences.

3. Keep applying A/B tests to your prediction-based marketing

Over time, your customer base may shift, especially if you move into different markets. To stay ahead of changing customer needs, you’ll want to keep testing a variety of messaging formats, flows, and frequencies based on the predictive audiences that stem from your predictive analytics outcomes.

What does this look like in practice? Let’s say that you have a predictive audience that tends to make repeat purchases about every three months. Knowing this, you could divide the predictive audience into two groups and experiment with two campaigns. The first campaign could prompt one audience to make their purchase two weeks sooner than they normally would. The other campaign could prompt the other audience one week sooner. You could then use the outcome to figure out if you can encourage customers who usually make purchases at the 12-week mark to make them at 10 or 11 weeks instead, thereby increasing their repeat buying patterns.

As you become more familiar and comfortable with relying on predictive audiences, you can conduct other types of experimentation as well. While not all experiments will work, some may produce surprising — and appealing — results. Case in point, you could find out that just by changing to a different channel during a stage in the sales funnel, you can increase the likelihood of a consumer becoming a customer.

It takes a commitment to embrace predictive modeling, and you and your team might not feel wholeheartedly comfortable with it overnight. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a way to get more from your cross-channel marketing, constructing predictive audiences is a worthwhile endeavor.

Effective marketing strategies for complex products are essential to driving business growth. The strategies help build awareness, boost engagement, provide comprehensive customer experiences, and increase brand loyalty. At the end of the day, a good marketing strategy generates revenue that is pivotal for both sustaining and scaling a business.

The problem is that you can’t use the same marketing strategy over and over again like a generic template. Every product is different. It has its quirks, advantages, concerns, and one-of-a-kind elements. This means you must adapt your marketing campaigns around the products that they promote.

Even when you’ve crafted a good strategy, you can’t leave it on auto-pilot. You must both become and remain creative throughout the marketing process to stand out in a competitive market — even when promoting a complicated or confusing product.

How to Create Marketing Strategies for Complex Products

There are a few ways you can build a successful marketing strategy that delivers measurable results, even if you’re promoting the most sophisticated and complex products.

1. Start With the Customer

If you want to build a good promotional strategy to sell a complex product, start with the customer. Traditional marketing starts with the product. You evaluate the features and benefits and then consider how these can fit into consumer needs.

Effective marketing works in reverse. It starts with the target customer, considers their motivations, and then attempts to line up both existing and future products to meet those needs.

This is called empathetic marketing. It is a deliberate attempt to see through your customers’ eyes and gain a deeper understanding of who they are, the challenges they face, and why they might take action to seek out your solutions.

If you find yourself tasked with marketing a complex product, start by setting that product aside and studying the target audience. What are the pain points and problems of those you want to sell to? Seek out knowledge that allows you to personally target every sale. Look for ways to genuinely benefit each consumer in an effort to address their current needs and build long-term loyalty — all while also moving even your most intricate products off the shelf.

2. Invest in Educating Consumers

Google’s increasingly sophisticated search algorithms are making content both more and less important. Let’s explain how that’s possible.

On the one hand, AI tools are making poorly-made or generic content redundant and irrelevant. If you create a simple 101 blog article, there’s a good chance it won’t be able to compete with the already-entrenched resources online that address the same subject.

On the other hand, the ability to provide industry-leading insights as a subject matter expert (SME) has never been more valuable as a marketing tool. Unique insights sourced from deep knowledge and experience are valuable to consumers, and Google’s search engine is more aware of that than ever before.

With this in mind, it’s important to emphasize the quality, accessibility, and purpose of your marketing content. The content creation experts at Contiem recommend using things like conversational tone, personal pronouns, short sentences, and a visually appealing format to create meaningful product documentation.

This kind of user-oriented content enhances the customer experience. It also improves usability for your products and services.

If you struggle to generate hyper-targeted, authoritative content, consider working with a content creation partner for this kind of work. A content creation, management, and delivery firm brings a sense of professionalism and quality to your content. This is crucial in a search world driven by Google’s E-E-A-T standards. It can help you channel your unique industry insights and knowledge into relatable content while simultaneously speeding up the process and cutting down on costs.

3. Emphasize a Simple, Streamlined Message

Simplicity is the ideal antidote to complexity. When a product or service becomes overly complicated to explain, the goal of a marketing team shouldn’t be to cover every unique detail or benefit. It should be to emphasize a simple, streamlined message.

This could focus on the biggest benefit of a product. Productivity brand Zapier, for example, differentiates itself from the crowd by emphasizing its ability to automate workflow without coding. That last bit is important. There are many brands that offer ways to simplify and automate work. Zapier’s message is that, sure, people can automate things, but more importantly, anyone can use the tool to automate things, even if they aren’t tech-savvy.<

Honing in on a specific unique selling proposition (USP) makes it possible to use a simple message to sell a complicated product. Rather than explain the product itself, focus on the most important benefit that it provides the user. This is marketing 101, but it’s easy to stray from what works when you’re overwhelmed with the technicalities of a more complex offering. Don’t let that throw you off.

Start by putting yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes. (See strategy #1.) From there, consider the product you’re trying to sell. Gauge its greatest benefits and look for the ways these answer customer pain points.

Here comes the tough part. Figure out what benefits matter most and which ones aren’t worth bringing up in a pitch. What awesome product elements must lie dormant while you focus on driving home the one or two USPs that matter? It can be hard to truncate your pitch, but streamlining and simplifying are powerful strategies to help your product resonate with your target audience.

4. Use User-Generated Content

One of the best ways to reach your target audience is through your audience members themselves. User-generated content (UGC) is a unique and effective way to have consumers promote your products to one another.

User-generated content can consist of a variety of different content types. For instance, you can generate UGC from case studies, social posts, surveys, and testimonials.

