MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS

Marketing is at the heart of long-term business prosperity. How well you undertake your marketing will define your company's fortunes over time.  Apply these best practices to prime your organization for success. 

EMPOWER THE CMO

CMO tenure is notoriously short. It's tough for a chief marketing officer to get her arms around her organization as fully as she needs. Even as the marketing function spreads its wings within many companies, too many activities remain outside of the CMO’s direct control. Although the CMO works across many areas in the business - sales, product development, legal, communications, finance, HR - her executive influence is often second fiddle to the respective department head. 

The CEO must place an outright priority on marketing in all its facets, from client communication to product development to employer branding to pricing. The CEO must be the CMO incarnate, and vice versa. 

BEYOND LEAD GENERATION

Lead generation can be an important component of a content marketing program, but it should never be leads for leads' sake. A contact detail in your database means nothing if the individual is not actively open to your business and your content.

 A better way of thinking about the relationship between lead generation and content marketing is in terms of audience development.  

Your lead generation activities should focus on creating an audience that is willing to engage with you and ultimately drive your bottom line. And that takes time, patience and commitment. You're in it for the long game. Your clients, now and into the future, will thank you for it.