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Building A Diverse And Equitable Business: The Role Of Marketing

Jesse Jackson once said, “Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.”

This is more evident now than ever before. There is no question for me that prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in companies of every size and in every industry comes with a renewed sense of urgency in the United States today.

When you think about which department within an organization should be most focused on prioritizing DEI, human resources may come to mind. However, diversity isn’t just an internal HR matter; marketers have an opportunity and a responsibility to put diversity at the forefront of their thinking when they’re hiring colleagues, creating content and planning campaigns.

Why marketing?

Marketers have access to communications and media that can change DEI from an initiative to an integral part of a company’s culture and its brand. It is marketers who translate corporate strategy and brand concepts into the words, images and messages the company uses both internally and externally. Simply put, marketers are change agents. And putting DEI at the forefront of our marketing campaigns is a responsibility we should own.

DEI can help grow the business and build loyalty.

In an August 2020 report on the retail and consumer goods markets, McKinsey points out that consumers are showing a preference for brands and retailers they trust and that it’s important for companies to demonstrate social responsibility. Consumers are changing their attitudes about where to buy and voting with their wallets: According to a 2019 survey from Markstein and Certus Insights (via Businesswire), “46% [of consumers] pay close attention to a brand’s social responsibility efforts when they buy a product.” Those companies that put words into action to address DEI will likely be rewarded.

Forward-thinking companies like Verizon understand this shift. In April 2021, Verizon announced that it is rolling out a new set of goals around how it approaches DEI in all aspects of its marketing operations, including a commitment to spend 30% of its budget on “diverse-owned video, experiential and print production firms” and other initiatives that take into account an industry-wide gender equality measure. According to Verizon CMO Diego Scotti, “Corporate social responsibility isn’t the thing you do on the side in terms of philanthropy — you must move it to be central to your strategy.”

The bottom line is that if our audience sees themselves reflected in our company’s marketing campaigns, they will take notice. And, in today’s environment where getting above the noise is difficult, taking an authentic approach to diversity and equity can help you garner the attention your brand needs to build a loyal following.

How diverse is your marketing team?

Marketers are the company’s experts in language, imagery and prose. Marketers know how to apply these communication techniques to best serve the company’s employees, prospects and customers. How can we ensure that those featured in these critical marketing assets are properly represented? First, take a step back and ask yourself if your team accurately mirrors the diversity initiatives you are seeking to prioritize. No matter how empathetic and open-minded the people on your marketing team may be, a less diverse team can be a silent barrier to inclusive marketing. Aim to build a team composed of colleagues who come from diverse backgrounds. This action can help your stories resonate with your employees, prospects and customers.

According to a recent Glassdoor survey, job seekers and employees want employers to step up their transparency around DEI. If employers don’t, they may miss out on retaining top talent. About one in three employees and job seekers (32%) would not apply to a job at a company that lacks a diverse workforce. If you haven’t been thinking about this already, now is the perfect time to modernize your team’s hiring strategy and include DEI as a priority. If you need further incentive, McKinsey explains “that diverse teams are more innovative — stronger at anticipating shifts in consumer needs and consumption patterns.” This dynamic could translate into a real competitive advantage.

Is your content diverse, and does it reflect those you seek to engage?

Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, an inclusive brand marketing program often takes significant time and effort. The first step is understanding just how well your marketing efforts reflect your brand. Take a look at your customer-facing campaigns and programs. Who are the faces behind your marketing content? Your products may be for everyone, but if your images and videos lack racial and age diversity, they may not resonate with employees, prospects and customers. After all, the goal of your content should be to create an emotional connection with your audience.

Next, look at the tone of voice and words you are using in your writing. Make sure the language you’re using will resonate with your target audience, and be careful when using jargon and slang. When you’re thinking about storytelling, be intentional about using diverse perspectives.

Some marketing professionals are making progress on these initiatives, but for others, there is a long way to go before inclusive and diverse marketing becomes the norm. As company leaders, we have a responsibility to help ensure that DEI is part of our conversations and implemented in our campaigns. And we can take on the role of helping the CEO recognize the importance of DEI for growing the business.

It’s important to check yourself.

Ask yourself, “As a marketing leader, do I know what our company’s DEI goals are? Am I leading in a way that prioritizes DEI?”

If not, take action. Consider inviting DEI representatives to team meetings when you’re planning or refreshing campaigns. Open up the dialog and be bold about talking about this priority with your team. With your CEO, find examples of how you are bringing DEI to life within the company and garner support.

I believe we will see progress as more marketing leaders embrace their responsibility in prioritizing DEI and, specifically, take actionable steps to align the internal values of the company with the external brand messaging. Marketers are change agents. And we have the power to lead a DEI transformation.

by Leela Gill

B2B Marketing: What We Can Do To Help Save The Planet

As B2B marketing leaders, we have a lot riding on our shoulders: Listening to customer needs, accelerating business growth, driving product innovation and, now, driving social and environmental awareness. In the wake of 2020, one of the most disruptive social and environmental years in our recent history, we know it’s not just about growing revenue; it’s about growing our businesses responsibly.

Recently, to my surprise, I received a heavy 2x3x2 foot box at my doorstep as part of a direct mail marketing campaign. As I opened the box and pulled out layers of plastic and bubble wrap, I wasn’t just thinking about the gift, I was thinking about the cost to the environment. I unveiled my gift to find a six-pack of beer with an accompanying 10-page analyst report. Not being a beer drinker, I laughed at first. Then I started thinking, what is the role of marketing when it comes to helping save the planet?

Let’s start with some statistics. Did you know that only about 32% of America recycles, down from 34.7% in 2015? Or that Americans can generate as much as 1,800 pounds of landfill per person per year? With a population of more than 331 million, just think about that number for a minute.

Over two-thirds of U.S. consumers say it’s important for companies to reduce their impact on the environment, with the percentage jumping to 83% for Millennials ages 21 to 34. With 44% of Millennials acting as the primary decision-makers in today’s buying economy, it’s crucial for marketing teams to demonstrate alignment on these issues. In fact, 83% of Millennials want companies to align with their values, which should speak volumes to marketing leaders.

We have hit a tipping point when it comes to the environment. And yet, we are still not acting fast enough. Marketers play a key role in making sure the right decisions are made for their company. So, as marketing leaders in the richest economy in the world, here are a few small ways we can help save the planet:

1. Eliminate the plastic swag and limited-use accessories.

2020 was a wash for in-person events, but as cities continue to fully reopen and people start to become more comfortable traveling and gathering, in-person events and conferences are coming back.

According to Northstar Meeting Group data from May, 82% of planners surveyed expect to hold live events this year. Much has changed this past year, and it’s time for marketers to rethink their swag strategy at these events. Cheap branded tote bags, t-shirts and pens are generally ineffective, overused ways to increase brand awareness, as they tend to not be used after the event and eventually end up in the trash.

It’s time for marketers to transform their strategy at conferences. Studies have shown that more and more people value experiences over things, so why not offer a unique experience that will result in a positive association for your brand? Consider hiring a photographer to take attendees’ headshots at the conference, hiring massage therapists to give free chairs massages or even giving away coupons to support a local restaurant in the area (that has undoubtedly struggled this past year).

Another idea is to have a spinning wheel at your booth with a number of prizes that involve experiences (or if you’re branding something, consider high-end chocolate or coffee). I promise more people will be at your booth than the one next door that’s offering branded t-shirts and pens.

2. Choose alternatives to shipping cardboard boxes and plastic wrap.

As climate change and the impacts of consumer behavior sink in, people are paying attention to what companies are doing to reduce their environmental footprint. That starts with the marketing team’s decisions.

Five years ago, a six-pack of beer might have been positively received, but nowadays, even if the recipient likes beer, they may not see past the plastic and the cost of sending something through the mail that they could have purchased at the grocery store three blocks away. Next time, consider sending them a redeemable coupon for that six-pack instead. You could even think beyond the alcohol and offer gift cards, non-profit donations in their name, food donations, tree plantings or a handwritten note.

3. Guide recipients on how to dispose of shipping materials.

The language you use to communicate how to recycle is critical and has come a long way over the past two decades. According to recent data, “organic” was used in less than 2% of all mail from 2000 to 2004, but is now used in nearly 38% of all mail pieces. “Sustainable” went from 1.64% in the early 2000s to over 36% between 2017 and 2021. And “please recycle” grew the most, from 0.31% between 2000 and 2004 to nearly 60% today.

If you are set on sending out direct mail, make sure you guide your recipients on the best way to dispose of the packaging. And remember, just over one-third of America is recycling today, so this should be the last resort. It’s better for the environment to eliminate the shipping costs in the first place.

We can help save the planet.

When thinking about your marketing campaigns, especially direct mail and events, ask yourself: How can I accomplish my goals in the most environmentally responsible way? Then, take real action. A famous Chinese proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” In the same vein, there’s no better time than right now for marketing leaders to show up for their company, consumers and the environment.

by Leela Gill

Early-Stage Marketing: A Five-Point Leadership Framework

It is estimated that over a million tech startups are formed every year globally. And, according to an article on TechCrunch, about 60% of startups don’t make it to Series A and even less make it to Series B and beyond. The takeaway? Early-stage companies are like a swimming frenzy of baby sea turtles — survival is rough and the odds are tough.

For those of us who play in this world, we feel that pressure every day. Early-stage marketing leaders are in the hot seat. Some might say it is the penultimate driving force for creativity. We must create something from nothing to survive and then help it grow, fast.

We all know that startup companies are fast-paced and experimental by nature — the antithesis of the process-oriented and predictable large enterprise. However, implementing a few repeatable strategic business practices can help Series A and B teams navigate the ready-fire-aim environment with purpose. It’s true that there is no silver bullet, but this five-point leadership framework can help marketing leaders reach the next stage of development.

1. Audit where you are every quarter.

One of the most important priorities for early-stage marketing leaders is to develop a clearly defined ideal customer profile (ICP), as this can mean the difference between effective campaigns and ones that fail. One of the first habits to form is auditing your closed-won deals every quarter and mapping the top five to 10 attributes that made them an ICP for your business. Then, look at your sales qualification criteria and determine if you are asking the right questions to generate viable leads. If not, revise and retrain your teams.

Growth marketers should also audit:

• The buyer persona: Have you correctly characterized the person within the ICP to whom you want to sell? It is very likely that your ICP and personas will change over time, so this auditing process will help you adjust quickly when needed.

• Brand promise: Has it been established, and are you sticking to it?

• Value proposition: Do your ICP and personas agree with your company’s value proposition? When you talk to your customers, are you using the words they use when they describe the benefits of your solution?

• Customer relationship management (CRM): Are you keeping your data clean and segmented so you can communicate effectively with prospects?

• Collateral: Does your collateral cover the fundamental content needs, including proper sales messaging, product sheets, brand and product videos, best practice e-books and SEO blog posts?

2. Focus your budget on conversion and pipeline growth.

It’s tempting to want to do it all — brand, demand, fancy tech stack, PR, AR and more — but at this stage, your marketing budget needs to be allocated to generating qualified leads for your sales team. Period. Focus your dollars on activities like paid advertising, events and content that converts.

What should your budget be? According to a recent SaaS-Capital benchmark report, early-stage SaaS companies can spend approximately 15% of annual recurring revenue (ARR) on marketing. So, if your ARR is $5M, you can expect a marketing budget of around $750K, of which approximately 45% to 50% should be spent on headcount and the remainder allocated to programs.

And according to one article, if you are well-funded, your customer acquisition cost (your total sales and marketing cost divided by the number of closed deals) can be up to 50% of your first-year average contract value.

3. Quantify team strengths, hire for the gaps and upskill constantly.

In the beginning, you will hire one or two marketers. This team must be versatile and capable of managing multiple components of marketing all at once, including content, demand generation and search engine marketing (SEM) basics. Don’t make the mistake of hiring junior people; you need team members who can run programs without much assistance.

When you get to Series B, you should have the core marketing skill sets on board: product marketing, marketing operations, content SME, demand gen, digital and creative. If you are missing any of these core skills, you should fill the gaps with an agency or upskill your team.

To grow, you need to honestly assess your team’s strengths. Take the time to create a quarterly performance process that includes a skills audit and builds in upskilling and learning as part of your marketing culture.

4. Align around product strategy.

To create focus and speed, align your marketing events around the product road map and push for new product events every quarter. This operating model, also known as “the cadence methodology,” was developed by venture capitalist and former Yammer CEO David Sacks. This model works because the whole company focuses on product innovation. Then, it is marketing’s job to promote the new features every quarter via event marketing.

5. Take aim at your exit criteria.

In the B round, revenue expectations are high and forgiveness is scarce. As a marketing leader, you need to grow while keeping your eye on your exit criteria: Series C funding. Here is my punch list to ensure you get to the next funding round:

• A clear definition of your target market, ICP and persona.

• A documented and proven brand promise and value proposition.

• Alignment and broad communication of the go-to-market strategy from senior leadership.

• Excellent sales and marketing alignment around process and tech stack.

• Knowledge of the most effective marketing channels.

• A quarterly business cadence and reporting framework.

• Documentation of your key processes (to scale).

• Customers who talk about your products positively and often.

• Hitting your revenue growth goals.

As early-stage marketing leaders, we face a myriad of challenges, but a strong leadership framework — one that centers around building good habits and processes early — can exponentially increase your chances of receiving Series C funding and beyond.

by Leela Gill

Thriving In B2B SaaS Through Account-Based Marketing With Leela Gill

SEO and other full-funnel strategies may get you the most leads, but a more targeted approach in marketing is needed if you’re looking to catch the big fish. When it comes to targeted approaches, account-based marketing trumps everything else. Leela Gill, the VP of Marketing at Intelligence Node, specializes in this space and has a track record of delivering this strategy in the B2B SaaS marketing space. For her, account-based marketing is simply Marketing 101. Listen in as she joins Vijay Damojipurapu on the show to explain how this strategy works and how she engages her marketing team at Intelligence Node to deliver the best results at a faster rate.

Thriving In B2B SaaS Through Account-Based Marketing With Leela Gill

In this episode, I have Leela Gill. She is the VP of Marketing at Intelligence Node. She’s got a solid track record of diverse experiences across sales and marketing and leading those functions at startups. Leela’s main expertise and track record is around account-based marketing and selling to big brands like Walmart, Home Depot, Lockheed Martin. Leela, I also looked up your background. It seems like you got some good exposure and experience in M&A, change management and fundraising. A lot of topics and a lot of ground for us to cover here. Welcome, Leela.