Testimonials are particularly effective marketing tools when it comes to complicated products. They can highlight both the customer journey and the customer experience. They can showcase your brand’s value, both as a consumer works down the sales funnel and after the point of sale.

A positive testimonial reflects loyalty and sends the message that a product, however complex, is worth investing in. Don’t be afraid of opening yourself up to bad feedback, either. Even a negative testimonial or review allows you to address customer concerns in public, showing that you are ready to provide support and help them adopt a more confusing or complicated product.

If you want to promote a complex product effectively, start asking for feedback. Garner testimonials that you can proudly display and proactively address negative reviews as ways to encourage others to take the leap and patronize your brand.

Making the Process of Marketing Complex Products a Breeze

At the end of the day, the way you market a product is fundamentally the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a sophisticated piece of software or a spoon. You need to find the ways that a product benefits a user and then communicate that message to the right consumers looking for that solution.

In the case of complex products, it’s important to stay simple, empathetic, and educational. A relatable and informed approach will earn you sales — and once those come in, you can begin to request user-generated content in the form of testimonials to supercharge your marketing campaign over time.

Just remember, when it comes to marketing complex products, less is more.

Channel fatigue is a growing concern for businesses and consumers alike. Also called “channel fog,” the simple concept refers to the growing overabundance of communication and data options available that flood the channels and dampens the efficacy and output.

Channel fog is an issue with marketing, customer service, and internal operations alike. It leads to a chaotic and complicated number of notifications that employees and customers must wade through as they attempt to interact with a brand.

The struggle of choosing what channels to use — as well as how and when to use them — is a critical decision for any business. They must find ways to isolate and optimize the right channels if they’re going to make the most of the technological tools they have available.

Thankfully, there are companies working on cutting through the clutter.

These Companies are Fighting Channel Fatigue

They are bringing effective, simplified solutions to the ongoing channel fatigue epidemic.

1. Hubilo Is Automating Webinar Content Repurposing

Webinars are powerful teaching tools. They provide deep, experience-driven insights that mimic an online lecture or classroom setting.

However, by their very nature, it’s difficult to repurpose webinar content for other marketing platforms without spending hours sifting through endless footage and audio. This is a tedious process that can leave a team exhausted.

Hubilo is fighting this fatiguing activity by repurposing content into more digestible sizes and formats with its Snackable Content Hub. The product, along with its webinar platform, uses AI to automatically dissect and generate shareable content from a webinar. It goes beyond pulling a quick quote or sound bite from an opening monologue. The software can create ready-to-use video clips, postable social posts, articles for a company blog, and even e-books, all using the essence, information, and takeaways from a webinar.

The process is quick, saves a ton of effort and resources, and makes the repurposed content turnaround time quick. The tool integrates all of the customer-facing channels associated with creating and promoting a webinar into a single, unified, and streamlined experience.

2. Native Social Media Platforms Are Improving Targeting

One of the most saturated collections of marketing channels is social media. The sheer number of platforms available makes social media a convoluted marketing option with incredible upside …if you can get your message through the clutter.

It’s tempting for a marketer to look at the billion-plus users on Facebook and try to reach as many of them as they can with each campaign. But the truth is, that kind of broadside marketing doesn’t work anymore. Most channels are fatigued because they’re inexpensive to access and thus easy to flood with content.

Companies that want to overcome the fatigue of too many social channels should look for ways to contain rather than expand their messaging. They need to be more targeted and surgical with how they approach their audience, and native social platforms are making this possible.

Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, for instance, allow businesses to target messages based on age, gender, geography, interests, etc. This isn’t new, but it’s quickly becoming an essential part of overcoming channel fatigue.

As businesses look for ways to cut through the clutter with targeted messaging, they must lean on the personalization features that social media advertisement offers. These help reduce the number of generic messages that reach a target audience, replacing them with occasional, highly personalized alternatives. The best part is that the tools are often built right into the platforms themselves, making them easy to use.

3. Quiq Is Using AI to Meet Customers Where They Are

While the first two examples focused on customer-facing promotional efforts, the channel fatigue goes both directions. When customers attempt to interact with the companies that they patronize or are thinking of patronizing, it can be overwhelming trying to find the right communication point.

Brands use everything from phone calls and text messages to emails and social media to communicate with customers. The variety is fun to consider in theory — especially compared to the snail mail and landline phone options of the past. However, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming for consumers looking for answers.

Quiq is using artificial intelligence to address time and energy issues with an emphasis on proper customer care. The company has created an AI-powered Conversational Platform that unifies the various communication options within the world of customer service. This makes it easier for companies to solve channel fatigue by turning several channels into a single, streamlined experience.

4. Slack Is Unifying Internal Messages

Internal communication is just as inundated with channel fatigue as external communications. Many companies juggle a variety of communication options as they strive to keep their individuals, teams, leaders, and departments connected. Email, texts, and calls are commonplace. Often, tools like Google Workspace or Asana will come with internal messaging systems, as well.

These are convenient in specific contexts. Taken together, though, they can create isolated conversations, disconnected teams, and siloed information.

That’s where a tool like Slack has been a game changer for many companies. The single, comprehensive communication dashboard allows teams to send both direct messages and group messages.

They can exchange media, upload files, share screens, and join video and audio conversations. In the increasingly remote-first work world, this is especially important. Slack takes time changes and international communication complications into account.

Along with the convenience Slack offers, in the context of channel fatigue, the platform unifies a company’s internal messaging. It provides a single bank of interactions where employees and managers alike can centralize information, share files, and maintain easy-to-reference conversations.

5. UserIQ Is Providing Critical Customer Insights

For most companies, combatting channel fatigue isn’t a preventative effort. It’s a present and ongoing battle. The perpetual influx of new marketing, customer support, and internal communication channels has been going on for years now. The challenge facing many leaders is figuring out how to claw their company back to a state of simplicity as far as communication is concerned.

