MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIGEST

Are you keen about putting the reins on the notoriously rocky relationship between your Sales and Marketing teams, and improving the communication between them? Here’s an article you’ll find very useful. “Marketing is analytical and Sales is interpersonal. Marketing has a long-term focus, and Sales has a short-term focus. Marketing is more strategic, and Sales is more tactical. Marketing is pull, and Sales is push.” This is according to a Forbes article about the notoriously rocky relationship that exists between Sales and Marketing departments. While these are all generalization about the two different business functions, it isn’t uncommon for Sales and Marketing – who really should be in tune – to be totally out of sync. Sales Sales is about romancing a customer through the various stages of the purchasing process and Marketing is focused on leads, clicks, and views. Their intentions may differ, but their goal is the same; making it vital for Sales and Marketing to work ...

According to Belding , global leaders in Customer Service Training and Workplace Performance, the behaviour that creates outstanding Customer Service fall into six categories, referred to as the Six Pillars of Customer Service.    Attitude Being caring; solution-driven; having empathy; being positive; being friendly and cheerful; having energy; being on-stage are parts of the hallmark of attitude. Attitude is the cornerstone of outstanding customer service, and contrary to popular belief, you can influence it. Interest Being 100% customer-focused; asking questions; listening; and personalizing the relationship exhibit interest.  All of our actions need to convey to a customer that they are important to us. The research tells us that over 80% of service failures come from the perception that ‘you just don't care’. Action Action is about taking ownership, solving problems, being creative, following through, and following up. When c...

If you're not sure what marketing automation is, and you have been embarrassed to ask, this post is exactly what you need. In a nutshell, Marketing Automation (MA) is a software that enables marketers to automate many repetitive marketing activities like sending emails, classifying leads, scheduling social media messages, etc. The software also helps to collect marketing data across various marketing channels and turn the data into actionable insights when integrated with a CRM. And it's a big deal - over the past several years, Marketing Automation has seen a huge increase in usability all over the world. In fact, the adoption of Marketing Automation has increased ten fold just from 2011-2014. So what’s the reason behind this massive growth? Probably the most significant one is that data, as a resource, becomes more and more available to technically any business. Interpreting, understanding and implementing the data correctly are what now matter more. MA tools hav...

Just stop interrupting! Now, would you ask someone to marry you on the first date? Nollywood romance stories sometime portray such successful ‘love at first sight’ scenarios. But we know it’s never that simple in real life. Reality normally requires building a relationship before popping the question; earning trust, learning to know one another, seeing that you are right for each other and taking the relationship to the next level when you're ready. If this makes sense to you so far, then why are you selling, or trying to sell to strangers on your first date with them? So what's the buyer's journey? Simply, “the buyer’s journey is the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to a purchase." There are three stages to the average buyer's journey : the Awareness stage; the Consideration Stage; and the Decision Stage. Awareness: The awareness stage represents the top of the marketing funnel (TOFU). For example, the ...

Have a new hire training programme in place as well as a continuing training programme. Be passionate; Set examples; Educate your team by doing, not by lecturing. Share stories of remarkable customer service with your team. Encourage your team to learn from one another and seek company-wide collaboration. Develop clear work ethics and principles, and make sure everyone is aware of them. Let team members be themselves; Enable them to shine. By  Noa Eshed , co-author of "The Smart Marketer's Guide to Google AdWords”, content lover, certified journalist & lawyer. She consults and helps businesses create significant presence online. Edited by   ‘Dele Dele-Olukoju , Marketing Communication consultant and publisher of the online   Marketing Communication Digest . He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

“Ted Talks” have become the gold standard for a winning presentation. However, Ted Talks are also a model for building a flourishing brand; because at their heart, both a successful presentation and a successful brand are matters of storytelling . Carmine Gallo, author of the book  Talk Like Ted,  says the single most successful presentation in Ted Talk history spent 65% of its time telling stories rather than facts and data points. “Our brains are wired for stories,” Gallo explains. And your brand  is  a story. Whether it’s the half hour you get to spend with a prospect or the 30 to 60 seconds you have to outline what you do at a cocktail party, your story has to convey the value of your product and service and,   accurately reflect your brand. 1. The 5 Cs of storytelling Have a compelling brand story that can attract customers: Character.  Your brand should be told through the eyes of real people. This could be the founder,...

It’s not about products; it’s about experiences and how things make us feel. Gone are the days when you could create a really beautiful ad and serve it in front of your consumers’ face like a carrot dangling on a stick. Even if it’s the perfect ad — being served up to the perfectly targeted person — marketers need to do more: they need to create the perfect experience  for their consumers. And who does a fantastic job of this? Lifestyle brands! Reference books say a   lifestyle brand   is a company that markets its products or services to embody the interests, attitudes, and opinions of a group or a culture.   Lifestyle brands   seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer's way of life. By definition therefore, lifestyle brands have a deep understanding of their target consumer’s way of life. They understand the type of experiences that they crave, as well as the people,...

Globacom, Nigeria’s second largest telecoms operator, is a wholly-owned Nigerian company belonging to the massive business empire of Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest person, with 100% of its shares held locally. It is an international brand with about 35 million subscribers, 24% share of the Nigerian telecoms market, and majority of Nigeria’s internet users. This is one brand that is very strong, now even beyond the south-west of Nigeria and prides itself as the king of data, evidently. And it has made a lot of things easy and possible in Nigeria. It charged the least for SIMs; and Glo it was that paved the way for per-second billing in Nigeria after MTN and Econet had made it seem impossible. However, in marketing the Globacom brand, or Glo Mobile, if you like, it embarked on a gargantuan Brand Ambassadorship programme, more than any other brand in Nigeria, or in Nigeria’s history. It is Glo that has spent money the most on non-glowing brand ambassadors. The strateg...