Thank you. I’m happy to be here, Vijay.

The first question I have for all my guests is how do you define go-to-market?

I define go-to-market as the approach that you’re going to take with your marketing sales and channel partners to deliver your unique value proposition to prospects and customers. There are multiple approaches and multiple activities around go-to-market strategies. You have a go-to-market strategy for your corporation or your business, and you should have a go-to-market strategy for product launches. The ways that you approach marketing sales and channel partner sales in selling to your prospects and to your customers are the go-to-market approach.

It’s funny you say that. I agree with both views of the go-to-market. Early on in my career, I was more in the product marketing track. My view of the go-to-market was the upcoming launch for the product and that’s about it. Line up and essentially worked closely with the product, with other teams within marketing, with sales and sales enablement, even customer support and customer success teams. That is my view of go-to-market back then. Since then, I have evolved my thinking. That leads to the first point which you mentioned that it is not about the upcoming product launch, but it goes much and far beyond that.

I work with early-stage and growth companies. You do have to step back and think about your go-to-market from a company perspective. Where do you fit into the category? Are you creating a new category? What’s the ideal customer profile that you’re going after the persona and all those elements that go into a GTM strategy?

You mentioned a couple of things. One is the personas and the ideal customer profile. You’re also looking at the buyer’s journey, not just the seller’s or sales’ journey. How often typically do you do that or would you push your teams to do an update to the personas?

First, I want to back up and explain what I do as foundational work with my go-to-market strategy. There’s some foundation work that needs to be done around your vision and your mission. I believe it’s important to develop a purpose-driven organization so that inspires people. A lot of people don’t recognize this, but we make decisions emotionally. We use the logical side of our brain, the left side of our brain to justify those emotional decisions. We come up with the ROI. Having a purpose-driven organization with a vision and a mission that resonates with human beings is super important. On top of that foundation is honing in on your ideal customer profiles and your personas. That’s the foundational work and then developing the strategic messaging architecture on top of that. Beyond that, understanding where you are relative to your competition, and then you get into the more micro details around pricing strategy and sales and marketing alignment.

Account Based Marketing: Make sure you really understand your target market and your ideal client. That is your foundational work in marketing.

Your approach is completely validated by the market leaders out there, which is you need to lay out all those foundation elements and then continuously assess what pieces do you need to change or update. Do you do that on a quarterly basis or annual basis? I’ve seen it fall in all ends.

Going back to your point about timing, we set the strategy on an annual basis, but we have a quarterly cadence that we put into play that allows us to do a check step, a continuous improvement step. We don’t necessarily go restructure the foundation, the mission, the vision and the foundational work. We don’t redo that. As an early-stage company, you do have to check that and refine, especially on the personas because if you’re going in and you don’t understand your personas well, then you need to be constantly going out there and talking to them and understanding what their pain points are and what drives their decision-making. With that said, we put a strategy together for the year, and then we certainly check steps in a quarterly cadence.

The go-to-market topic and the various topics around it are so diverse. We easily got pulled early in this conversation. Let’s step back a bit, Leela. For the audience, can you share a bit about your personal journey as well as your professional milestones? What do you do at Intelligence Node and what your focus areas are?

I turned marketing operations professional and leader after school. My first job out of school was with a multi-billion-dollar engineering company. I started out in engineering, and then ended up running a very large manufacturing plant. That’s a whole other episode on the first woman that runs a multimillion-dollar manufacturing plant for this company. Beyond that, what I like to tell people is that I’ve spent my whole adult life doing B2B SaaS marketing. My background is I’ve sold into the FinTech sector, the green tech sector, the retail tech sector, and the HR tech sector. It is a wide range of industries in all B2B SaaS marketing. I thrive with early-stage and growth companies. That’s where I get excited because there’s a real creative process there that has to happen. You also have to be courageous. Those are two of my core values, being creative and courageous. In those growth companies, there are lots of highs and lows and I liked that excitement.

Would you say that your core values as creative and courageous are what pulled you or shifted your journey from manufacturing engineering to early-stage B2B marketing?

Yes. Both of my parents were engineers, so I felt like I was destined to go on that path. Later in my life, I realized I’m more on the frontend of the business. I like interacting. I love working with the sales team. I love being in front of people and understanding them. I jumped over to that side of the road. Beyond my work profile, I live in San Francisco. I am a mother of two teenagers and my husband is completely opposite of me. He’s a social worker in the nonprofit world. I work in a for-profit world. He does a lot of amazing work for our communities. I’m very active in my community as well as a leader.

That’s a way to lead a more meaningful and purposeful life. It is not about work or making money, but contributing the society as a whole. I was trying to hit a point earlier, which is you realize that rather than you living a life defined by your parents, where they are engineers and you by default went into engineering, slowly over time, you realized, “That’s their life. If I’m doing engineering, I am living their version of my life versus my version of my life.”

I think back to when I was growing up, that’s what a lot of kids or young people did. I am happy about this generation of young people that are coming up because I don’t think they follow the same ground rules. They’re searching now for what’s important to them. They’re vocalizing the importance of particular things in our economy and our culture that are important. I’m delighted that the young people are coming into their own quicker and taking their power seriously while they have the ability to influence.

While on the topic of young people, how do you describe what you do at work to your kids? With those teenagers, they get a sense of what you do.

I do test my children to find out if they know what my title is. They do know my title. They do know that I work in marketing for a software company in the retail industry so I would check those boxes. I think that’s good, but I am digging into it. I don’t know that they understand what marketing is. The older one is in college. He’s starting to learn what marketing is so we have some fun conversations about that.

I continue to have these conversations with my kids as well, two boys. I educate them on what marketing is in their own terminology. Back in the days when Toys “R” Us was still around, I used to portray that as marketers do the stuff, which pulls you into getting your parents to buy the toys for you.

That’s a good description. That’s a great age group too. I love that age.

Building on our earlier questions around go-to-market and how you define go-to-market, back at Intelligence Node, you got a diverse set of responsibilities all the way from account-based marketing to field marketing, content, thought leadership and brand. What is your top 2 or 3 key go-to-market programs? How do you build your teams and give them direction in executing those?

There’s a lot packed into that question. I’ll start with our key programs. We have done a good job on organic SEO work. Before I came into the company, we got a lot of our leads through SEO and organic search, which was great. We continue to use that as the main strategy. We’ve also built on top of that an account-based marketing approach. My favorite quote or saying out there is, “Account-based marketing is a good marketing.” I do believe that. Account-based marketing makes you focus on who you’re trying to sell to, what is the value proposition, what are their pain points, and getting that messaging honed in. There’s also an element of timing. You’ve got to get in front of the right people at the right time and have a message that resonates with them. It sounds easy enough to describe, but it is tougher than you think, especially the timing element.

I think you hit it well. That’s what I used to wonder when this whole account-based marketing terminology and phrase started getting popular in the marketing world and even beyond years ago. As time went by, I started wondering, is this a new paradigm? If you deep dive below that acronym, it’s all about how do you understand your target people, customers and individuals? How do you understand them as human beings? What drives them and how do you get in front of them on an ongoing, but in a healthy manner? How do you stay in touch with them, and then help them see the value of what you do? If you peel that onion and go up level, it’s Marketing 101, nothing different.