Considering the pre-established struggle of channel fatigue, the first thing most brands need to do is invest in tracking the success and failure of their existing communication efforts. If you’re using half a dozen social media platforms, which ones are creating traffic or generating leads? If you’re sending emails, which headlines or body texts are leading to clicks?

UserIQ is an innovative platform that is helping brands track the impact of their channels. The platform helps customer success teams improve customer insights.

The brand’s goal goes beyond tracking data. It seeks to flesh out laser-focused insights that help increase customer engagement and retention. These are critical considerations for any company looking for ways to overcome channel fatigue and help their customers have positive, rewarding brand experiences.

Overcoming Channel Fatigue

Channel fatigue is a real struggle and one that plagues companies both within and without. It’s also a problem that doesn’t have a “quick fix” solution. Instead, leaders must look for tools like those listed above to address each area where fatigue is an issue.

From streamlining content repurposing with AI-powered tools like Hubilo to improving customer insights with expert analytics platforms like UserIQ, there are many ways to simplify the communication process. This ensures that a brand is getting the most out of the cutting-edge capabilities of modern technology in the workplace.

Ask any marketer what it takes to be a great leader, and you’ll probably get some predictable responses. Things like creative vision, decisiveness, and data-driven decision making are common leadership traits that marketers fixate on at the moment.

It’s true that these are important for successful marketing. But when you’re talking about leading marketing teams, there are two absolutely critical traits that can’t slip off of the radar: inclusion and vulnerability.

Let’s take a closer look at why it is essential for those leading marketing teams to possess and apply both of these traits.

Vulnerability in Marketing

The concept of “vulnerability” often comes up in the context of personal life. It’s encouraged to be open and honest with partners and, to a lesser (or at least different) degree, with friends and extended family members.

You shouldn’t restrict vulnerability to home life and social circles, though. Being appropriately vulnerable can increase your influence and impact as a leader, as well as contributing to a healthy workplace culture where psychological safety is allowed to flourish.

What is Vulnerability in the Workplace?

Role-modeling vulnerability in the workplace isn’t easy nor straight-forward. It requires courage: vulnerability at work starts by being willing to share shortcomings, failures, and weaknesses — and that’s the easy part.

It also requires an ability to “read the room” on what appropriate vulnerability might be. Some contexts are more or less appropriate for sharing. Different people have different levels of status or power in any given transaction, which means there can be a risk by being vulnerable.

But even with courage and a good guess at what’s appropriate, displaying vulnerability still carries with it risk. Where vulnerability can be a challenge is navigating the various human responses to perceived weakness. Professionals who display vulnerability must be open to disappointment, rejection, and at times even ridicule. Remaining committed to being vulnerable requires the conviction of knowing that the benefits outweigh the uncomfortable and unpleasant moments.

How Does Vulnerability Fit Into Marketing?

When vulnerability comes up in the context of marketing, it is usually referring to how consumers see a brand. In the book Marketing 4.0: Moving From Traditional to Digital, the “Father of Modern Marketing,” Dr. Philip Kotler, even directly states that brands need to behave like humans and be “approachable and likable but also vulnerable.” (Emphasis added.)

While this is absolutely true, the need for vulnerability goes beyond outward-facing marketing interactions. Marketing teams that inwardly embrace vulnerability as a core philosophy benefit in multiple ways.

Vulnerability, especially when exhibited by a leader of a marketing team, can encourage trust through open communication. Vulnerable acts like admitting mistakes and asking for help can also empower a team and spark greater creativity and productivity. The result is a stronger, more effective team.

How Should Marketing Leaders Implement Vulnerability?

Vulnerability should be present from the get-go. If marketing leaders want to establish a healthy, productive culture for their teams, they must not only allow but invest in a vulnerable, open, and honest status quo.

In his book How to Work With (Almost) Anyone, best-selling author and coach Michael Bungay Stanier (MBS) talks about “The Keystone Conversation” as a powerful way to set the stage for ongoing vulnerability at work. This is a deliberate, atypical verbal exchange that creates structure, opens up communication, fosters safety, and critically establishes vulnerability within a professional relationship from the start.

“The Keystone Conversation, because it’s unusual, feels radical,” MBS explains, “and because it invites vulnerability, will feel dangerous to everyone’s ‘lizard brain,’ that most primitive part of the brain that manages fight, flight, or fix.”

Later in the book, MBS stresses the importance of leaders answering and not just asking questions in the Keystone Conversation to ensure it bears fruit. He explains that cultivating the best relationship with each of your team members requires “a degree of shared openness and vulnerability, an exchange that feels equal enough on both sides. If the vulnerability is on one side only, the relationship will struggle to be as safe, vital, and repairable as it could be.”

If leaders want to experience the benefits of vulnerability with their marketing teams, they must set the tone first. Use tools like The Keystone Conversation to create a culture of vulnerability, honesty, and openness, starting with yourself.

Inclusion in Marketing

Inclusion is a hot topic throughout 21st-century culture. As current phenomena — such as technology, the information age, and globalism — bring everyone together, people are more aware of their unique cultural characteristics than ever before.

The need to embrace these differences is important, nowhere more so than in the workplace.

What Is Inclusion in the Workplace?

Inclusion, as the name implies, indicates the positive coming together of individuals. At work, this means cultivating a culture that helps everyone feel welcome, valued, comfortable, and confident.

Inclusion should go beyond establishing comfort zones, too. It should actively seek to empower and encourage professionals from all cultures, experiences, and walks of life to positively contribute to the collective success of a team.

How Does Inclusion Fit Into Marketing?

Inclusivity in a marketing context is, once again, often seen as a customer-facing element. As marketers assemble messages and create content, they must maintain an inclusive perspective of their target audience.

They need to avoid polarizing or insensitive messages and look for universal elements that appeal to consumers. Fitness cycling brand SoulCycle is a good example of this. Even though the company focuses on individual transformation, it has woven a sense of inclusivity and community into its messaging and core brand values.

