A B2B company CEO asked me an interesting question last week: how long will it take to transform my marketing and get it on the right track? Naturally, the answer to this question is heavily dependent on where a company is on its marketing lifecycle. Everyone wants to do this instantly. A company that is well established, with a solid website and existing lead generation programs, may only require 4-6 weeks to tweak and optimize.
How do you know if you just need a little tune-up or a full marketing transformation? Here are some signs that you need major surgery:
- Your sales are flat or barely growing – stagnant sales are a sign that your message and marketing are stale. You need to fix this.
- You are a startup company – you need to get your marketing and sales operation launched on a firm foundation. This will pay off tremendously downstream.
- You are positioning your company for sale or merger – getting your marketing in order can be the difference between receiving an average or a premium price for your company.
- You are faced with tougher and larger competition – we know how to beat the big guys and the big budgets.
- You want to be a leader in your industry instead of just another player – if this is your goal, the best time to start is right now.
So what can you achieved during the 105 day transformation period? Here’s a list of five deliverables that will turbo-charge your end-to-end marketing and sales process.
- A powerful and compelling brand promise and associated messaging. You and your prospects will then understand exactly how your company is unique and better.
- A new or revamped website. This will allow you to attract and convert prospects. You can often achieve boosts in your website traffic (and conversions) of 150 to 500 percent.
- Fresh marketing content. Content attracts visitors and visitors become customers. The greater amount of relevant content you have, the higher number of prospects you will attract.
- An effective lead generation program. In the 105 day time period, you can create and execute a plan that improves your results in terms of inbound inquiries, qualified leads, sales opportunities and revenue.
- A head start on your pull marketing and social media efforts. Pull marketing (including social media) is very effective at generating awareness and cost-effective leads.
However, if you are just starting out, with no marketing message, website or lead plan, it will take considerably longer. That being said, if your marketing strategy needs major surgery (e.g. you are a fish in troubled waters), then the correct answer is that you need 105 days to complete a major marketing turnaround. Of course 105 days is an average, but it could be much longer if:
- You are totally resistant to change – even if those changes are good ones.
- You have no budget and have to do everything on a shoestring.
- There are lots of cooks in your kitchen and they all want to make the decisions.
- You can’t find the right people to help you achieve your objectives.
If you make a commitment to spending the next 105 days on your marketing turnaround program, you will reap many benefits. Of course you can keep doing what you are doing. The results of these two approaches will be vastly different.