It’s good marketing. For somebody, with my background in engineering, I like learning, digging in, getting data and understanding specifically who I’m selling to. I think that’s fun. Sometimes it’s hard, especially when you’re in growth companies, to take that time and to understand who your target market and your personas. If there’s any advice I’d give to people, it’s to make sure you understand your target market and your ideal personas because that is foundational work right there.

Account Based Marketing: Thought leadership is not about selling. It’s about educating and showing the path forward.

You also mentioned a couple of interesting nuggets over there, which is you do both inbound SEO, as well as account-based marketing. It’s two ends of the spectrum where typically inbound SEO, depending on our target market and customer base, is smaller sales cycles, smaller ACV account, Annual Contract Value or Annual Customer Value. That’s on one end of the spectrum. You’ve got the account-based marketing on the other end, which is more of longer sales cycles, bigger contracts, and longer-term commitments. How do you balance or what focus areas do you do? Is that an evolution that’s happened during the time? Are you shifting your market?

We are intentionally trying to shift to large enterprises more. We’re complementing our SEO strategy with targeted advertising using LinkedIn and Google retargeting ads to try to hone in on large enterprise. It’s true that SEO does bring in the smaller, mid-market companies for the most part. At least that’s been our experience. The mid-market is coming from the SEO leads that we’re finding people are searching for us and finding us. To complement that, we are doing a lot of work on LinkedIn and doing targeted advertising, targeted email campaigns, coming up with a target list of accounts, and reviewing that with our sales team, and making sure we’re aligned. We have in our tech stack of content delivery platform that personalizes to the company that’s coming in, adds a logo, adds the company name, does some text changes around that particular mission. We complement the SEO approach with this targeted marketing approach.

You mentioned one of the best practices, which I keep sharing with my clients. If you’re shifting to more account-based marketing, you also need to keep in mind the tech stack. For the benefit of the audience, would you mind sharing the details of the tech stack?

It starts with HubSpot. We’ve made a strategic decision. We were on HubSpot and Salesforce. For our company where we are in the cycle, we decided to migrate everybody over to HubSpot. It’s more intuitive. We don’t have a super large sales team, so it was the right tool. That was one of the most important decisions we’ve made because the syncing between HubSpot and Salesforce can cause issues. We are on HubSpot as our marketing automation and CRM tool. On top of that, we are using some tools for lead enrichment, Seamless.ai and LeadGenius. We use those two in different cases for those lead enrichment tools. Before that, we have intent data, which is critical. We’re using Bombora for intent data. On top of that, we’re using a content delivery platform called Folloze.com, which does the personalization on smart boards. That’s our tech stack. We have a lot of tools around that like SEMrush for SEO. We have lots of other little tools. We’re using some tools for conversion within LinkedIn. We’ve got a chatbot and some other tools around that as well.

It is great to push your team around constantly testing with a channel, doing several experiments around personalization, A/B testing and so on.

HubSpot is great because it allows you to do that A/B testing on your emails. They’ve also launched a target accounts module so you can identify your target accounts in HubSpot. You can hone in on whether how long they’re on your website. It gives you a little bit more focus on that account-based marketing program that you’re implementing.

Building on top of the tech stack as well as the account-based marketing, you also are a committed person in thought leadership. That’s something that I’ve seen where you publish on Forbes and several other industry publications. What are your thoughts if someone wants to build a thought leadership program? What is your advice and what did you tell them?

Thought leadership is about brand development.

Would you say both brand development for the company as well as brand development for an individual? They go hand-in-hand.

It depends on what you’re talking about. In one case, it might be about your products in the marketplace. With Intelligence Node, for example, we sell to retailers and brands. We talk about how we help them convert shoppers into buyers through the eCommerce buying journey. We have specific points that we interact with shoppers. We help retailers and brands become visible to shoppers and help them convert to buyers. We did a huge consumer buying behavior survey. It was a compilation of a lot of surveys that we started before COVID. We were doing the surveys consistently through COVID and we launched that report. We did a lot of thought leadership around that particular report because it’s a 40-page report packed with data.

We were doing podcasts, posts on social media, lots of email campaigns, and presenting at virtual round tables. That piece around, what are the consumers thinking now? You can’t do thought leadership unless you have a good topic that’s interesting to other people. From a company standpoint, you want to find what that information is. Present it in a way that’s easy to understand through multiple channels, and go into thought leadership with the idea that you want to educate. Thought leadership is not about selling. It’s about helping them understand. The same principles apply on a personal level.

That’s key, the points that you hit over there, which is it’s not about you trying to push a message or sell. It’s all about how you’re educating and showing the path forward and shifting their thinking. Are there ways in how you measure? I don’t know if there’s a way to measure thought leadership. I have not seen one. What is your view on that?

We measure it through share of voice, which is a metric that you can get. There are tools or PR firms out there that help measure it. It’s how many times you’re published or you’re out there in the media. We’re using their other metrics, but that’s the metric that we use mostly. Impressions, how many eyeballs did you get, those are the starting point. On top of that, the share of voice and engagement are important measures. On your social media, how many people are interacting with you? Beyond likes, are you getting commentary? Are you getting a good, healthy dialogue? That’s a metric that we use.

At some point in time, I would assume that your prospects or your buyers would mention about so-and-so article when you are in the middle of a sales conversation. Would you agree that’s one more way of measuring if your thought leadership is working?

We push a lot of our thought leadership out through our multiple channels as well. If we’re published in the New York Times, we’re going to send that out to our email list and we’re going to put it out on social media. We try to leverage that as much as possible. We can track through UTM codes and things like that where leads are coming from based on thought leadership pieces that we’re putting out there.

Let’s shift to focus to 2021, which is almost around the corner for all of us over here. These months have been crazy. As I speak to the go-to-market leaders, the general message and the sense is, several of the teams have adjusted well. At the same time, there is a complex factor that the leaders have to watch out for and ensure that the teams are not falling into the complacency bucket. From your viewpoint for you and for Intelligence Node going into 2021, what do you see as the key challenges? For you as a leader, what are you going to push your team on?

Account Based Marketing: The importance of sales and marketing alignment in account-based marketing cannot be overemphasized.

In complacency, the status quo is not going to work. We all know that we have to drive revenue faster. My biggest challenge is trying to move us faster. It’s a balance because you don’t want to move so quickly that you’re not doing things correctly or completely. We put project plans together on everything that we’re putting out there. We give ourselves dates and we hold ourselves accountable to those dates. I try to be a positive leader that reinforces the good things that we’re doing. If we’re slipping on things, going back to the purpose-driven organization, I focus and remind people why we have to do this. The challenge is, how do you accomplish things faster? My answer to that would be to be focused, be intentional on what programs you’re going to run. Don’t spread your resources so thin that you’re trying to do ten different things at the same time. I’ve learned that you need to execute. To do that, you have to get focused and keep the team delivering on a timeline that’s acceptable to your company.

How big is the marketing team and what are the different functions that you have with them?

We have under ten people. We have SEO. We have somebody that’s focused on paid. We have email and social as our marketing ops person. He’s also responsible for data hygiene, which is an important one. I also have the design team reporting to me. That’s the design team not only for marketing collateral but also for our product or UI, the user experience piece. I have a pretty solid foundational team. I have a content marketing person as well. We do use a PR agency to help us as well.

You also mentioned that as a company at Intelligence Node, you’re investing more into account-based marketing. How do you build that alignment and seamless transition from marketing, generating leads to handing off SDR team? Do the AEs do that? How is that laid out?

I call that sales and marketing alignment. We have a meeting every week with the ABM project manager, my ABM marketing lead, and I meet with the SVP of Sales every week. We go through all the leads. Marketing does its homework before this meeting. We make sure we look at the leads that came in for the week. We make sure that they’re clean. We have all the information about them. We then go into the meeting. We have an automated email process where the lead should book a demo with the SVP. If that doesn’t happen, we have a process where we’re trying to follow up with the lead. We discuss those particular leads where they wanted to have a demo like, “Did we get the demo booked? Yes or no? If not, here’s the strategy we want to take with this particular account.” That’s a new behavior as well for us at Intelligence Node. That’s been helpful. We got some good accounts in our pipeline that we’re working through because of that process. I can’t underscore how important sales and marketing alignment is in account-based marketing. Marketing cannot do it without sales. You have to go after the right target list.

If someone were to ask me who is the number one customer for marketing, you have real customers. For me, as a marketing leader, it’s my sales team helping them win and get the revenue.

Especially for early-stage growth companies or for any company, especially when you’re trying to grow revenue quickly and survive out there in a recession through sales and marketing. The more aligned you are, the better you’re going to perform. We’re seeing that in Intelligence Node as well.

Continuing our discussion around how you’re thinking about the future, if you were to get a certain X amount of dollars, where would you invest and why?

I believe that the old adage content is king is still true. I would go after more ways to develop high-value content. I think that’s an important word.

How do you define high value?

It needs to be bringing something new to the marketplace, new insights. I would invest in that. We’ve been doing that through consumer surveys. We’ve been asking consumers directly about their buying behavior, especially as it’s converted from in-store to eCommerce and online. What’s driving them to go there, and their behaviors associated with shopping on mobile phones, laptops and things like that? Also, through research and surveys, and producing high-value content. I love the idea of a podcast. That would be a dream. I would love to start a podcast series as well.

It’s a cliché, content is king, but it’s been watered down a lot. People are wrongly or rightly, and not intentionally, but they produce any and all kinds of content without understanding. It goes back to the foundational elements, the buyer, the persona and the empathy factor. Are you listening to them and what they care about? You then build that content around them. This has been a great conversation, Leela. Thank you for sharing all the details. You’re doing some good stuff with Intelligence Node, and serving your retail customers. As we headed to our closing section over here, do you want to give a quick overview of Intelligence Node? What you do, who you sell to and what is your value prop?

At Intelligence Node, we are a retail analytics company that helps retailers and brands sell. Our slogan is, “We help retailers and brands convert shoppers into buyers.” Forrester broke down the revenue equation for retailers and brands to be, revenue equals visibility times conversion times price. What we do at Intelligence Node is we help on all three of those buckets. We help retailers and brands become visible to shoppers and getting them on the first page. If you’re not on the first page of Amazon, Alibaba, Google or Bing, you’re not visible. The next piece is conversion. We help retailers and brands understand how they can win a shopper’s attention.

You need to have the right product description. We have computer vision in our ML. We give retailers and brands advice on your missing attributes, your pictures don’t look as good. We give them product image scores and things like that. Conversion and on price, we give them information about whether they are competitively priced with their competition. We have rules-based pricing that helps them automate those pricing decisions. They don’t have to have any human beings going in there and changing the pricing. Our solution can help them change that price instantaneously. A little factoid that we throw out there about Amazon. There are millions of products on Amazon. They’re checking prices on those products every two minutes. They’re making adjustments every two minutes. Human beings can’t do that. It’s the age of AI, so retailers and brands must-have AI driven-machine learning solutions to help them with these decisions. That’s who we go after and that’s what we do.

Good luck to you and your team. One final question for you, if you are to shout out to 2 or 3 go-to-market leaders, peers out there in the industry, who do you call out? What are your resources? How you stay in touch and be up-to-date with all the go-to-market programs?

I try to spend at least 5% or 10% of my time benchmarking every week participating in webinars. There are lots of virtual round tables and conferences. In fact, I was participating in the B2B SMX Conference held by Demand Gen, which was good. It’s an ABM session. I am part of some CMO forums. I reach out to people and I say, “I want to benchmark with you about X, Y and Z.” Sangram Vajre at Terminus, he’s one of those ABM leaders that I admire. I follow him pretty closely and participate in the community forums that he set up.

The same here. I’ve been a big follower and fan of Sangram Vajre. I listen to this podcast and he’s been one of the pioneers around whole ABM. He, Jon Miller and then a few others. Even if you go and ask Sangram, and he said this many times, which is, “ABM is a new terminology or new phrase, but if you boil it down, it’s marketing 101.” Thank you for coming on the show, Leela. We had a fun conversation. Good luck to you and the team at Intelligence Node.

Thank you. Have a great day.

by Leela Gill

Priorities for Marketing Leaders | Alta Mira Marketing

6 Priorities for Marketing Leaders to Help Drive Business Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest business challenge of a generation. Organizations scramble to establish continuity. We’re redefining “essential” and building the capacity for remote work, concepts that were previously resisted by many leaders. Because revenue is uncertain, layoffs have come, even though there’s a lot of work still to do. Marketers are equipped and positioned to help stem the panic, save jobs now, and facilitate as fast a recovery as possible.

Surviving a crisis and planning for recovery begins with a search for ideas.That is the stock and trade of marketing. We can use existing communication channels to move a constructive narrative between customers and prospects and leaders in our own organizations. The core critical message is to move beyond short-term thinking.

Here are specific themes to communicate:

1. Connect and communicate more.

We know that crisis is emotional but we may forget the human impact. People may not be producing at their typical levels of either volume or quality for a variety of reasons including adapting to new work norms or accommodating family schedules. As marketing leaders, we can remind ourselves and our bosses that gratitude and inspiration are expressions that will payout dividends now and in the future. And frequent communication is critical. When contacting employees, customers, or the general public, a leader’s voice is more important than ever. You can’t post the same messages at the same frequency as if nothing is happening. Nor should we hide or be silent. Now is the time to emotionally connect and communicate more with your employees, customers and your pipeline.

2. Tell unique, authentic stories.

This is an excellent time to put your company’s unique values on display. Your choices differentiate you from other organizations. Pause the routine automated messages and craft tailored messages about how you can help. Customers want to know what you are doing to protect their interests: from how you’re treating your employees, how your products can help them right now, how you’re keeping them safe, and what your plans are for recovery. These specifics clarify your company’s identity in the mind of your customers and prospects.

3. Redirect teams to strategic projects.

Most organizations run lean. Corporations expect high productivity from full-time employees and use contingent workers like contractors for maximum efficiency. Even so, many important-but-not-urgent projects never get off the ground. Now might be the time to move on that work, especially those projects that can be disruptive when you are busier. Build out core processes or think about your supply chain optimization.

4. Invest in training.

Your team is working from home, and many online providers are offering their wares for free or at discounted rates. Review training and certification requirements and encourage team members to cure any lapses. While they shelter in place, people can renew certifications or get new ones. This is also a good opportunity to identify learning and development goals and devise long-term plans.

5. Trim costs without trimming people.

Look for costs that can be cut down quickly as compared to production costs. For example, paid advertising when buyer budgets are tight may not provide the return you need in the short-term. Consider re-evaluating your tech stack and if it’s not being used optimally, trim these costs first before considering reducing staff.