While inclusive marketing messages are important, the concept should also apply to internal marketing team activity. Marketing teams that prioritize inclusivity can attract better marketers by opening themselves up to a larger talent pool.

Truly inclusive environments also give marketers the confidence to be creative, take chances, and offer unique perspectives. Together, these can create synergistic marketing campaigns that take all important cultural factors into consideration.

How Should Marketing Leaders Approach Inclusion?

Inclusion is important for a marketing team. But it isn’t always natural. On the contrary, it’s easy for biases to slip in and skew a marketing team’s members or environment in a less inclusive direction.

Leaders are responsible for creating, fostering, and maintaining inclusivity — starting with themselves. They must prioritize integrating inclusion into their leadership styles.

This doesn’t have to be complicated. Leaders should invest in educating themselves on inclusivity and work on having an inclusive perspective. They can also encourage basic inclusive activities like maintaining clear communication and collaboration within their team.

Building a truly diverse and inclusive marketing team starts with who you hire, too. Celarity points out that “To ensure that you’re hiring a diverse range of people is to ensure that there is diversity in who is applying to your open positions.” The staff recruiting agency adds that leaders can accomplish this by:

• Setting diverse hiring goals.
• Asking existing employees from diverse backgrounds for referrals.
• Integrating diversity and inclusivity into job descriptions.
• Posting job adverts on diverse job boards.

When leaders embrace inclusivity in their teams, they can build groups of individuals that perform with an all-encompassing excellence that is difficult to match with a less diversified group.

Using Vulnerability and Inclusion to Optimize Marketing

Marketing leaders must take inclusion and vulnerability seriously if they want to benefit from the powerful impact that they can have on team performance.

Vulnerability creates an atmosphere of trust, openness, and honesty that leads to a more effective team. Inclusivity unleashes unique levels of creativity and confidence that can take a group’s marketing performance to the next level.

Vulnerability and inclusivity are essential to both individual and collective success. They may not be at the top of everyone’s mind, but they are the keys to leading a great marketing team all the same. Make sure you’re prioritizing them properly. If you do that, the results will speak for themselves.

Too many conversations about artificial intelligence assume a binary. Either the robots replace the people in a particular role or use case, or they don’t.

This black-or-white thinking could be appropriate in limited applications. Machines and automation are replacing humans in various functions. This is particularly the case in the industrial economy, but it also continues to increase in the professional services world. Changes in the workforce will be inevitable as AI programs become more sophisticated and functional.

But at least for the foreseeable future, the middle ground will be much more common. Artificial intelligence (and other related forms of “smart” automation) will assist humans without totally replacing them. AI will make people more efficient, effective, and just plain good at what they do without removing them from the decision process.

There are already countless examples of this in consumer-facing industries. In 2021, a clear majority (67%) of people interacted with a chatbot in some capacity, and that figure has risen significantly in the years since.

We’re at the point where customer-contact teams that don’t leverage AI face reputational risk. A hybrid approach that blends human and machine intelligence is critical to a first-rate customer experience (CX). If you’re behind the curve, it’s time to get serious about recharging your CX strategy with AI.

How to Improve Your CX Strategy With AI

Start with these five results-oriented, AI-enabled CX strategies.

1. Leverage AI Tools for Quality Assurance

Quality assurance (QA) grading can be a complex, time-consuming process for CX teams, especially if teams are still using spreadsheets. Human-powered QA graders have limitations to the number of tickets they can evaluate, and the evaluation of interactions can be open to interpretation. Since traditional QA relies on a random sample of customer and agent conversations, these limitations mean fewer interactions to analyze and less consistency in the data presented.

With the help of AI, teams can enhance their efficiency by expanding the scale of QA insights to 100% of customer interactions, enabling companies to have an immediate “heat map” of conversation quality metrics. This makes it easy for them to identify ”hot spots” of friction that demand attention on the quality of interactions between agents and callers.

Quite possibly the most intriguing AI development impacting QA is the capability to read into the emotional aspect of interactions between customers and agents. According to MaestroQA CEO Vasu Prithipati, Sentiment analysis has emerged as a powerful tool for CX and QA professionals, enabling them to uncover the emotional nuances within customer interactions and make data-driven decisions. However, there is still untapped potential in this field as the impact of AI-powered sentiment analysis continues to be a research-heavy topic. CX leaders have only scratched the surface of its capabilities.

Companies should keep in mind that leveraging AI-powered sentiment analysis doesn’t take humans out of the equation. They still need to act on the outputs — deciding, for example, whether the solution to persistently low CSAT scores is an overhaul of team processes or a tougher approach to human resource management.

2. Deploy Next-Generation AI Chatbots to Answer Straightforward Customer Queries

“Human customer support or chatbots” is one of the many human-AI interfaces that’s not a binary, either-or proposition. CX teams can retain human agents (and maintain overall staffing levels) while more aggressively deploying automated agents in low-degree-of-difficulty settings as part of their CX strategy.

Customers expect to interact with chatbots, and studies suggest their experience is surprisingly positive. More than six to one say they have positive or neutral interactions with chatbots.

The logical next step for CX teams is to deploy chatbots as frontline problem-solvers for customers with relatively simple queries instead of just the standard website “greeters” or phone menu gatekeepers. This frees up the human agents who’d typically address those concerns to “graduate” to supervisory and backup roles where they monitor chatbot output for quality and take over when queries prove too difficult for the bots.

3. Use Natural Language Search & Generative AI in Your Knowledge Base

Natural language processing has been around for many years. Generative AI feels like a more recent development due to rapid improvements in output quality since 2022. But it, too, has older roots. The upshot is that most users are familiar with these technologies and willing to leverage them in self-help settings.

What this means for your CX strategy is that self-help databases (principally knowledge bases, but other resources as well) are ripe for natural language and generative AI deployment.

