“Marketing takes too long.”
That is the unstated worry I hear from a lot of businesses. They want to grow but they want to do it quickly.
It’s not just startups, by the way, who think this; it’s established companies, too.
There’s this idea that marketing is a subtle thing that is important for unclear reasons but doesn’t actually help the bottom line.
As someone who learned marketing to move product out the door of my athleticwear business, that blows my mind.
To me, marketing is always a two-fold project. One part is branding, which is what most people think about when they hear the word “marketing.” It’s the colors, the logo, the font.
And all that is important – but it needs to be balanced with the second part, lead generation.
Lead generation is pretty straightforward: get qualified leads to your sales team. And it’s very measurable: How many leads become customers?
Yet too many marketers forget about that clear target and wind up lost in the weeds thinking about clicks and opens.
And that’s where things get sticky.
Your sales team may be gregarious and outgoing – but they are also anxious. They are always thinking of their numbers for this quarter and next quarter and next year.
When marketing provides branding without lead generation, they get twitchy.
If your team needs help making the leap from branding to lead generation, check out my ebook, How to Become a Lead Generation Machine. It can help.
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash.