I have been on so many B2B SaaS marketing teams where each function is operating in silos. Digital marketing is running ads and campaigns without really understanding what is going on with product, PR churns out press releases and the social media team posts content on LinkedIn and Twitter without really aligning with demand generation, while content marketers are writing content without input on the latest positioning iteration or messaging from product marketing. In all of this, field marketing is running its own events with input from Sales, but disconnected from the rest of the Marketing organization's priorities or plans outside of industry events.
Seems unbelievable? You will be surprised at how many times this actually happens. As a result, this becomes a hodgepodge of marketing work that doesn't build on each activity or amplify any impact. This is a waste of marketing budget, time, and a lot of effort. This is where other sophisticated marketing teams in competitor companies come in and take full advantage of your weakness.
I'm a big believer in integrated marketing plans. This is the single most overlooked area that can make a big impact on marketing results. Making sure each area of marketing is truly aligned takes time, effort, collaboration. Here are some tips to get to an integrated approach:
As a marketing leader for a specific functional area, start talking to your peers! In the day to day madness of getting stuff done, we seem to deprioritize internal communication and alignment.
Build a quarterly, integrated plan that starts with high-level corporate/brand messaging, then goes down to portfolio marketing, solutions marketing (i.e. highlighting specific use cases), finally conversion-related product-specific marketing that incorporates best practices, customer success stories, ROI calculators and anything else to demonstrate value and proof points. Weave in your digital, social, PR plans into this approach, making sure you are amplifying the effort across all campaigns. This is the. most challenging step, where you will need to seek input from each leader and work together to create a cohesive approach while meeting functional goals.
Make sure you build a consistent messaging theme across all your marketing campaigns, although the depth and level of detail for the message will vary depending on where you are in the hierarchy of the integrated plan. This is especially important if you are pivoting to a new approach or messaging strategy.
Based on your integrated strategy, recognize that each marketing channel doesn't necessarily cater to each part of the funnel or message hierarchy, and therefore make sure you clearly identify what channel or approach you you will use to achieve specific goals or address specific target audiences.
This is probably the most important step that is often ignored - ensure your plan is aligned with the Sales teams' priorities, incentives and current state. At the most fundamental level, understand where the marketing plan will bring immediate value to Sales vs. future value, and where the sales team is focusing its efforts on for the quarter. Review. your plan with key Sales leaders and don't forget to address regional differences and goals.
Review your metrics and make sure you are able to identify and pull data to measure the integrated outcome vs. individual channel-based outcome. This will ensure you are meeting your overall goal of driving revenue in a way that aligns with your company's OKRs or goals.
An integrated plan is where the magic happens. All the marketing effort put in by individual teams and leads will see amplified results when there is a cohesive approach. If you need help with achieving an integrated approach, let's chat!
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