Integrating a custom ChatGPT or white-labeled generative instance with an existing self-help database can dramatically improve the customer experience by producing more relevant, personalized results over shorter periods while eliminating the tedious search-click-and-repeat process that puts many users off. Those put-off users are liable to take their easy-to-solve problems to the call center, congesting the queue for others who do need hands-on help.

4. Use Predictive AI to Serve More Relevant Product Recommendations

CX is about more than ensuring an excellent customer experience for help-seekers. It encompasses every point of customer contact, from the very first introduction to your brand to the 10th repeat sale. This means it covers what many know as “on-page marketing” — the recommendations your website and e-commerce portal serve users as they navigate.

These recommendations must be relevant, timely, and personalized to the extent possible. Traditional recommendation engines might leverage order histories and customer-provided data to generate tolerable suggestions, but anyone who’s used an outdated web shop knows that these only go so far.

Predictive AI is critical for a truly exceptional customer experience that increases a prospect’s likelihood of repeatedly converting. Recommendation engines that use predictive AI can digest far more variables than “dumb” engines and develop far more relevant insights. They leverage the full breadth of available data, from similar buyers’ past order histories to the specific user’s recent browsing patterns. Their high-quality outputs grease the sales funnel and, it bears repeating, increase conversion rates.

5. Tap Next-Generation Retargeting Networks for Better Customer Retention

It’s no secret that retargeting can drive significant marketing growth at a relatively low cost. In fact, retargeting is the most cost-effective way to claim “second chance” conversions that would otherwise not occur.

Yet many brands don’t bother with it at all. Their reluctance is often rooted in outdated misconceptions about retargeting as a spammy “blunt instrument” that users either ignore or actively disdain. But like AI-enabled on-page recommendation engines that serve up relevant results, next-generation retargeting tools leverage machine intelligence to provide actionable, personalized ads and reminders. Don’t discount them.

What’s Next for AI in CX Strategy?

The pace of AI advancement is picking up. It’s getting difficult even for seasoned observers of the space to predict where things are headed, let alone where they’ll be in five or ten years. There’s also the less exciting but real possibility of a prolonged “AI winter” as advances slow down and reality catches up with the hyped-up idea that artificial general intelligence is just around the corner.

What seems very likely is that the quality of “weak” AI programs like ChatGPT will continue to improve incrementally in the months and years ahead. Even if there’s no intelligence revolution in the near future, steady improvements will continue to enhance and streamline the customer experience — and make CX teams’ lives easier and more productive.

In the not-too-distant future, human CX agents could spend little, if any, time interacting directly with customers and most or all of their time on quality control, workflow improvements, and even product development — behind-the-scenes work that leverages their irreplaceable human insights to improve the customer experience.

The parameters that make an online resource “authoritative” are always changing. Google uses a variety of factors to decide what makes a source worth displaying on its search engine results pages (SERPs). The search engine’s developers also admit that online content is constantly changing, and “we continuously measure and assess the quality of our systems to ensure that we’re achieving the right balance of information relevance and authoritativeness.”

This never ending refining process has made traditional digital marketing tactics obsolete. Companies can no longer lean on keywords and simple content pages to attract customers and get them to the top of their sales funnel.

They need more advanced marketing assets that stand out from the competition. This is the kind of content that can only come from an industry expert.

The Need for Industry Experts

From the days of patent medicine hucksters to print ads touting the health benefits of cigarette smoking, consumers have long been the target of unreliable marketing content. Today they’re more likely to find it online. Whether it’s a reckless claim in a blog post or a misleading stat in a press release, consumers are well aware of the doubtful quality of much of the online content they encounter.

Today’s buyers are looking for marketing messages they can trust, which is why creating high-quality content must be an essential part of any successful marketing strategy. To create content that does its trust-building job, marketers need to look beyond their own promotional skill sets. They must lean on industry experts to create potent, well-informed, up-to-date marketing assets.

When marketers collaborate with industry experts, they can create accurate and impactful messaging. By consuming such content, customers (both potential and existing) don’t just learn. They become aware of your business as a locus of expertise.

When that happens, you cultivate your brand’s reputation with your audience members in two key ways. First, expert-informed marketing content reinforces their perception of your brand’s authority within your industry. Second, it increases your credibility as a genuine source of solutions to customer pain points, which encourages trust between consumers and your brand.

AI Is Also a Factor

The need for high-quality, expert-led marketing content has been further heightened by the recent splashy advances in artificial intelligence. With tools like ChatGPT, anyone can now generate content that sounds authoritative on the surface, even if it’s backed up by nothing of consequence.

AI is a powerful learning tool, but its strength doesn’t lie in original thoughts, concept ideation, or creative writing. It uses existing sources — often without understanding whether they are reputable or not — to reformat information in a new and ideally more accessible manner.

Consumers are right to wonder whether the content they see is genuinely backed by authoritative sources or whether it’s been cobbled together by algorithms. The flourishing of AI as a business tool has made the need for industry experts to create informed marketing content more important than ever.

How to Partner With Industry Experts

There are multiple ways businesses of all sizes can both directly and indirectly tap into the insights and support of experts in their field. Each CMO and marketing team must find the best options for their situation to establish effective partnerships that enable the creation of compelling, targeted content that resonates with consumers. Here are a few of the best options to consider.

Have Experts on Staff

The best way to tap into the power of an industry expert is to hire them outright. When you have an expert on staff, it lends you instant credibility. It sends the message that you are a brand invested in providing quality products and informed marketing to promote them.

Nom Nom is an example of how this concept can apply to any kind of business. The pet food and health brand uses a nutrition-first approach to animal wellness. This includes maintaining an in-house team of researchers, veterinarians, and veterinary nutritionists.

Having pet health experts on staff gives Nom Nom an edge over its competition. First, it allows the company to stay up-to-date on the latest research and advancements in the pet health space. It also allows Nom Nom to simultaneously advocate for the brand’s products and pet health.