6. Spend more time with customers.

Replacing automated chatbots with live human beings can offer customers the contact they crave while sheltering in their homes. Set up meetings to check in. Find out what’s working and what’s not. You may discover inexpensive ways you can meet customers’ special needs in this time of crisis. There is no better loyalty program.

Sooner or later, business will bounce back and economic recovery will become the most urgent focus. Companies that have maintained their experienced staff, strengthened their internal processes, and listened more intently to existing customers will be the ones that get a jump-start on market growth in a post-covid era.

by Leela Gill

Four Remote Work Best Practices To Build A High-Performance Culture

Leela Gill is a thought leader and VP of Marketing for Intelligence Node, with 15+ years of experience in Retail, FinTech and HR Tech.

Working from home is the “new normal,” and remote work is likely here to stay for many large businesses.

For example, in May 2020, Twitter announced that its employees can continue to work remotely indefinitely. And in a recent Gartner Inc. survey of chief financial officers, 74% reported they expect some of their employees will keep working remotely after the crisis ends.

So, as we reorganize our work processes for remote teams, we can use the opportunity to build a better team. Here are four principles you can apply to build a high-performance culture.

1. Be transparent about goals, processes and results.

Traditionally, executives set annual and quarterly objectives and key results, and translate them into goals for managers. At best, these goals were reviewed every 90 days with employees. But working remotely has forced many of us to bring a more deliberate focus to measuring productivity.

I have found that higher performance can be achieved with small, simple techniques. Tools and procedures, like sharing key performance indicator (KPI) documents and using collaborative project management software, are perfect supplements to group meetings and can align your team to drive higher performance.

As an example, I set up a shared document for my team, with quarterly department goals and metrics. Within this group document, each team member has their own worksheet with their specific goals, metrics, projects and accomplishments. The items in these worksheets are hyperlinked directly to the document outlining department goals and revenue objectives.

Because the whole team works within the same document, each member can see what everybody else is doing and how their own work fits. We spend one meeting a week reviewing the progress of every team member. Because we look at our goals every week, instead of every 90 days, we stay aligned and focused, building a high-performing culture.

2. Formalize collaboration, mentoring and orientation.

Now, while working remotely, almost every business I know is using Slack or a similar tool to enable the rapid communication ostensibly available in the office. As a best practice to drive higher performance, especially for global teams, make sure to establish overlapping work hours with your direct reports so you can have synchronous interactions outside of meetings that deliver faster, clearer decision-making.

In addition, relying on these communication tools presents an opportunity to deliberately incorporate more effective collaboration and business norms. For example, if you never formalized your mentor program, now is the time to put it into action. Schedule mentoring meetings between your employees and ask them to let you know how these meetings are going. What does your new hire onboarding process look like while working remotely? Make sure new hires are paired up, have one-to-one channels with mentors and get special attention as they get started with your company.

For high-performing team collaboration, adopt the daily standup meeting to help everyone align on work priorities. This technique is common practice for engineering teams, but not so much in other departments. What we found when we started holding daily morning standups was that it became a great way to not only make sure we all stay on track but to fight the isolation of working from home. People connected more, and communication was frequent.

3. Pay attention to both the quality and the quantity of communication.

Many teams are finding alternatives to the spontaneous morning coffee runs, the midday water cooler talk and the after-office happy hours with online activities like trivia games and performing art Zoom calls. These are great techniques to build a high-performance culture. In addition, you also need to create social-distancing versions of the regularly scheduled one-to-one, the team meeting and the all-hands meetings. (Don’t have those? Now is a great time to start.)

Monthly all-hands meetings with the CEO and leadership team can increase the sense of a shared purpose. In my company, the CEO gives a report on the company’s growth, discusses upcoming important programs and then opens it up for questions. Employees can submit questions anonymously for this town hall-style segment, and I find that they appreciate the candor of the answers.

Working remotely underscores the importance of supporting your team and staying positive, which can drive higher team performance. At least once a week, find time to acknowledge your team members and post photos on your Slack pages about successes. Though you might not have done this before, find fun ways to celebrate and reward people with tokens of appreciation, like coffee coupons or e-gift cards. I bet you will see your team productivity increase significantly.

4. Manage your personal time and energy.

Working from home presents an opportunity to create the optimal rhythm for you. This can help you become happier as well as more productive. At home, you can discover solitude to focus, which might have been harder to do in the office. Take advantage of that!

Schedule time on your calendar every morning to review the top three things you need to get done for the day. Make it a habit. And take the time to go for a walk at lunch. Create rituals that keep you healthy both mentally and physically.

Establish start and stop times. Separate your workspace from family space, and physically leave your workspace at the stop time. Encourage your team to pick up these habits, too, in order to perform at a higher level.

Properly managing remote work can help you create a lasting high-performance culture.

When in the office, many managers take for granted that merely being physically present with people creates culture. This has never really been the case. To build a high-performance culture, make the effort to unify your team around a shared purpose and the pursuit of transparent goals. Let a little more fun and personality into the business environment. Finally, practice and encourage self-care and healthy work-life balance. Those practices can help you create a better team, whether or not you return to your physical office.

by Leela Gill

Three Marketing Pillars For Crisis Recovery

As with any crisis, we all have roles to play in responding to the impacts caused by COVID-19. So, how can marketers lead our colleagues in business continuity and planning for recovery? Our expertise in building relationships and communicating with intention is critical to the work ahead.

While some cuts and changes to staff and business operations may be inevitable during a crisis, there are things marketing leaders should do before handing out pink slips:

1. Identify a continuity marketing team.

Marketers have seen it before: During a crisis, our teams can be the first cut. However, redeploying teams may be a better strategy than aggressively shrinking them. Marketing leaders should make the case to the C-suite for protecting a critical level of staffing for as long as possible.

During this time, your marketing and advertising expenses may be dropping. Conferences and trade shows have been canceled. With consumers and businesses cutting spending, paid advertising does not offer much return. Redirect time and money to activities you’ve been postponing, specifically those in the important-but-not-urgent category.

First, train your people. Your team may be working from home, and many online providers are offering their wares for free or at discounted rates. Review training and certification requirements, and encourage team members to cure any lapses such as expired credentials. When dealing with downtime, people can renew certifications or get new ones. This is also a good opportunity to identify learning and development goals and devise long-term plans for individual team members and for your group.

The second major opportunity is in evaluation. Revisit your marketing tech stack, test tools, and processes, and update documentation. You might find it easier now to break down silos between the marketing team and other groups in the company. Help your involuntarily remote staff feel less isolated by giving them reasons to broaden their connections with co-workers. If you put some effort into strategically creating ad-hoc teams for special projects, those new relationships can strengthen your culture for years to come.

2. Model effective communications for your customers.

Customers and prospects need to know what they need to do to protect themselves and what businesses are doing to protect their interests. As marketers produce blogs, bylines, e-books, video and interactive content, we can show customers what it looks like to communicate effectively in their own organizations and with their customers.

Communicate frequently with customers about how you’re keeping them (and their data) safe, how they can get the most value from your products right now and your plans for recovery. Set expectations, and don’t overpromise. Customers are also watching to see how you treat your employees. They will remember. Be kind. Set the right tone, and invite feedback.

Sharing an occasional formal communication from your C-suite is critical. So are frequent updates to your website. Post crisis-specific landing pages — with dates — so customers and prospects can trust that the information they’re receiving is still in effect. Review your websites and FAQ pages to ensure the content there is consistent with other crisis-related communications.

Pause routine and automated messages, and make the extra effort to send tailored messages about how you can help. Open up your feedback channels. You might consider replacing chatbots and other automated feedback with human responders. Those conversations can unearth ways to tailor customer loyalty programs.

3. Foster community and innovation in your industry.

Customer behavior can rapidly change during a crisis, and some of those changes will stick. For instance, many corporations have been forced to accelerate the shift from on-premises solutions to cloud computing. The need to digitize paper-based processes can’t be put off any longer. Companies that help others make the transition through artificial intelligence or machine learning may experience an increase in demands for their services even before the crisis ends. Some retailers may end up moving entirely to e-commerce.

Use this time to set up virtual meetings with major customers and group forums with smaller customers. Sales account executives can do the same for prospects. You don’t need to push your product. Instead, push and pull ideas, and use the data you gather to establish benchmarks internally and create thought leadership content for external publication.

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest collective challenge most of us have seen in a lifetime, but corporations have the power to make choices that limit the damage and strengthen their foundations. Sooner or later, the crisis will end. And when it does, economic recovery will become the primary focus.

I believe companies can recover more quickly if they’ve maintained core staff and treated people kindly even if they’ve had to let them go. Companies that have helped strengthen their industries and customers’ businesses will also reap rewards for those contributions. Marketers can lead the way by doing what we do best: listening to all of our internal and external stakeholders, clarifying the purpose of our organizations, and helping people communicate meaningfully.

by Leela Gill

A 10-Step Brand Development Strategy

6 MIN READ By LEE FREDERIKSEN, PH.D., HINGE UNIVERSITY

1. Consider your overall business strategy.

A strong, well-differentiated brand will make growing your firm much easier. But what type of firm do you want? Are you planning to grow organically? Your overall business strategy is the context for your brand development strategy, so that’s the place to start. If you are clear about where you want to take your firm, your brand will help you get there.

2. Identify your target clients.

Who are your target clients? If you say “everybody” you are making a very big mistake. Our research clearly shows that high growth, high-profit firms are focused on having clearly defined target clients. The narrower the focus, the faster the growth. The more diverse the target audience, the more diluted your marketing efforts will be. So how do you know if you have chosen the right target client group? That’s where the next step comes in.

3. Research your target client group.

Firms that do systematic research on their target client group grow faster and are more profitable. Further, those that do research more frequently (at least once per quarter) grow faster still.

Research helps you understand your target client’s perspective and priorities, anticipate their needs and put your message in language that resonates with them. It also tells you how they view your firm’s strengths and your current brand. As such, it dramatically lowers the marketing risk associated with brand development.

4. Develop your brand positioning.

You are now ready to determine your firm’s brand positioning within the professional services marketplace (also called market positioning). How is your firm different from others and why should potential clients within your target audience choose to work with you?

A positioning statement is typically three to five sentences in length and captures the essence of your brand positioning. It must be grounded in reality, as you will have to deliver on what you promise. It must also be a bit aspirational so you have something to strive for.

5. Develop your messaging strategy.

Your next step is a messaging strategy that translates your brand positioning into messages to your various target audiences. Your target audiences typically include potential clients, potential employees, referral sources or other influencers and potential partnering opportunities, to name a few of the usual suspects.

While your core brand positioning must be the same for all audiences, each audience will be interested in different aspects of it. The messages to each audience will emphasize the most relevant points. Each audience will also have specific concerns that must be addressed, and each will need different types of evidence to support your messages. Your messaging strategy should address all of these needs. This is an important step in making your brand relevant to your target audiences.

6. Develop your name, logo and tagline.

For many firms, a name change is not required. But if you are a new firm, are undergoing a merger or are burdened with a name that no longer suits your positioning, a name change may be in order. Even if you don’t change your firm name, a new logo and tagline may make sense to better support your brand positioning.

Remember, your name, logo and tagline are not your brand. They are ways to communicate or symbolize your brand. You must live it to make it real.

And don’t make the mistake of showing the new logo around internally to get a consensus. The name, logo and tagline are not for you. They are for your marketplace and should be judged on how well they communicate, not how much the partners like them.

7. Develop your content marketing strategy.

We could have called this step “develop your marketing strategy.” But we didn’t. Instead we call for a content marketing strategy.

Why? Content marketing is particularly well suited to professional services firms in the Internet age. It does all things traditional marketing does but it does them more efficiently. It uses valuable educational content to attract, nurture and qualify prospects.

Remember that your brand strength is driven by both reputation and visibility. Increasing visibility alone, without strengthening your reputation, is rarely successful. That’s why traditional “awareness-building” advertising or sponsorships so often yield disappointing results. On the other hand, content marketing increases both visibility and reputation at the same time. It is also the perfect way to make your brand relevant to your target audiences. Case closed.

8. Develop your website.

Your website is your single most important brand development tool. It is the place where all your audiences turn to learn what you do, how you do it and who your clients are. Prospective clients are not likely to choose your firm solely based on your website. But they may well rule you out if your site sends the wrong message.

Further, your website will be home to your valuable content. That content will become the focus of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts so that your prospects, potential employees, and referral sources will find you and learn about your firm. Online content is central to any modern brand development strategy.

These days, professional services websites come in two varieties. The first is a branding site. Such a site tells your story and conveys who you are, who you serve, and what you do. In short it conveys your brand message. The other variety does the above and also generates and nurtures potential new clients. We call these High-Performance Websites.

9. Build your marketing toolkit.

The next step in the process is to build out the remainder of your marketing toolkit. This might include one-page “sales sheets” that describe core services offerings or key markets served. In addition, there may be a brief “pitch deck” that overviews the firm or key offerings and an e-brochure about the firm. These are rarely printed pieces anymore.

Increasingly this marketing toolkit also includes videos. Popular video topics include firm overviews, case studies or “meet the partner” videos. Key services offerings are also very useful. If prepared appropriately, these tools serve not only a business development function but also are important for brand development.

10. Implement, track, and adjust.

This final step in the brand development process may be one of the most important. Obviously, a winning brand development strategy doesn’t do much good if it is never implemented. You might be surprised at how often that happens. A solid strategy is developed and started with all the good intentions the firm can muster. Then reality intervenes. People get busy with client work and brand development tasks get put off… then forgotten.

That’s why tracking is so important. We strongly recommend tracking both the implementation of the plan as well as results. Did the strategy get implemented as planned? What happened with the objective measures, such as search traffic and web visitors? How many new leads, employee applications and partnering opportunities were generated? Only by tracking the entire process can you make sure you are drawing the right conclusions and making the right adjustments.

There you have it — a 10 step brand development process to drive the growth and profitability of your firm.

Additional Resources:

Get strategies, tips, and tools for developing your firm’s brand with Hinge’s Brand Building Guide for Professional Services Firms.
Download a free copy of the book Inside the Buyer’s Brain to learn how to build a powerful brand to help your firm close more sales.
Uncover your firm’s true differentiators and give buyers a reason to pick you out of the crowd in Differentiation, Positioning & Messaging through Hinge University.

by Leela Gill

Your Marketers Are Your Change Management Leaders

Type “change management” into a search engine, and you’ll find dozens of articles citing a high failure rate for organizational change initiatives. In the 1980s, leaders excitedly embraced change management as a discipline. By the mid-1990s, practitioners were scaring people with stories of failed initiatives and the career damage they can cause.