Along with the immediate authority they provide, on-staff experts also allow for continual improvement of products. Rather than hiring someone for a single formulation or project, an employed expert allows a company to monitor and modify a brand’s offerings over time. This is true whether the product is dog food, sports cars, or anything in between.

As far as marketing is concerned, the ability to tell consumers that experts are ever-present makes it easier to craft trustworthy marketing messages. In addition, easy access to experts allows marketers to fact-check and inform every piece of content to keep up with the latest industry data.

Collaborate With Experts

If hiring a full-time staff member isn’t in the budget, there are still plenty of ways to access their specialized knowledge. One of them is to engage in collaborative marketing activities.

A common example of this is influencer marketing. While this is frequently seen as brands working with social media stars, there are many occasions where major influencers are, themselves, experts in their field.

One recent example of this took place during the marketing for Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” streaming series. The marketing team collaborated with dozens of influencers from within the larger online Tolkien community with millions of collective followers.

The studio flew these experts in for private screenings, gave them access to red-carpet events, and generally associated the leaders of the fandom with their series as it approached its premiere. The initiative was so successful the marketing team later went on to win the TPEC award for “Outstanding Campaign for a New Drama.”

Go Where the Experts Hang Out

You can’t always expect exceptional individuals in your field to reinforce your content’s authority by working with you. Sometimes, you need to bring your message to them. In most cases, this takes the form of getting mentioned or publishing content in an industry journal, magazine, or some other outlet where industry leaders tend to congregate and share news and opinions.

By adding your own content contributions into the mix through digital PR, such as guest posts and similar collaborations on reputable third-party industry publications, you associate yourself with experts in your field. This gives you instant credibility.

To make this work, you need to bring your own concrete and informed opinions to the table. If you’re a remote work SaaS platform, for instance, you might get published on an industry site like TechTarget to share your thoughts on the latest regarding asynchronous workflows. This provides value for the reader whilst also allowing you to rub shoulders with high-brow individuals within your industry.

Using Industry Experts to Enhance Your Marketing Messaging

Experts are the future in a digital marketing world that is becoming less trusted by the day. By working with an industry expert, you provide a unique degree of credibility and authority for your brand. Consumers find it easier to trust your messages, and your products and services remain on-point and up-to-date with current industry research and standards.

Whether it’s hiring an industry expert, collaborating with them, or associating with them indirectly through digital PR, make sure you are working expertise into all of your content marketing activities. In a world where white noise is par for the course, the up-front investment is well worth the effort.

Marketing becomes more complex every day. As new technology and concepts surface, promoting brands, products, and services has become a complicated activity for small and large companies alike.

As marketers craft and implement their strategies, it can be difficult to understand what is working and what isn’t. Sure, you can monitor the results of a Facebook ad campaign. It’s fun to watch a subtle uptick in organic traffic due to a popular article on the company blog, too.

But how are these impacting your marketing KPIs (key performance indicators)? Are they really bringing you closer to your goals? Are they having an effect on your company’s bottom line?

If you’re wondering if your marketing is working, here is a rundown on how you can conduct a thorough marketing audit of your promotional initiatives — along with a few tips to clean things up, boost performance, and unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts.

How to Conduct a Marketing Audit

If you aren’t sure if your marketing is working, here is a step-by-step marketing audit process to give you a better idea of what is working …and what isn’t.

Start by Reviewing Your Objectives

You can’t gauge the effectiveness of an activity without setting up a benchmark by which to measure it. With that said, what are your marketing goals?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer here. Marketing goals can vary depending on your current initiatives, stage of growth, and so on.

Specifics aside, every business has a marketing goal on some level. Make sure you have KPIs established and that you understand the goals and objectives that you’re aiming for as a company.

If your goals are vague or unclear, ask yourself a few questions to help you bring them into focus. For instance, what is your target audience? Has that changed recently? Has it grown? Considering your customer is a great way to better understand the specifics of what you’re trying to accomplish as a brand.

However you do it, make sure you have clear objectives in place — and that they’re fresh in your mind as you begin your marketing audit.

Bring Everything Into One Place

Next up, consider all of your various marketing activities. Chances are, you have a lot of data scattered across several different locations. It’s difficult to gauge how effective these are if they remain separated.

Take some time to assess your various marketing tools and their associated data. If possible, bring that information into a single location, too. That way, you can analyze it (see next step) with ease.

If you’re marketing savvy or your marketing activity is simple, you may only need to open up a spreadsheet and import data by hand. For most companies, though, it can be useful to find a quality tool that can bring together and organize information for the marketing audit.

Hawke Media’s Hawke AI tool is one option for this. The platform consolidates data into a single-view dashboard. This makes it easier to analyze everything from marketing spend to impressions, CTR (click-through rate), conversions, and more. Tools like this also streamline ongoing monitoring of your marketing (see the last step for more on that one).

Compare Data to Goals

Once you’ve assessed your goals and gathered your data, it’s time to do some analysis. Look for what is working and what isn’t. What is driving revenue? Generating leads? Creating organic traffic? Building brand awareness?

As you consider your current marketing performance, don’t just look for results. Compare cost to effect.

What is it costing you to create content, and how much organic traffic is that driving to your site? Is your digital PR creating a consistent frequency of third-party mentions on other sites? Does an acceptable number of leads convert once they reach your sales funnel?

It isn’t always easy to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing. However, you can get a solid idea of how things are going if you start with your KPIs as a benchmark. From there, look for high-performing activities as well as underperforming ones.

This will give you an idea of what is working and how well it’s working compared to your expectations. It will also show you the areas where your marketing is weakest and needs attention.

Create a Schedule for Future Marketing Audits

At this point, you’ve taken a close look at your marketing activities. You’ve audited each area and dug deep to uncover your weak spots. Now, it’s time to look to the future.

Use this post-audit point of marketing strength to turn marketing reviews into a recurring event. This should happen at least quarterly, if not more often. Talk to your team, consider how often you need to make tweaks, and then get something in your schedule.

The good news is that the more often you revisit your marketing, the less you’ll have to do. You won’t need to conduct a deep-dive audit on your marketing a month or two from now. Instead, you can run through the above steps as a general review. Look for any red flags, make notes for future reviews, and adjust if and where it’s needed.

How to Boost Your Marketing Performance

At this point, you’ve conducted a marketing audit on your activities and set the stage to continue doing so in the future. The last step is to consider how you can optimize your marketing moving forward now that you have a firm grasp of what is going on. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• Update your objectives: Make sure your KPIs and marketing goals are up to date and make sense with your business growth and promotional objectives.
• Align current results with your objectives: As you update objectives, consider how aligned your marketing efforts are with reaching those goals. If and when you see that things are off, make adjustments.
• Ask the right questions: As you look for ways to make adjustments, ask the right questions. Are you being consistent across all platforms and messages? Is everything up to date? Does your marketing align with consumer expectations and pain points?
• Work with an outsourced CMO: When in doubt, consider working with a fractional CMO — a contracted executive that Marketing Brew points out is quickly catching on in the marketing world. This gives you marketing insights and support from executives whose services are affordable and experienced.

From clear objectives to third-party support, make sure you’re investing not just in understanding your marketing results — but in improving them over time, as well.

Getting the Most Out of Your Marketing Audit

The digital revolution has made marketing accessible. However, it has also made it increasingly complex.

Digital marketing is a splintered, data-heavy activity. It requires perpetual adaptation as you keep up with both the needs of your target audience and the cutting-edge tech tools that help you market your brand’s solutions to those needs.

As you invest the time, effort, and resources into marketing, make sure it isn’t in vain. It’s easy to let underperforming marketing activity slip by as you focus on keeping up with everything else.

Nevertheless, taking the time to review your marketing and boost performance confirms that each marketing initiative isn’t just bearing fruit. It ensures that it is optimized and has a fully positive effect on your company’s growth, revenue generation, and, ultimately, its bottom line.

Marketers today have advantages that their predecessors wouldn’t have dreamed possible. Take real-time campaign tracking and monitoring, for instance. Marketing teams can see what’s happening live, enabling them to make instant adjustments. Yet marketing employees can’t take advantage of opportunities if their team efficiency is lacking.

The cost of being inefficient in such a fast-paced environment is substantial. Slow response time can do more than just hurt initiatives like lead-generation efforts. It can hamper a company’s ability to hit quarterly revenue goals or stay ahead of the competition. As if that weren’t bad enough, marketing inefficiency makes scaling practically impossible. Organizations can’t successfully handle massive growth without optimization in every department.

If you’re a marketing director, you want to balance team efficiency with high performance. It doesn’t make sense to sacrifice effectiveness for efficiency. You need both. That’s why you need to consider recommendations like the five below that strike a solid efficiency-effectiveness balance.

1. Aim for a shared marketing team purpose

It’s a fact: Teams that row in the same direction will go in the same direction. To ensure that all your direct reports are rowing in tandem, you need to share a common purpose. Having a shared purpose avoids unnecessary roadblocks related to people working at cross purposes.

The McChrystal Group advisory services firm regularly helps teams work faster without losing productivity or communication. According to the firm’s research, only 37% of respondents agreed that teams within their organization shared the same perspective on how to achieve success in their industry.

It’s important that employees understand the purpose behind their work and agree on the path forward. Employees who report that they understand how their team’s goals contribute to organizational objectives are nearly 3X more likely to be highly engaged.

You can’t just name a purpose and expect everyone to fall in line with it. Instead, you need to weave the purpose throughout all marketing team efforts and outcomes. Whenever possible, measure purpose progress with metrics like project quality and employee satisfaction scores. Remember the old saying: What gets measured, gets managed. When you measure purpose, you make certain it won’t be back-burnered.

2. Narrow down your martech tools

It’s easy to get intrigued by all the technology and systems available to further your marketing abilities. However, what you don’t want is an overload of technical systems. As pointed out in a SHRM article, many employees have to switch between 10+ apps. The result is that they lose time to endless interruptions, especially when the apps don’t integrate and require separate logins.

How do you know if your martech stack is getting in the way of a smoother workflow? Ask your people to help you make a list of all your systems and what they do. Next, look for gaps and overlap. Once those are identified, find out how to fix them. For example, you might want to make better use of an underutilized platform like a project management system. Or you could look for a tech product that will do the same thing as two or more of your current tech solutions.

The bottom line is that a few solid pieces of integrated tech are probably all you need. Even if you have ambitious marketing objectives, you shouldn’t inhibit team efficiency with a complex martech stack. Instead, look for ways to get leaner without losing the core capabilities you and your team want.

3. Automate whatever makes sense

What if your creatives had more time to actually create? Or strategize? They can, but only after they’ve been relieved of their most repetitive manual duties. A study from Automation Anywhere shows that around 40% of office work falls into the repetitive category. That means for every 40 hours one of your team members works, 16 hours are spent on mind-numbing tasks.

Automation software can help you make more room for innovation. And there’s no dearth of automation systems for marketers. From deploying content and registering invoices to gathering KPIs and producing reports, you can automate plenty. This allows your group to focus harder on projects and ideas that require serious brainpower.

It’s worth mentioning that automation software can also be your ally if you’re dealing with a trimmed marketing budget. Additionally, you may be able to avoid adding more people to your team so you can stay efficient even despite a small staff.

4. Put an end to endless meetings

A well-timed, pithy meeting can be terrific. How many meetings fall under those classifications, though? Very few, unfortunately. On the contrary, most marketing meetings can take on lives of their own. This makes meetings one of the biggest contributors to team inefficiency.