And this failure narrative lives on decades later. Due to the perception that the majority of change management initiatives fail, I asked several hundred participants in a change management webinar, “Within your company, what is the biggest barrier to successful change management?”

The overwhelming response was: “After the meeting ends, the debate begins.”

What I believe this really means is that leaders do not adequately address the hidden resistance. Leaders announce that a change is coming, but don’t address the fears that cause people to resist. Employees want (and deserve) to know what the change will require of them, how their current jobs will be altered and if their paths forward in the organization will be affected. When information is scarce, confusing or inconsistent, office politics and a culture of “no” halt progress. Employees may openly question why the change is even necessary.

Often, it’s not clear who’s really leading the change. If IT introduces new technology, then IT may be responsible for getting people to adopt it. Some companies perceive change as a systems design job, so they give charge to the project management office (PMO). Still other organizations view resistance to change as predominantly a psychological or training challenge, and they look to human resources for direction. And some companies use dedicated internal change leadership groups or outside consultants who can apply formal change management methodologies.

Rarely are change management initiatives guided by the professionals best positioned to make them effective: marketers.

To be sure, change management can be technically challenging, psychologically messy and call for a system-thinking approach. Traditional leaders may think of marketing as heavy-handed selling that evokes mistrust and resistance. But that isn’t what good marketers do.

Good marketers give purpose to the work and convey messages for the betterment of people. Good marketers listen and communicate the right message to the right audience — and do it using a variety of channels over a period of time. They understand that change takes time, which is why they are uniquely positioned to help ensure change management is successful.

Today, marketing alone touches every corner of the business, making a cohesive, living whole out of a company. Marketers listen to leaders and managers, employees and candidates, customers and the public at large. They craft messages to communicate not just a company’s offers, but its values and culture. Then they measure data to understand how people respond to these communications. Iterative, dynamic marketing conversations unite business, products, brand and people.

In other words, good marketers make change happen.

I’ve found that change management initiatives succeed when they follow the familiar cycle of marketing and sales: Raise awareness. Identify pain points. Share information that helps recipients of the communication make decisions. Take them on a journey. Overcome objections.

Change is not a temporary disruption that an organization gets over. Healthy businesses change continuously. As they grow, develop new products and enter new marketplaces, organizations reimagine and reinvent who they are. Marketers discern those shifting identities and shape conversations that allow them to blossom.

So, next time you have to implement a change management initiative, tap into your internal experts — your marketing team — to help run a successful mission-driven program that will change hearts and minds.

Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies.

by Leela Gill

3 Tips for Pitching Your Company to VC’s

By Leela Gill

5 MIN READ

3 Tips for Pitching Your Company to VC’s

Every entrepreneur needs money to create his/her business but deciding when to get institutional money (venture capital) can be a tricky question. If you go out for money at the wrong time, you may spend too much time talking and not enough time on your business – the result being unfulfilled capital goals and a lackluster business because you took your eye off the ball.

Here are three tips for pitching your company at the right time with the right message.

1. Hit Key Milestones First

The best time to go after institutional money is when you have accomplished the following milestones and need to accelerate sales:

Business savvy experienced management team is in place (preferably working for equity)
Technology is validated
Market is large and growth rate is accelerating
Customers expressed strong interest and/or are buying
Sales cycle is understood and repeatable
Financial model is believable and margins are respectable

Often venture capital companies will not consider an opportunity unless the business is looking for a minimum of $3 million with a greater than 10x return – hurdle rates you should keep in mind when deciding how much you need and when to exit.

2. Practice with Friends

To successfully pitch your company, you need to be prepared. Even the best serial entrepreneurs need to write down their growth strategy and practice their presentations. Don’t let your ego tell you otherwise. A few quick tips on getting started:

Create and practice your 30-second “elevator” pitch
Write a concise and easy to read executive summary (2 pages max)
Document your business plan
Create a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation and practice it in front of your friends – they will give you honest feedback.

3. Craft a Your Killer Presentation

A Venture Capitalist will know a good presentation as soon as they see the slides. Here are some tips to make your presentation sharp and differentiated.

In the first slide, communicate why this is a great opportunity and why your product is better than the competition
Stick to one slide per topic
The title of each slide should explain the point you are making. For example, instead of “Obtainable market” write “$500M obtainable market”
Keep slides simple (not too much text) and use 24-point font or larger
Minimize the use of PowerPoint animations or other “bells and whistles.” A typical presentation deck outline includes the following slides:

Typical Presentation Outline

Slide 1: Company Overview

Simple direct, two or three statements describing the business, the market and your advantages.

Slide 2: Business Milestones to date

If there are several accomplishments to date, list them at the beginning of the presentation to build your company credibility.

Slide 3: Customer’s Problem Being Solved/ Value Proposition

This slide should answer the questions: Who is an important customer and why? What problem did the customer have before you arrived? Why was that their biggest problem?

Slide 4: Product/Solution/Technology (How you Solve Their Problem)

What is your solution and why is it unique?

Slide 5: Market Size and total obtainable market

What is the total market size and how much of it can you get? Investors need to know the market is large and even if you got a small market percentage you could become a big company.

Slide 6: Go to Market Strategy

Explain how you get in front of customers and how you will overcome barriers to reach the customer.

Slide 7: Customer Status

List current customers (it’s great to show logos) and length of the sales cycle. Is the sales cycling shortening and why?

Slide 8: Product Status

Discuss the current version of the product and future product development. Paint a picture for the entire product family, not just a single product.

Slide 9: Competition Overview

Generally, this is where your 2×2 matrix comes in to play, describing you versus the competition and how you are positioned to win.

Slide 10: Competition Specifics

Discuss the top 2 or 3 competitors, one/two liner on their story and why you beat them.

Slide 11: Team

Describe your top 3 to 5 people with one sub-bullet on relevant past (list accomplishments, not just where they worked). Explain why you and your team are perfectly suited to grow the business exponentially.

Slide 12: Financials

Show a simplified 5-year proforma. Key metrics on the vertical axis might include number of customers, revenue, COGS (as a percentage), gross margin (as a percentage), net income and % net income, EBITDA and % EBITDA, and cumulative cash flow. Don’t create an eye chart. Keep the numbers looking clean and simple so people can read the information.

Slide 13: Financing History/Deal

How much money went into the company so far, who are current investors, how much do they own. Our advice is not to suggest a valuation at this point – that is part of the negotiation after you know they think the business is a great one!

Slide 14: Capital Required/ Uses of Capital / Exit Strategy

How much are you looking for now; what do you plan to use it for; potential exits for investors.

Slide 15: Contact

This is the slide you will leave up on the screen with who to contact. Make sure your phone and email are on it.

Conclusion

These tips just scratch the surface of a formal process that Alta Mira Marketing knows well. We would be delighted to help you reach your capital goals and guide you through the process. Please contact us if you have questions!

by Leela Gill

Business

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Is your content diverse, and does it reflect those you seek to engage?

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Summary

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1. Consider your overall business strategy.

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Typical Presentation Outline

Conclusion

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