True, you need some meetings to drive crowdsourced concepts. Nevertheless, you can’t let meetings usurp productivity or progress. You need to tame them by taking three major steps. Number one, insist that all meetings have a set agenda that doesn’t allow for diversions. (Any diversions should be tabled for another discussion between the actual stakeholders.) Number two, keep meetings short. Number three, role model these meeting behaviors. If you make any exceptions, you’ll have trouble correcting your meeting-focused culture.

How will you know when you’ve conquered the out-of-hand meeting? You’ll notice that people won’t jump on meetings to solve every problem. In fact, you might see a surge in asynchronous communication methods like Slack and email.

5. Empower your team to take action with authority

Authority snags are common obstacles for marketing teams that are struggling to become more efficient. For example, it may take several sign-offs before a video marketing script is approved for production. In a perfect world, this wouldn’t cause much fuss. The world isn’t perfect, however. If one authority figure isn’t available, the whole campaign could grind to an abrupt and frustrating stop.

Too many rungs of authority can mean missed opportunities — and missed deadlines. Take a step back and look at all your approval processes. Can some be shortened? Could more than one person be authorized to give the green light on certain initiatives?

Empowering specific individuals on your team doesn’t mean giving up control as a manager. You’re just delegating, which is another avenue toward efficiency. Each authorized team member will simply be accountable for making informed decisions based on available data and related factors. The only difference will be fewer waits and more pushes toward the finish line.

When it comes to marketing team efficiency, you can’t sit back and hope it happens. Old habits tend to stick around until they’re called out and ousted. The only way to get the advantages of a well-oiled system is by making thoughtful changes designed for maximum optimization.

When it comes to driving growth for your company, you can’t afford to overlook the value of demand generation marketing. With a comprehensive demand generation strategy, you can create interest in and desire for your products or services. As a result, you can scale faster and hit your quarterly and annual revenue goals.

Before you embark on a full-scale demand generation initiative, you may need a refresher on how the concept works. Even seasoned marketers can get confused about demand generation parameters. Being able to understand what it is, what it isn’t, and how to take advantage of its benefits is essential.

What Demand Generation Looks Like in Action

Demand generation is best described as a top-of-funnel marketing function. The tactics used during the demand generation phase are geared toward consumer awareness. However, they’re not focused on lead generation, per se. That’s a confusing point to many people who equate demand with bringing in leads. As explained by Matter Made, demand generation ratchets up feelings of need for a brand, item, experience, etc. In contrast, lead generation assumes the demand is there and takes it a step further into the nurturing realm.

A good way to look at this difference in a real-world scenario is to consider the growth of the bottled water industry. Though demand for bottled water is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7% until 2030, that demand wasn’t always so strong. Before the 1990s, bottled water was available but not considered essential by the public. Then, big beverage brands changed everything.

Brands like the Coca-Cola Company put on a push for inexpensive bottled water as a refreshing alternative to sodas, juices, and other thirst quenchers. The push—augmented by warnings about the inadequacies and potential dangers of municipal tap water—resulted in high demand. Today, no one blinks at the thought of purchasing bottled water because the desire is so intuitive and ingrained.

There’s little doubt that if you can foster demand for what you offer, you’ll find it easier to convert consumers into customers. The key is deploying the right mix of demand generation marketing tactics. Though you don’t have to engage in all demand marketing approaches, you should have a good idea of the most common tactics:

1. Customer Reviews

In the digital age, user reviews have the power to sway readers. Whether the reviews are on your website or a third-party app, they can be huge assets to your demand generation machine. Case in point: Retail Insider indicates that 83% of people don’t fully trust corporate-driven advertising. Yet 95% of shoppers admit that reviews can and do influence their buying behaviors.

With this in mind, part of your demand generation marketing program could include requests for reviews from customers. Getting reviews can be challenging, so try sweetening the pot by offering incentives. Or, just follow up after your first “ask”. Sometimes, all it takes is a reminder or two.

2. Informational, Inspirational Content

A large part of most demand generation marketing initiatives revolves around content. And content can include anything from whitepapers and infographics to blog posts and videos. You can’t rev up demand if you’re not being visible with content in all its forms.

To optimize the output and efficiency of your content, try to do at least “double duty” with each piece. For example, make sure that an article you’re writing for a high-ranking publication includes backlinks to your site. Plus, be sure that any social media posts have strong CTAs so you can prompt people to move into your pipeline.

3. Social Media and Online Influencers

The role of social influencers continues to grow and can be useful for your demand generation marketing. Even micro-influencers with modest followings can bring about an interest boost in your company.

If you’re working as a marketer for a B2B sales industry, you may want to look for influencers who have podcasts or routinely livestream. The podcasting movement is continuing to swell. Finding the right podcaster to promote your brand, merchandise, or expertise could be a game-changer.

4. Advertising Campaigns

Paid digital and offline advertisements can play a part in your demand generation marketing roadmap. With advertisements, you can target and retarget people who fit your top customer personas. That way, those people will be introduced to your brand.

Demand generation advertising should concentrate on educating and enticing rather than directly selling. You want to make readers hungry for more information, not try to convert them immediately. Consequently, include a CTA that sends them down the path toward lead generation but doesn’t try to turn them into instant fans.

Final Tips for Demand Generation Marketing Success

If you’re trying to grow your business, you can’t overlook demand generation marketing. But be ready to put some of these tips into play as you establish your demand generation initiatives:

• Demand generation takes patience. It won’t make your brand a household name overnight. With consistency, though, it can make your brand familiar and desired.
• Demand generation should be measured. The only way to know if your demand generation strategies are working is to measure them. Some helpful KPIs to track include customer lifetime value, number of sales-qualified leads, and customer acquisition cost.
• Demand generation requires constant testing. Brush off your A/B split test skills. You’ll want to test the efficacy of all demand-related content to find out what’s building excitement most effectively.

When there’s a buzz around your brand, you’re better positioned to quickly scale up operations and profit margins. And demand generation marketing can be one of the speediest ways to grow any business.